I’m seeing plenty o’ ammo availability here in Austin, save the eternally elusive .22LR. Got ammo? Before you answer, a new market report – Ammunition (Defense, Homeland Security and Others) Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2013 – 2019 – pegs the market for ammunition globally at $10b by 2019. Transparency Market Research’s press release reckons, “Recently, rising conflicts in several nations due to territorial disputes and growing crime rates across the globe are supporting the growth of ammunition market.” Nothing new there, then. But enough about the globe, now about you: are you stocked-up?
I have as much as I ‘need’ but not nearly as much as I ‘want’.
Nobody “needs” more than 7 rounds. Just ask Cuomo
Is that a new unit of measure kind of like horse-hands – the Cuomo which is 7 rounds? So my 9mm holds 2.1 Cuomos of ammunition?
I like it. Kind of like measuring temperature in Gore-ons.
It’s almost 80 for eons here…
My carry also has 2.1 cuomos
that is f-ing funny Gene. 2.1 Cuomo’s….ROFL….
eh, not a fan of odd numbers, decimals and integers mixed. I propose “bans” as a measurement. Most rifle mags hold 2 or 3 bans of ammo.
always cracks me up when you read about someone in one of “those” states getting clipped with “a stockpile” because they have maybe 300 rounds of ammo…
With the shipment i just got yesterday i might have over 15,000 between all the calibers.
Someone had a video about stockpiling 300 rounds… He slapped a 300 count box of .22 on the table and ranted about it for a few minutes.
Hell, I just reloaded 300 rounds last night.
It always gets me when antis say people shouldn’t just be allowed to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition.
First of all, that’s not that much.
Second and what should be more obvious, what’s the most that’s ever been fired in a single mass shooting? Like 150?
So if a “stockpile” is 300 rnd’s; what is 15’000 rnd’s to an Anti? Megapile? Uniquepile? Freakoutpile? Obscenepile?
To a gun owner; just about right.
Thomas R,
What’s 15,000 rounds to an Anti? WAR!
@scrubula – Was this the video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NyCx2N4T8U
I think I posted it on another thread a week or two back.
On NPR’s “Fresh Air” today, there was a piece on the Marine arrested in Mexico. The show’s host, Terry Gross, said the marine “had an enormous amount of ammunition — 400 rounds, in his car.” The way Gross emphasized ENOURMOUS” was as if it was unbelievable.
I was in the car with my 14-year-old daughter and had 600 rounds with us, 300 for her new SR22and 300 for my 9.
truer words have not been spoken.
.22LR is about the only thing that is elusive for me at this point. Not a terrible issue since I was well stocked before the nonsense started, but my normal practice of ‘shoot a box, buy a box’ has been somewhat irregular.
“stocked before the nonsense started”
Would that be the NFA of 1934 which you refer?
I’m old and crusty, but not ‘that’ old and crusty. 😉
I didn’t think of it that way. I saw “nonsense” and NFA popped into my head.
Fortunately, my favorite range almost always has bricks of .22 lr for between 5 and 8 cents a round (10 c a round for mini-mags when they are available). I don’t shoot much .22, recently, but I’ve followed the “see a brick buy a brick” rule ever since it’s been scarce. I actually don’t know exactly how much I have atm.
Thanks for needlessly perpetuating the .22lr scarcity. Your local youth shooting club is proud to sacrifice their training and membership growth to your hoarding needs.
He said “see a brick, buy a brick,” not “see a pallet, buy a pallet.”
About a year ago, I had a meeting at Gander mountain (a company I sell products for had training in their conference rooms and we got to use the shooting simulators for free, awesome). I was fresh out of every round I shoot and was looking forward to being in the store when the shipment arrived. Turns out, every retired man in the county was there waiting as well. They took everything, I still got some .22LR and 9mm though. First time in months and it was the last time I saw .22LR in a big store since.
Stocked up.. not near sufficiently… maybe 5k rounds spread across 8 or 9 calibers. But I still have 1 brick of Win Wildcat .22’s and half a dozen boxes of .17HMR, which is likely better than many in regards to rimfire.
I’ve got about 400 in 9mm and a couple hundred .223… but I also have a full bucket o’bullet’s, which is nice.
My center fire ammo supply is killing me.
I’ve got plenty.
I was lucky to be able to get a case of Winchester 333 in December of 2013 before the ban on Internet sales of ammo happened in NY. I haven’t touched it yet even though I haven’t seen .22LR for sale in the state since before then. The only other ammo I can’t consistently find is cheap steel cased 9mm for plinking.
7k-8k rounds total, across my 3 main calibers.
So the growing global crime rate is affecting ammo supply. Are the crims buying it all up? Or folks reacting to criminal activity?
Not crime, wars and the like.
Mo wars, mo ammo demand.
A couple of months ago, .380 auto seemed very scarce… now it is available from multiple sources at the cheapest price I’ve seen since I bought into that caliber last year.
…ditto – noticed same.
Impossible to find .380 and .22LR in WV…. Well, for reasonable prices. Either 50-100% over retail or nonexistant in my neck of the woods. LGS wanted $69.99 for a 100pk of WWB .380… Couldn’t justify it.
Dafuq?!?! Are they high?! Right now on ammoseek, You can get steel case for $0.27, brass for $0.31, hell the WWB is only $0.36. That’s insane.
Agreed, I’ve been tempted to get reloads from that company that sells them in the TACTICAL mesh bags, or whatever. its been a while since I’ve looked at prices, but I know if I’m paying less than $0.38 a round, I’m happy.
