Have the hoarders bought up all of the 22LR???

[uscra112]

Going back to a story told by a shop owner a few weeks ago. About what he called "high net worth individuals". One guy, he said, came into his shop and announced that he had $100,000 to spend on ARs, ammo and accessories. "No time to dicker, just set me up a package and I'll be back tomorrow," or some such thing.

I actually knew a guy like that once. Inherited millions. Meant nothing to him, except to throw around as a way of aggrandizing himself. Guy like that will pay those prices and then brag about it.

They walk among us.

[jcwit]

Going back to a story told by a shop owner a few weeks ago. About what he called "high net worth individuals". One guy, he said, came into his shop and announced that he had $100,000 to spend on ARs, ammo and accessories. "No time to dicker, just set me up a package and I'll be back tomorrow," or some such thing.

I actually knew a guy like that once. Inherited millions. Meant nothing to him, except to throw around as a way of aggrandizing himself. Guy like that will pay those prices and then brag about it.

They walk among us.

How true, and I always remind myself they end up with a plot the same size as mine in the end.

Amazing how some people need to impress others.

Wealth has never impressed me, to me the measure of success is happiness, wealth can only buy a false sense of happiness.

[smokeywolf]

Money may not buy happiness, but it sure puts you in a better bargaining position.

smokeywolf

[SchuetzenMiester]

Flintlocks do have an advantage in these times. You can always find a rock that will get it to go off ) I stopped a local gun store and indoor range. They had 22 LR Blazer, but at $60 a brick!! I'll wait for the craze to pass. It will.

[ffries61]

Had an email notification from Midway for some Winchester .22, email was sent at 5:09,I clicked the link at 5:28, out of stock already.My local guy has some coming,I think I'll just wait

[FLHTC]

The distributors now see what many are willing to pay do where is the guarantee that the price will come down?
Dicks sporting goods has pallets of ammo in each store. its just not on the shelf.
The individual buyer is a small percentage as opposed to retailers. I wouldn't hold my breath writing for prices to come down.

[jcwit]

The distributors now see what many are willing to pay do where is the guarantee that the price will come down?
Dicks sporting goods has pallets of ammo in each store. its just not on the shelf.
The individual buyer is a small percentage as opposed to retailers. I wouldn't hold my breath writing for prices to come down.

While I don't hold my breath for any reason, I do believe the price will come down, when the make believe business men realize that buying at retail and attempting to gouge their fellow man with inflated pricing go away. It will only take a few to get caught without a business license or a license to collect sales tax, etc., etc.

As with most everything, this to shall pass.

[FLHTC]

Well as i mentioned before, many thought the prices would come down after the Clinton administration scare and they didn't. The ammo filled the store shelves, wearing a new price sticker and those who were used to paying the high prices basically set the standard for the new price structure. Norinco 223 was $3.99 for a box of 20 and reasonably priced according to those days. Fast forward to post assault weapon ban and you never saw it that cheap again. Retailers saw what people are willing to pay and they're a business, not a charity. The individual is a grain of sand compared to what retailers and distributors buy. Gougers will always be and so will economics.

[Elkins45]

I was in a hole in the wall shop this afternoon for the first time in several months. He was asking $9 for a box of 50 Remington Thunderbolts.

My Dad used to tell stories about being a kid and walking to the country store to buy loose 22 ammo for a penny a round to shoot squirrels for the family. He was born in 1930. A penny a round in 1939 translates to $8 a box in 2012. Based on these prices it looks like the new Depression is here.

[smokeywolf]

Elkins45, you're just about right on those figures. I just wish housing, gasoline, and medical care had followed the same inflationary curve. While middle income wages/salaries and ammo have gone up by a factor of about 20, those other things have increased by factors of 30 to 40. And, accounting for inflation, the elimination of deductions for the middle income earner and the addition of new taxes, taxes have at least doubled.

Sorry for wandering off topic a little.

smokeywolf

[K7addict]

Today at my local hole in the wall I bought a single sealed can of Federal 325 ct 22lr for 19 dollars and tax. She didn't have it sitting out on the shelves but she wasn't overcharging either and my being polite helped I'm sure.

I've been shooting the 22 lately and it's nice to find some here and there for less than 45 a box. Not that I would pay those prices. I too am crossing my fingers that prices eventually come down *some*.

[dancingbear41]

Can I attempt to cheer you all up a little. I think you are beginning to approach typical UK prices. We have been paying what you are now paying, for a number of years. In fact I think the prices shot up after your last panic but they never dropped back down. It sounds like the only difference might be that we still have .22 ammo available. For how long though....who knows?

I have a quantity of .22 ammo. I am a natural horder and tend to buy ammo and components as and when I see it at reasonable prices. So I have a reasonable stock of .22 ammo and reloading components. But they are mine for me to use. Not to sell and try to profit.

