Why is 22 LR sold out everywhere?

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BSA1 said:
(IMHO Ruger missed the boast by making the LCR with only 6 rounds).
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The .22LR version of the LCR holds 8 rounds. The .22 magnum holds 6. The .38 SPL and .357 magnum versions hold 5.

Ruger's web page with specs on the various models of LCR is here.

BTW, I bought the .38 SPL version with the fat Hogue Tamer grips and Lasermax at the front, rather than the much more common versions with the Crimson Trace in the skinny grips. The downside is not having the laser come on via grip squeeze, instead I have to poke the switch. With my giant mitts I couldn't go with the skinny grips.

I absolutely love the gun! It's light as a feather, even loaded, and like all my other Rugers, it's solid as a rock. It has a really great trigger, especially for a DAO.
 
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Here's a post I made on another site a few months ago. It has a lot of info as to why we have an ongoing ammo shortage.
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I've been searching a bit and found some interesting docs. They explain just how limited the production capacity is. For example, the US military annual requirements for small arms ammo in 2007 was 1.7 billion rounds. Consider that DHS has put in a multi-year purchase option totalling about that many in just the last year alone. WW2 annual requirements were 21.6 billion rounds, about 13 times higher. Clearly production capacity is a tiny fraction of what it was 70 years ago.

Imagine if each of the US civilian gun owners (about 50 million, depending on who you believe) decided to purchase a combined total of just 1,000 rounds, spread across all of his guns (not 1,000 rounds per gun). That's 50 billion rounds, over 29 years' worth of US military consumption.

After reading this stuff I'm redoubling my commitment to ammo purchases. I can't see this shortage being alleviated soon. My next research is to see how I can best invest in ammo producers. They must be rolling in profits now.

Small-Arms Ammunition Production and Acquisition: Too Many Eggs in One Basket?
by Major Mark W. Siekman, USAR, Dr. David A. Anderson, and Allan S. Boyce. 2010
Link

USA Today article from 2007, "Ammo makers prepare for drop in demand"
Link
 
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Investing in ammo companies:

Investing In Guns And Ammo

Bottom line: It's not possible to buy stock in a pure US ammo manufacturer, as they are either private or part of a much larger, diversified company. It may be possible to buy stock in an overseas ammo manufacturer.

Excerpt:
Of the four companies, Ruger is the purest play in firearms. While the company does own Pine Tree Castings, it only provides about 1% of their revenues. The other three companies are more diversified. This diversification which in normal times would help them seems to have depressed their growth as compared to that of Ruger. With other sectors of the economy not having the robust growth of the firearms industry, this has hurt Smith and Wesson, Olin, and Alliant Technologies.
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Yea right. People are flipping the one or two boxes they are getting every week. Easy way to explain things but totally bogus.

If you haven't noticed all of the 22lr firearms have disappeared and until this past week I had not seen one in 3 months. Those firearms sold out and the owners needed ammo with the result of 22lr disappearing from the ammo shelf. Add the 5-10 million new shooters and you start to realize where all of the guns and ammo went.

Now if the above isn't good enough then this is the other reason for ammo disappearing. After the shooting a lot of people saw this coming and bought every single round they could and are now selling at a profit. Good for them. I'm sorry I didn't react fast enough. In fact I made the wrong decision by buying another AR instead of using that money to stock up on ammo. I should have zeroed out my CC's and loaded up the house with ammo. Instead I ended up standing in line hoping to get a box or two of ammo like the rest of us that we're slow to react. I did though get in front of the reloading rush. Thank goodness for that.

There are a lot of reasons one can use to excuse their failure to be prepared but the reason we don't have the ammo to shoot is we screwed up. It's our fault and no one else's. So quit whining.
 
Imo we are seeing the perfect storm of increased demand vs a gunshy (pun intended) banking and buisness climate.

We are recovering from a huge banking and lending bubble that has EVERYONE who makes ANYTHING scared °|^_[[less of allocating for growth they simply cannot depend on being there.

Everyone except for the shooting sports wich has seen unprecedented growth in the same time frame.

So what you have is SOLID (not a bubble) higher than ever demand on top of absolutely no increase in production capacity. AND THIS IS BEFORE you throw a panic driven buying spree into the mix.