All the state troopers I know carry a LCP on their ankle, and praise its existence to all of their friends. One barbecue I was at had a trio of state troopers (retired/active), father, son, and friend. One starts talking about his LCP, and the older father is like “Oh! I’ve got one in my truck! Friend stops the father and grabs his off his ankle holster. I felt pretty safe after that.
I have a lot more ammo than referenced above…but I still have a shopping lost for stocking up. I’ve just recently started buying again as prices pass my designated thresholds. It feels pretty good. I’ve yet to see .22lr availability in my area, though.
I found 300 rounds of CCI .22lr at my local Academy for $23 dollars.
Would you believe that about 15 years ago, I bought around 20 boxes (100 rounds ea.) for $1.00 each, at K Mart. It was on sale, still have some.
I recently moved and had a buddy help me with my gun stuff since I didn’t want the movers knowing what I had or how much of it I had, or where it was all going. He complained of back pains after carrying a few 7.62x54r crates. It would definitely be worth the pains to have a few more of those crates.
I did the same. I moved to NC and took all of my firearms and ammo myself. The movers moved my cabinet and a few parts. My collection filled up my wifes vehicle, but was still hidden below blankets. The movers here know I own two gun cabinet but not what else I might have. Everything else was packed away in a walk in closet that they never went into. I’m buying a 48 gun “Safe” this weekend and I’m going to love moving it into the house.
Yeah I had to chuckle when I took a look at my car and saw the back end sagging from all that weight in the trunk, and blankets nearly blocking out my view of the rear window. A Toyota Camarmory.
Welcome to NC! Enjoy that new safe and happy shooting!
approx 16k rounds spread out among 9mm, .357 mag, .38 special, .380, .45 acp, .32 and 12 gauge, but mainly 9mm and .45 acp.
I think I am good on most things through the end of next year. By then I hope prices will go down and I will stock up for the rest of my life expectancy.
The only things I have a real need for at the moment are .22 longs and .22 shorts.
I’m afraid that’s going to be the problem- many people would like to ‘stock up for life’ now that they have experienced supply chain shortages.
My prediction: continued shortages because demand will continue to eclipse supply.
I just secured two 525-round boxes of Federal Champion .22LR from Gander Mtn this week. Shoutout to gunbot for being awesome.
Aside from that, I don’t stock much ammo, I acquire more as I shoot it. Beer on the other hand…
Think it’s likely the gobberment will ever again interfere with your supply of beer?
It has happened before, if you recall.
As long as they don’t regulate malted barley, hops and yeast, I’ll be able to survive. Even then, I’m sure I can make do.
Yeah, and that more than anything else is responsible for much of the organized crime in this country. And much of the anti-gun movement, as well.
22lr is really the only shortage in central indiana that I can see, which is a shame. I can NEVER have enough 22 LR. I have been more shooting with air rifles but have thought about a 17hmr and 22 mag because those are on the shelf.
Same here for southern Indiana. The prices still run the gamut from decent to insane though. I’ve even started seeing .22lr in the wild here but most shops are still breaking up bulk packs and selling limited amounts per customer. Some of the prices are mind numbing, I just saw 50 rounds for $23 this weekend at a small shop outside of town.
I’ve been able to pick up just over a thousand rounds of .22LR here and there over the past couple weeks. Combined luck and lessened demand in the area.
I think the .22 shortage is caused by folks like me stocking up on them when the opportunity exists because we may not be able to buy more as needed down the road. I am as guilty as the next guy on buying more than I need. I think the problem cold be rectified by raising the prices on .22 to keep people like me from stocking up. As the .22 becomes more plentiful on the shelves, and we get used to seeing it there again, then the manufactures cold gradually reduce prices to the pre-Obama prices. But one problem with this strategy is the manufacturers reducing their prices as the supplies increase The law of supply and demand should kick in and insure lower prices.
That definitely is tricky. Pricing is the market signal reflecting scarcity and promots suppliers to increase supply to capture extra profit. If prices aren’t allowed to rise, then people overconsume the resource at the level of abundance associated with the artificially low price, whike suppliers don’t respond by increasing supply. The result is a combination of shortages and rationing. Of course, if the prices are permitted to rise to reflect accurately the item’s scarcity, then here come the cry babies, the very ones who themselves are bidding up the value of this scarce resource, to whine about price gouging.
Now, Jon, you can’t just go around expecting people to understand basic economic truths because CORPORATIONS!!! and PROFITEERING!!! and PRICE GOUGERS!!!
I jumped on an internet sale and got 650 rounds of .22 for less than 10 cents/round including shipping. With that and my pre-ban (by 2 days) crate of Russian 5.45, I’m set — for now. I see 9mm creeping back down to pre-panic levels, but .22 is slower to move.
it is of my opinion that 22lr is a dead cartridge as its rarity is close to that of finding 8mm mauser and 303 british that is the reason i have started to practice my shooting with 30.06 35 remington and 6.5 creedmoor due to the fact i can find those cartridges
5.56 is really cheap right now.
OTOH, I have two orders with two different suppliers for .22LR. One order is from May, 2013, and the other, from November, 2013. I check with them every couple of months, and their answer is always the same: “Meh. They’re not shipping us much, and we don’t know when we’ll be able to fill your order.”
Thats why I leave the .22 in the safe and take out the AR when I want to go shooting. Plus I get brass for reloading when primers and powder become available again. Of course, they might already be available here I haven’t really looked for a while. My air rifle has also been getting more use the last couple years too.
I’m almost positive that if my town had an adequate supply of .22LR I never would have bought my AR in the first place.
