Written by Sierra Bullets VP of Sales Matt Reams
Why Can?t I Find .22 LR Ammunition?!?!? | Sierra Bullets

Well the reason no one can find .22 LR ammo in my town, it's because theirs about a half dozen old guys who must be retired and have nothing better to do, who sit out at the Wal-Mart gun counter every single morning waiting for the restocking person to come out with a cart full of whatever ammo they have to put on the shelf.

I know for a fact that they go after the .22 LR, I was in there one morning (by coincidence, not for ammo) and out comes a woman with a cart with a case of Remington Golden Bullet 550 (or so) bulk packs. Well each of these guys grabs the maximum allowance of 3 boxes each, so even before the Wal-Mart people were able to put the ammo on the shelf that case was down to just 2 boxes! I can only imagine they both were sold withing the hour to someone else.

What I'm trying to say is people are doing this to themselves. It's a viscous circle. I'm all for being stocked up, but some people need to just relax and chill out and let the market catch back up!

First off your ability to count is bad. This ammo comes 10 to a case so if one buys the 3 box limit at a walmart three people will get 3 boxes and the fourth person gets one box. That leaves one box left not two. The real question to ask is the one you didn't ask and that is why did Walmart only get one case of 22lr. One single case of 22lr capable of only providing 4 people with ammo given their purchase limits.

Four people get ammo yet you and others blame those 4 people for the shortage. Its down right silly to blame 4 people.

What you need to be asking is: Why is Walmart only getting "ONE CASE" of 22 ammo.

I have been saying this for a very long time and getting ridiculed for it. They say it's all supply and demand but there is no supply coming through the supply lines. Like so well said above, that is the real problem and the question that needs to be answered!

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

I drove two counties over to Academy. All they had was a little bit of Federal pseudo target ammo at a really high price, with a limit of two box/50. I passed on it. The drought is ongoing.

There was an interesting write-up about this in Shotgun News.

.22LR is not profitable for ammo makers. They make it to keep the lights on. Expanding production has fixed costs they won't recoup and it takes away from more profitable ammo production.

So don't hold your breath as long as there are scads of unemployed guys who decide their "business" is reselling ammo on Craigslist and at local gun shows.

I have no beef with anyone making money by selling .22 bricks. They took the time, often waiting in line for a couple of hrs, used gas to get to a store & had the money get it. No one is forcing anyone to purchase it ( I don't). They're just vendors. That's how I look at it.

I do not know the profit margin on 22 lr, I do know that any company that would purchase space, machinery to "fix" the problem now, will be out of business when the market is finally saturated, 1-2 yrs down the road. You can not spend 1/2 million dollars to "fix" the problem now and have to turn off the unpaid machines 1-2 yrs from now. The people who planned ahead and are flush in 22 lr will weather the storm, others will have to pay the premium or go with out till the market settles. It will take time, to fill the shelves, satisfy the hoarders and take away the market from the gougers, until then whining and complaining will not help and becomes irritating. Be Safe,

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I BACK OUR BLUE

You guys aren't looking hard enough. Try Gunbroker, AmmoBot, GunBot, etc...There's plenty of .22LR out there for between .13 and .15 cents per round.

Walmart and other big box retailers are still getting either the same amount or more ammo as they always have. That case of 10 bricks used to be all that was needed for restocking purposes. Plus, there are more Walmart stores than there were, say 3 years ago. So if Walmart buys 1 million rounds a year (made that number up), they have more stores to spread that among today, vs. 2 or 3 years ago.

When I worked at Academy nearly 10 years ago, cases of .22lr would go unopened and stored behind the counter. We would get a case or two a week, and there would still be almost that available on the shelf. Now when a retailer gets a case or two for restocking, it sells out in minutes, still leaving the shelf empty.

Maybe in your area thats true but knowing gun shop owners and managers at Walmart and Academy in my area they all say the same thing. They are not getting the amount of ammo that they got in 2011 or 2012. They are as upset as we are because that is impacting their sales. Not something they are fond of.

Exactly as above, my Walmart puts out 22 ammo at 7 am and the same group of guys buy it all, every day. They must be reselling? Otherwise they would eventually have so much they wouldn't want to get down there by 7am.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

You won't see many in our community ask that question because they have bought into the myth that 4 guys at walmart are buying all of the ammo and reselling it. A myth perpetrated by the manufactures and distributors to deflect the very criticism people are holding against their fellow firearm owners .

