Looks like the .22 ammo availability issue isn't going to get better...

[SteelThunder]

...anytime soon.  You can find it if you're willing to pay $0.20-0.50 a round, but the days of $15 for a 500 rnd value pack are a long ways away.

This from the CMP Sales update today

AMMUNITION UPDATE.  The CMP has been notified by ammunition manufacturers and distributors to expect price increases and significant delivery delays for all calibers of ammunition, especially for .22 rimfire. The price increases and delays apply to orders we have already placed with the manufacturers. Prior to 2013 CMP received deliveries of truckloads of ammo within a few weeks of placing orders. We are now being advised, as in the case of Aguila .22, that it may take several years to receive all of the 35,000,000 rounds of Aguila ammo we have on order.

[slim]

Its going to be a case here, a case there, until people become uninterested in it. We need to wrap our head around a dime per shot being the new standard and buying what we can, when we can as the new practice.

...or just shoot centerfire!

[jmdavis]

Eley Target is available online at $6.50/50 and $65/500 round brick. Eley Club Xtra is available at $75/500. These are both really good ammo and reasonably priced at .15/round or less.

My cost to load .223 is .17/bullet (NOSLER 77GR COMP) , .034/primer (CCI 400) and .07 (RL-15, 25gr) for powder. in other words .27/ round with existing brass. So I can save money even using quality Eley ammo for practice with the .22 lr.

[hawkeye]

The ammo is out there ,just have to work harder to find it. Best time to look is early morning and just before lunch . After lunch what was posted that morning is gone. checking with the local ammo supplier and finding out when the shipment is arriving works too.
http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/rimfire/22lr/    0.12 cent a round in stock when posted
http://gun-deals.com/list/ammo/.22+LR    4.6 cent a round  can be back ordered

[SPQR]

A dime can be had.  I have gotten it for $50/500 and it is match ammo (Indiana Army Surplus).  I bought a little eley but found .15 was a little high when i knew i could get decent stuff for ten.  Patience helps.  you aren't gonna run out to the corner store and trip over bricks of ammo (unless you live around IAS), but a little forethought can put you in .22.

I'm getting my .223 just a touch cheaper (maybe a penny cheaper on the powder and maybe a few cents on the projectile) than jmdavis' load (using H335 instead of Alliant and a lighter Nosler) but components have dried up for me in .223

On the same train of thought, I moved to shooting mostly '06 and was able to get a sub-moa load down to less than .32 using Varget (47gr.) CCI #200 primers and Nosler's 155gr COMP bullets.  Next times I buy components I may not get it that low but I get to shoot big boy shootahs and dats fer funnin stuff.  dakka   

[malabar]

It's hit or miss. In the last couple of months I've picked up two 500-round bricks of American Eagle target for $26 each, several bricks of Federal Gold Medal at $37 each, and four bricks of CCI Target for $35 each.


Just gotta keep an eye out

tk

[Bluesteel]

I've probably bought 6000+ rounds of  .22lr in the last 9 months never paying more than $.11/round and often $.05.  Have bought around 2000 mini-mags at $.075/round at Walmart.  But to do that, I've had to check online almost daily at this site, which tracks Walmart inventory.  It's not always correct, but I look for changes from day to day at my local stores, and when inventory shows up overnight, I try to get there by 9am.  Most often it shows up on Friday mornings.  Resellers seem to be lined up @ 7am:

ammo-can.net

The other site that works well for online inventories is:

ammoseek.com

You can backorder CCI mini-mags from Midway for around $.07/round.

[TaosGlock]

In NM it is still very hard to locate any 22.
Sources say it's due in some part to hoarders.
Off topic, powder is impossible to find.

[scuzzy]

In NM it is still very hard to locate any 22.
Sources say it's due in some part to hoarders.
Off topic, powder is impossible to find.

I've heard that too. But I begin to wonder when more than a few gun shop owners tell me they are just not getting  much at all. So that negates the Hoarder aspect.

It works like this:

Manufacturer->MiddleMen->GunShop->Hoarders

Now if the GunShop isn't getting the supply they used to get then somewhere in the MiddleMen area ammo is being diverted. Since most of the GunShop people have worked with the same MiddleMen for years they don't understand why they no longer receive what they used to. So the GunShop doesn't have a supply that the Hoarders in the area could buy up.

I know the GunShop owners are not getting their normal supply - I've talked to a few.

So the problem might be the MiddleMen? Possibly diverting their ammo supplies to where? More money from somebody they don't normally deal with?