I feel bad for the guys at the Cabelas’ customer service desk, since they only allow me to buy one box a day online – I’m that guy who walk in with 6 invoices to pick up a whopping 300 rnds! 6 individual cardboard boxes and all the fillings…
I have no trouble finding ammo when I go to the range… and other than my 45, its reasonably priced too. 223 from Academy is right around what I would be paying per box to order it online, if only 1-2c more expensive.
Stocked up? No, unfortunately Im in that really uncomfortable place where I am low and don’t have enough money to measurably restock… so yeah I watch the news A LOT and if something happens the credit card may get warmed up a bit. As it is now, with cash I can rally only afford to buy a little more than I shoot at a time, so the reserve is slowly growing. Not as fast as I would like.
What’s the point of having tens of thousands of rounds? If something happens and you have to leave, you can’t carry all that.
And then if you brag about it, I know the first place I’d be coming to get bullets from.
Hey Brett, anyone looking to take my “bullets” is going to need more than I have to get them.
For one, it’s nice to be able to shoot when there’s a massive ammo shortage and everyone else is crying about not being able to buy any ammo. For two, unless you buy it at the peak of a panic, you can almost always sell it for what you paid, if not considerably more. It’s actually a pretty good investment vehicle if you time it right.
Not everybody stocks up on ammo solely in preparation for a zombie apocalypse. Some do it because it’s a heck of a lot better to have a couple cans of ammo in the closet than waiting in line at 6 AM, hoping to score a hundred rounds of ammo.
One might just as well ask “what’s the point of having a sofa, or a big TV, or more than a couple cans of food in your pantry?” After all if “something happens” and you have to leave, you can’t carry all that. Is it better to live your entire life out of a backpack, so you’re 100% mobile at all times?
+1
“What’s the point of having tens of thousands of rounds? If something happens and you have to leave, you can’t carry all that.”
The people that do and bought it cheap aren’t the ones on here whining they can’t find ammo on the shelves. You go through 800 – 1,000 rounds just in a two day training class. I survived the past couple of lean years without having to pay exorbitant prices for a single round of ammo and still was able to shoot as much as I wanted and take some pro-training. Now that 5.56 NATO is back down to $360 – $390 a case, are people going to stock up, or are they going to whine when the next Sandy Hook happens or the next round of gun control under HRC is discussed and there is a scarcity again?
When you get down to 1,000 rounds of any caliber, you should consider yourself out of ammo for that caliber and restock.
And yes, unless you have to backpack it, you can easily carry ten ammo cans or ten cases of ammo with you if the zombies come. Unless you live in NYC and don’t have a car.
You must just be too feminine to handle it. I’ll carry 10,000 rounds all day everyday.
Hopfully, you have some realoding equipment, brass, primers, and powder so that you can use those bullets.
In .22LR, there is an actual point in having 5K to 10K rounds.
As I’ve remarked here on TTAG before, match grade .22 rifles and pistols are sensitive to the ammo you feed them. I can feed my Anschuetz rifle various grades/makes of ammo and watch the groups go from a bit over 1/2 inch to over 2″ at 50 yards – just by changing the ammo.
So when I find a loading of .22LR match ammo that groups well, feeds correctly, is reliable across 500 rounds, etc, I buy a case of that lot #, or maybe two cases if the price is good.
This way, I know I have a bunch of ammo I’ve already qualified that will “just work” for several years, and I don’t have to play around testing and re-qualifying ammo again every 500 to 1000 rounds.
22 is still hard to find, over priced or gone before i get there. i actually built my 223 AR and bought a Mosin Nagant because i was fed up with the 22 shortage. To me 22 is a nothing special round, a fun round. but its not fun when its over priced. rather pay more for something else
“22 is still hard to find, over priced or gone before i get there”
You can shop in your underwear on the web at 2:00 AM and get all the .22LR you want. Places have it on sale. Why are you complaining that your local store doesn’t have any and you have to keep running out to check? Don’t you think you are spending more money on gas and time and per-round cost doing it that way?
Some people have a hard time getting up to buying ammo online. I shot for years and probably wasted enough money to buy a case or two of ammo before I finally realized it was smarter to buy online. My justification used to be I never had enough money for a whole case of 1000rds but now there are plenty of places that sell by the box, so I just save up enough to make the shipping worth it and then I get some.
I still buy ammo in the store more than I care to admit but I at least try and only do so when I need it that day, what I want isn’t available online, or I do the math and it is at least close to what I would pay per box ordering online after shipping is accounted for.
Danny – USED to be able to shop on the net and have ammo delivered to the door….Not since January of this year though – thanks to GOv. Cuomo’s un-SAFE Act! Now we have to buy from an “authorized” ammo vendor face-to-face. THe un-SAFE Act also called for a NICS check for EACH ammo purchase!! The Feds told Cuomo’s Storm Troopers to stick it – they didn’t want to be overwhelmed by ammo purchases. Cuomo hasn’t come up with a feasible way to make that happen – yet. So, for many of us here in New Yok State, it’s haunt the shops for the elusive .22LR and hope we catch a break.
Danny, here in the Cuomo Socialist Demorap Republik of New York, we can no longer buy ammo on line, as we used to before January of this year. Cuomo’s un-SAFE Act has us making face-toface purchases with an “authorized” ammo vendor! The un-SAFE Act also called for a NICS check for EACH ammo purchase, but the Feds told Cuomo’s goons to get bent. They didn’t want to be overwhelmed with ammo puchase checks from NY State! Cuomo’s goons haven’t figured out a feasible way to make a state-run system work – yet. So, for us stuck here in New York State, it’s haunt the aisles at the shops in hopes of finding some elusive .22LR!