I don't shoot .22 LR quite so much now. My preference is to shoot my .30 Carbines because I can cast for them and shoot them for a lot less, as I think I can with all of my guns that I cast for.

I hope all the madness dies down soon.

Simon.

[rbuck351]

Ammo will be on the shelves again but it will be more expensive than it was. The Feds are printing about 1.2 trillion dollars a year now. The new price of ammo will reflect the increase in the money supply. When this settles down I expect cheap 22 ammo to be $22/$23 per brick in AK. probably a little cheaper in the United States. I don't expect the shelves to be full for at least 6 months and probably more like a year unless more Federal regs pop up. then it would be a while longer as that would fuel another run on ammo. My 25/20s are becoming my plinker guns with cast boolits. Much cheaper than current 22 ammo.

[marlin39a]

My LGS had .22LR in stock yesterday. Federal 325 packs at $49.99. 50 rd boxes of Blazer for $6.99. Heck, I just picked up 3 Win 555 packs at Wally for $23.17 each, and thought that was expensive!

[Jim]

My LGS had .22LR in stock yesterday. Federal 325 packs at $49.99.....

A week ago, My LGS dealer called me to tell me they had some 22 ammo in if I wanted any. 325 packs of Federal Target Grade Performance, $20 each. They had 6 boxes and I bought one.

These shops that are charging 40 and 50 bucks for these 325 packs are rippin' people off and makin' a killin'. How is it that a little 'Mom & Pop' shop can get this stuff and sell it for $20 and still make a little profit? Simple, they're operating their business honestly.

Word gets around fast in a small town. There's a gun and bow shop about 15 miles north of Floyd. The proprietor already has a bad rep for acting like he doesn't see you in his shop unless you're one of his 'followers' that kisses his feet. I keep hearing from locals that his prices have gone through the roof and that they're not going back.

I expect ammo will eventually be available again, but I don't expect the prices to go back down to where they were last fall. But when ammo DOES become available again, the locals will be spending their money at the 'Mom & Pop' shop instead of that high end shop.

I'll be in line right behind 'em givin' my money to Harold and Miss Jeanette because they didn't try to rob me when ammo was scarce.

[James6406]

The only 22lr I have seen in the Pittsburgh area has been at Sportsmans warehouse. They are well stocked and asking highly inflated prices. Most of their ammo inventory is auctioned online in case lots and is not for sale to walk in customers.

I see posts where people have found 22 at Walmart in our area but I have never been in the right place at the right time. My opinion is that in the future we will be accepting a new normal for prices when the shelves are all restocked. In my life I recall sugar shortages, gas shortages, coffee shortages, etc. and have never seen prices return to pre-shortage levels after inventories returned to normal. I don't see 22lr being any different.

[I'll Make Mine]

Well, tell you what -- if the "new normal" is 10+ cents a round for plinking grade .22 LR, I'll be in the market for a .22 Hornet, rent a K-Hornet reamer, and buy a mold or two and a set of dies (selling my .22 rifle and revolver will come close to financing this move); I'll pay back the difference in cost in four or five years, even as little as I shoot, when I can shoot K-Hornet reloads (neck sized for best case life) for the cost of a primer, a couple grains of fast powder, and a couple cents worth of lead (even if I have to start buying alloy when lead wheel weights dry up) -- and gain the versatility to load different bullets and powder loads in the same rifle, all the way from air gun pellets over a primer to a bit above the best .22 WMR performance.

[Jim]

Well, tell you what -- if the "new normal" is 10+ cents a round for plinking grade .22 LR, I'll be in the market for a .22 Hornet, rent a K-Hornet reamer, and buy a mold or two and a set of dies (selling my .22 rifle and revolver will come close to financing this move); I'll pay back the difference in cost in four or five years, even as little as I shoot, when I can shoot K-Hornet reloads (neck sized for best case life) for the cost of a primer, a couple grains of fast powder, and a couple cents worth of lead (even if I have to start buying alloy when lead wheel weights dry up) -- and gain the versatility to load different bullets and powder loads in the same rifle, all the way from air gun pellets over a primer to a bit above the best .22 WMR performance.

Agreed, hundred percent. One of the reasons I bought a .223, a mold and started working on subsonic load development.

[9.3X62AL]

There is a lot of comfort to be had in a supply of primers and a nice stack of ingots.

[Iowa Fox]

The small centerfires are just fun to shoot. Years ago Midway sold WW Hornet brass for less than 5.00 dollars a hundred shipped, CCI primers were 4.95 per 1K shipped if you bought enough at one time, Unique was two dollars and something a pound, and wheel weights were free for your labor. I'm still shooting that inventory and hope I live long enough to get to the next batch of inventory. As much as I preach buy made in USA this rimfire thing is out of hand. Its time for someone to flood the market with cheap imported plinking rimfire ammo. Maybe somebody like a ammo Harbor Freight. If not the young upcoming generation is going to be squeezed out.