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Have you tried to find any .22LR lately? As in the last 7 months? I heard stories about gougers buying by the pallet, but every true live dealer I've talked to told me the customers bought as usual, but the supply was cut off. Gun stores open for 40 years get 2 or 3 bricks of .22LR per month. That is if they order from several wholesalers and keep those orders active at all times.

Dealers tell me they have never seen anything like this in 20, 30, or 40 years depending how long they have been open.

Does anyone have any ideas what causes the most common and cheap ammo to dry up as it has if the government isn't behind it?

I’ve been buying or trying to buy 22 LR for the last 6 months in earnest. As the first few months went on, customers were lined up in Walmart on Thursday and Saturday mornings 6-10 deep waiting on the employees to put out 22 LR or 9mm (their two most scarce calibers).

In the last 6-8 weeks, WM has been getting in more regular supplies of 22 LR in my town as well as 9mm....sometimes even what they put out lasts the whole day they put it out, and once in a while it is there the day after.

They are regularly putting out .223 and 5.56, 45 ACP, 40 S&W (even 380 and 32 ACP once a month)....I’ve also bought a few hundred rounds of 357 magnum...

The most scarce round I see right now at WM and other places is 22 Magnum Rimfire.....

I agree with you, I’ve asked around when I do go out. 22LR is rarely available. One guy I know said that right now .45 costs just about as much as 22 LR per round. And according to articles I’ve read the manufacturers of 22 LR are making it as fast as they can.

So where is the choke point? I don’t know, but I’m sure somebody does.

Ammo. I know ammo, been shooting for over 40 years. Just last week I saw the first box of .22LR at Walmart in 6 months. It was one single little 50 rd. box of Winchester priced at $3.50. I was amazed to see it. I already have 5000 rds of .22 I bought years ago, so let that poor little box pass at that price. It was gone the next day. Again last week WM had ten boxes of Federal .45acp Ball at $20 per box. I might have bought two, but was cash poor that day. The next day, all gone again. The lack of .22 LR is the most amazing thing. I call the “we are making it as fast as we can” story as Bull-S&%t. No way could full production of .22 not showing up on shelves. There is a rat in the woodpile.

Dealers tell me they have never seen anything like this in 20, 30, or 40 years depending how long they have been open.

Well duh! Dealers will also tell you that thanks to Odumbo, they have sold more firearms in the last year than at any time in 20, 30, or 40 years depending how long they have been open. People who buy guns also want to buy ammo. Make sense?

I have no doubt that the Obama regime has put the word out, however tacitly yet clearly, that federal agencies should take whatever steps necessary to impinge upon the second amendment. These steps include:

1)Intimidating anyone who deals with the manufacture and sale of firearms, ammunition, and firearms related industries. Just look at what Obama-friendly businesses have done, such as GE Capital denying credit to gun stores. Or Bank of America refusing to do business with gun manufacturers.

2)DHS and other agencies buying up all ammo designed to create commercial shortages.

3) The destruction of once-fired military brass rather than selling it through auction as has been custom.

4) Putting out the word to political aspirants (Cuomo, Hickenlooper, etc.) that passing gun control legislation will earn you national political points allowing you career advancement.

Having said all this, also part of the problem is people buying up ammo with reckless abandon. They are piling it high and stacking it deep. This is creating shortages. Unless .22 manufacturers are lying about full production, there is no other explanation for .22 shortages other than people are hoarding the stuff and this is adding to the sense of shortage, which is leading to the sense of fear, which is leading to people hoarding even more.