Yeah sure if you want to pay 10 cents a round, love them when they limit you to one box, which can’t justify the $8 to $12 dollars in freight. I just bought 325 rounds of Federal Auto Match from Midway at $16.00, of course limit one box. I had to toss few other items I had on my wish list to try to justify the freight.
You can never have too much ammo.
I have approximately 5K rounds across 5 main calibers. I would have significantly more if I could simply find some AA1680 for my 300blk loads…. I have everything to make these beautiful rounds except the powder… It makes me sad just thinking about it.
Gave up on .22LR and sold the Savage 64F. Still have my bolt action single shot .22 and a few rounds.
I know how much ammo I have, so it’s not enough.~2200 rounds 9mm and ~1200 rounds .223.
Have my Mosin and will be loading up several hundred rounds of 168gr. 7.62X54R next week.
Locally .40 is the most in stock. .45acp & 9mm are few & far .22lr & mag have
not been seen since Feb. 209 primers are a memory. I need 30/30 @ least 2 boxes of 7.62/54r. Few thousand practice rounds of 9 & .45 + more primers & powders. I bought a storage building & devoted it to reloading. 3 LEE turrets set up for pistol & rifle. Next purchase will be another blackpowder rifle & a pistol or 3. & a sig 2022 in .40 so I can take advantage of the special they have 2 free mags.
I saw .50 BMG at walmart a couple weeks ago, along with some .17 HMR and all standard flavors of handgun and hunting rifle rounds, but no frakkin .22 of course.
Do you live out by Demolition Ranch or something? I’ve been to numerous Walmarts in Houston and Tyler and never seen a box of .50 anywhere.
About 3 weeks ago my local WallyWorld (Missouri) had 50BMG, and the ammo case was completely packed full, like crammed. But not a single lowly box of 22. Now it’s less full, no 50 or 22.
Everything available but .22 here. Prices are still in flux. I set a price per round threshold by caliber and if I see it under that I’ll typically buy a hundred or two.
Lucked into 1k rounds of .22 at gander for 7.9 cents per round, since I happened to be there at opening pickup up a gun. Haven’t seen it on a shelf in 2+ years.
I honestly don’t know how much I have.
Except for odd stuff 7.62 x 45, .416, .375
.22 can be had at normal prices every other week or so.
.22 can be had at normal prices every other week or so.
What’s “normal” mean?
Usually 18-22 bucks for a 535 or 555 or 500 round brick.
I’ll stop and pick up another one or two tomorrow.
The 333 round bricks were 13 or 14 bucks.
CCI tends to run a bit more. The 300 round “Choot ’em” pack was 21 bucks. But I think it’s better ammo.
50 round boxes of .22 mag are 12-14 bucks.
There’s 9mm to be had here in southern WI, and I’m stocked for a little while. I could stand for prices to drop a bit more, though!
Still no .22 other than CCI ratshot.
Everything seems to be available at fairly reasonable prices, except for rimfire. I have plenty of major caliber ammo but sure could use a few more bricks of .22LR. The dearth of rimfire ammo is the only reason I haven’t made any recent handgun or rifle purchases in that caliber.
I would have to inventory all my ammo to tell you how much I’ve got. I had a few thousand rounds of 22lr before the craziness, and I pick up a brick anytime I see it in stock for a reasonable price. I think I now have more 22lr than before the insanity. And I have been shooting it. Which reminds me, I really need to get out to the range with my rifles.
It’s funny when people who are responsible for and perpetuate the insanity, describe it as insanity, suggesting that it’s something that’s just out there and committed by people other than themselves.
Yeah, I can’t believe these pricks are buying a product they want. Pathetic.
It’s been over 2 years since I have seen ANY .22lr at my local Walmart. I did see some on my last pilgrimage to Cabela’s, in Hamburg, PA in 2013, but it was ridiculously expensive at that time. I’m good on most everything else, but I haven’t been shooting in quite a while either. I have noticed that the local Walmart has more centerfire ammo and less empty shelf space the past few times I’ve been there, and prices seem semi-reasonable.
100 rounds each of .243, .270, .300 win mag and .338X378 KT
1000 rounds of .454 and .45 Colt
600 rounds of .45 ACP
500 rounds of .44 Mag
400 rounds of .410
500 rounds each of 20 and 12 guage
probably 1,500 rounds of .22 and .22 mag
I just wanna know how everyone is keeping their ammo? It does go bad if not kept well.
First I buy ammo with sealed primers and preferably crimped and cannelured. I store the ammo in the original box in .50 cal ammo cans with oxygen absorbers and dessicants to remove any moisture and then store the cans in a basement where it stays below 70 deg. Should keep for a long time.
^ That, right there.
50cal cans and 40mm cans. Sealed, pressure tested, and loaded with some dessicant.
I keep all of my ammo in sealed tins or mil-spec ammo cans. Loaded magazines (I keep all my mags loaded) go in those cheaper plastic ammo containers (MTM, etc.), the theory being that they’ll be cycled through sooner than the other ammo. I then stack up everything on industrial-grade wire racks – ammo on the bottom row, magazines on the upper rows. Suffice it to say, I have to be fastidious about labeling everything.
I have a single can that I use for magazines that I’ve deemed unreliable – I throw them in there unloaded. I also have a separate can that I use for open boxes of ammo (any caliber) or loose rounds, so that those get used first when I reload magazines or hit the range.
