What is going on with .22LR ammo?

[Hacker15E]

What percentage of gun owners would you say shoot more than 6,000 rounds of .22 LR every year?

If ammo was free I bet I wouldn't shoot more than 10,000 rounds the rest of my life...which if I eat right and don't cheat on my wife should last about another 40 years.

I could easily shoot 500 rounds of 22LR in a weekend...so I don't see 6,000 over the course of a year all that tough to achieve.

It all depends on what kind of shooting you do.

 

[BK]

What percentage of gun owners would you say shoot more than 6,000 rounds of .22 LR every year?

There are shooters and there are gun owners. On the average weekend, most will only be gun owning, but many others will be out shooting.

If ammo was free I bet I wouldn't shoot more than 10,000 rounds the rest of my life.

I included gun owners like that in my previous post. Some of us shoot quite a lot more than others.

-it's cheap and easy to buy a lifetimes supply.

Only for the wealthy, advanced in age, or those gun owners who don't shoot very much. I couldn't buy a lifetime's supply unless I sold a couple of my vehicles to fund it.

 

[Potatohead]

I've been shooting about 500-600 rds per month. But i'm new to this so maybe I'm just excited.

 

[gspn]

I could easily shoot 500 rounds of 22LR in a weekend...so I don't see 6,000 over the course of a year all that tough to achieve.

Not saying you can't. Just saying that the vast...VAST majority of gun owners never will.

I've been shooting for 20 years and have never met someone who consumes that much .22 LR. Sure they are out there...but in extremely small numbers.

 

[splithoof]

I wonder what the shelf life of all that rimfire ammo is....I realize that storage conditions (temperature, etc.) will have an effect, but at some point down the road there will be an awful lot of dud rounds. I have some from the 1960's, and it seems to shoot OK. I have also seen some brands that had numerous duds after only a couple of years in ideal storage. Eventually this hoarding will settle down, at which point there will be tons of ammo sitting around in hot garages that will eventually gentrify and be part of someone's estate, ending up in either the trash, a yard sale, or given to someone else.

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I stocked up last fall when I thought they were going to get hard to get. The UPS lady thought I was imagining things but I told her to just wait. Now she understands why I was doing what I did. I bought about 60,000 rounds and have given away some and sold some for what I paid. I counted lastnight and I have 16 22 rifles and 7 22 handguns. My wife and son and I enjoy shooting whenever we want without worry about all the shortages of ammo. Some may say I am a hoarder but I bought it over 2 or 3 months just like anybody else could have.

 

[Malamute]

....I've been shooting for 20 years and have never met someone who consumes that much .22 LR. Sure they are out there...but in extremely small numbers.

I've known a couple, I used to shoot at least that much 22. One winter I was buying and shooting a 2500 rd case/month, mostly through one gun, a Navy Arms 1866 carbine copy. It was common to shoot 500-1000 rds a day each time I took the Smith K-22 or other pistol out also, over many years.

I generally keep enough 22's around to stay busy a while if I choose to, just havent been as active shooting as in the past. I'm surprised at how few folks keep much ammo ahead.

 

[420Stainless]

As mentioned by others, I think the proliferation of .22lr ARs has a lot to do with it. It has become a popular item in the last five years and the folks that use them seem to have a lot of fun blasting the rimfires as quickly as they can. Not my cup of tea, but I don't think they are hoarding them so much as enjoying them in large volume. The manufacturing volume will either pick up domestically to cover the new segment or there will soon be massive importing if the price stays high.

 

[Cee Zee]

I shot about 75 bricks a year up until the shortage hit. That would make my 40 year supply be about 1.5 million rounds. If you want to shoot well you have to practice a lot. I spent about $3000 on .22 ammo one year. I would still be doing that if Wolf hadn't gone south on me. I can't get it to work nearly as well as it did before. I have to shoot Eley Match Black now or Federal Gold Medal Ultra Match. I just can't bring myself to spend that kind of money on ammo. It just costs too much to be worth it. One thing about it is that level of ammo hasn't seen a big price increase or at least the last time I saw some the price wasn't that high.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I have been shooting rimfire silhouette locally for a couple of years. I practice 2+ days a week. Between rifle and pistol practice, it is easy to shoot 500 rounds a week....I also shoot local benchrest matches. Burning a brick of match ammo a month is easy, too.

 

[gdcpony]

I am down to my last brick here. I see some at stores, but it is either expensive target stuff priced way out there, or the cheap stuff sold at more than old target round prices. I have gotten the kids more into shooting their .223's as I can reload that for cheaper now that components are making their way back. Still I am down to 5# Varget, 3000 primed brass and 2k loaded rounds. Waiting on more 50gr Z-Max to arrive at the local shop for their cheap price.

Pretty sad. I remember getting paid 5 cents per ground squirrel I brought a rancher and making a profit. Now I couldn't even hop on my BMX to get there with a rifle on my back without legal fees put back. .22LR rifles are over $200 for most of them. Now the ammo is non-existent.

 

[Ignition Override]

Maybe 420Stainless hit the nail on the head. Other than new shooters, those AR uppers and the semi-auto HK and MPs built only for .22LR might also be culprits.

When more centerfire ammo such as .223, 7.62x39 (now .25-.26/rd.) gets a little cheaper, won't this help Reduce demand for .22LR: the opposite of what happened last December?
Guys with AK 74s have been able to buy 5.45x39 for .18/round, starting several weeks ago ("Gunbot.com").

