Why Can’t I Find .22 LR Ammunition?!?!?

[ladyT]

If one is to horde 22lr than there has to be 22lr available and its not. Very little is showing up at the retail level to purchase so how does one horde it.

Facts people ignore.

When we introduce people to the sport we start them off with 22lr.

When we take our children and grandchildren out to shoot we start them with 22lr.

Given the 22lr production numbers and running 24/7/365 it would take 2.2 years to provide 2 bricks of ammo to 25 million gun owners. That's less than a quarter of the 100 plus million gun owners. That is why there is no 22lr.

Now many complain about people showing up with family to purchase ammo. Well guess what. Companies are doing the same thing. They are setting up multiple web sites that appear to distributors as individual companies but they are not.

One should expect such occurrences when a product is in limited supply and when limits are in place from the top to the bottom. Yet people choose to ignore facts and place blame on their fellow gun owners.

 

[jmmitc06]

If one is to horde 22lr than there has to be 22lr available and its not. Very little is showing up at the retail level to purchase so how does one horde it.

The question would be what is meant by hoarding. By hoarding I would say keep a stockpile of 22lr that is larger than it was prior to the craze. If everyone before was keeping 2 boxes and now keeps 3 that's what is meant by the term as well as the people with 100 or a 1000 boxes. Nothing wrong with that but given that roughly 3.6 billlion rounds of 22lr are produced per year that comes out to 36 rounds per gun owner. So even if only 10% actively seek out 22lr that allows 360 per gun owner. Every box that's bought that would not have been purchased under equilibrium market conditions results in one less box available for everyone else and if every gun owner now keeps 1 extra brick, you have to have 100million more bricks of 22lr. So this is a real contributor to the issue I believe once everyone gets their extra brick, it should be fine if the rate of 22lr use is less than or equal to 22lr production.

The other factors mentioned are relatively the same before and after the craze, families shot 22lr before the craze, we introduced new shooters with 22lr before the craze, etc. But I think it's clear that the demand for ammo has increased, when you do this without increasing price the supply will become insufficient. So in all honesty if we were all to buy the same amount as before the craze most likely the issue would resolve itself but that's easier said than done. Add on to that finding it in stock in the store is stochastic. It's random whether a store will have it or not have it at a given time, always has been, but when you add people sitting out at 8 in the morning it makes the chances even lower when they buy 80% of it. It's an issue with the distribution of supply combined with demand, it may appear that there is less available, that less is making it to the store but with the absence of proof to the contrary, Occam's razer says that the behavior we see occurring is the cause.

Really, I would prefer federal and them just raise prices to put the market back into equilibrium than enforce de facto price ceilings. It may be unpleasant but that's how the market is supposed to work, this is the same phenomenon as seen with rent control apartment in NY, demand so exceeds supply that they are impossible to find. They are there, supply is unchanged but demand increases.

 

[Sprefix]

I scored!!!

I just got 4950 rounds of .22 ammo-------550 rounds is .22 shorts.....for $200.00. Seems an older woman passed and her partner (the much more liberal but submissive of the couple) couldn't stand guns and ammo and had a few locals come clean the place out after the partners passing. They looted the place and what I got is just the dribblings along with some '06 ammo, .38-.357 ammo, and a small cargo ship worth of .243 Rem ammo. Anyhow.....been a long dry spell for me and buying.....guess this made up for it!! I'm back up to a decent amount of .22 ammo now.........My emergency stash number is 15,000 rounds.......guess I can go shoot my K22 Outdoorsman now!! Woopee!!!

 

[Boge]

"The industry as a whole (all manufacturers combined) is setup to produce 4,200,000,000 (4.2 Billions) .22 LR annually...

That corresponds to 230,137 cartridge per State per day, which is 460 bricks of 500 .22lr per day per State. That means that if less than 50 people per day in each State are buying 10 bricks of .22, it is enough to dry up the entire supply as it is being manufactured.”

This Whole Ammo Shortage Thing by the Numbers

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I was a hoarder before hoarding was cool.

Just ordered another two bricks of Aguila from Midway today. With coupon it was nearly free shipping.

 

[Budnjax]

I started buying .22 ammo as soon as Obama won election

and stored-away a lot of it, anticipating this shortage. I'm not sure why there's so little .22 for sale at a reasonable price, however some survivalist friends of mine tell me they have been buying up all they could for a long time. Seems as though they figure that when the government collapses and your paper money is worth nothing....bricks of .22 ammo will be a good medium of exchange. Makes sense to me....that may be where a lot of the production is going today.....

 

[ladyT]

The question would be what is meant by hoarding. By hoarding I would say keep a stockpile of 22lr that is larger than it was prior to the craze. If everyone before was keeping 2 boxes and now keeps 3 that's what is meant by the term as well as the people with 100 or a 1000 boxes. Nothing wrong with that but given that roughly 3.6 billlion rounds of 22lr are produced per year that comes out to 36 rounds per gun owner. So even if only 10% actively seek out 22lr that allows 360 per gun owner. Every box that's bought that would not have been purchased under equilibrium market conditions results in one less box available for everyone else and if every gun owner now keeps 1 extra brick, you have to have 100million more bricks of 22lr. So this is a real contributor to the issue I believe once everyone gets their extra brick, it should be fine if the rate of 22lr use is less than or equal to 22lr production.

The other factors mentioned are relatively the same before and after the craze, families shot 22lr before the craze, we introduced new shooters with 22lr before the craze, etc. But I think it's clear that the demand for ammo has increased, when you do this without increasing price the supply will become insufficient. So in all honesty if we were all to buy the same amount as before the craze most likely the issue would resolve itself but that's easier said than done. Add on to that finding it in stock in the store is stochastic. It's random whether a store will have it or not have it at a given time, always has been, but when you add people sitting out at 8 in the morning it makes the chances even lower when they buy 80% of it. It's an issue with the distribution of supply combined with demand, it may appear that there is less available, that less is making it to the store but with the absence of proof to the contrary, Occam's razer says that the behavior we see occurring is the cause.

