I haven't been shopping for ammunition recently, and an acquaintance is looking for ammunition for her .22 rifle. She didn't mention if she wanted rimfire or centerfire...would that make much difference? I'm new and have used only rimfire.
Is anyone else having trouble finding ammo in ID? If yes, are you going online to purchase. If not, where in ID has supplies to sell? We're in SW Idaho, Boise.
Thank you in advance!
I'm not in ID but nationwide, ammunition, and in particular .22 ammo, has been very scarce. It is starting to come back but .22 is probably the last. It is hit or miss...try your local outlets often and find out when their shipments come in. Be there...
Online - use gunbot.net to search.
As for rimfire vs centerfire. They are not interchangeable. Does your friend have a .22 rimfire? If so, that's what you need to buy. Specifically, find out if it is .22 Magnum, Long Rifle, Long or Short. They are all different.
If centerfire, it could be a myriad of different calibers. .223 Remington, .22 Hornet, .222 Magnum, .22-250, .220 Swift, etc, etc, etc. Find out what it is and buy THAT EXACT CALIBER.
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Hi Sheila, welcome to Boise! (Be sure to check the calendar for our next shoot in Nampa, Oct 26-27)
Like ST said, ammo has been scarce for a few years now, and it's finally starting to show up on the shelves again. 22LR ammo stays on the shelf for about half of a heartbeat, if it isn't sold right out of the truck. The supply seems to be increasing, but the demand doesn't seem to have tapered-off much.
The major stores (Walmart, Cabela's, Sportsman's Warehouse, etc.) get their shipments weekly. I think Sportsman's (Boise) comes in Thursday morning. If you aren't in line when they open, no 22 for you. Similar for the other big box stores. I'm hearing that you see the same people in line at each, FWIW.
Smaller gun shops get their ammo via UPS or Fedex. Ammo doesn't come in on a schedule though. This means - find a gun shop close to you, find out when their daily shipments come in, and try to stop in just after that time on a regular basis if you can.
22 is virtually gone here in middle and northern NM. Yeah, it dribbles in, but the hoarders get there first according to the retail staff at the various places I use. Some places put purchase limits on ammo, but those are easy to get around for the hoarders.
223 is easiest to find, but 5.56 NATO type is expensive and harder to find.
308 is also impossible to find even name brands and forget NATO bulk like the good old days of 90's.
Even the NRA WC which has good ties to the ammo industry has shelves which are sparse indeed.
Online sources are very expensive for either caliber.
Out of state shooters for our RBC's contact us in regards to ammo also report ammo scarcity in their state.
I do not have extra to sell, wish I did.
We have cut down on round counts here in NM as discussed within other threads on this forum.
When we were up in the Boise area a few weeks ago, we scored some 22LR at the Sportman's Warehouse in Nampa just off the freeway. Friday is their ammo day, they open at 9AM. It was complete luck that we were there, but I walked out with a box of CCI Tactical.
.22lr had been scarce everywhere since around January. All other calibers have begun to show up at the big box stores over the last couple of months. Just a few days ago the local Gander Mountain had a table full of .223 with no purchase limit but had no .22lr. There are websites like ammoseek.com that are helpful. Another I've used is ammo-can.net for finding when the local Walmart gets some. That one paid off for me recently when CCI mini-mags got delivered to several stores in the area on the same day. The supply only lasted a few hours.