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

[Traffer]

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.

OK, I will grant you that. But I believe that hoarding was one of the major causes of the shortage.

[Harter66]

I had about 3000 when they became unobtainium . I have about 5500 now my grandson is 5 now so it's been 6-7 yrs since I shot any .

I did get a 223 and by association a 222 down to really angry 22 mag . They shoot great , are reloadable and ear friendly. Since they are in full size rifles they are probably better than 22s for the training. I did grab a Heritage 22/22mag so the RF shooting may pick up some but I have a 454RB and an ACP cylinder for the big single action and a 360 RB for 38s so maybe not .

[GhostHawk]

You forgot the huge orders for pistol and rifle ammo the government made.

Now if you had to balance profit and loss of cranking out .22lr vs cranking out pistol ammo for a fat contract.
Which do you think has more profit in it? So which would you feed and which would maybe get the short end of the stick for a couple of weeks?

Given all the other factors, it would not take much of a delay in production to start a ripple effect, hording, price gouging which we all saw.

We may never know all the reasons other than "all of the above".

It happened, chances are it will happen again.

Might only take a mass shooting in a well populated area to spark the wave.

For sure, they are making boys faster than they bury old men. And boys love to shoot, and tend to shoot more. Population is not going down, shooting sports are on the rise. And that is a good thing.

[Traffer]

I have learned to make my own, I can laugh at the days to come.

[FLINTNFIRE]

I always liked the 22lr and always used to buy some as having a stash is a good thing , fell out of shooting for a few years and before the big shortage I could not believe the price of a bulk pack , during the shortage I never worried as I had plenty and have quit shooting them as to me the cost is overpriced compared to what it was . Still have all my 22lr rifles and pistols , just do not use much . The target rifles have not been fired in years and I do not use the caliber like I did years ago . I still think they are over priced and do not buy , now having said that they do have there place and are still the best for younger newer shooters to learn on .

[lefty o]

You forgot the huge orders for pistol and rifle ammo the government made.

Now if you had to balance profit and loss of cranking out .22lr vs cranking out pistol ammo for a fat contract.
Which do you think has more profit in it? So which would you feed and which would maybe get the short end of the stick for a couple of weeks?

Given all the other factors, it would not take much of a delay in production to start a ripple effect, hording, price gouging which we all saw.

We may never know all the reasons other than "all of the above".

It happened, chances are it will happen again.

Might only take a mass shooting in a well populated area to spark the wave.

For sure, they are making boys faster than they bury old men. And boys love to shoot, and tend to shoot more. Population is not going down, shooting sports are on the rise. And that is a good thing.

rimfire machinery is entirely separate from centerfire machines, zero interchangeability between them. i was working in an ammo factory during that time period, and the problem wasnt the manufacturers.

[fatelk]

I still think they are over priced and do not buy

I feel the same way about a lot of things at times, then I get thinking about all the years that have gone by, and how little my income was way back then, and a little thing called inflation!

I'm telling you guys, decent .22lr ammo at 3.5 cents per is really on par with about as cheap as they've ever been. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. The very cheapest I've ever bought 22 ammo for was $9 per brick in the early to mid '90s. Plug that into an inflation calculator and it comes to over 3cents/round in 2018 dollars, not far off what what you can find them for right now. My grandfather used to tell me he bought 22 ammo when he was young for twenty five cents per box. Plug that into the inflation calculator for circa 1935, and it's more than we're paying now.

Pick a memory, pick a year, calculate it. If you can find 22 ammo under $20/brick, it's a good deal. Sure it was less than $10/brick back when, but I was also making less than $10/hr back then too. The fact that I can buy a brick now for significantly less than my hourly wage is a good thing.

[Traffer]

I feel the same way about a lot of things at times, then I get thinking about all the years that have gone by, and how little my income was way back then, and a little thing called inflation!

