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How's The .22lr Ammo Supply Out There Now?

We all know the story with .22lr ammo over the last year or so...

Thats right... What .22lr?

So how does supply out there look these days? Its been months since I even wasted the effort to try.

Any luck, fellas?
 
I got 2 1000 round packages at Gander for 50.00 each Last Week. They put out stock at 0900 limit 1 at a time they had 4 or five different sizes and type. Not a lot but they had it every morning for a week.
 
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You just have to keep looking around. Last month, I was able to score a 525 rd. brick of Federal Champion 36gr. Copper Plated HP for $25.00 and come CCI Stingers for $7.00/box at Natchez Shooters Supply. Promptly sold out within an hour.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Our local Wal Mart sells out within 15 minutes every shipment.
Last time I asked the guy said "today's shipment never even made it to the shelf"
you have to be constantly checking the stores and there when they get it in stock or you're out of luck.
So it's really not any better other than they are actually getting it in. Just sells QUICK
 
That's a bummer. But it doesn't surprise me. Locally, my options are pretty slim already. A couple gun shops, Wally World and a Turners which is a little out of the way. It's gonna take a stakeout to get any!

Any online sources?

Do you think it's going to hit a wall eventually? The heavy buyers are eventually going to have more than enough, right?
 

BigFoot

I wanna be sedated!
Staff member
The Bass Pro near me gets them in almost daily, the problem is you have to be there when they stock or they are gone.
 
There are still .30 ammo cans full of cartons of .22 going back as far as the mid-1990s (Y2K preparation you see) stowed away around here. Then there's the "ready ammo" in the locker.

I'm still miffed that I can't obtain replacement ammo. I've been used to shooting lots of .22.
 
I sold a lot of rounds before i left the country they paid double the price they normally would for .22 because they were selling it for more then that! i went in the next day to sell the rest of my ammo and they were all gone!
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
Bought a 500 rd brick of CCI from a local dealer for $26.99 a few days ago. Scratched the date on the box with a perm marker and added it to the storage rotation.
 
.22 LR...the myths, the legends. As eluded to even here on this site, people are buying this stuff in the "prepper" mindset because there is the pseudo-paranoia that one day..."it'll all be gone". I doubt that MOST seriously. .22 LR is, if nothing else, the most PC ammunition out there. Hardly the choice of international terrorists or bane of gun control pilgrims.

Now those who foresee their upcoming existence in a post-apocalyptic world recognize the advantage of .22 LR as an ultimate "survival" round. When you find yourself stalking about in whatever is left of inner-city ruins or the smoldering remains of the countryside hunting a stray possum or rat for the purpose of sustenance, the venerable .22 LR makes perfectly good sense. Surely a better choice than a .30-06 or 7.62, either of which will turn your "roof rabbit" into mush quicksmart. Indeed, this is just one of the many rationales behind "hoarding" ammunition. I am sure there are others. I'd be more inclined to hoard bourbon personally.......

Actually, there is a simple remedy to the asinine price gouging issues. Just quit buying it for a month or two. Why not actually go out and shoot up a couple hundred of the couple thousand rounds you have piled up? Safe bet you just may see prices drop to a more acceptable level. Case in point...I bought a new AR 15 platform rifle for about $600 a while back. The huge "there gonna ban the black rifles" scare kicked in shortly thereafter. Prices skyrocketed. My $600 rifle was now worth $1700...no kidding.

Same rifle today is going for about....$600. No 6 month wait to get one either.

Sounds logical to me. But then again one never knows exactly when those zombies will appear on the horizon............
 
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Walmart has been fruitless for months on end. There seems to be a corrupt buying system that favors those willing to buy-in. Basically, you get a text from a Walmart employee telling you what type of ammo will be stocked and at what time. You pay them $5-$10 per text message, bring a couple of friends and clean out the stock the moment it hit's the shelves. There's been a few Youtube videos documenting this practice.