Or does this even go up to the Manufacturer level? Maybe some of them got an offer too good to refuse?

I just dunno.

[Pitmaster]

I'm beginning to wonder if any ammo, primers, powder, and bullets are ever going to get back to normal supplies, even at higher prices. I know they aren't even going to come close to the prices of 5 years ago. Many were complaining then about the cost. Availability and price has improved, but I sure wouldn't expect prices to get much better.

[Charles McKinley]

A lot of the shops are going straight to the internet.  Sportsman Supply out of Butler, PA sell a lot of their ammo straight from Gunbroker. http://sportsmanssupplyco.com/

Remington viper and Jellow jacket ending shortly are a little over .12 a round.

Fereral 510 the blue boxes have 25 hours left and they are just over ten cents.  Most of their case lots shipping is included.

[mac66]

It still just comes down to supply and demand. Manufacturers still can't keep up with supply. Demand rose by a factor of 20 overnight and supply still hasn't caught up. Part of that is because it takes time and capital to increase production. Which means if the manufacturer buys all the stuff and hires the people needed to increase production they are stuck with the debt if supply finally catches up and it will eventually.

In regards to distribution. Ammo used to stay on the shelves for days, weeks, even  months and so retailers always had some in stock. Now, it stays in stock for a couple of hours at most, because every retailer is selling everything they can order. Consequently they are ordering more and the supply is being spread out among the retailers. As I stated in the beginning, if demand is 20 times greater than before and the manufacturers are only producing 10 times more ammo then that ammo isn't going to stay in stock for very long.

[kenjo]

The January 2014 American Rifleman magazine has a good article with an explanation of the ammo shortage. In the Portland, OR, area powder, bullets and primers are showing up although the powder selection is limited. 22 ammo is still hard to find because when it does show up it flies off the shelves. I was in a gun shop the other day and noticed the owner unpacking a case of 22 ammo. When I made a comment that it was good to see 22 ammo showing up again he said it goes fast and asked if I wanted some. I declined because I have a good supply already (accumulation over several years) and didn't want to contribute to the shortage problem.

[jmdavis]

In NM it is still very hard to locate any 22.
Sources say it's due in some part to hoarders.
Off topic, powder is impossible to find.

Powder Valley (online powdervalleyinc.com)gets fairly regular powder shipments, but they don't last long. Rifle powder hasn't been bad, but I spent months finding Red Dot and Unique.

[Caliper]

The January 2014 American Rifleman magazine has a good article with an explanation of the ammo shortage.

I was skimming that article this morning.  The numbers are very impressive and no matter how you cut it, the industry is seeing a major influx of cash of late whether it is more guns or just more expensive guns.  I have always been asking at my local shop if they are simply seeing more of the same faces, or new faces and I keep hearing that there are plenty of new gun buyers coming in over the last year especially.  Hopefully these new shooters aren't put off by ammo availibility issues and the manufacturers expand to make more production capacity.   

[Charles McKinley]

The new shooters are not experiencing the price shock we are.  Them $0.12 22lr and $.50  5.56x45 is normal.  If you are willing to pay these prices ammo is available.

Some people are making good money and are willing to spend it on ammo and firearms.  Those with less money some are taking the approach that ammo will get you through a time of no money better than money will get you through a time of no ammo.

I grab what I  can afford where I find it so I have some if a shooter needs it.   For now it looks like a dime a round is the new norm.

[malabar]

There are a ton of new shooters -- and it didn't start with Sandy Hook, or even Obama.

We started gaining new shooters after 9/11, but it was slow.  The number picked up when the economy crashed. A lot of people lost faith in the government and realized they needed to be responsible for their own security.  This effect was magnified by Obama's first election. Sandy Hook and the subsequent debate over gun control just kind of iced the cake. 

What do I base this on?

Enrollment at my our shooting club. The club has been around for 50 years and membership had stabilized around 1,000. From 9/11 to Obama, the club membership slowly grew to 2,000. In the first four years of Obama, we went to more than 3,000, and we limited new membership to 50 per month.  After Sandy Hook, we were booked up four months in advance.  Things have calmed, but we're still adding members.

What we're finding is that a lot of these are folks who grew up around guns, or were shooters in their youth,  but never got into it as adults.
We're also getting a bunch that have never handled guns before and figured it was high time they started.

tk

[jmdavis]

There are many knew gun owners, but there is a difference between new shooters and new gun owners. Further, many of the new gun owners (and some of the old) think that owning a gun suddenly makes them safer or better prepared or some other nebulous feeling.

