Posted on 01/12/2014 9:39:52 PM PST by servo1969
Let me tell you why you can't find any .22 ammo.
Yes, people are buying it and selling it online. Yes, people are hoarding it. But these alone are not enough to make the supply at gun stores as low as they've been. The manufacturers are cranking out .22 as fast they can. 24/7. Wide open. Some are still backlogged for over a year. Where is it going? Why isn't it reaching the smaller stores like it used to? Here's the secret: IT IS.
You see, when your local gun dealer tells you he only got a few boxes of .22, there's a chance he's lying right to your face. He didn't get just a few boxes of .22; He got a whole case. He even might be getting a case a week depending on his back-orders. But he knows he can't charge you 300-500% retail for ammo and have any customers left. So, he only puts maybe 25% of what he received on the shelf. (If it's high quality .22 like, say, CCI Mini-Mags he doesn't put any of it out! It's too hot a commodity to waste on you.) The rest he posts for sale under a fake name on GunBroker. He makes 10 - 30 cents a round from the suckers buying .22 there. And why are they buying it? Because they need .22 ammo and their local shops just can't seem to get any. Isn't that weird?
Now that's capitalism and that's how things work. If he can get that much and he doesn't care about anything but his bottom line then so be it. But capitalism works both ways. If people stopped buying .22 ammo at auction sites there would be no incentive for local FFLs to put their shipments online. They would start putting their .22 back on the shelves and tell their store customers 'Man, it sure is nice that the .22 is finally coming back in, huh?'
So this will go on until people stop buying .22 on auction sites. Let the people on these sites sit on their .22 ammo long enough and they will put it back out on the shelf to move it and make some money. That's the main thing that needs to happen.
If you're buying .22 from GunBroker or some other auction site try to stop. Tells everyone you know not to buy from these places either. Stores like W-mart and Academy are getting .22 regularly but you have to get there early to get any. There are limits to how much you can buy at one time but they are still selling it at the regular price. I haven't seen them price gouging.
Just my 2 cents.
I’ve heard horror stories like that all over the place – thankfully some have marked the side of the boat where it happened to help find where all that stuff is..
Mr. GG2 just scored some .22LR at Walmart for $6.00
ctdonath2 nailed it.
People don’t want to ever face a shortage of ammo again, so everyone’s goal is to lay in a lifetime supply of ammo as quickly as they can. With the prices of .22LR, this is actually achieveable from a cost standpoint. 20k rnds of .22lr at .06/rnd is only $1200. So, everyone has allocated money in their personal budgets to buy .22lr to stockpile - hence demand outstrips supply and will continue to outstrip supply for the foreseeable future.
I’ve noticed what seems like more imported ammo at stores’ sporting goods depts. I’m not sure how foreign sources figure in?
An interesting question, if there is so little capability to “ramp up”, is what happens in the event of a protracted shooting war? How many rounds did our armed forces go through in Vietnam, in, say, 1968? (Yes, I know our armed forces aren’t plinking away with .22’s — this is more of a general question.)
I’m not buying now anyway - prices are too high, I don’t have the spare $$, and I’m not an “enthusiast”. (The biggest thing I’ve “fired” in the last few years is a 800 fps BB gun!)
There’s no shortage in Alberta, come on up.
Most likely the 40 round boxes are American Eagle .22 rounds. Other brands are sold in 50 round boxes.
Don’t go ruining a good conspiracy theory with facts and math. :) But I say you’re right.
I was in Academy the other day and the ammo shelves were full of everything.
I have to agree with the person that put his or her 2 cents in about why we can’t get 22 ammo. I live in Arizona and a friend of mine worked for Walmart, he told me that the management will take the ammo hide it and when they get off work they will buy it, then sale it on Craig’s list. People need to just calm down and stop buying 22 ammo or other ammo as well just for awhile, then you should starts to see it in your stores. Paying 45 or 60 for 22 ammo is just plain retarded, the price people are charging on line is stupid, and those buying it isn’t any smarter, they call them idiots.
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