I was in Cabelas in Louisville a couple of months ago. Man in the ammo dept told me he got 100,000 rounds of 22LR in and sold all of them in a half a Saturday. No purchasing agents there from DHS.
Until the Great Ammo Shortage I did 80% of my range practice with the 22. Primarily for economics because the marksmanship techniques are the same regardless of caliber. Right now, because of availability and cost, 80% has been the AK. Now that AR is down to almost normal levels (online anyway) it’s finally going to get some range time.
I had a pretty good inventory of 22LR before the shortage & what I purchased since has been only at the right price, rare but it has happened. But I’m sitting on them until a (relatively) normal market in 22LR returns. Only shooting what can be replaced at decent price and only buying what I shoot. IOW, not using much.
Point is, even though I’m in good shape, if Walmart had bricks tomorrow at $30 or less, I’d buy 4 of them and then spend some real time at the range, use them all. I’m guessing there are a lot like me. From here on in, my standard *minimum* inventory is greater than it was 2 years ago when I could stroll in Wally World and get CCI mini mags for $7.95 a hundred.
The last time I was in my local WalMart here in Maine, there was an 8” x 10” flyer taped to the ammo cabinet, warning people that certain lots of 22LR ammo was being recalled because each round had twice the normal amount of powder in each round.
The flyer listed the lot numbers, and said the rounds could kill or injure the person using a firearm with the defective ammo. I wish I had a copy of that directive....perhaps it’s posted online somewhere.