Wal-Mart Removes 3-Box limit on .22 LR Ammunition?

Gun Watch ^ | 9 June, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

I have been monitoring the availability of .22 rimfire ammunition at Wal-Mart stores whenever one is convenient or I am visiting one. The availability of .22 ammunition has been creeping up for about a year, but the pace has been variable and slow.

I was surprised to see four buckets of Golden Bullet .22 Long Rifles at the local Wal-Mart, with 1,400 rounds each, available for $73.64 or 5.26 cents per round.  The hundred round boxes were much more expensive at $7.76 per box, or 7.76 cents per round. Together the buckets and boxes amounted to 6,400 rounds.

What was interesting is was what was missing.  The signs on the displays that declared a limit to retail customers of three boxes of .22 ammunition a day, were gone.

None of these signs were visible at the ammunition counter. They have been in Wal-Marts for years during the .22 ammunition bubble. Most retail stores had limits on how much could be purchased, in an attempt to make some .22 ammunition available to most customers.  The three round limit was routinely circumvented by people who wanted to buy more ammunition. They left the store and came back to purchase from a different clerk. They brought in wives and girlfriends to purchase three boxes each. They brought in relatives and friends. They recruited non-shooting neighbors. The ammunition delivered to Wal-Mart disappeared from the shelves in hours to semi-professional ammo buyers who sold it online or at gun shows, with prices doubled or quadrupled over what they had paid.

This could only continue as long as demand outstripped supply. Numerous new shooters have joined the gun culture under the Obama administration. Fear of the imposition of strict controls lead to the desire to stockpile ammunition. In response, the manufacturers eventually increased plant to produce more supply. Aguila doubled their production. Vista Outdoors (Federal and CCI) increased there production capacity by 20%.  It was scheduled to come online this year.

I asked the person at the counter what had happened to the limit signs.  He said they had been gone for about a week.  I asked him if it was an individual policy of this store.  He said that he understood it to be a policy that "had come down from Corporate".

Looking at ammo sites that aggregate online ammo sellers and prices, nearly all the limits had been removed two weeks ago.  There were four brands that were being offered with unlimited .22 LR at prices under 5 cents per round, not counting shipping. They were Aguila, Browning, Federal, and Remington.

Considerable .22 ammunition has been available at many dedicated gun store for months, but limits were still common, and prices were relatively high, often 10 cents per round or more.

To confirm the Wal-Mart removal of the .22 LR limits as a national phenomena, Wal-Mart public relations was contacted to comment.

No response has been received as of publication.

Readers who are in a position to check Wal-Mart ammunition counters near them are invited to report on what they find. Is there .22 LR available? Are there signs limiting the purchase of .22 LR? What is the price of .22 LR in your location?

In November of 2016, I predicted the price of bulk .22 LR ammunition would fall to 4 cents a round or below by October of this year. I stand by that prediction.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[marktwain]

The .22 ammuntion bubble has not burst, but it appears to be deflating.

[DIRTYSECRET]

BB’s

[Ancesthntr]

Thanks for posting this.

Does anyone know where you can get Aguila 60 grain sub-sonic sniper in a store? Academy no longer carries it, and I don’t believe that Walmart or Bass Pro ever did.

[Fido969]

5 cents a round for .22?

Cripes no wonder there’s “no limit.” No limit to getting scr#wed.

[grobdriver]

At a nickle a round, they can keep their .22 stuff.

Maybe when they run out of storage space they'll start pricing it more reasonable.

Screw this "new normal" stuff!

[marktwain]

It is available online for 10-15 cents per round.

I have not seen it in stores.

I have some, but the hazmat fees make it prohibitive to ship.

[smokingfrog]

Academy Sports was keeping their .22 ammo behind the sales counter, but it was on the end cap in front of gun sales the last time I was there. I was able to buy a full brick of my favorite copper plated hollow point ammo for the first time in 6 or 7 years.

[Carthego delenda est]

It’s a shame that today’s youth just starting out in shooting sports will never know the days of cheap ammo: 550 round boxes of Federal .22 for under $5, or all the military surplus ammo that used to cost less than what .22’s are selling for now.

