Might as well sell the rimfires!!!

[Warp]

Maybe that's a sign of improvement, but when you've been shooting 2-3000 rounds of .22lr a month, 550 per trip to the store is just not going to help -- who's got time and gas to burn running all around in the hopes of maybe finding a box of ammo Time better spent reloading and shooting more centerfire.

When I can expect to walk out of Walmart with 6 boxes (3000 rounds) or order 5000 on line then we've returned to some semblance of sanity.

Well, there's also the case of 5,000 rounds of Aguila target .22lr I ordered and received from the CMP for something like $330 shipped.

I gave 3,000 of those to my dad though.

 

[Fryerpower]

Random stocking times

Almost nothing on the shelves at wally world. Even 12ga is rare. 243 & 270 are almost as hard to find as 22LR. hey might be getting some in, but I don't sleep in the parking lot waiting for deliveries.

Our WW decided to go with random shelf stocking times! It seems to be working. They break the ammo supplies up into lots and stock the shelves at random times during the day. Since the resellers don't know when the ammo will hit the shelves they cannot camp out. The only people that know when the ammo will go out are the senior managers. The people in the ammo department don't even know! They get a call, go to the back, and come out with whatever is scheduled to go out.

I've hit the jackpot twice so far. I got 9MM last week and .22 yesterday. The 9mm stayed on the shelf for over eight hours before it was sold out. The .22 made it over 3-4 hours. It really seems to be helping to get the ammo out into more hands.

Jim

 

[Queen_of_Thunder]

If one of my local stores I purchase from did that they would not get my business ever again. I expect all stock to be out on the shelf to be purchased. If it sold out thats just fine. Its my fault for not being there early enough to pick up some ammo. To hold it back in a "whack a mole type game stocking method" means I take my money elsewhere. That's 20,000 rounds of 9mm,45acp and 223 that will be purchased elsewhere along with 6,000 rounds of shotgun ammo.

 

[itsa pain]

You could offer $1,000 per round of 22 LR and it wouldn't make a hill of beans on production. The factories are flat out running their machines and running 3 shifts a day to produce them.

First there is only three companies here in the USA that produce them, some of that production is sold under different names but the number of producers is very limited.

Second, the machines that they are produced on where made in the 1930's before World War II and new equipment is extremely unlikely to be made since the number of producers is very limited (3) and the machines are extremely expensive to build.

Third, while millions of rounds are produced daily at these plants. The piggies that buy up every thing on the shelves have made it impossible for the retailers to restock their shelves and keep supplies in stock.

That quote by FDR, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" is exactly what is happening now.

So suck it up and stop shooting 22 LR till the fear subsides or get ready to pay more for 22 LR per round than 9 mm. 22 LR is the single largest (quantity) selling round in the United States.

Jim

that is hogwash and the reason we are and will be buried by the Chinese. if the govt along with ammo companies did not conspire to ban norinco to keep prices high for gun companies and ammo scarce norinco would have billions of rounds pouring into the country

 

[x_wrench]

i have not fired a 22 lr shell in a year. because i can not find a single cartridge to replace the few i have. it will all sit on the shelf and rot before i shoot it ALL up, and have a useless gun. personally, i hope the hoarders grow old and eventually die with their 500,000 rounds + of ammo, that is sitting in a corner collecting dust. the scalpers, i can not even begin to voice my view of them, because i would get kicked off this site. lets just say that even Obama, and Satan are better in my eyes than those trying to make riches over others misery.

 

[Warp]

Our WW decided to go with random shelf stocking times! It seems to be working. They break the ammo supplies up into lots and stock the shelves at random times during the day. Since the resellers don't know when the ammo will hit the shelves they cannot camp out. The only people that know when the ammo will go out are the senior managers. The people in the ammo department don't even know! They get a call, go to the back, and come out with whatever is scheduled to go out.

I've hit the jackpot twice so far. I got 9MM last week and .22 yesterday. The 9mm stayed on the shelf for over eight hours before it was sold out. The .22 made it over 3-4 hours. It really seems to be helping to get the ammo out into more hands.

Jim

hmm

I wonder if others are doing that?

