has there been a problem with this such that it requires action?
a lot of the things you mention could easily be damaged just as much by almost any centerfire rifle cartridge.
It’s laughable for anyone to try and deflect criticism of democratic/liberal politicians when it comes to gun rights. I understand that it must be discomforting for liberals and/or democrats who support gun rights and the second amendment, while justifying voting for most democrats. It is disingenuous to not accept that it’s the democrats, by and large, who keep pushing gun control laws, including “assault” weapon bans, magazine limits, waiting periods and other preposterous ideas. And it’s also disingenuous to try and pretend that Obama and Holder are exempt from criticism on this front.
You can look at NRA and GOA ratings of politicians. While both gun rights groups give positive ratings to some democrats, and poor ratings to some republicans, the overall pattern is quite obvious.
This is not a thread about gun rights and I for one would appreciate it if the people who want to rehash that for the 9,893,289,286,117th time on the dope would piss off and take it somewhere else.
Irrelavent argument, any centerfire cartridge has the capability to punch through barriers, for example;
I can EASILY shoot through a steel tire rim with a “ballistic tip” .223 varmint cartridge in my AR, and the bullet is designed to expand/disintegrate when it hits the target, same results with M193 ball (standard non-AP ammo), and 69 grain MatchKing target bullets for precision bullseye shooting
I have a reduced/subsonic load for my AR, consisting of a small amount of FWB Trail Boss powder (a low pressure powder for recreational shooting) under a 38 grain Barnes Varmint Grenade bullet, a light, frangible round designed to disintegrate on impact, and that load will still punch clear through a standard 3.5" computer hard drive, it destructs in the process, but it still goes clean through
I have a similar subsonic .30-06 load with Trail Boss and a 160 grain soft point, it’ll clear at least THREE hard drives, and that’s a round that has the noise and recoil of a humble .22 Magnum
None of the rounds I mentioned are AP, and my handloads were deliberately designed to be light plinking rounds and to be enjoyable to shoot
Singling out one particular cartridge load because it “scares” the uninitiated is illogical and irrelavent, but then again, the “antis” in power have never been enamoured of the truth or facts.
Sorry for the hijack, I’ll drop this tangent now
Okay, to get back on track here, my last large, meaning 500 rounds or more, purchases of ammo were;
6 months ago, a brick (500 rounds) of CCI Standard Velocity, and a “bucket” (1400 rounds) of Remington Golden Cra…err … Bullets, normally I avoid RGB and other Remington .22LR, as none of my guns really like them, but it’s better than nothing, and it allows me to get trigger time without dipping into my stash of better ammo
…however, what’s been getting the most trigger time as of late?
MyBenjamin 392 .22 pellet rifle, since it’s a single shot bolt action multipump, it forces the shooter to make every shot count, as it takes anywhere from 1-8 pumps to recharge between shots
1-2 pumps are great for short range indoor plinking, at 1 pump it’s nearly silent
3-6 pumps are good for average plinking
7-8 pumps are for when I need to put down a varmint in the chicken yard (yes, a rat)
A 250-300 count tin of pellets is under $10, and 500 count tins are around $12, either will fit in a pocket unobtrusively
And since the pumping force is 35lbs per pump, I also get an upper-body workout 
And best of all, in many (most) states, airguns are not considered “firearms” and can be sold over the counter, no need to fill out Federal Form 4473 or go through a NICS background check.
I have a Benjamin 392 and yes, it is a useful and enjoyable gun. I also have a couple spring piston rifles and a CO2 gun.
No shortage of pellets either, heck, I have around 2,000 pellets of varying types and weights in various tins.
My current favorites are RWS Meisterkugeln (flat-headed wadcutter pellet, cuts a perfect, clean .22 hole through the target paper) and Predator Polymag pellets for vermin elimination duties.
The Polymags look gimmicky with that red polymer point in the hollow point cup, but that polymer tip makes the pellet mushroom on impact far more effectively in lower powered airguns like the 392
At my other house I have a little indoor range for shooting air guns. I liked shooting low powered .22 rim fire as well. I used CB shorts or regular shorts. Now with this “shortage” the manufacturers appear to have taken all those rounds out of production in favor of .22LR which is much, much more in demand. I’ve seen some subsonic .22LR but no short or CB rounds.
If you give it a little bit of thought, you will realize that the last “Republican” president that was elected “delivered” to the American people: 1) The worst incident of domestic terrorism in our nation’s history (9/11), followed immediately by 2) forcing the Patriot Act through congress to “safeguard” our security (it took away many of our most important constitutional rights including the right to be charged with a crime when arrested and a speedy trial. Now people languish in jail for YEARS and are never charged with a crime!), and 3) at the end of his term in office he crashed our national economy (2007).