[jdietz]

This was a planned fake shortage to get the price up. I predicted that within a year of Trump’s election that the shortage would end.

I also warned the gun dealers and speculators around here that the prices of firearms would drop.

A DPMS AR15 for $400.00. Yep, I was right.

A lot of speculators around here have lost big.

[Perseverando]

I saw some Federal .22 lr, 40 gr, round nose for $17.46 for 325 last week. That’s 5.4 cents a round.

[IYAS9YAS]

Not seeing much in the way of bricks, but there’s a lot of CCI in smaller quantities.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“This was a planned fake shortage to get the price up. I predicted that within a year of Trump’s election that the shortage would end. I also warned the gun dealers and speculators around here that the prices of firearms would drop. A DPMS AR15 for $400.00. Yep, I was right. A lot of speculators around here have lost big.”

Nice self congratulations for winning the “Captain Obvious Award”.

[BigpapaBo]

Near Madistan- Wally World has the same prices in the pic. 100rd boxes available only right now. Cabelas has them for slightly higher for the same units. They do have a greater selection with most priced in the 7-12 cents per round. I’ll wait.... Still working on my stash.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I was surprised to see four buckets of Golden Bullet .22 Long Rifles at the local Wal-Mart, with 1,400 rounds each, available for $73.64 or 5.26 cents per round. ***

I still have several boxes bought years ago. 500 rounds for $5.00. I haven’t shot much in the last eight years. Saving it for that “rainy day”.

[marktwain]

This was a planned fake shortage to get the price up. I predicted that within a year of Trump’s election that the shortage would end.

---

Why would the people who planned the shortage want it to end?

Who are you saying planned it? How did they execute their plan?

I do not see your logic. I predicted the prices would fall after Trump’s election too, on the obvious thought that the *demand* for guns and ammo would drop.

[Obadiah]

This .22 “shortage” remains a mystery to me. There is no seemingly logical reason for it. Sure, back when Imam Obama was threatening to go British on us, but it was pretty obvious all in his last year in office that Obama was nothing more than a bloviating lame duck.

So, beginning in mid-2105 the availability and price of .22 ammo should have begun to become abundantly available again with a return to normal pricing. So it has been nearly two years since the dynamics have been a near certainty for a market recalibration, and yet it apparently is still iffy.

I’m not going to go out and say that anyone is profiteering, but the market for most firearms are at normal standards, yet the price and availability of .22 ammo is not. Why not? And don’t tell me it’s happening. The point is it should have fully corrected long ago as this has been going on for the better part of 5-8 years now!

Somethin’ ain’t right.

[umgud]

When our new ammo law here in CA takes effect next year, I doubt Wal-Mart will continue to sell ammo.

[dangerdoc]

I can still reload 9mm for about that price per round. 9mm is more fun. I’ll wait till prices come down before resuming .22 shooting.

[marktwain]

So, beginning in mid-2105 the availability and price of .22 ammo should have begun to become abundantly available again with a return to normal pricing. So it has been nearly two years since the dynamics have been a near certainty for a market recalibration, and yet it apparently is still iffy.

---

The explanation is simple. It was a bubble. Bubbles are commonly throughout history, and tend to defy logic.

Once the .22 ammo bubble started, it inflated itself. Now it is deflating because the manufacturers have increased the supply and the demand has started to slack off.

What you or I might see as “obvious” is not at all “obvious” to everyone else.

I saw the housing bubble as a bubble long before it popped in 2008. But most people did not. That is the nature of bubbles.

Why did the housing bubble go on for as long as it did?

Why did the South Sea bubble last as long as it did? Isaac Newton, a true genious, made then lost, a fortune in that bubble.

Why did the Tulip bubble last as long as it did?

Bubbles are impervious to logic.

You are correct. Somethin’ ain’t right.

Because it is a bubble.

[discostu]

So they finally go bored with their artificial scarcity. Really, outside of WM 22 ammo has been abundant. Even IN WM if you’re willing to wait for 10 minutes for them to reload the 3 boxes.