So why is .22 ammo so plentiful again?
 

I don’t really know why it dried up a few years ago. I wasn’t into rimfire back then.

I love how it’s everywhere again. I didn’t hoard when it was hard to get. Thank goodness, i would probably own a bunch of crap bulk ammo like my friends. I have one box of bulk now. The rest are decent rounds. Mostly CCI stuff I’m experimenting with for the best accuracy from my guns. Nothing against cheap bulk, but at the time it wasn’t so cheap.

So the companies ramp up or what?

The Obama era panic is over. Manufacturers were at peak capacity in those days, running their plants 24/7/365. Massive overtime for employees. Now, they have actually scaled back. Laying people off. There is a real glut right now. Some may even go out of business.

I'm starting to see the Obama era hoarders, with a garage full of .22 ammo, starting to try to unload it at the gun shows. The same guys who were trying to sell us bricks of bulk ammo, at the peak of the shortage they were so instrumental in causing, at over $70 per brick. Problem is, we all remember who was doing that, and are buying from the honest retailers instead. I bet by this summer the hoarders are desperately trying to unload, and prices will fall through the floor. I just feel sorry for the "good guys" in all of this. The hoarders? Hell, I hope they all die in house fires when their garages full of .22 ammo ignite...

So what is the line on a 500 round brick. Or for a 5000 round case?

I just bought 930 rounds of Portugese 8mm mauser target for 580 plus 60 shipping. About .69 cents a round. I bought it because it is Non corrosive and is generally thought of as good stuff. I have 3 hungry mausers to feed.

A 98 Gew. A 98 AZ Kar and a 1934 banner 98k. Each has a unique history that makes it more than run of the mill.

Now I need 303.

Jeff,

I am one of the pre-Obama era hoarders. When I returned CONUS end of 04 I bought 100 case each Aguila and Wolf Match at $94.00 and $131.00 per case delivered. I have an adequate supply as I only sold some to relatively close friends.

In the late 90s went in a large bulk buy of Hirtenberger primed brass in plastic battle pacs at $17.00 per thousand, this is getting low and I should have bought more.

S/F, FOG

Around here, the lack of .22 on the shelves was a self-inflicted shortage driven by profit motives, fear, and sheeple. For years, .22 was gobbled up as soon as it hit the shelves...social media, I dunno? Then when it began staying on the shelves a day or so, I observed blatent "availbility manipulation" by the big boyz on their shelves day-to-day...there was no shortage then (even CCI), just manipulated. Meantime...all of us boiled frogs have gotten used to the new prices...follow the money :(

I haven’t seen 22 in stores for so long, I stopped looking.

I did just buy 5250 rounds from bulk ammo. Decent pricing. Should last me a long time.

I was an ammo hoarder. Now I just go shoot a lot and don't worry about ammo costs. You can never have too much. I do have some leftover 9x18 I forgot to sell with my Makarov. I guess I'll just buy another one and shoot that ammo off.

$260 w free shipping for 5000 CCI SV

Too bad I can’t take advantage of it. That would set me for a long time. Years I bet.

FOG, there is a big, big difference as far as I am concerned between what you did and the shameless profiteers. Buying for your own use is one thing, buying just so they can sell it for five times what they paid is another. Nothing wrong with what you did. Many of buy in large quantities to get discounts.

Like I said, we are now seeing these guys sheepishly trying to sell at the gun shows. They snatched up far more than they and their friends could ever use in a lifetime or several. We're talking pallets of the stuff. They would brag about that at the gun show. I just hope they are stuck with it, and have to eat the tens of thousands of dollars they "invested".

Many of these guys are gun store owners, who were snagging it further up the supply chain, making sure it didn't even make it to their own shelves. They sat on inventory to help drive prices up, and far more inventory than they would normally have on hand. Shameless opportunists.

I'd like to find a big amount of some decent (non-jamming) .22 ammo. My wife bought me a .22 conversion kit for my AR15, and haven't tried it out yet.

This is the beauty of capitalism. They tried to manipulate the market. They bought a good (.22LR) at increasingly high prices to keep it off the market. Now they want to get their money back, and the market is flooded and it won't sell at the high prices they bought at. I'm looking forward to $4 gun show bricks. ;)

I could never figure out where the ammo was going during the shortage.
The stores I talked to were barely receiving any, and when they did receive it, they generally limited customers to 1 box.
Where were the hoarders getting it?
My previous standard bulk ammo, Remington Golden Bullet .22, was nowhere to be found for years.

My goto has always been CCI, though I don't shoot a lot by comparison to some. I didn't see any at all for 6-7 years...

The big hoarders were getting it at the wholesale level. Many were gun shop owners. The gun shop owners that I know personally told me that the wholesalers didn't really put any limits on quantities, and the retailers that were quick on the draw just ordered far more than they needed, in addition to private parties jumping in line. Prior to that is was more of a "gentlemen's agreement" that no one was ordering more than they could actually sell. That went right out the window when opportunity knocked. The owners I know were as frustrated as we were, because not only did they have nothing to sell, they couldn't shoot either.

Local Wal-mart in my area has lots of .22 I just bought 2K rounds. Academy sports has plenty on the shelf as well as the local gun stores.

Dave

I was told the military was getting the lions share for target practice..22LR probably quite a bit less than .223

Jeff,

I didn’t follow the retailers dealings as I usually order ammunition/components.

A local dealer (via the brother in law of a good friend) found out I had a supply of good .22lr and contacted me with an offer. His offer was $800.00 per case for up to ten cases of each type. I told him I bought the stuff for my own use and gave him a counter offer of $600.00 per case for the amount but he replace it within five years with the same or pay an additional $400.00 per case putting the deal on a notarized document. He declined.

S/F, FOG