I never see .22 anywhere, and according to the counterman at WalMart (who is a shooter), there are a bunch of guys who show up at 5:30 a.m. prior to the 6:30 a.m. delivery once a week, and they buy up all of the .22 that shows up. They turn it at the local gun shows for 2x their cost. He was at another store to buy reloading supplies, and noticed that the line he was in wasn’t moving–because the guys in front of him were in line waiting an hour in advance for the ammo delivery. Until the demand drops to where theses guys can’t turn a profit on resales, I don’t think things are going to change.
.40s are common, there is more availability of .45 FMJ, and a very limited but regular supply of a very few brands of HP. 9mm is somewhat scarce, although when it is around it is $15-18 a box. .45s are running 45-50 cents a round.
I have 30k of center fire, between .223, 9, .40, .380, .45, and .30-06, and somewhere around 20k of .22LR. I restocked last year when 9mm was $.30 in bulk and .223 was $.40. Sure, I paid a little more than if I waited, but you never know when the next panic is coming.
Planning on opening an ammo store? I’m jealous!
Plenty here , but keep reloading anyway . BPAR . KYPD .
I have a better question, got powder and primers?
IMHO, when ammo was scarce, many went crazy purchasing reloading equipment. Now reloading components like powder or primers are scarce. I have not found Vargant in months.
I am hoping the shortage is over and I can find powder more easily and maybe pick up some slightly used reloading equipment for cheap.
I’m seeing primers back in stock in quantity. Powder, however, is only slowly coming in.
I see IMR 4064 regularly in stock – this would work well in .308’s and .30-06’s. I’ve seem IMR 3031 on shelves recently, which would work OK in .223’s.
I’ve seen Benchmark powder, and I’ve swooped in on several pounds of that stuff, which I have to try this summer, same for CFE 223 powder.
It has been over a year since I’ve seen Varget, 4350, 4831, Re15, Re17, etc.
Shotgun powders are easy to find, as are BP substitutes.
I have seen no pistol powders here in SE Montana. I wanted to start reloading .40 and 9mm during the long winter months but have been completely unable to find it. I know its available online but I don’t need enough to buy in bulk. I have seen a lot of primers though fat lot of good that does me.
No guns or ammo..boating accident.
I know, right? You think I’d stop canoeing given how many FAs have ended up on the bottom on that stream. Damn tippy canoes. 😉
Yawn.
Just use Gunbot.net
Plenty of ammo to be had
not if you live in on of the increasing number of jurisdictions were the sellers wont ship (even if legal)
22lr – 10k
5.56/223 – 3k
.40S&W – 1.5k
.308 – 1.5k
If anyone wants to trade some standard velocity .22lr, for high velocity, lemme know.
Got a good stock, but there’s always room for more.
I don’t think a person can ever have “too much” ammo. One could acquire “enough”, but enough for what?
My basic rule of thumb is 1k rounds of each caliber always on hand, anything over that is for the range. Well…except for the 300WM, haven’t quiet reached CEO status yet.
Heh. Too much only applies if you’ve run out of all reasonable (and somewhat less reasonable) places to store it.
Of course, stacked 50cal cans and some wood make for a good dining room table, right? 😉
Right now, I’ve got:
1.3k 5.56
2k 9mm
900 12ga
And
1.5k 22lr
I’d be a nervous wreck if I had that few .22LR. I know. I have issues 😉
Plenty of 9mm, 45ACP & 5.56 but I sure would like to find some .22LR
what is considered a stockpile of 22 ammunition now days?
Depends on how much you shoot, I suppose.
My family shoots quite a bit of .22LR. 10K wouldn’t last long around here.
When the boys move up to .223 I’m going to be broke. 😉 Or, like dad, they will understand the importance of training with .22LR if you lack the funds of an oil mogul.
train with a bolt action 22 it will help save some ammo $$$ and help more with accuracy. 🙂
That right there is why we go through so much (and why there is at least one bolt-action 22 for each member of my family). That aside, pistol training with the M&P22s goes through quite a bit as well (even limiting speed and magazine size during sessions).
I can spend hours sitting at the bench with one of the 22 bolt guns shooting the various steel targets I have set up at various ranges and positions. It is amazing to look down and realize the 500 round box has vanished 😀 Particularly when I use a single shot adapter on my favorite bolt 22.
2200 rounds of 22lr
Some of you may be overlooking the obvious:
It’s not important why there is an ammo shortage.
What’s important is that Obama, Bloomberg and the Clinton’s have lawyers looking at ALL the rules and regs, so do the environmentalists.
They are looking for a loophole through the courts, OSHA, EPA and other alphabet agencies to declare ammo outlawed or to shut down some ammo plants.
Look how ATF shut down that Russian (?) ammo from being imported because it could be used in a rare pistol (rare to me).
Many of us were surprised by the shortage, there will be another surprise, I just don’t know what it will be.
Advice: buy two, shoot one til you have over (2k) of each caliber. Then relax for a few days til the next shortage.
My time is too valuable to wait in line for a box of ammo. . . . .unless it’s a case.
Haven’t had too many problems. Even the local Bass Pro seems to have high velocity .22LR about 3 out of 4 times when I stop by for about $2.50/box of 50 (limit 2 boxes). Not sure how many rounds I have now in what calibers, but it isn’t enough.
Everything is available now. I even saw .22lr in a store for the first time in a year or more, but it was Remington golden bullets for 10 cents a round, so I passed. I picked up 5,000 rounds of Federal in January, 2013, and have been slowly working through that pile ever since. I think I’m between 1 and 2k left of that stash.