 

[rduchateau2954]

GSPN,

I easily shoot 6000 rounds of .22 a year. Well, at least I used to. A Marlin 60 and a Ruger MKIII make short work of bulk packs.

Before all this happened I would go through 250-500 rounds of .22 in a day. My range is 5 miles away and I would go once a week. Even 200 rounds for 45 weeks equals 9,000 per year. I just turned 25 last month. Say I have 55-60 years left on the planet and it equals out to 495,000-540,000 rounds of .22. At $20 per 500 that would equal out to $19,800-$21,600.

That said I have just under 3500 rounds of .22 left and haven't shot one round in two months for fear of not knowing when I can replenish my supply.

 

[Agsalaska]

Bspn, since nobody else seems to want to give it a guess I will. My guess is that less than 2% of gun owners who will shoot a gun this year and own a 22lr will shoot 6000 rounds of 22 in any given year. We here at the high road are very good at believing we are the norm when in reality we are more often the exception.

 

[gspn]

GSPN,

I easily shoot 6000 rounds of .22 a year.

What is your point?

 

[gspn]

My guess is that less than 2% of gun owners who will shoot a gun this year and own a 22lr will shoot 6000 rounds of 22 in any given year. We here at the high road are very good at believing we are the norm when in reality we are more often the exception.

DING DING DING!!! Winner.

 

[rduchateau2954]

What is your point?

You say you've met very few, but just in this thread alone there are several.

 

[csa77]

Before all the ammo dried up , when I would shoot almost a full 550rnd federal bulk box in one trip at the range all though my 22/45. I was doing this every weekend. Occasionally twice a week.

 

[Queen_of_Thunder]

Maybe 420Stainless hit the nail on the head. Other than new shooters, those AR uppers and the semi-auto HK and MPs built only for .22LR might also be culprits.

When more centerfire ammo such as .223, 7.62x39 (now .25-.26/rd.) gets a little cheaper, won't this help Reduce demand for .22LR: the opposite of what happened last December?
Guys with AK 74s have been able to buy 5.45x39 for .18/round, starting several weeks ago ("Gunbot.com").

If centerfire rounds return to last years prices I for one would cut back on my use of 22lr but not to my prior usage levels. You see I'm having just as much fun with rimfire firearms as I had with my centerfire firearms and that means I will need more 22lr ammo but less centerfire ammo. I guess it took this shortage to get me into rimfire caliber firearms.

So the question is will lower prices for centerfire ammo lead to a lower demand for 22lr ammo. I would say no. In fact you may see a lower demand for centerfire ammo if there are others out there like myself who have been bitten by the rimfire bug. Granted it will never return to pre Conn. levels due to the addition of new people entering the sport.

 

[General Lee]

If things really did ever go south.. I would rather have my stockpile over 22lr any day of the week. I would rather be able to shoot further than 100 yards.

 

[ID-shooting]

If things really did ever go south.. I would rather have my stockpile over 22lr any day of the week. I would rather be able to shoot further than 100 yards.

An argument could be made for the inverse. While most people think in terms of fire fights and like to have piles of 5.56, 7.62x39, 308, etc, 22lr will also play a role. In terms of food gathering and contact avoidance one can keep and carry many more 22lr rounds than the others. Doesn't mean a good defensive carbine wouldn't be wise just that I would plan to avoid shooting it out as much as possible but I do like to eat from time to time and using a nice quiet 22lr for small game gathering seems to be a better choice. 5k of 22lr would sustain many families for a long time.

 

[shockwave]

Just curious, but why would anybody want to shoot "500 rounds of .22" in a weekend? On a typical range outing, I might shoot 50 rounds of .22, .38, maybe 25 rounds of .357, and up to 100 of 9mm. That's usually enough to check my accuracy, handling, and reliability.

Oh, sure, I know that for some guys, it's a counting contest. "I shoot 10,000 rounds of 223 every day, all day, 365, 24/7. I shoot 100 million rounds a week and if you don't, you're a sheep-person anti gun-grabber!"

Yeah, I get that, but it really seems crazy to me. Regular, consistent, focused training should not require thousands and thousands of rounds to get to where you need to be.

I'll go further: If you need to shoot a quarter million rounds a year of .22, then something is probably wrong with your understanding of firearms. Your kinesthetic memory, handing, sight picture, breath control, trigger control, aim, heart rate, and attitude are all under your control.

Simply firing more rounds will not make you more proficient if you can't handle the above variables.

Hearkening back to the "In the good ol' days" thread that got locked earlier, old-timers can tell you stories about buying a string of 5 or 10 .22s at the 5 and dime store, and going out and making those precious rounds count.

Our - drum roll, please - Founding Fathers had to shoot complicated flint-lock rifles with wads and loose gunpowder and home-cast ball shot, and I doubt they won the Revolutionary War by throwing a quarter million rounds downrange every other day.

In short, if you're wasting that much copper and lead and cordite, you might want to check your training methodology and figure out what it is you're trying to accomplish.

Don't get me wrong: It is your right and it is your freedom and your liberty to shoot 100 quadrillion bazillion rounds of .50 caliber ammo every second of every day. You are allowed. But do you understand why some people might be laughing at your lack of expertise?

 

[j1]

It is all the fault of the Ruger 10 22 and hi cap mags.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Just curious, but why would anybody want to shoot "500 rounds of .22" in a weekend?

Because I can.

 

[BullfrogKen]

I bought a .22 conversion kit for my 1911, a Ruger Mark I, a Colt .22 revolver, and a S&W 15-22 after the last crisis so I could have something to shoot, practice, and train with.


And it seems everyone else did, too.