Anyone else move away from .22s because of the shortage?

[DCM]

I hardly shoot 22s any more since the shortage.
I shot cast 9mm for pistol league during the shortage because it was cheaper than replacing my 22 stash, use air-guns for most other 22tasks as they are still cheaper, cleaner, quieter and often more accurate.
Bought laser trainers for better dry fire practice almost anywhere I please.
Prolly should sell the 22rifle as it just collects dust now.

[fatelk]

Just curious, is the shortage ongoing anywhere still? I see 7 cents per round mentioned. Around here I can get all I want locally for 3.5 cents per round. When you factor inflation, that’s really not out of line with historical prices. It never really was that much cheaper than it is now.

[bangerjim]

Just curious, is the shortage ongoing anywhere still? I see 7 cents per round mentioned. Around here I can get all I want locally for 3.5 cents per round. When you factor inflation, that’s really not out of line with historical prices. It never really was that much cheaper than it is now.

Your profile needs to be updated to let us know where you are with all that cheeeeep 22 ammo!

[fatelk]

Oregon. Walmart has stacks of Federal 550 packs for $19.92. I just bought a couple boxes of Federal 275 packs at Bi-Mart for $9.49 each (on sale). A couple weekends ago a vendor at a show had a stack of bricks for $20 each. I picked out 2 bricks of CCI Standard Velocity and bought them.

I assumed it was like this everywhere. I feel bad for you all that still have to pay the crazy prices.

[FISH4BUGS]

It was true you could reload some calibers of ammo for less than the price of .22lr, but as was pointed out before, the time involved in reloading had to be taken into consideration.

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I strongly disagree. How can you take into account your time doing your hobby?....your relaxing time?.....
I had a small lobster boat when I lived on the Seacoast of NH. I pulled about 25 traps. Lobster probably cost me $25 a pound when it was all said and done. Bait, lost gear, blown outboard motor.....I could have purchased it off the boat for probably $5-$7 a pound.
But to be on the water at sun up, and to get the exercise, and to simply enjoy doing it, the price of lobster never even entered my mind.
The time casting and reloading is worth every penny to me. Sure, i could buy the ammo but then I wouldn't be casting and reloading.
I'll put aside maybe 2-3000 rounds of .22 and let it go at that.

[sparkyv]

I still have a strong love affair with the 22. The only thing I have noticed after the shortage was over is I developed a new fondness for CCI standard Velocity. For a while, that is all our LGS could get in. Now, I have found that it is one rock solid and reliable .22 and I can't hardly stand to shoot the bulk ammo anymore.

Same with me, birch!

[762 shooter]

Buy now.
Target USA has aguila and cci sv for 4 and 5 cents to your door.
If you wait, shame on you.

762

Primers are 3 cents.

[trapper9260]

Target sports is where I order the 22lr I order for 4 cent in bulk. I am set after that for all I need. I will just need to work on pay the bill now.

[fatelk]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I strongly disagree. How can you take into account your time doing your hobby?....your relaxing time?.....
I had a small lobster boat when I lived on the Seacoast of NH. I pulled about 25 traps. Lobster probably cost me $25 a pound when it was all said and done. Bait, lost gear, blown outboard motor.....I could have purchased it off the boat for probably $5-$7 a pound.
But to be on the water at sun up, and to get the exercise, and to simply enjoy doing it, the price of lobster never even entered my mind.
The time casting and reloading is worth every penny to me. Sure, i could buy the ammo but then I wouldn't be casting and reloading.
I'll put aside maybe 2-3000 rounds of .22 and let it go at that.

It’s a personal judgement call, a matter of perspective. I have young children and a full time job. My “hobby time” is a bit of a premium. I enjoy tinkering, reloading, and casting, but there does come a point (for me) when it becomes a chore. The idea of spending all day casting, powder coating, and reloading a bucket full of ammo for my kids to burn up is not attractive to me in the least, when I could just buy a couple bricks of .22s and they’ll be just as happy.

If you enjoy spending all your time casting and loading, that’s your call; more power to you. I’m in a different place myself. I can and do take into account my time doing my hobby. For one thing I have other more important demands on my time, and for another, at some point its no longer fun or relaxing; it’s just work.

[Char-Gar]

About 55 years ago, I broke the code on this. Some basic math on a Big Chief tablet, told me I could handload my own cast bullet for a 38 Special for slightly less money than I could buy 22 LRs.