For everything else I shoot I have plenty stockpiled (at least 1000 rounds of most calibers).
Meanwhile, I’ve seen bulk 5.56 for 33 cents, bulk 9mm for 23 cents and even bulk 300BLK for under 60 cents, so I think it’s safe to say that the bigger caliber phase of the ammo shortage is over. Hopefully rimfire will start trickling back onto shelves (and settle back to sensible prices) fairly soon.
If you haven’t figured out by now that you need to reload, you deserve the ammo drought.
Sound advice, except that bullets, powders, and primers were just as hard to find as complete ammunition during the shortage. Some powders are still tough to locate. Reloading doesn’t magically make you immune to the laws of supply and demand.
I keep a private stock of about 200 rounds of SD ammo, and typically 100 or so of practice/FMJ ammo.
As for general availability, here in the Atlanta area, 9mm is relatively easy to find, with boxes of 50 running generally around the $15 mark for FMJ and closer to $30 for SD ammo (typically 20-25 counts). The issue is if you are fond of a particular brand, the popular ones (Federal HST/American Eagle, Hornady CD, etc.) are typically the most scarce, but can be found at gun shops. All the ammo brands that I wouldn’t let come near my firearms is typically filling the shelves.
Now, that is talking gun shops. If you want to find ammo at Wally-World, good luck there. Typically when I go, the shelves are barren for 9mm and the more popular rounds. Typically it’s just a stock of bird and buck shot on the shelves.
I have more .22 than I ever had, and I get cheap bricks whenever I desire!
Seems like I am in the same boat as many others, 22LR being hard to find. I frequent AmmoSeek and GunBot but all the sub 10 cent per round is either crap or sold out. I’ve even caught the deals as they hit the sites (within 5 minutes of posting on Gunbot) but once I head to the actual site hosting the ammo its all sold out.
This really chaps my hide. Unless there are a million other guys doing the exact same thing I am or these sites are only showing a few boxes as being in stock at a time in order to get their site’s name close to the top of the list while still not losing profits…
I say this because its the same sites every day (e.g. Gouging Mountain).
The positive aspect to the shortage is the emergence of small to medium sized reloading companies selling at fair prices. I have few problems buying reman rounds from HSM, Georgia Arms and a few others. Before all the madness I never would have considered them…
In my part of the Catskills, just about everything is available, even at Wal-Mart, with the exception of .22LR. 9mm is a bit scarce right now, but it can be found with a minimum of effort. And Wally World had Tula 45ACP on sale for $10/50 rounds, but that stuff doesn’t play well with my gun, so I passed.
I’ve also been able to get primers of all types and some powder, too.
A couple weeks ago I stopped in at the new Academy Sports in Florence, SC. They had a small supply of .22LR with a 2 box limit per customer. I bought 2 boxes of CCI Blazer for $2.69 each.
I’ve been doing some math on the rimfire situation. Let’s step through some basic numbers.
Before this crunch, I’d read in several places that the US produced about 1.2 billion rounds of .22LR per year. .22 ammo was available and at (compared to now) cheap prices.
Suddenly, the legislative push for “more control” happened and .22LR (along with everything else) disappeared. From talking to distributors who sell only to FFL’s, they tell me that they’ve been completely stripped for over a year too. They used to have pallets of .22LR just sitting there in warehouses, waiting to fill orders to FFL’s and retailers. By March 2013, they were cleaned out, several have told me.
OK, so let’s say that US .22LR production is at 2 billion rounds per year. Sounds like a lot, right? What would it take to dry that up?
2.0E09 / 500 = 4.0E06 or “4 million.” Let’s say there’s 80 million gun owners in the US. Surveys put the number higher recently, but let’s call it 80, for the sake of argument. 4 million people buying a brick of .22LR is only 5% of US gun owners, and those people, buying only one 500 round brick, completely consumed a 2 billion round/year production of ammo.
So let’s say that we have 8 million US gun owners who want to buy two bricks. We’re still nowhere near the range of “hoarding.” I buy .22LR ammo a case (10 bricks) at a time, and that might last me two years. But let’s just say 10% of US gun owners buying 1,000 rounds per year. That’s 8 billion rounds of .22LR.
The industry is probably pulling out all the stops to get to 4 to 5 billion rounds of .22LR per year. To get to 8 billion rounds will take some serious expansion.
I can get anything I want except that 22LR has gone missing again. Sure glad I acquired an extra 2500 rounds before it went missing. I can still get 100 rounds per visit at the gun club.
Talked to a salesman at Cabela’s. He said the reason they don’t have powder and ammo, is because the send it all to new stores when they open. Ain’t that a crock!
On the bright side, cabelas in Tualatin is scheduled for a mid September opening…
The closer one is to being a member of the Well Regulated Militia the crazier the response from the Progressive Media
Walmarts here in Columbia SC tend to get ammo on Fridays it seems. I’ve been fortunate to find 22LR: several boxes of Winchester wannabe minimags, CCI Minimags and two 1000 rd boxes of buik (never saw those in Walmart before). They also haven’t raised their prices much that I’ve noticed…perhaps the ppr went up when they changed to bulk boxes of 300 rd 22LR but it’s pretty much around 5 cents for bulk and 7 to 8 cents for Minimags.
Palmetto State Armory pretty much constantly has it in stock if you’re willing to pay 10 cents a round plus tax or shipping.
The first step to the price going down is for the price to be high enough for stores to be able to keep it on their shelves, which seems to be happening, at least at PSA….