When I got my one bulk box of .22lr (and the bulk .45) the employee already had the case open from the last person...I got the impression it was moving quickly

 

[Ryanxia]

Wow I can't believe how negative this shortage is making some people. Saying that people who have large amounts of ammo or resell ammo are worse than those who would take away our Constitutional Rights, or that if a company doesn't put all their ammo stock out immediately they will boycott...

Seems like some people need to relax, it happens. Wait it out and shoot bows/crossbows/pellet guns, or open up an ammo factory.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

To break up the resellers, I would be fine if my Walmart did random stocking or even created a name only data base and limit sells to individuals to once weekly....I am sure I will get flamed here for both ideas, but I would like to see something done to those that are making a business out of buy low/sell high.....If I go to my Walmart at stocking time, I sure seem to see a lot of the same faces in line...Personally, I am not hard up enough to stand in line for ammo.

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

I have no idea if the local Wally-World is doing random stocking, but I wouldn't have a problem with it if they did. Seems like a good idea to me to ensure that the goods reach more people at a reasonable price. However, in Montana W-W's got a lotta competition for the ammo market. I don't buy there much at all, & haven't since the serial stupidity started.

900F

 

[Blackrock]

My bosses SIL bought a Marlin 60 at a Sportsmans Whse last weekend and they said he could buy a brick of ammo to go with it for $20. So my boss asked if he could buy another brick also and was told "Sure thing, just buy another .22 cal gun.
They had 50 rnd boxes for $10 out on the shelves.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I know two local GS that have .22lr. They will only sell it with a firearm purchase. With what's going on, I have no ill feelings toward this policy.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Wow I can't believe how negative this shortage is making some people. Saying that people who have large amounts of ammo or resell ammo are worse than those who would take away our Constitutional Rights, or that if a company doesn't put all their ammo stock out immediately they will boycott...

Seems like some people need to relax, it happens. Wait it out and shoot bows/crossbows/pellet guns, or open up an ammo factory.

Personally I think this should be a wakeup call to ALL gun owners that shortages can cripple you. Not only guns, or ammo, but FOOD and the like.

Don't need to horde a ton but it is a wise idea to have a months stock of food just in case. Maybe several hundred dollars in cash. Good lamps, even some of those windup flash lights that don't need a battery, and other essential things.

Just a months or two in case. Same with ammo.

And ammo, like .22 lr that cannot be reloaded, needs to be kept in a reasonable quantity.

BTW, I reload have plenty of ammo. I had 5 500+ rounds of .22 lr and now I'm down to just over 1000 rounds (2 550 Remington boxes.) I shoot them in practice and I mean practice, no play. I have maybe 2 months of practice left before I run out.

But then just yesterday I saw at Academy Sports .22 Remington ammo for $2.50 a box of 50. Quite reasonable!

Deaf

 

[huntsman]

Personally I think this should be a wakeup call to ALL gun owners that shortages can cripple you. Not only guns, or ammo, but FOOD and the like.

No .22lr may suck but no food sucks more, guns and ammo will fill their appropriate role and those with excess could make legitimate barters but why take the chance? food is cheaper than ammo now but in barter I think not.

 

[22-rimfire]

If one of my local stores I purchase from did that they would not get my business ever again. I expect all stock to be out on the shelf to be purchased. If it sold out thats just fine. Its my fault for not being there early enough to pick up some ammo. To hold it back in a "whack a mole type game stocking method" means I take my money elsewhere. That's 20,000 rounds of 9mm,45acp and 223 that will be purchased elsewhere along with 6,000 rounds of shotgun ammo.

Are you referring to Academy Sports where you have been buying a lot of ammo?

To break up the resellers, I would be fine if my Walmart did random stocking or even created a name only data base and limit sells to individuals to once weekly....I am sure I will get flamed here for both ideas, but I would like to see something done to those that are making a business out of buy low/sell high.....If I go to my Walmart at stocking time, I sure seem to see a lot of the same faces in line...Personally, I am not hard up enough to stand in line for ammo.

Most of the folks that are at Walmart first thing are well known to the Sporting Goods department manager. He/she would have to be given some flexibility in selling to certain individuals, but that is a whole new can of worms and subject to abuse.