Suffice to say 22 is gonna be tight for awhile




posted via that mobile app with the sig lines everyone complains about
 
4 years ago, 22LR was starting to ease up by this time. But Walmart kept their 3-box limit on things into the summer and a few stores never seemed to get the corporate message and it stayed on. It was in short supply then too. But the buying started earlier like in September prior to the election because people started seeing the writing on the wall and believing it.
 
I'm disgusted. I've pretty much given up looking for 22 ammo. :cuss:
I'm concentrating on shooting sporting clays, 5 stand and skeet. :p
 
22LR shelves are empty because a) other ammo is rising in expense and many are practicing with 22LR, and b) it's a good round for meat on the table (squirrel, rabbit, etc). Ask anyone from the Depression.

Now ask yourself why so many people are worried about being able to shoot squirrels next year.
 
Not too many depend on 22LR for meat on the table any more, but I suppose some still do in the remote parts of Canada and Alaska. When that is the reason, it is usually being stored for a survival situation that will likely never happen.
 
O...then its just DHS.


They cant take our guns legally yet...so they get around that, and like we always said they would get the ammo. I just didnt think they would get it by buying it up.
 
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"George Sorros..owns controlling interest in the major cartridge manufacturing companies."

You, of course, have proof that George Soros owns these companies, right? Here are three big ones.

ATK
L-3 Communications
Olin/Winchester
 
David E said:
Except that it's not. CCI for one is cranking out 10,000,000 rds of .22 per DAY.
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I've tried to get production figures on .22LR for a while from all the major companies. I feel like if I had an idea about how much was being produced per day I could estimate how long this would take to resupply ammo shelves. Could you link me to a source for this data about CCI's production capability? I'd like to check over their figures.

On other threads I estimated a nationwide production of .22LR at 20 million rounds per day from all sources. At that rate, estimating 3 box demand of 50 (and later for 500 rounds per box) I ended up with a range between 6 months and 2 years in order to supply the US with 3 boxes of either 50 rounds (150 rounds total) or 1500 rounds (3 boxes of 500), per person owning .22s. I felt like I used very conservative figures on estimated demand and estimated ownership of .22 firearms for the most part when I did this estimate. Gets really bizarre when you think about how few people will be satisfied with 3 boxes and would be back for more.

If the actual production figures are higher I might be able to get a newer, more favorable, time line for when things will improve.
 
Obviously certain pro gun states should heavily invest in building production facilities. Jump start and hire local, ignore any federal interdiction, no federal contracts allowed. made in state, sold in state.

Alaska is already there, you make it there and the feds are locked out.
 
.22 is in short supply because there are .22 rifles that quilify for fieinstiens gun ban bill.
 
Bought some 3,000 rounds of .22lr last week while out of town and I didn't have to wait in line at opening. I don't resell but I've already given away 525 rounds and will likely do more of the same later this week. It can be found in a lot of places. Typically, a big city Walmart isn't the best choice for finding ammo. Also bought bullets and powder and could have bought dies for .308, 9mm, .223 and a number of other calibers but I already have them.
 
I saw a documentary a few days ago (two part) that had been placed on YouTube about CCI's production from one plant. Don't know if that is their only plant or not. IIRC, their capacity was 4 million rounds per day. Sounds like a lot until you saw one truck getting 8 pallets of 250K each. Not even half a truckload.
 
I have been pondering lately that since so much 22 ammo can be cranked out daily by the ammo makers that perhaps they are just delibertly holding back shipments of the produced ammo and are about to release an avalanche of ammo to be sold.
 
Why is 22LR so hard to find? Because DHS is finally arming the TSA :D



Seriously though, I still don't understand why anyone would either wait in a line to buy .22 ammo or pay anything close to centerfire prices for it.
 
I paid $23.95 for the bulk (525 rounds Federal Champion) and $3.95 for the subsonic (Federal Quiet 22). Not outstanding but hardly gouging. I did run across a shop in Ozark Beach offering Federal AutoMatch for $35.00 (325 rounds, bulk) which the local Gander sold for $22.95 last November.
 
Guess who's buying a helluva lot of ammo lately?
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Good point.
I would chime in with the rest that it is likely result of lots of mp15-22 and the like out there, with panic buying, and the number of 22's around of old with the increase in 22 semi's (which are great for learning to shoot handguns!)
Hence a bit of a shortage along with most everything else!
 
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