Dyspeptic Gunsmith: Except that probably 1/2 of all 22lr is imported. But even throwing that into the mix, you’re right.
I buy from the CMP and it’s over a year to get a case. Fortunately it’s been boom or bust in the past a few times so I was prepared this time. My order from Nov ’13 should be here about mid ’14.
I don’t know if 50% of all .22LR is imported. Most of the bulk ammo production probably comes from Winchester/Remington/Federal/CCI in the US.
CCI, last I knew, is now doing over a billion rounds/year all by themselves. That’s pretty impressive, IMO.
The import stuff is predominately in the higher end of the market – RWS, Lapua, Eley, Wolf Match etc. Then there’s PMC (Korea), Aguila (Mexico) and Wolf grungy stuff (Russia), etc.
I have “enough ammo” to get me by. Would always like to have some more but budget isn’t allowing for it right now. I don’t want to have so much ammo that I can’t take it all when SHTF.
22lr is pretty much non-existent here in Northwest Ohio and if you can find it you are going to pay dearly for it.
I have since given up on 22lr and switched to 17hmr, more expensive but much better performance.
Everything except 22lr is pretty much available when you want it.
Reloading supplies are relatively easy to find. Plenty of primers and powder to be had. Bullets are hard to find right but then again that is what the internet is for.
Standing in a Gander Mtn in Racine, WI. They have loads of everything except .22lr and .380. I’m good on 9mm and .223, don’t need much .380 but would like to stock up on more .22lr.
I’ve built up a reasonable stock of 5.56mm, .38, .45 and .30-06. I’ve also got about 3k rounds of .22LR which is almost all pre – Obama. I break out a few rounds – no more than a hundred or so – of .22 now and then to keep in practice. I bought a Gamo .177 air rifle at Christmas to satisfy my urge to shoot cheaply.
In the Oklahoma city area I see .22LR occasionally at Academy Sports but mostly off brands. The only CCI .22s in the state are in shooter’s safes. I can find .22 on line through Gunbot for a dime a round. Any time .22 ammo that’s any cheaper than the magic dime price point shows up its gone in less than five minutes.
These days my big gripe is finding reloading powder. I can find bullets – I just received a good shipment of .45 and 9mm ball today. I’m pretty good for brass as I work as an RSO for our sheriff’s department. I can even find primers. Powder is another story. There isn’t any pistol powder to be had anywhere. Yes I’ve checked all of the major and not so major vendors and Gunbot. Is it all going into new ammunition? The only rifle powder I see is for magnum loads. So its always one piece of the puzzle that’s missing.
This video was posted about a month ago. It shows the CCI plant making .22LR at a rate of 4 million rounds per day. Kind of interesting to see the whole process. And at 4 million rounds per day, one would think they are helping to decrease the shortage. Although, I have a LGS near me in northern Illinois that always has .22LR in stock, and always at a fair price. He’s the only one, though. Everybody else is either out (big box stores) or they are gouging (other LGS) so he is my sole source, other than an occasional steal via the interwebs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5qMsmucXhI
I’m sure that CCI is cranking the rounds out but where are they going? I think that they have a special production line that goes directly to the retired guys who stand in line at Wally World at 5am on Tuesdays so they can turn that ammo over for fifty cents a round at the next gun show. I haven’t seen one round of CCI .22 for sale in two years.
mmmmm .22 …delicious.
The local gun shop that I drive by on the way home every day has had .22LR for a month or so. It’s $50/brick—more than I’ll pay. Everything else is easy to get, but the inflated prices of everything these days is pretty annoying. Thanks Fed and gov’t!
That’s in Tacoma, by the way.
I picked up 5 of those 333 Winchester packs this week featured at the top of the page: I paid $14.99 for each (around $0.05/round). There isn’t a shortage up here in Canada.
(there IS a shortage of decent gun laws, however)
I’ve got about 850 RDS of 9mm (my only caliber (new gun owner)) sitting in my ammo can right now. I’d love to have more, but unfortunately I live in MA (which I believe you refer to as “one of ‘those’ states”) and we can’t purchase ammo online thanks to the AG. Prices at the local shop vary – 50 rd boxes of blazer 9mm can sometimes be had for $15 when they’re running a deal – mostly without a limit. Standard price for 50 rd FMJ is $18.99+ though. Last week I got a couple 100 rd boxes of Eagle for $30 ea. and found some Tula for $13.50/50. My buddy in Texas can get decent FMJ for $12.50/50. Can’t wait to move…
Today both my local Gander Mountain and a local gun shop had .22LR in stock. Norma TAC-22, $7.99/50rds (only one box per customer); Federal AutoMatch $19.99/325rds; CCI “Quiet 22” SHP 710FPS $7.99/50rds. It’s more available now than it has been for at least a year.
No, I don’t have enough ammo, and it’s one of the issues that is a cause of some concern. Prices are decent, so I’m trying to replenish my lost stock, and I’m finally ready to shoot .22 LR again.
As I’ve said before, I strongly recommend that other people stock up now. We’re enjoying a relative calm, but it won’t last.
Amazing how “under 10 cents/rd” is the new bargain slogan these days for 22LR. Just two years ago anything over 5 cents/rd was considered a sin, unless it was premium match ammo.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Folks need to learn to reload.
At the very least, keep your brass. OK, so you don’t reload (yet). But if you ever do want to reload, saving your brass that is in good shape is like saving actual money in a sock drawer, especially for the rarer rifle brass.