They ignore all of the new websites that have just sprang up that happen to have pallets of 22lr ammo to sell, imagine that, yet you find nothing at your local retailers. So you end up standing in line hours before a store opens in hopes of finding some 22lr ammo. Something is just not right.

Again, individual stores may not, but the organization as a whole is... They have more stores today than in 2011 or 2012, so same amount of ammo is being divided up between more stores.

I'm sure that they also give a bigger share to their stores where the sales are higher as well.

That is too high for bulk plinking ammo... still getting mine for $.06 per round.

When it was 1/3rd that in November 2012?

You still see some deals for $20-$25 for a box of 500, they are not selling it at a loss so this is much closer to cost. This is the inexpensive plinking ammo of course. I'd pay more for Mini-Mags or Aguila Super Max since it cycles semi-autos much more consistently.

I hadn't bought any 22 ammo in a long time. But, for the past couple of months I've been really trying. On Saturdays I've been going to either an Academy (one that I know gets shipments in more often than others) right when it opens at 8am or Cabelas right when it opens at 9am. I work M-F, So Saturday is the only good day I can go. Also, the official in stock 22 thread finally worked out for me last week.

The academy, I'll actually call a few minutes after 8 to ask if they have any. If so, I'll jump in the car and drive over there and pick up 2 boxes of 50. This has worked out a few times. Cabelas doesn't always have some, but I was able to pick up a box of 300 cci mini mag hollow points a few weeks ago. And just this morning I got a 100 round box of cci standard velocity. I was about 3 minutes late and there were people lucky enough to grab a 500 round box of blazers. A guy offered to trade me as he said he had been getting a bunch lately, but I wanted the standard velocity for my mod-17. He said he'd been getting a lot of it lately, but his grandkids go through it really fast. Plus, I already had a 500 round box of blazers waiting on me thanks to the official in stock thread here.

You use this same argument at the gas station?

Where? Share?! I've only been buying .22LR for a year and I've never paid below .10 cents per round.

No. Its impossible to plat,permit,zone and construct enough stores to impact the situation given the time involved. Also manufactures are now running at full capacity which means more ammo is being produced today than 2011 and 2012. Not to mention foreign sources in the market.

Ammunition companies claim they're running 24/7 to catch up,with demand, but I suspect that only a small amount of that time is dedicated to making .22 ammo. I just think there's more profit in center fire ammo; that is their prime interest.

Cabelas.com I have a local store, so I don't pay shipping, but even with shipping I think it is still isn't that bad.

Watch the ammo thread in the 15-22 forum... Blazer bricks are available at Cabelas quite often.

I have 4 Walmarts within 5 miles of my house, with a fifth one being built. Out of the 4, 2 have been open a year or less.

They are multiplying.

As I have posted before, I worked at Academy several years ago. We would only get a case or two of .22lr in at a time. It was plenty for stocking the shelves...

There was a gentleman on the rimfirecentral forum whose Walmart manager has told him for the past year that they have not received any shipments of .22lr. One call to Walmart corporate HQ confirmed that this was not the case. Don't believe everything the counter guy tells you...

Gas is sold close to cost. We know what cost is (roughly) when some retailers sell boxes of 500 for $20-$25. When someone sells for $60 we understand he's taking advantage of supply and demand and pocketing $45 or more.

I don't disparage anyone for selling something for what they think it's worth. But since I have 3-4K in .22LR don't think I'll be in some huge rush to pay over $0.07/rnd when it, with patience, can be had for that price.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

All these comments and it's like not one of you read the article the OP posted, the article is accurate and correct and the very simple math is there yet you all ignore it....wow.......

Look, fire, try not to ruin the fun for the rest of us....

I'm stuck at work today and this thread is making it at least a little interesting.

The guys you see at Walmart weekday mornings, you'll find at the gun show Saturday morning reselling their Walmart purchase at 2X the price. It is a way to make a living. Folks that pay the gun show price keep these guys in employed.

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Randy
Provenance nerd

I never go to gun shows. Why should I pay an admission fee for the privilege of seeing what vendors are selling? Hell, they should pay me.