Fortunately, I was stocking up before the panic hit and have a few thousand rounds on hand. Given the horrid winter we've been experiencing, I haven't had a chance to shoot much of anything so my stock is basically untouched.
 

OkieStubble

Dirty Donuts are so Good.
I was checking out a youtube video that showed local independent gun shop owners who go into Walmart in the early morning hours when the trucks come in and buy up all the .22 ammo. These store owners won't sell the ammo on their store shelves because they don't want to be accused of price gouging in person. So they put the ammo up for sale on their website's with inflated prices.
 
I haven't checked for a couple of weeks, but what I saw at that time was:
  • A couple of Bass Pro shops here in Iowa continue to be getting .22 in several days each week. Sometimes prices aren't awful, but it doesn't last long. If you can't get there by lunch time on a weekday forget about it. I've seen some .22 shorts last longer, but they were expensive enough for me to pass on them. Scored a couple of bulk boxes a month or so ago.
  • Scheels, a regional sporting goods shop gets in a variety of .22LR on pretty much a daily basis. The one I can check on a few times per month is in the big shopping mall, so they have enough traffic to wipe out their supply by closing time every day. Prices have mostly been reasonable.
  • Sportsman's Warehouse has finally started to get in a little bit of .22LR, but what I've seen has been expensive subsonic stuff.
  • Mills Fleet & Farm, a big box farm supply store (welcome to Iowa!) had a quantity of .22 shorts a few weeks ago. They were a little expensive but not truly terrible so I got a box. That's the only .22 ammo I've seen there since they opened last summer.
  • My local gun guy reports that he is getting .22LR on an irregular basis, but sells out almost immediately. This is a result of having had cases of EVERYTHING back ordered since last year.

I've managed to put back enought that I can have a few range days with the .22 rifles and still have ammunition for the odd skunk that turns up on the property. Instead of buying any .22 ammo I can find I've gotten a little bit picky about how much I'm willing to pay. I find it in dribs and drabs and it's piling up, but may dwindle quickly if the weather ever cooperates so that I can have those few range days.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
It sounds like suppliers are pumping them to the stores more regular now. But that doesn't help keeping them on the shelves when they sell out within minutes of hitting the shelf.
It's still a matter of being there when the shipment comes in otherwise you are out of luck.
It will even out eventually. Now that they are stocking the shelves more.
 
Any online sources?
There are a lot of online options, but none of those are cheap. Toothpick and I have both posted about finding what seemed like a deal online only to have the price of shipping make it not such a deal.
Do you think it's going to hit a wall eventually? The heavy buyers are eventually going to have more than enough, right?
Back in July of 2013 I didn't think so, but demand does seem to be easing a bit.

The main problem, as I see it, is that .22LR is just so darn easy to hoard. To buy your limit of centerfire pistol ammunition would set you back $40-$60 bucks at a time. That's tough to justify week in and week out. For .22LR it only costs me $6 to get my limit of two 50-round boxes. I can keep doing that for a long time before the expenditure becomes an issue. Even if I find the rare bulk pack it's not going to set me back any more than a single box of 45 auto. It's just not financially painful to keep up the hoarding.

Another problem is that many of the hoarders have an established habit that's going to be tough to break. Clerks in the stores tell me they see the same guys coming in day after day. Once people establish a habit, say visiting a store every day that you like to go to anyway, it's awfully tough to break that habit. This is especially true if there is no incentive to do so.

Another psychological problem to overcome is the thrill of the "win" when the hoarders do find ammunition. Finding .22LR has become a game for a lot of them. There's a certain feeling of satisfaction and even superiority that hits them when they manage to buy a box of ammunition when other people can't.
Can't you get your local store to order a few extra cases specifically for you?
Not really. Most of the local stores don't know what they'll get and when. Plus as soon as word gets out that they did a deal like that for one guy all the others will want the same thing and they know they won't be able to deliver.
 
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