I'm telling you guys, decent .22lr ammo at 3.5 cents per is really on par with about as cheap as they've ever been. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. The very cheapest I've ever bought 22 ammo for was $9 per brick in the early to mid '90s. Plug that into an inflation calculator and it comes to over 3cents/round in 2018 dollars, not far off what what you can find them for right now. My grandfather used to tell me he bought 22 ammo when he was young for twenty five cents per box. Plug that into the inflation calculator for circa 1935, and it's more than we're paying now.

Pick a memory, pick a year, calculate it. If you can find 22 ammo under $20/brick, it's a good deal. Sure it was less than $10/brick back when, but I was also making less than $10/hr back then too. The fact that I can buy a brick now for significantly less than my hourly wage is a good thing.

Especially when you consider ammo is not made n China. If we could buy ammo from China we could probably get 22lr for about a penny per round.

[richhodg66]

I like to squirrel hunt with a .22 rifle. When the rimfire ammo got scarce, I got a CZ 527 22 Hornet, loaded it with cast at 22 magnum velocity and went to back to shooting squirrels.

Me too. A light loaded .22 Hornet with cast is better and cheaper than a .22 LR if you don't count the time reloading. I prefer to use my Savage 219 in .22 Hornet now.

I also got a couple of older Sheridan Blue Streaks when the shortage was on and killed squirrels with them too.

Worst case, for hunting, Wal Mart never ran out of 20 gauge #6s, and just about any .30 caliber rifle downloads real east with light bullets ad works well on small game.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Well 2003 I was buying 550 packs federal hollow point for 5.95 rollback price at walmart in town so as price was about half of what you were paying and price locally last time I looked was low $20 and up it is quite a culture shock and still have enough of the stuff from back then . Factor in pistol caliber carbines and I am happy to shoot 9mm 40 s&w and 45acp , fits pistols to same loading , 22lr is fun and great for some things , but my wages have not went up the same amount compared , to each his own and your mileage may vary . Shoot whatever you want .

[fatelk]

Not questioning your veracity, but $6 a brick in 2003? Are you sure that wasn't a Walmart closeout price? I don't remember ever seeing 22 ammo remotely that cheap in my lifetime, let alone in this millennium. I was paying $10/brick back in the 1980's.

Not doubting you, but that sounds more like a one-off closeout price. I've seen that kind of thing at Walmart when they blow something out. From a practical perspective I'm glad so many of us don't shoot 22 rimfire. That leaves more for me.

[Geezer in NH]

I shoot cast 9mm, 38, 357, 44 special and 44 mag cheaper than a .22. Why bother?
The last 22 I shot was getting rid of a chipmunk that took up residence in the garden. Those were shotshells that I have had for 25 years.

Know what you mean but .22's I don't have to load other than into the magazine.
I'm shooting primers bought at under $5.00 a K at auctions still.

My son and I since he was 8 years old shot up 3-4 cases of 22 each summer. We got into the NFA when he was 12 and my favorite was mil surplus. Being an FFL got many cases [by the pallet] cheap with no need to reload.

Now at my age and he is over 30 we still shoot at least 1K every time we shoot of 22. Add in the 9mm we load and price around the same or under when using the 4 gang Lyman TC that weighs 136 grains, but that is still not as easy as loading 22 magazines.

All my FA has been sold they gave my DW new knees! Family comes before the toys.

[FLINTNFIRE]

No it was not closeout , roll back price for remington or federal bulk pack 550 rounds hollow point , I would buy a brick every trip to range , same price every month and their price was 5.95 with the roll back sticker . I remember when cci blazer came out and it was cheap and it was ammo of last resort , manchesters in longview carried some oddball south american ammo back in early 80's was cheaper then G.I. joes sale prices on remington , was good ammo only a weak one here and there and a hot one every once in awhile . I was a member of the range outside longview in late 90's and shot several times a month every month on my time off work. Take the bull barrel 22 target rifles and the ruger mkll target pistols . It was no closeout price and it is why I would buy a brick or so each month , still have most of it , have not bought any since and other then kids shooting it , I do not shoot it anymore . At that time I would not have paid $10 a brick , now I would as that would seem a logical price increase over time , but not interested at $20 or more a brick . Remington thunderbolts were what we called thunderduds cyclone was a little better not nearly as may failure to fires , winchester wildcats were not bad but cost more , have a ammo can of eley match and some other match 22lr , now that was always more expensive . Also still have the 22lr case gauge for sorting by rim thickness and it did seem to make a difference .