Really, I would prefer federal and them just raise prices to put the market back into equilibrium than enforce de facto price ceilings. It may be unpleasant but that's how the market is supposed to work, this is the same phenomenon as seen with rent control apartment in NY, demand so exceeds supply that they are impossible to find. They are there, supply is unchanged but demand increases.

The thing is we have increased our numbers by over 20 million and have done so basically overnight as far as the manufactures are concerned. As far as prices go about the only people who have kept ammo at a reasonable price are retail firms like Academy, Walmart and most of the big retailers. Prices have gone through the roof everywhere else. OF course product is severely limited at places like Academy, Walmart and the others but you can get whatever you want elsewhere at ridiculous prices such as $250 for Remington buckets.

Those retail shops understand how their customers will react if they matched the ridiculous prices you find elsewhere. I doubt they are willing to chance their reactions.

As far as what is showing up I can tell you what I'm seeing at my local Academy. Academy has limits on purchases. Boxes of 300 rounds or more are limited to 1 per day. Anything less than 300 rounds you are allowed to purchase two boxes per day.

Lately we have been living large as on delivery day a full case of 5,000 has been showing up. So thats 2 boxes of 50 of what ever brand comes in. Definitely no way to build a stash that's for sure but with a little luck and catching some 22lr online its possible to put a small stash together.

As far as productions numbers Sierra Bullets Vice-President of Sales Matt Reams has put the daily production of 22lr based in industry info at 25-30 million rounds a day.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Nothing sells ammo better than a new gun. All those tactical .22s that have been the craze for the last few years, particularly during the panic, are stacking up like cord wood around here. I wouldn't be surprised to see availability start coming back before too long.

 

[scattershot]

Ijust found Aguila subsonic .22 ammo,at Midway. It was $39.95 a brick, which is not too bad these days, I guess, but by the time you pay shipping it works out to about $6.00 a box, and I can reload .38s for that.

Hopefully, things will return to what passes for normal soon!

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Ijust found Aguila subsonic .22 ammo,at Midway. It was $39.95 a brick, which is not too bad these days, I guess, but by the time you pay shipping it works out to about $6.00 a box, and I can reload .38s for that.

Hopefully, things will return to what passes for normal soon!

Use the $10 off code NRASHOW2.

I bought one subsonic brick and one HV brick of Aguila from Midway yesterday on one order. The code knocked out the shipping.

 

[scattershot]

Thank you! I just ordered a brick. It still hurts, considering that a brick used to cost under $10, but at least I have some ammo now. Thanks again.

 

[ladyT]

Nothing sells ammo better than a new gun. All those tactical .22s that have been the craze for the last few years, particularly during the panic, are stacking up like cord wood around here. I wouldn't be surprised to see availability start coming back before too long.

Probably the same time I can buy gas again for 19 cents a gallon.

 

[scattershot]

Either the price of ammo will come down, or there will be some stellar buys out there on tactical 22s.

 

[ladyT]

Ammo is not going down in price.

 

[scattershot]

I'm afraid you're right. I have seen the same thing with primers, powder, ammo, brass, toilet paper, sugar, gasoline, etc. The shortage will gradually ease, but prices will never get back to pre-panic levels.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Ammo is not going down in price.

It's actually going up at some big box stores. Earlier today Cabela's was advertising Rem GB for $8/100 ... and they are now sold out.

The end of Feb this year I bought two bricks of Rem GB from Cabela's for $23.99. That's quite a jump for a big box retailer which have generally been keeping prices down below the stratosphere.

 

[Dezfan]

Just another reason to be a "hoarder".

I'm thinking of selling a large quanity of my 22LR cache to a LGS for twice what I paid for it and use the funds to purchase more ammo for my AKs.

I'll still have a sizable amount of 22LR set back to use, but as of late I find myself shooting less and less 22LR so I see this as an opportunity and take advantage of this insanity.

Eventually, the price of 22LR will reach a point that people will not be willing to pay it, prices will hopefully begin to decline, and perhaps then I'll rebuild my "hoard" of 22LR again.

 

[ladyT]

It's actually going up at some big box stores. Earlier today Cabela's was advertising Rem GB for $8/100 ... and they are now sold out.

The end of Feb this year I bought two bricks of Rem GB from Cabela's for $23.99. That's quite a jump for a big box retailer which have generally been keeping prices down below the stratosphere.

Yea it keeps going up. The 525 count boxes of Rem are at $23.99, the Federal auto match 325 count is $17.99 and the CCI 300 count 36grHP is $23.99 at my local Academy. Of course the CCI 300 count boxes is the first bulk CCI we've seen in the last year.

 

[SW01SS]

There was a Bass Pro in my area that has had steady supply of .22lr in stock every time I've gone for a while now and it was awesome... However my last 3 trips out there they haven't had any... It's depressing.

 

[shakyshoot]

It's actually going up at some big box stores. Earlier today Cabela's was advertising Rem GB for $8/100 ... and they are now sold out.

The end of Feb this year I bought two bricks of Rem GB from Cabela's for $23.99. That's quite a jump for a big box retailer which have generally been keeping prices down below the stratosphere.

It's $7.99/100, but Cabela's price is still $23.99 on a 525 brick of Golden Bullets, at least last time they had them, which as far as I know was 4/28. They have raised a few prices lately, but that's not one of them. Their Federal 2100 rd can went from $99.99 to $124.99. I ordered one at the new higher price 3 days ago, and it went straight to backorder.