New thread on 22 ammo prices

[ajgunner]

Note that this advertisement is for a sale price from June of 1981.



And to help put this into perspective another advertisement from same place for a Ruger 10-22.

 

[Sevens]

Federal Lightning was my preferred rimfire from the summer of 1988 through the summer of 1990 and I bought it almost exclusively from K-Mart. $9.99 per brick was my target price. When it was $9.99, I was a buyer.

 

[robertrwalsh]

I used to get Blazer .22 at Big 5 for approx $13 a brick. That has been a while. Maybe ten years.

 

[cmj8591]

That box of bullets from 1981 adjusted for inflation is worth about $35 in today's money.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

I found a few boxes of American Eagle 40gr that I purchased around 2000-2003. The pricetag said $1.49 for 50 rounds, which is right in the ballpark of that stuff from 1981.
This raises an important point about prices. Inflation isn't the whole answer. It may have become cheaper to manufacture 22lr in those 20 years. That Ruger 10/22 was certainly a bargain by today's standards. I bought a 10/22 around 2002 and it cost almost exactly the same in 2019 before the panic started. In that case, there was very little inflation over that 18 year period and very modest growth in wages. I bet Ruger found ways to make the same rifle cheaper to counteract increases in production costs, or maybe their margins went up.