[fatelk]

Now I feel like I was missing out on something back then. Anyone else buy $5.95 bricks of 22 ammo anytime in the last 30 years? I know for a fact that the Walmarts that I frequented were probably double that price in that same time period. Maybe it's a regional thing.

[kayala]

Short answer is no. During drought was still able to buy every now and then online. Nowdays still buying, keep stashing it away; next drought gonna hit us it's not "if" it's "when".

[fatelk]

I don't mean to offend anyone with my comments, and sticking up for the humble 22 rimfire. This thread is interesting to me. I've long pondered about how we gun lot are a bunch of cheap old buzzards. I include myself.

We'll spend thousands on nice guns and fancy gear, but we'll spend days shopping around for the very best deal on what we're looking for, trying to save a dollar or two. We'll buy hundred dollar molds, dies, and sizers, and spend days cranking out 9mm or .38 ammo that we calculate costs us exactly 3.68 cents per shot. Then we pack up our gear for a trip to the range for some cheap shooting. We get into our $50,000 pickup truck, and stop for a $30 dinner on the way home.

Not trying to pick on anyone; I do the same thing (except I don't have a $50k truck). It's so easy to get caught up in false economy. Reality is, we do what we want to do. If you prefer to shoot .38 Special or .45 auto, and can justify shooting a lot because you can load it cheap, that's great. If I want to shoot a .22lr because I enjoy it, I will, thank you very much. I'm not going to let a fraction of a cent here or there stop me from doing what I want to do. That seems silly to me.

[trapper9260]

I like the 22lr .but not how the price was . So i just limit on how much I use. Now i got a order in and will be enough to last my life time unless things change. but with all that av happened learn to load center fire to shoot like 22lr. So it is all going to work out in the end.if the 22lr was made in China.I wonder how many miss fire there would be.

[EMC45]

Now I feel like I was missing out on something back then. Anyone else buy $5.95 bricks of 22 ammo anytime in the last 30 years? I know for a fact that the Walmarts that I frequented were probably double that price in that same time period. Maybe it's a regional thing.

In the early 2000s I was getting Blazer by CCI for 10 bucks plus tax for a 500 round brick. They went up from there. When they hit 19.99 for the same brick I said I'm done until some sanity came back. I watched them get around 60 bucks after Newtown and I swore I would never shoot rimfire again.............

Now I can get the Federal Auto Match and the Federal bulk pack for under 20 bucks for either and they both shoot great. I still prefer centerfire shooting for the obvious advantage of being able to reload the casings. The kids do like shooting the .22s though.

My son approves of this message!

[trapper9260]

I had talk with my gunsmith some time ago and he said alot was selling him there 22lr and get a 17 . Because the ammo was easy to find and then when the 22lr start to be easy to get the ones with the 17 was find it hard to get the 17 and wish they kept there 22lr guns.

[fatelk]

I heard a lot of that in recent years: people getting rid of their .22lr guns because they couldn't find ammo. It never made sense to me because I'd never get rid of my guns like that.

Then I realized that my perspective was just different from theirs. While I'm not a true collector, my guns are more than tools to me. I don't hunt. I don't compete. I'm not even a particularly good marksman. I have guns because they interest me, I enjoy tinkering with them, I enjoy reloading, and I enjoy recreational shooting.

If my interest were primarily a sport or discipline, and guns were mere sporting equipment or tools, then I understand completely. If I was an ice skater and had some skates that I couldn't find new blades for, I'd get rid of them and buy something else. Heck, if they quit selling staples for my stapler on my desk at work, I'd toss it and buy a different stapler. When I started looking at it like that it started to make perfect sense.

I'd still never get rid of MY .22lr guns, though.