Lets look at some numbers for a moment. The NRA says there are over 100 million gun owners today. Lets also accept the numbers mentioned in the Sierra Bullets article. And for the sake of argument that each person shoots only 1,000 rounds a year of 22lr.

So we have:
100,000,000 gun owners

22lr production of 30 million rounds per day and based on a 365 day year with production every day of the year we end up with just under 11 billion rounds of 22lr production in a single year.

For the sake of this argument we will assume only 25% of gun owners shoot 22lr.

So we have 25 million people shooting 22lr.

25,000,000,000 (shooters) x 1000 (rounds shot per year) = 25,000,000,000,000 rounds (22lr demand)

Production is 11,000,000,000 per year

how many years @ 11 billion rounds per year of production is required to produce 1 years worth of 22lr.

25,000,000,000 / 11,000,000,000 = 2.2727273 (years)

To summarize.

yearly production of 22lr is 11 billion rounds

2.27 years of production required to meet a demand of 2 bricks per shooter per year


conclusion.

The 22lr shortage is permanent unless production increases.

I'm picking up a brick, 525 rd's, (one per customer) of Remington at Bass Pro every Sat. for $29.95.
I little high for me, but it's there every week.

Just for the heck of it, I looked at gun broker. Lots of ammo for sale most of it two or three times retail. Not many bidders.

Back to the original post, thanks for posting that. Seeing those numbers really puts it in perspective, and I can understand why I can't find any.

What I'd like to know is why the quality control has gone south like it has. I have never in my life had a misfire with a .22 round until the other day, and I've been shooting for 60'years. The guys I was shooting with were having problems, too, with three different brands of ammo.

About twoor so weeks ago, I met an older guy at WM who was openly bragging at havig at least 50,000 22lr in his grage and about 30,000 of 9mm and many thousaands in other calibers. that guy alsohas a newish gun shop on Carona street here in town. Last severaltimes I went passed it-not a custome in the parkinglot. Anyway, I thinkpeople are figuring himout here in the area but--ill bet he's making the money to stay open--by selling online. He recently went around town buying all the bulk packsof 45 he could find--3 boxes per visit whereever he went.

WM,again has the 100 round 45 packs in and seem to be staying on the shelves a bi longer-or that guy must be running out of funds? I could care lesswither way. Im geting my ONE box per visit most of the time.Icould buy more but dont.

I willnot.

The only ones ill buy ammo from at gun shows-are the ones who sell for normal prices-and yep--one or two do exist.

Funny you should mention 45acp. When I was lookng at the ammo, I noticed a pretty good selection of 45acp. A cute woman was looking at it for her significant other.
They had Winchester white box, CCI and Blazer. Blazer was $2 cheaper than the other two. I told I probably preferred the Winchester. That's what she bought.
I know what you're thinking! Would I have given advice to a woman not so cute? Absolutely! I would have told her to wait in the truck.

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You guys need to get out more often...I've bought dozens of cartons of 22LR ammo and several cases of CCI mini mags over the last 6 months, at between $22 and $40 a carton, but not one cent spent at the Wal of China Mart.
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Drop the Wal of China Mart, Shop the USA, and Save the American Dream.

Kingofcoins: Where???

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I BACK OUR BLUE

Me two. Where? Inquiring minds want to know.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I haven't seen any here in Virginia for a long, long time. I did score on a trip to upstate New York about six months ago. Right up next to the Canadian border, stopped in a Walmart for some other stuff. Expecting to be disappointed as usual, I was shocked to find multiple boxes of the 550 ammo on the shelves. No limit. As I took every box they had (6), another gent came for a look and saw I had grabbed the last one. I thought he was going to collapse and cry, so I decided to 'pay it forward' and split them with the guy. Win for both of us.

On another note, I did hear from a highly placed senior official here in Washinton (no name) that our .22's are actually going to the Syrian Rebels. Must be true. To here him tell it, the absence of .22's are actually a political compromise by our folks on Capital Hill. This way, we can honestly say that we are sending support to those opposed to the Dictatorship; and we can also tell those aligned with the regime that we are not sending ANY sophisticated, state-of-the art weapon systems to the Rebels. That makes the Iranians and Russians happy, keeps Bloomberg, Schumer and Pelosi happy (November elections just around the corner), and keeps those firearm nuts in the US from stockpiling palates worth of .22's. I mean c'mon, how many squirrels or tin cans are there to shoot?