Don't sell your rimfires because of this shortage. Things will change and they are changing now.

Anyway, this shortage has caused me to cut back in my shooting, even 22LR which I have a lot of stored at home. You start to view the cache as a finite non-replenshing resource and you ration your behavior accordingly. Unlike Queen, I don't shoot competitively, but if I did, all this promo 22LR would not be the ammunition I would choose anyway for that.

 

[jrdolall]

I know two local GS that have .22lr. They will only sell it with a firearm purchase.

I bought a new Walther .22 last week at an LGS and he "offered" to sell me a brick of ammo with it for $79. I passed of course but they are selling it at that price but don't even put it on the shelves.

I had close to 25k rounds of .22 in December. I am now down to less than 6k and have actually started cutting back on shooting a bit. I have not seen a brick of .22 on a shelf locally since December. I have seen some online and some flippers around here are now selling 525 count Federal for $45.

I was buying .223 for $.26 before taxes last summer at local stores. Cheap plinking ammo which is 99% of what I do with the AR. I bought 10k rounds for a LOT less than this price back in January and have enough for years of shooting.

For me I can generally find everything but 9mm and rimfire locally at decent prices.

 

[mdauben]

If one of my local stores I purchase from did that they would not get my business ever again. I expect all stock to be out on the shelf to be purchased. If it sold out thats just fine.

I can't quite understand why anyone would think this way except for flippers. In any case, I think it makes a lot fo sense from a customer relations viewpoint. Its obvious from this and dozens of other thread that there is a lot of customer resentment towards WM due to the perception (real or not) that all the ammo is being bought up by hoarders/flippers/employees. If random stocking helps dispell these negative customer feelings, it can only be good for the store.

My bosses SIL bought a Marlin 60 at a Sportsmans Whse last weekend and they said he could buy a brick of ammo to go with it for $20. So my boss asked if he could buy another brick also and was told "Sure thing, just buy another .22 cal gun.

If the shop can't get in enough .22 to meet local demand, I can't blame them for limiting sales to gun buyers. After all, most people won't buy a gun if they can't get any ammo for it (I have a feeling lack of ammo was a contributing factor towards burting the AR "bubble" earlier this year). For them no ammo = no sale.

 

[Queen_of_Thunder]

Are you referring to Academy Sports where you have been buying a lot of ammo?

No it was in response to the WalMart/random stocking statements. If Academy started doing the random stocking thing I would go elsewhere and here is my reasoning. If I fail to show up early enough to buy ammo then thats my fault not the store's.

What we are seeing in all of these ammo threads are people wanting retailers to change their normal store policy's to suit their individual needs, along with condemnation of fellow shooters. That's a load of you know what.

Like many I got caught short. I was not prepared. I screwed up royally. My punishment for being unprepared was waiting outside of a local Academy in the winter weather and then summer weather 3 days a week @6am in hopes of buying some ammo. That ended in July. One of the rewards of the waiting was the ability to purchase over a period of 7 months was 30,000 rounds of 22lr, which then allowed me to trade for ammo I needed but couldn't get anywhere else and a S&W 586. Blasted stuff was better than cash. I now have enough 22lr to meet my plinking needs but still short on competition ammo. Do I have all of the ammo I need. No. I'm at that point where I realize I have to reduce the calibers I shoot.

I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that if its important enough to you you will find a way to make it happen.

 

[Warp]

Its obvious from this and dozens of other thread that there is a lot of customer resentment towards WM due to the perception (real or not) that all the ammo is being bought up by hoarders/flippers/employees. If random stocking helps dispell these negative customer feelings, it can only be good for the store.

The fact is people are mad, people want to blame somebody/anybody, and a large number of people are going to whine and bitch no matter what methods any retailer chooses.

Keep prices low...out of stock (must only be selling to flippers or diverting to employees/friends)

Charge market price...greedy gougers who don't deserve any business in the future

Quantity limits? Stupid, waste of time to go there when you can only get X amount.

No quantity limits? Stupid, just sell everything to to the first few guys in line so they can hoard it or flip it and nobody else gets anyway.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. People who didn't have and don't have ammo, but want it, in as much quantity as they want, at the prices they used to pay, are going to be pissy no matter what.

