.22LR Shortage

[OldRanger]

My local guns store says he gets about 300 phone calls per week inquiring about .22 shells. Last week the store received a shipment of 80,000 rounds. In the pre-hoarding days, that amount of ammunition would have lasted about 2.5 months. But now.... That ammo was sold out by the end of the day. They even limited purchases to four boxes per customer.

The store owner's recommendation to to buy a gun chambered in something other than .22 Maybe it is time for .17 rimfire Silhouette. Wish I was kidding.

One LGS here gets in 250,000-500,000 22 rounds every saturday. They are gone by noonish. Half a million rounds in 4 hours. Every week. I asked if I could pre-purchase some eley club to test out in my new rifle and he said no, even that goes as fast as it comes in. I am still having trouble wrapping my head around this shortage. I was sure this winter when fewer people were shooting the shelves would re-stock and we'd be set again. I guess people are still hoarding even the crappiest of ammo (I don't consider it hoarding if you plan on shooting it all this year like I do ).

[Trent]

What the heck kind of "local gun store" gets in half a million rounds per week... when most other stores cannot get in hardly any?

[xpilot]

""One LGS here gets in 250,000-500,000 22 rounds every saturday. They are gone by noonish. Half a million rounds in 4 hours. Every week. ""

At 375,000 rounds per Saturday.....they sell 75 CASES of ammo every Saturday morning????

[paper]

My LGS has been in business for 50 years and he's lucky to get a case a month.

[OldRanger]

they sell 75 CASES of ammo every Saturday morning????

They have a dolly you can borrow. You see folks wheeling out 5-10 cases at a time to their trucks.
The prices are not inflated and they don't limit how many you can buy. Unfortunately its usually all bulk 'buck of bullets'
and plated hollow points.

[Trent]

This doesn't make sense at all. How is it that this LGS in your area can get so much?? Stores around here are selling 550 bulk packs for $49 and limiting it to one per customer because they can't get anything. Yet there is a store in your area that can get 75 cases per week and sell it at normal prices?? WTF?

What is the name of the place?

[Jim T.]

In the May/June issue of American Handgunner they disclosed that "one major maker" has 4.3 BILLION rounds of .22 on backorder.

As I tried to point out numerous times on Dimfirecentral.com, the backorder situation is probably one of the single largest reasons for the perceived ".22 shortage (after the irrational hoarding, of course)." That is, not only do you have the established vendors increasing their orders but you have new vendors placing substantial orders based on their desire to cash in on this mania. I am sure the manufactures are not filling these backorders based on first in first out, but more likely base their fulfillment decisions on who pays on time and who will be a valued customer in 5 years. Many complain that Gander Mountain and Sportsman's Warehouse get very small allocations, if this is true you only need to look into their historical financial situation and you might see why.

Many say that if only people would "quit buying from scalpers" this entire shortage would be over. Of course these same people break out in hives if they get within 500 yards of a economics textbook used in Econ. 101. One outspoken "dimfart" who holds this view on Dimfirecentral.com points out that if prices go down to close to pre-panic levels he is in for case upon case of .22 ammo, he apparently has poor reasoning skills.

In conclusion, "human nature" is a funny thing sometimes, the dimwits amongst us can be even funnier.

[pistolero45]

Like most serious shooters, I spent time ammo testing, then bought cases by lot number. And for competition purposes, that worked well, saved money, and provided peace of mind. But now I do not have .22 ammo left to shoot more than half a season. I've been patient for over a year, waiting the insanity to settle down. Plus I did not want to become part of the problem.

So what to do? Today I got out my old skeet gun. Went to a local shotgun club and shot Sporting Clays. They had lots of shells. And I had lots of fun.

[durant7]

I have been out of touch a bit since the cold white shroud of winter shuts down all shooting in NH until May. But, akin to a bear coming out of hibernation, I visited a local gun show yesterday. $40/1000 for primers (Fed small pistol) and $49/box of Automatch. That is 4 cents for primers and 15 cents for a RF projectile. Yikes! I can see why cowboy is growing if you shoot your home cast bullets. Play with the numbers anyway you want, I think PCCLA could be less expensive to shoot than SBC.

But with all this madness, why is air rifle dieing if not dead? CPLs are under 2.2 cents per squeeze today at most web shops. Every bit the challenge. Can be practiced at home. Is youth friendly. It just seems odd. My assumption is folks just can't get over spending $650 on an air rifle (TX200) for example. I suspect there area number of less expensive Chinese made air guns with which to start. If you don't like it, you can sell it for $500 in a New York minute. I've seen much worse "rental" rates on 22 rifles no? And if you can hit 10 turkeys with your TX200, you'll hit more with your Smallbore rifle!