I have shot relatively few 22s since then. I have a hoard of 30K rounds, but still shoot mostly cast bullets in 38 Specials and 45 ACPs.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I enjoy the .22s, no chasing through the grass for every empty. No recoil, low noise, little fuss, true relaxation as opposed to the 'work' of reloading, as enjoyable as it might be. Plenty of choice for rifles, pistols, revolvers and ammunition. Rapid fire, point shooting, speedy action manipulation all without losing a piece of cleaned, polished, and prepped brass. I try to never have less than 15,000 around, just in case.

[fatelk]

.22lr is also more than just cheap shooting to me. Sometimes I just want to shoot a twenty-two. I love my old Ruger Standard that I've put umpteen thousand rounds through over the decades. I love the old Mossberg .22lr that my grandfather gave me as a kid, that he got when he was a young man after coming home from WWII. I enjoy watching my kids having fun shooting spinning steel targets and clay pigeons.

No I don't burn through cases of ammo competing or training, and I enjoy shooting all the other calibers that I can reload cheaply also, but usually when I shoot a .22 it's because I want to shoot a .22. Maybe I can load .38s as cheap, but that doesn't matter if they won't fit in my .22.

As to enjoying my time at my hobby, I want to continue to enjoy it. I used to hunt long ago. I grew up thinking that as a man your job was to get that license and tag each fall, tromp through the woods and bag a deer for some cheap meat for the winter.

One day maybe 20 years ago I realized that I really didn't enjoy it. It was a chore that took up a lot of my time and never actually saved me a dime. So then and there I quit, and haven't hunted since. Just not my thing.

I've come close to doing the same thing a time or two with casting, but I do enjoy it (sometimes) and it does save me money. I get burned out on it pretty easily if I'm not careful.

[Beagle333]

I had mothballed mine. I didn't move away from the caliber, or sell em. Now that I can get ammo again, I'm back shooting them.

[Traffer]

In 2015, I decided to do some plinking. Before that I had not discharged a firearm since 1985. I went to buy a "cheap" 22, thinking someone would have one for under a hundred bucks. Everywhere I went they all said "you are crazy to want to buy a 22, you can't get ammo for them anymore. But I persisted and found a little semi auto at Walmart for $99. Mossberg 702 Plinkster. I checked out the write ups on it and figured it would be a pretty good little gun. It is.
Then...no ammo. Here I am with a brand new gun and can't shoot it? I was P-Oed. Talking to my brother, he felt sorry for me and gave me his stash of 22lr. 3, 50 round boxes of old Remington Viper's from the 80's.
Went to the range and was very pleasantly surprised at the great function of the cheap gun.
But with no place to replenish my supply of ammo, checked the internet again to see if it was possible to reload the little devils. Found a couple of youtube videos about a "kit" for reloading them ...it was almost a hundred dollars... and people reported that 600 fps to 650 fps was all you could hope for with it. That was a deal killer for me. Way too much money in my estimation. So I figured as long as it was possible, to reload rim fire, I would make the tools myself. So I set out to reload 22lr with no reloading tools, but with a dremel type tool and a drill press. After a while on the internet I found that the primer could be made from strike anywhere matches or toy caps. I tried both. The toy caps worked like a charm. The only tool I had do buy was a mold ... got a 55 grain .224 Lee mold for about $20 on eBay. I melted some lead that I found laying around in a little cast iron pot (holds about 4 lbs of lead) and poured the lead straight from the melting pot into the mold. Again...worked like a charm. Then I took the boolits and stuck them in a hollowed out bolt that had two different sized holes bored from the ends. One was a (if my memory serves correctly) number drill 1 that the boolit fit into just barely. The other hole was a bit smaller so the bullet would stop when it got to that transition. With the boolit in there I took a drill bit and twisted it in by hand against the base of the boolit and cut it down until it was about 40 grains. I sharpened the drill bit with a rounded point so it would cut the hollow base. With the boolit the right weight and diameter, I took a cheap pair of small linemans pliers and ground a channel into the face with the dremel and diamond chainsaw sharpening bits. I made the channel to be about .204". (that was a guestimate ...no measuring device) This rig allowed me to squeeze the rebate into the boolits. I also made this channel with a very thin "ring" around the end so I could also use it to crimp the cases after loading them. Again...worked like a charm.
Testing:
I had no idea about gun powders. Tried to figure that out on the internet only to come up blank about what to use for 22lr. Until I read a blurb about Vihtavouri originally developing 3n37 for 22 rim fire. Since my local place that sold powder didn't have it I figured a substitute would be Hogdon HS-6.
Not having a scale, I just pulled a commercial load and compared the "fullness" to see how much was in there. Starting out with small loads, first probably under a grain, then up to roughly the amount that was in the commercial loads. Again...worked like a charm. I got cocky with my old Remington 514 bolt and loaded a couple way stronger than factory loads. That was not good. Ruptured the case, blew the extractor off the bolt and got a face full of hot gasses, sparks and burnt powder particles. (wearing safety glasses).
Since then I have reinvented retooled and refined the process. Now I have a way to make the dies to swage the boollits very accurately. And have made several dedicated tools that are not required for reloading center fire cartridges.
The process has become more fun than the shooting. My goal has been to make 22lr ammo that will out perform the best match grade ammo. It looks like I have a chance to do that. With the encouragement of another member here named "Marshall" I am in the process of recording the whole evolution of my tools and techniques.
Of the many discoveries made in this odyssey is a process to make any caliber of boolit with swage and powder coat. I am looking forward to making boolits with this technique for my 9mm.