If you would respond that they were just “bad things” that happened to him while he was in office, then you have a lot of reading to do about how politics work. But you would be correct if you said he didn’t do it alone. A lot of whistle blowers were murdered after 9/11 when they came forward to disclose how 9/11 was pulled off, but since Bush left office, many insiders and others have stepped forward to fill in the missing pieces of the conspiracy. Two educational videos on Youtube: “9/11 Documentary -The Birth of Treason” and “9/11 Methodical Illusion -Airline Flight Attendant Reveals What Really Happened On 9/11”.
If you have a really strong stomach, you should Google this: “Thanks_for_the_Memories.pdf”. It will probably forever alter your understanding of what has really been going on in the U.S. for the last 50+ years.
“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.”
― Patrick Henry
Ah, I see Alex Jones has finally signed up! 
There is no shortage of .22LR. There’s plenty of it out there. The price has simply gone up.
The situation around here has improved somewhat since I started this thread. I still can’t find “premium” .22lr in stores around here but “standard velocity” non-jacketed ammo is usually available. Federal brand ammo seems to be the most common, priced around 25 bucks for a box of 325.
Yeah… some gun-enthusiast friends of mine were posting on Facebook yesterday about some sales on 22LR bricks locally, and where they were, when you need to line up, and what the store’s limit is.
So definitely still a thing, which is just dumb. Since there aren’t any economic troubles or any particularly recent or pending gun legislation or events to drive the paranoia, I’m starting to wonder if the manufacturers are somehow manipulating the market a bit; there’s no reason I’m aware of why CCI, Federal, Remington, Winchester, Eley, et al shouldn’t be flooding the market with tens of millions of rounds of 22LR, albeit higher-priced than what we’re used to; AFAIK there aren’t any serious raw material shortages- if there were, I’d think we’d have felt the bind earlier and somewhere other than small caliber recreational ammunition.
I have a couple friends and family members who work at Federal Cartridge in Anoka, MN. They have said all the overtime and extra lines in the world won’t catch them up anytime soon. It’s the oddest thing.
As another purely anecdotal data point - over the past 2-3 years, my local gun store was only on rare occasions getting shipments of .22 LR. They’d send out an email, usually with a 2-4 brick limit, and within 3 hours send another email that it had all sold out. Last week, they sent an email, and when I called them a day later, they shockingly said they still had plenty left. So the “shortage” is definitely slowing down here in MA.
Its getting better around here but its still a bit of a thing. Everyone has some sort of limit and if you have a specific brand/load preference you better be doing the online stuff a lot. If you count on walking into a couple shops be prepared to make it a couple shops, bigger box stores at that, and be willing to take whatever they got. The last I bought was this CCI “Swamp People” stuff at like $35 for 300 rounds.
I’m just a curious observer here, but… is there any remotely rational explanation for why there’s a shortage of .22, but not .38, .45, or whatever calibers actually go into the guns that people use for self defense, hunting, and stuff OTHER than plinking aluminum cans and target shooting?
If we assume it all started with paranoia about Obama coming for our guns, why wouldn’t we assume he was coming for the ammo that can most easily actually kill people?
There are more .22 rim fire weapons out there than any other caliber. It is a relatively cheap round that can be used for taking small game and in extreme circumstances, as a self defense round, though it is far from ideal for that purpose. A .22 or will definitely kill person.
There are some in the survivalist/prepper community that feel that after the collapse of society, 22lr will be most in demand because of the number of guns out there in that caliber and because of it’s utility value. They think .22lr will be like currency. Not saying I agree with that but that kind of thinking is out there.
The other aspect to increased demand is the appearance of AR-style .22LR rifles, both as a compliment to AR-15 rifles and on their own. Many people who bought AR rifles quickly discovered how expensive feeding them can be, and then bought AR-style 22 rifles to practice with. Or, people who are not sure about buying an AR have bought AR-style 22s to test the water. No matter what, millions of AR 22s have been bought recently, and a shooter can go through hundreds of rounds very quickly.
I got in the habit of buying .22lr anytime I came across it at whatever store I may be in when the “shortage” started. I would just put it in my ammo locker and forget about it. About a month or so ago I went to get in some range time with my carry weapon. I had to move 32 hundred round boxes of the .22lr to get to a box of my range ammo for my carry piece.
And out of habit when I was in Wal-Mart last week I bought another hundred round box.