 

[Furncliff]

Walmart's approach makes sense, it also demonstrates that they are listening to their customers (fancy that). It will have some effect on the re-sellers who are responsible for the situation we find ourselves in, that's a good thing. Those folks need to go out of business before we see the end of this.

 

[xfyrfiter]

Some of us actually have to work a steady job to put food on the table and a roof over the head, so we don't really have the time to camp out at the local gs or wally world. I also live 35 miles from the nearest store. So you that can camp out or get to the store early enough to get ammo are really making it hard on those who can't. The truth is I have enough to get by, but I am not doing any recreational shooting except air rifle and have not except to sight in for 6 months now.

 

[herkyguy]

i too went with a 22WMR recently to cut down on costs. i picked up a Savage 93 in 22Mag and topped her with a Nikon Buckmaster sitting around the house. even at prices now, i still don't mind shooting 50 rounds out of a rifle for $15-$20. that's the higher end ammo too.

i track it on gunbot and recently picked up 500 rounds of CCI HPs for a decent price. so i limit an outing to one box of 50 and I'm happy, given the world we're in right now.

a bit bummed though, as there seems to be tons of 17 HMR, but very little 22WMR.

 

[William Boyd]

The fact is people are mad, people want to blame somebody/anybody, and a large number of people are going to whine and bitch no matter what methods any retailer chooses.

Keep prices low...out of stock (must only be selling to flippers or diverting to employees/friends)

Charge market price...greedy gougers who don't deserve any business in the future

Quantity limits? Stupid, waste of time to go there when you can only get X amount.

No quantity limits? Stupid, just sell everything to to the first few guys in line so they can hoard it or flip it and nobody else gets anyway.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. People who didn't have and don't have ammo, but want it, in as much quantity as they want, at the prices they used to pay, are going to be pissy no matter what.

Warp, I think you just summed up this whole thread.

WB

 

[Queen_of_Thunder]

Some of us actually have to work a steady job to put food on the table and a roof over the head, so we don't really have the time to camp out at the local gs or wally world. I also live 35 miles from the nearest store. So you that can camp out or get to the store early enough to get ammo are really making it hard on those who can't. The truth is I have enough to get by, but I am not doing any recreational shooting except air rifle and have not except to sight in for 6 months now.

I can tell you the make-up of those who have been waiting in the same line as I have since January. They are college students stopping in before going to class, people stopping by on their way home from work, people stopping by as they go into work, people taking days off, people on vacation, business people stopping in before going to work, wives there for their husbands who can't be there, retired folks like myself who like to shoot, people(2) who supplement their income by doing gun shows and no doubt there have been some who stop by to buy some ammo to resell.

BTW waiting in line is no different then having ammo on back order. Both are the same but its easier to point at someone who is waiting in line as a reason for why an individual doesn't have ammo.

People simply need to take responsibility for there own failures when it comes to a lack of ammo. People also need to understand what the impact of several million new shooters have on the overall demand situation because that is exactly what happened. People waiting in line to get a box or two of ammo are not the problem. The lack of manufacturing capacity, anti gun legislation and pronouncements from politicians on gun control and increasing taxes on ammo and guns are major factors that keep this shortage alive.

 

[ATLDave]

Warp, while you are certainly right that any course of action will draw ire from some, there are definitely some approaches that make more people happy. I know when I encounter a store that has rationed or used other means to slow down the flippers/hoarders, I have thanked them for it. If a store has an approach that you appreciate, let them know it. And buy some (non-short) stuff from them to show you mean it.

 

[Reloadron]

Are any of you at the point of just dumping your rimfire guns?

Nope, if I did it would create one heck of a void in the safe. Then I would be obligated to fill that void.

This will pass and everyone will come away a little wiser. My local Gander Mountain stocks ammunition on Thursday mornings. Heck over the past 4 weeks they have had just about everything. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll wander up there and see how things are going. Don't need or want anything but it may make for morning entertainment.

Unless something happens to again rock the boat things will settle down. Things are improving little by little as of now. So no, don't run out and sell your rimfire guns and if you feel the need to sell them to me cheap.

Ron