Maybe I will have an air match and see who shows up. Grand slams are just as fun to earn.

JD in NH

[teetertotter]

I have a working relationship with one of our LGS stores and I use Aquila Match Rifle. I also pay him in advance for my case which he orders from distributor Zanders Sporting Goods and pays them in advance. This way, every one has a guaranteed sale. I said before, in 2013 it took 7 months to get my case. 2014, it will be interesting when Zander's gets his shipment from the new Aquila Texas Importer and my LGS gets a call from Zanders. 2014, I am figuring 7 months for the same or shipment will arrive in August.
Right now, I am saving $$$ to order another case in August or 5 months earlier than I did in 2013.

Since there is no valid specific information when the various mfgs will be ramping up .22LR as a whole, I predict the allocation of my specific grade ammo will carry through 2016+. The Aquila factory in Mexico and the US importer, are unable/will not tell me when the production of the Aquila Match Rifle is scheduled.

Apparently, no shooting sport magazine has asked the various manufactures for their production schedules for .22 LR, for example.
Or when they expect to get caught up on their B/O's of .22 LR. Who cares about stats and who is using all this ammo. For all I know, the manufactures are purposely creating the shortages in the area. Rifleman Magazine shortage reporting is a joke. We need some hard core questions asked by the reporters with answers. Again, we don't need stats what is causing the shortage as had enough of that.

Maybe all .22LR will be available on a regular basis by the end of 2015?? I am still emailing the manufacture and importer, even if they are not answering.

[snaketail2]

Same as pistolero45.

I was nice - didn't buy everything in the store...left some for others. But this year I won't have enough to be competitive for the entire season. Shoot the nationals - yea right. Might make a regional, but the big show is out for me this year.

Yesterday the weather was great so I bought some shotgun shells and had fun at the trap range. Next week, Sporting Clays.

If this keeps up I will seriously think about a competition grade air rifle.

M

[Jim T.]

"For all I know, the manufactures are purposely creating the shortages in the area. Rifleman Magazine shortage reporting is a joke."

Now why would the manufactures be "creating the shortages" when they have kept their pricing stable throughout this entire period? ATK (owns CCI, Federal) is reporting record profits which does not seem to validate your theory. If your theory was true, why would we not be seeing shortages of AR-15's, .223 ammo or 30 round magazines? As for American Rifleman's reporting on the shortage being a "joke" I would have to strongly disagree.

The fact of the matter is people are buying more ammo and not shooting as much. History shows there is only one outcome for this scenario, so sit back, participate in other activities, and when the morons buying all this ammo come to their senses I imagine there will be some very good buys. Pay close to estate sales since many of these guys "lifetime supply's" will outlast them by a considerable margin.

[BCloninger]

Pay close to estate sales since many of these guys "lifetime supply's" will outlast them by a considerable margin.

I've had the same thought! And how many stashes will remain buried indefinitely, sealed in garbage bags and trash cans? Sheesh.

[OldRanger]

One more thing I thought I'd mention on this subject is survivalists. Many of those folks think 22 ammo will be worth more than an ounce of silver after the big event they think will end the world as we know it. They stockpile it thinking they will be rich after the apocalypse. One guy down the bitterroot built a whole new bunker just to hold all the 22 ammo he hoards. I'm not sure how many of these people exist but there seem to be a lot of them up here.

Oh, and happy saint patricks day!

[snaketail2]

I'm still not over Homeland Security ordering 7 Billion ("B") rounds of ammo. That's more than were fired in all of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I & II...and homeland security are the guys who check you underwear at the airport and the Border Patrol. Sure the Border Patrol shoots someone ever so often (usually someone just across the border, still in Mexico - or each other), and the airport guys need to know what a bullet looks like...but 7 BILLION rounds! If it were 7 billion sheets of toilet paper someone in congress would be upset.

When I was in Arizona I wrote to Senators Flake and McCain. Flake answered: Said it was ammo for practice - really! McCain did not respond.

And in a related matter:
I'm an architectural photographer. The latest development in my field is low-level aerial photography. People put cameras on quadcopters and fly over the property making photos from a unique perspective.Great idea! But, the FAA and Homeland Security say this is illegal. A camera on a small helicopter is considered a drone and it it illegal for a civilian to fly a drone for commercial purposes. A judge threw a case out saying the FAA did not have the authority to make laws nor the ability to prosecute. The FAA responded by saying they will continue to arrest those who do this - even thought there is no law against it. {People still do it - under the radar} A photographer filming people at a Washington Nationals game got busted - the Nationals spokesman asked if they need FAA "permission" to hit pop-flys - that go higher than the copter...

The next big thing:
Squirrel hunting with your WiFi image transmitting Quadcopter armed with a short barrel .22 semi auto.

M