throwing in .22lr towel?

[mac60]

Honestly, I wouldn't give a care in the world if 22 blew away forever. Unfortunately, Arkansas state hunting regulation is written such that if you want to hunt squirrel with a rifle, it has to be a rimfire. There is absolutely no provision for low velocity center fire with cast bullets.

We're in the same position here in Alabama. I have enough .22 rimfire to hunt squirrels with for the rest of MY life. I have 3 grandsons, 2 of 'em have no interest in guns at all, but the youngest shares his Papa's enthusiasm for guns. I'd like to be able to buy rimfire ammo for him to shoot, but I haven't seen so much as a 50 rd. box for sale anywhere in several years.

[NavyVet1959]

Honestly, I wouldn't give a care in the world if 22 blew away forever. Unfortunately, Arkansas state hunting regulation is written such that if you want to hunt squirrel with a rifle, it has to be a rimfire. There is absolutely no provision for low velocity center fire with cast bullets.

But, you could probably hunt squirrels with a shotgun and something like the H&R UltraSlug would even be legal. Totally impractical, of course -- unless all you were wanting to recover was the *hair*. I suspect that hunting regulations are created by people who do not have much understanding of firearms. Why should a .22LR or .44 Henry be allowed and a .308 or .300 AAC downloaded to 500-700 fps with a round ball not be allowed?

[Ola]

From European point of view this shortage of yours is just amazing. It is hard to believe there are several American factories that have been pumping out MILLIONS of rounds a day for many years and also the producers in Europe and rest of the world have been putting up new production lines to fill the demand.

But no, it is not enough..

What are these factories going to do when you guys decide you have enough .22-ammo? Because it has to happen some day.
Or let's say, the hoarders stop being afraid and start selling their ammo?

[waksupi]

From European point of view this shortage of yours is just amazing. It is hard to believe there are several American factories that have been pumping out MILLIONS of rounds a day for many years and also the producers in Europe and rest of the world have been putting up new production lines to fill the demand.

But no, it is not enough..

What are these factories going to do when you guys decide you have enough .22-ammo? Because it has to happen some day.
Or let's say, the hoarders stop being afraid and start selling their ammo?

Ola, I think you would be surprised at the amount of .22 ammo that a shooter will go through in a weekend. I've easily went through 500 rounds in a day shooting at gophers.

[Ola]

Btw. We Europeans have been shooting quite a lot of this .22-ammo in resent years:

http://www.frankonia.de/.22+lfb.%2C+...tegoryId=63315

Does it look familiar? It should..

[Ola]

Ola, I think you would be surprised at the amount of .22 ammo that a shooter will go through in a weekend. I've easily went through 500 rounds in a day shooting at gophers.

So there is no huge stockpiles lying around? Almost ALL of the .22LR ammunition has been shot? Unbelievable..

Does anyone have any idea how many MILLIONS of rounds / year was the normal USA consumption before?
And what it is currently?

btw: The TOP SHOT .22LR is CCI Standard.

[Freischütz]

When 22 rimfire ammobecame readily available again I realized that the new normal priceswere greater than the enjoyment I derived from shooting it. Iswitched to the 32 ACP and 25/20 WCF. Never think about 22 rimfiresanymore.

[castalott]

22 ammo was impossible to get until just recently. Friends and family cover a big area and it has been 'unattainable' for years. That is to say 'not for sale'. I talked to a store manager and she said they couldn't get it. She did call me a few months later all excited that "we have 10 boxes of 50! Do you want one (box of 50 rounds)?" I tried to explain that I wanted one or 2 or 3 cases all the same lot number.

If it is being made, it is not getting out to the normal stores in the normal way.

[Schrag4]

It's sad, really. Now that I'm casting, I can produce 9mm ammo for a lot less than I can buy 22LR. I'm considering buying a HiPoint 9mm carbine just as a plinker for the kids. I used to have them shoot the 10/22, but I have a hard time bringing myself to let them shoot that expensive ammo.

Actually what I'd really like to do is build an AR15 pistol in 9mm and SBR it eventually. That's about 3 or 4 times as expensive, though.

[Chev. William]

So there is no huge stockpiles lying around? Almost ALL of the .22LR ammunition has been shot? Unbelievable..

Does anyone have any idea how many MILLIONS of rounds / year was the normal USA consumption before?
And what it is currently?

btw: The TOP SHOT .22LR is CCI Standard.

Personal Thoughts on this .22LR "Problem". The Population of the USA Has been Growing Rapidly since just after WW2 (the "Baby boom" and those in the early start of that are now Grandfathers/Grandmothers and Retiring.
There was a Decline in Shooting training and Sports from around 1955 to date in our Schools, in fact the Schools have become Draconian in treatment of even the mention of 'Gun'.
Then in 2001 We were Awakened by a Major terrorist attack and People began to think about Guns and Shooting again. What is the most used Introductory Shooting cartridge of recent times? The .22LR.
We had a President Elected on the Sole Promise of "Change" in 2008 and people noticed an 'uptick' in various attempts to separate Americans from their Firearms. This seems to have started people 'stocking up' on Factory ammo for .22 LR as it is not re-load-able.
Some people who previously had not been Firearms owners nor shooters started buying .22 LR firearms and Ammo, pushing up 'demand'; but 'supply' could not follow as our Government started buying Great amounts of all Ammo. The 'Supply' shortage pushed many to buy any and all they could find at whatever price was asked, keeping Demand up and supply down.
Someone wrote that our present Administration is the Greatest Salesmen for Firearms and Ammo that has been seen to date.
But like you see, Supply is not catching up to Demand yet. Divide the Annual Production of .22 LR by the number of total .22 LR firearms in existence in the USA and you find the number ends up relatively small, less than is said to be used in one day of shooting by some.