I’ll give but a couple of examples: It used to be when I was a pup, you could get mil-surp ’06 ammo and brass all day, every day. Not any more. There’s barely any mil-surp ’06 ammo to be had, and as a result, when you go around looking for ’06 brass, now, you’re paying upwards of $0.50/per case for commercial brass.
In military production brass, Lake City is some of the best stuff out there. Lake City Match is, IMO, better because you won’t have to deal with the primer pocket crimp.
Federal, Hornady, Nosler and others are very good brass. NATO mil-spec brass will have a circle with a cross in it.
One of the easier ways to get quality brass is to buy loaded quality ammo and keep the brass. One of the biggest issues you’re paying for in premium quality ammo is the consistency of the brass. Consistent brass (case wall thickness, concentricity of the neck thickness) is important to accuracy. If you’re running a bolt gun and you only neck size your fired brass and you anneal the necks every couple/three reloadings, you could get a lot of life out of quality brass. Consider it an investment.
^^^ THIS ^^^
I reload 9mm through .50 bmg. I save a huge amount reloading.
A good range day is at least a thousand rounds.
I can reload 5.56 (.223), for about $105 bucks a thousand.
Plinker .50 runs me about .96 cents apiece.
That’s using my recycled brass. Add 55-60 bucks if I buy brass. (Weidners has once fired lake city today for $53/K.
My .375 H&H runs a bit over a buck a round to reload. If I buy it, it’s usually 4-5 bucks a round.
.416 runs 6-8 bucks a round if I buy it. About $1.75 to reload.
I would really like to know how you manage 10.5 cents/round for .223. The bullets I order cost more than that. I reuse my brass, bullets run 12 to 16 cents for 55gr. FMJ (depends on quantity) primers 4 cents and powder charge is 11 cents. Average 30 cents a round.
Bulk orders. Go in with a few friends. We’ll order 50-100K at a pop.
Same with powder and primers.
Last 8lb kegs of powder I bought were $70 each.
Primers were $28/k.
Saves on haz mat charge as well.
So, after looking online at minimal orders, you are correct.
Order through a club, gun range or FFL. Get with friends. You’ll save!
thanks Dys, great advice. This is what I do with .40 (federal) and .270 (hornady, nosler); save that good stuff in coffee cans, until I have time and $$$ to invest in the reloading gear and supplies.
I read somewhere, before the crunch, that it was around 12-15,000 rounds to break-even for a decent set up, considering costs of powder, primer, equipment, and the extra cost of good ammo, to use for the brass, vs just buying off the shelf.
After that you are making money. I suppose thats changed and is a smaller number to break even, given off the shelf good stuff has gone up since.
Where’s the powder?
I sold my AR-22 upper and 8 mags (which I bought to save money on 223) so I could buy more 223!
The time for toys is over
Things are not much better in Canada. Although I do have a healthy stock.
5.5k 22
2.2k 7.62×25
700 12ga
2.5k 223
1.2k 308
500 40
I think I need to get some 40.
Dear Robert:
I’m so tired of bathing in .22 LR. Will I exfoliate better with 7.62×39?
I’ve got about 1200 9mm and about 850 .223 rounds, some 150ish .308 and about 300 .45. It’s not tons but it’s enough. I shoot mostly .223 and 9mm so that’s what I spend money on stocking up on.
I see just about every caliber you could ask for at my local Walmart, except .22LR. For some reason they only have it in stock on occasion.
Since .22LR is what the whole family shoots, I’m more sensitive to its seeming disappearance here in the St. Louis Metro East area. However, there’s mail order houses where I know I can find it at acceptable prices, I know where there’s a reasonable chance to find it locally if I wanted to play that “chase game” and my gun club has .22LR at $2.50/box, though they limit it to 2 boxes per day.
I’d say I’m a bit over 4000 rounds of various grains and velocities. I generally don’t get bulk, so it’s bricks of 10 boxes of 50. Got a few bricks this spring, so I’ve been shooting off last years cheap stuff – the Aguila SV and the American Eagle HV – for plinking. Pulling out the good target or CCI LRN on occasion to keep up practice on 100yd. I’ll worry about restocking when I’m down to around 3000. That pretty much is a full ammo can.
I’ve gotten lucky recently with 2,500 rounds of 22LR and 22WMR with Gander Mountain and Sportsmans Guide and free shipping. 5¢ a round for 22 is the best I can find, sometimes 4¢ for Blazer or American Eagle bulk. Even Winchester M-22 shows up at the Walmart and Academy. So it is definitely better than it was, and there is more out there coming into the market at “normal” prices than there was a year ago.. Still some retailers like LuckyGunner, TargetSports, CTD and others still post 22lr and 22 WMR for really high prices in addition to their high shipping prices for some other retailers. But so far, I have been able to keep shooting by looking and signing up for notifications, and using the ammo engines. For just about every other round, I have not had any problems finding ammo at good pricing. Even hard to find versions of certain calibers have shown up regularly. I thought 7.5 GP11Swiss had dried up in surplus for a while, and what was around the prices had shot up. Then suddenly it was everywhere. Priced higher than before, but not CTD or LuckyGunner rimfire type pricing. Same with some match type surplus rounds in 7.62x54R and 8MM Mauser surplus..So all around the board, it does seem to be significantly better. The popular rimfire rounds are the one who are slowly improving. Very slow it seems though. I am still in awe of how quickly a country became so openly afraid of their government nd what its actions where going to be. And the administration still thinks that scaring the majority of the country into a gun and ammo buying spree is because of the NRA and any number of reasons. But not that the country actually distrusts them to that extent. because they know better than us don’t you know?
Nice try NSA…
Comments are closed.