We all need to live on less ammo. History will tell us that George Custer went to the Little Big Horn with single shot Trap-Doors so that his trigger happy troops would not waste ammo by frivolously shooting that anything that moved. That strategy apparently worked for him, although I never read his after action report......

You were prepared to buy every box of .22 you saw on a shelf, yet assert that a foreign country has a part to play in the shortage ?

Hoooo- kaaay.

Preppers
Hoarders
Resellers
Unemployed
Gougers

I've heard it all. Now I can finally add:

Whiners
Complainers
People that planned ahead

I'd rather see a guy up early, standing in line, and buying three boxes of ammo than him trying to rob, steal, or plunder.

Hunters
Shooters
Trainers

Such is life. Go stand in line a couple of hours a few days. You might meet some of the above. Might even make a friend or two that will try to help you find ammo.

I don't believe .22 ammo is being shipped to the stores in the normal
pre frenzy quantities. I don't know where it's going. One store clerk
told me he thought it was going to China. China? Why? A Wal Mart
clerk told me they got one brick in about a month's time. Their limit is
one 50 rd box per customer. He said the brick lasted about 30 min.
I'm not likely to run out any time soon, not from being a hoarder, I
just bought whenever I was in a store and saw a good price. I haven't
bought one box of .22s for several years. I shoot a few ocasionally
but I intend to make mine last until things loosen up. I don't
understand why people burn through their stash and then complain
about not having any.

Must be BS. Of course there is "no name."

There are more shooters in America than ever before. Cost of copper and brass has been going up for years. When people do shoot .22R in many cases is is through guns like the M&P 22 with high-cap magazines. The Democrats are in office. There have been horrific and hugely publicized mass murders with every reason to expect more. We are engaged in asymmetrical warfare with an unconventional enemy who would rather kill our innocents than our warriors in order to maximize the emotional effect of their efforts, causing more attention to be paid to security training among police and other agencies. Perfect storm.

When an affordable means of conducting realistic training and recreational shooting is invented that will let the average shooter practice without live ammunition the shortage will be over.

And don't pay scalper prices.

Don't believe everything you hear from a Walmart clerk. Last night, one tried to tell me that it was federal law that a manager had to inventory and sign the delivery when it came off the truck, and then the sporting goods manager had to inventory and sign off again when they brought it out to the floor the next morning. Sounds like a good process to make sure what comes off the truck makes it to the floor, but it isn't federal law.

Look up his store and you can tell when it is coming in.

The thing that bothers me the most is that new gun owners are not learning how it really is, and I'm sure many potential new owners are turned off by the fact that stuff is expensive and they aren't hip to what's actually going on.

But yet, you don't list what state your in--which MIGHT help

Blame everything and everyone Find out where and when and be there when they open if they have it you will have it. I have plenty and can get more if I need it. Dicks sporting goods gets deliveries on Thursdays I call Wednesday night and the salesperson will let me know what is on the manifest for the next delivery, be there at 9am and pick em up got 555 pack of goldens last week for 25.00 100 rds. Mini mags the week before they limit to one per customer , but that's ok with me, gives everybody a fair chance

22LR is an obsolete cartridge as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to give my MKII to a young guy I know who doesn't have anything to shoot and thoroughly enjoys the sport.

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That's just somebody talkin.

I'm in the 'land of taxes'....PA....besides the stores and gunshops I shop at gunshows each weekend.

I'm not sure of any of the answers/reasons I have read here, could be true but some doubt remains. If Wally world sends more to their High Volume Stores (High Volume? they sell all they get anyway) doesn't make sense to me. Then although I have not experienced and decrease in quality I continue to read about more ftf and filthy ammo coming out of the 24/7 factories. There have also been "Stories" about the Wally World employees actually purchasing and reselling the ammo them selves in stead of putting it out for sale, who do we believe? If waiting for things to settle down helps I'm subscribed to that idea, just not sure I'll live long enough to enjoy a resurgence of supply.

"There are more shooters in America than ever before". Now the trick is to get them to VOTE intelligently?

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198