Will Supply eventually catch up? Perhaps. Will it be soon? Doubtful. Will we ever see $0.50 per box of 50 .22 Lr Ever again? Not in my Lifetime.

As to the Round per Session from BEFORE: I used to shoot 120 rounds a Target session and around 200 rounds when doing Jack Rabbit Abatement shooting, which is no longer allowed in my County, nor is Alfalfa a Cash Crop at the moment, it takes too much Water in a Deep Drought.

Best Regards,
Chev. William

[NavyVet1959]

It's sad, really. Now that I'm casting, I can produce 9mm ammo for a lot less than I can buy 22LR. I'm considering buying a HiPoint 9mm carbine just as a plinker for the kids. I used to have them shoot the 10/22, but I have a hard time bringing myself to let them shoot that expensive ammo.

Actually what I'd really like to do is build an AR15 pistol in 9mm and SBR it eventually. That's about 3 or 4 times as expensive, though.

The cheapest shooting is probably a single-shot. If you don't mind your AR being a single shot, there are a lot of options in powder loads. A Lee Bator .225" 55gr cast bullet with a couple of grains of Red Dot makes for a good .22LR round. Of course, it will not cycle the action, so you might as well completely disconnect the gas system. The .300 AAC as a single shot has a lot powder options also. Whereas, if you want it to cycle the action, your powder choices are considerably more limited.

My .300 AAC AR pistol does not seem to have much in the way of recoil with a 147gr M80 .308" bullet even if you put the buffer tube up against your shoulder. I was pleased to find out when I tested it though that it did not go through my bullet trap in my garage.

[Ola]

Now I'm very curious: any ideas how many rimfire pistols and rifles there are in US? It must be in millions?

Also, because I don't personally know your "shooting culture", is it now more typical to have a SEMIAUTO?

And "plinking"? 3-5 shots / second until magazine is empty?

--

1 000 000 guns x 500 rounds / month = 6 000 000 000 rounds / year.
vs.
CCI production 7 000 000 rounds / day = 2 555 000 000 rounds / year.

[NavyVet1959]

Also, because I don't personally know your "shooting culture", is it now more typical to have a SEMIAUTO?

And "plinking"? 3-5 shots / second until magazine is empty?

Back before the shortage, companies were coming out with .22LR conversions for other caliber firearms. The argument was that it allowed you to have a cheaper training round. There were conversion kits for M1911s, Mini-14s, etc. And then companies started coming out with dedicated .22LR AR-15s. Prior to this, I suspect that most .22LR rifles were bolt or pump action. There were a few auto-loaders, but I don't remember seeing them that much back then.

Plus, kids these days get jaded by the amount of rounds they can output in their video games, so they would probably be more likely to loose attention if they were firing a bolt or lever action. There probably also an issue with respect to there not being as much of a hunting culture as there used to be. Free and open places to hunt are getting scarcer and communities have enacted restrictions on discharging firearms within their community limits.

[Ola]

So all these BILLIONS of .22 LR rounds are been blasted away "pointlessly". I know it is fun, but for how long? Personally I NEED to hit something to keep it interesting.

I just realized why here it is quite common to use ammo from Lapua, RWS etc. The price is not so bad when 50 rounds last for 1-2 hours ( not 3 minutes).

[NavyVet1959]

So all these BILLIONS of .22 LR rounds are been blasted away "pointlessly". I know it is fun, but for how long? Personally I NEED to hit something to keep it interesting.

Well, back when 500-round "bricks" of Remington and Federal were going for $7-8, it was not uncommon to shoot a brick in a single day at the range. Used to be that the "range" was just an area where people had dumped stuff (often illegally) and as such, there were plenty of things to shoot at and hit. These days, with companies handling garbage pickup and having officially managed landfill sites, that's probably not as common.

I guess in Finland it gets boring shooting at snowballs all the time.

[Ola]

Nah, there are couple of month when we shoot rocks..

[NavyVet1959]

Nah, there are couple of month when we shoot rocks..

OK... Imaging how much fun you could have shooting rocks with one of these:

[Ola]

This is maybe the best example what is considered "blasting away .22LR's" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex84zNSWK-c

Go to 4:40 to see the finals.

[richhodg66]

Makes a guy wonder if with the .22 LR shortage, what has the upsurge been in sales of BB guns?

As a kid, shooting a tousand or more BBs in an afternoon was a regular thing, and even though they aren't real precise, shooting at things like grasshoppers and smaller all the time will hone down your marksmanship skills considerably.

[NavyVet1959]

Makes a guy wonder if with the .22 LR shortage, what has the upsurge been in sales of BB guns?

As a kid, shooting a tousand or more BBs in an afternoon was a regular thing, and even though they aren't real precise, shooting at things like grasshoppers and smaller all the time will hone down your marksmanship skills considerably.

Nawh, the BB guns have gone from the large capacity Red Ryders to the single shot pellet gun and as such don't interest the kids these days. Besides, they succumbed to the "they'll put your eye out" thinking and you don't see them shot as much anymore. Instead, the kids moved to paintball and when they found out that could hurt when you were hit with one, moved to the Airsoft plastic BB type of gun. Unfortunately, the Airsoft type guns ended up looking a bit too realistic and some kids have been shot when they stupidly pointed the guns at cops. Oh well, I guess Darwin needs to clean the gene pool periodically...