I stopped by a gun store I hadn’t been to and they happened to have a .22 rifle that I’ve had my eye on for a while. I asked the guy if they had ammo for it and he said they didn’t have any in store but if I bought the gun he could get me a brick (500 rounds). I happen to have a pretty good stash of .22 but I knew there were people buying all available .22 rounds and making it hard to find. A few months ago I had heard that the situation was improving but apparently not. The price for the brick this guy could get me was 50 bucks which is about double what it was before the “shortage”.
Is this the new normal? Is it going to last until we get a Republican president again?
WTF?
I bought the gun because I wanted it and it was Friday, and I felt like it should be New Gun Day. I brought the brick too because it’s my preferred brand, CCI, and my stash of that is low.
It’s weird here. We have some stores that always have it, but it’s pretty expensive. $60-$80 for 500 round bricks. Other stores sell it for $45-$50 and are always out. Makes sense that the cheaper stores would sell out faster, but it seems like if there was a real shortage, all the stores would be sold out or all the stores would be charging a premium.
Oh, and I can never find CCI. Ever. The cheaper stores carry Remington and the more expensive ones carry American Eagle by Federal.
One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is that most 22’s sold have big clips. I learned to shoot using a single shot 22, but young people today all want something that shoots fast, reloads fast. A afternoon plinking session was maybe 50 rounds for my brother and I. My nephew has a modified Ruger 10-22, and he ripped off about 1000 rounds last time he was here. I think the big thing is that the price increased quickly, and hasn’t gone down. The shortage isn’t just 22, but cheap 22.
I have no idea, so I’ll take you off on a tangent. Why is CCI your favorite brand? Is it just price, or other factors? Like, does it fly straighter or something?
I find it to be more accurate and fewer misfires. It has been the hardest to find so I think others share my opinion. The last few bricks I bought were Remington “Golden” and I have had a lot of misfires, which to me means the firing pin strikes the cartridge rim and the round does not fire.
CCI is a better round than the Remington. Larger calibers of Remington seem fine, but the Golden is a pretty dirty round. I see a lot of shavings from the bullet in my rifle, it might make a semi misfire.
CCI and American Eagle by Federal tend to be much cleaner than Remington and a lot few misfires. CCI is what my dad always used. I found a bunch that had been sitting in storage for probably 25 years. Took to the range. Not a single misfire.
must be. the panic buying of .22LR started a couple of years ago and hasn’t let up. haven’t seen a definitive explanation. it’s fucking stupid because of all of the calibers likely to be banned, .22LR would be at the bottom of the list. if idiot preppers are still gobbling all of this up then they’re as dumb as they seem.
Any misfires at all are too many.
With the Remingtons I get maybe one misfire out of every 50-75 rounds I guess. If I rechamber the misfired round it usually fires the second time.
This is in more than one gun. I have quite a few .22s so it’s not that it’s a firing pin spring problem.
Well I can say the recent rise in CCW licenses has created a market for mini-.380’s and that has driven up the price above that of 9mm ammo. That’s increasing demand outstripping supply. Fortunately these guns are not fun to fire so nobody is going to rip through 1000 rounds at the range.
Same around here. Now there are a few places over in Ohio with good prices and availability but I’m not interested in stocking up (still have 4 or 5 525 round boxes and shoot mostly single shot) enough to justify the drive. Once the weather turns nice though -------
PS – some “odd” calibers are still really tough too. 8mm Mauser and .30-40 Krag are much harder to find now than say 2 years back. And you do NOT want to need any .30 Luger. Mail order, sure – but you’re going to pay.
Yeah, I have a Ruger Mini-14 that is chambered for .222. It is very hard to find, and when I ask for it, the guys always chuckle and say, “Oh, you mean .223.” I have to explain that my rifle is an early one and was designed for sale in countries which prohibit firearms that chamber military cartridges. Then they take me seriously and tell me the don’t have any. I have one shop I go to that does carry it. It’s expensive, but at least I can get it.
Southern seacoastal Maine here, the shortage has been going strong for nearly four years now, it seems to go in cycles, there’ll be a drought of ammo for an extended timeframe, then the stores will have available inventory for a few days to a week, then back to nothing…
I live a short 10 minute drive from Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine, they’re my primary toy store, they haven’t had cheap bulk or bricks in at least 3 months, the only .22 LR they have decent quantities of is Eley Target, but at an asking price of $9 for a 50 round box, it has barely sold
I have no interest in it at that price, I could get a 100 round box of CCI Minimags for around $8, when they have them in stock
Thankfully, I have a decent stash of .22 already, and I tend to use my Benjamin 392 multipump .22 pellet rifle for recreational plinking anyway
Remington makes fine centerfire, shit rimfire ammo. But I’d take some if I can find it. I might be more successful if I wanted to camp out at 8 am, but I don’t. The larger/chain stores don’t gouge you on price; they just run out quickly. I’d like some Federal blue/red box. .22 is easy to find if you don’t mind .22 Short or snake shot.
The shortage has nothing to do with any potential bans. Maybe initially, people bought it because it was cheaper and they couldn’t find another caliber. But now it’s self-sustaining, and people who want .22 have to buy it from limited supply and production; you can’t (reliably) reload it.
Stopped in to KTP this afternoon, that overpriced Eley Target is now gone, the only rimfire left was a single box of CCI .22 mag shotshells (useless for anything but mice/rats at nearly point blank range) and a few meager boxes of .17 HMR
Thank Og for my stash of .22 rimfire ammo, and for my .22 pellet rifle, the shortage hasn’t affected pellets, yet, the fewer that know the fun of plinking with a good air rifle the better…
…I trust my fellow Dopers can keep a secret on that fact, right;)