[corbinace]

I also have a superbly accurate WINCHESTER Model 55. A single shot WIN made for only a few years in the late 1950's. A single shot rifle is a slow way to burn up ammo.
.

Yep, me too. I love that rifle. Only thing I do not care for is hot brass in the cook of your arm.

[GhostHawk]

Yesterday I shot some 12 rounds of .44mag.

6.5 grains of Red Dot bought at aprox 22.50 per pound by buying in bulk. Or 2.3 cents worth of powder.
200 grain cast boolit, lead bought at 70$ for 65 pounds. A pound of lead gets me about 35 boolits or 3.14 cents each.

Add a CCI Primer at 3-4 cents each depending on when I bought them.

2.3
3.2
3.5
all rounded up.

9 cents per round. I don't count brass, tools, dies. To me that is an investment in a hobby I enjoy.
No different than buying a fly tying vise to get started tying flys.

9 cents each. So my trip to the range yesterday cost me a dollar and 8 cents.
The other 88 rounds are sitting in the box, loaded, ready.

Both of the Handi Rifle single shots performed well. At 50 yards I have no question I could bust 5 coke cans with 5 shots.

I shot one shot at 100, it was 2 inches low and less than a half an inch right. This was with a Red Dot sight.
If I had been aiming at a deers heart, it would have been a dead deer.

Given a choice between shooting 10-20 .22lr or shooting 12 .44mag rounds, I'll take the .44mag every single time. Simply more fun, more bang for the buck. No I can't reload it as cheap as .22lr. But a dime each? Come on, that is living large!

YMMV.

[Big Boomer]

Haven't fired a rimfire round since the early '90s. When I determined that I could cast boolits and assemble centerfire ammo as cheap as I could buy rimfire, I gave up on rimfires. Gave them all to my son, including a Colt with dual cylinders for 22 magnum and long rifle. However, I do shoot .22 centerfires in rifle and a TC Contender - .223 and 5.56 with both cast and jacketed stuff I load. More fun to shoot the large calibers. Big Boomer

[high standard 40]

I have not moved away from 22 since the shortage. 90% of all my shooting is with a 22LR. This involves a small amount of squirrel hunting and a large amount of silhouette shooting. Here in Louisiana, we are limited to shotguns, rimfire, or small bore black powder rifles for tree rats. No centerfire cartridge guns of any kind are allowed, so it's 22LR for me. Likewise, there is no centerfire substitution for smallbore silhouette shooting. I fully understand why some folks have looked into other options to fulfill their shooting needs. I have to have 22LR to meet my chosen shooting obsessions. Most of the rimfire ammo I use is not available at Walmart anyway. I usually have to order online to find the ammo that suits my needs, and at the best price I can find. To each his own. We should all do what turns our own crank.

[Traffer]

This thread helps to illuminate a question that was making it's way around during the shortage.
WHAT ACTUALLY CAUSED THE SHORTAGE?
There were many theories floated out there. One of which was that there were hoarders buying up all the ammo as soon as it hit the shelves.
I read one analysis that showed the production number against the numbers of people buying them up to show that hoarders could actually account for the shortage.
The amount of people here celebrating their hoards confirms the theory in my opinion.
Congratulations folks your selfishness has caused a false shortage of ammunition for the rest of the shooting public.
Something to brag about.
One consolation is that many of you paid waaaaaay to much for your ammo. I enjoy the thought of that as I shoot my 1.5 cent per round, better than commercial, 22lr ammo.

[shdwlkr]

Traffer
You forgot the huge increase in new shooters that also fed into the .22 lr shortage. Many things fed into the shortage, don't forget those selling the ammo that price gouged the buying public, no one thing created the shortage or will cause the next. If we end up in the fighting situation in North Korea what the price of everything the civilian shooting population uses.