I am a member at two ranges. One is the largest indoor range in the country. They have definitely seen an uptick in business. They are running 2 or 3 NRA pistol and self protection classes per month. But that was true before as well.   The other was chartered in 1937 and moved to its present location on 500 acres in 1975. It has had a waiting list of 1 or more years for at least the past 20 years and membership is capped at 600.

At the indoor range I see the new AR shooters (and the attached store sold out of all of it's AR's, .223, magazines, and 9mm in 1 week last December), satisfied with hitting an IPSC silhouette at 25 yards and shooting a 1 to 2 foot group. They are buying handguns, AR's and AK's. Even at the height of the hysteria there were good defensive shotguns, revolvers, and lever guns remaining in the racks.

The point is that many of the people buying guns are not doing so with the intention of becoming shooters or perhaps more appropriately to an Appleseed discussion "skilled shooters". Some are doing it as "investment" and others because they fear not being able to in the future. But largely they are satisfied to hit a rifle target at 25 or 100 yards or a pistol target at 3 to 5 yards.

[malabar]

JM,

I'm afraid that marksmanship is not as sexy as being a high-speed, low-drag, carbon-fiber-shelled tacticool operator.  We see a lot of growth in the action shooting sports, and growth in sporting clays, but not a lot of growth in midrange, and we've struggled to get a smallbore program running.  And only about 5% of our members compete in any discipline. 

Don;t disagree with anything you've noted, but there is a difference between buying a gun and joining a shooting club.  You don't join a shooting club unless you plan on shooting.

Just curious: What state are you in?

tk

There are many knew gun owners, but there is a difference between new shooters and new gun owners. Further, many of the new gun owners (and some of the old) think that owning a gun suddenly makes them safer or better prepared or some other nebulous feeling.

I am a member at two ranges. One is the largest indoor range in the country. They have definitely seen an uptick in business. They are running 2 or 3 NRA pistol and self protection classes per month. But that was true before as well.   The other was chartered in 1937 and moved to its present location on 500 acres in 1975. It has had a waiting list of 1 or more years for at least the past 20 years and membership is capped at 600.

At the indoor range I see the new AR shooters (and the attached store sold out of all of it's AR's, .223, magazines, and 9mm in 1 week last December), satisfied with hitting an IPSC silhouette at 25 yards and shooting a 1 to 2 foot group. They are buying handguns, AR's and AK's. Even at the height of the hysteria there were good defensive shotguns, revolvers, and lever guns remaining in the racks.

The point is that many of the people buying guns are not doing so with the intention of becoming shooters or perhaps more appropriately to an Appleseed discussion "skilled shooters". Some are doing it as "investment" and others because they fear not being able to in the future. But largely they are satisfied to hit a rifle target at 25 or 100 yards or a pistol target at 3 to 5 yards.

[jmdavis]

I'm in VA and belong to a 500 acre shooting club with 600 members, but it is likely that unless there is a match or it is the day before hunting season that I will see more than a few people even on a weekend. The amenities include a 100 yard rifle and shot gun range with room for 50 shooters (Appleseed limit of 35 due to configuration), a 100 meter Black powder and silhouette range, a 40 position bullseye ranges, a practical pistol range, 3 general purpose bays, a 35 target archery range, a sporting clays course, a 500 yard rifle range, 3 ponds for fishing, heated indoor restrooms, camping with 6 spaces having power, potable water, and fire rings. Over memorial day there was a childrens birthday party and even then there were only 20 or so people.

In other words on even given weekend 1-3% of the 600 members may appear and it is only 3% when we have a match, the swap meet or the yearly barbeque.

[malabar]

Wow. Wish we had all that space. We have 122 acres and a dozen ranges crammed onto it, including trap, skeet and five-stand, but it sounds like our ranges have fewer firing positions. 

But we see the same thing: Even with 3,000 members, the club is almost deserted during the week. Can be a little crazy on the weekends. We had our last Appleseed a few weekends back, and that same weekend also had Basic Pistol, Tactical Carbine II, bullseye,   a scout campout, a regional 600-yard competition, trap, skeet, sporting clays and IDPA.   It was good to see that many people out for shooting activities. But I was fielding gripes all day.

I'd guess we had around 250 people, and probably another 100 who came out to use one of ranges not being used for an organized shoot.  So maybe 350 total. But only about half were club members. So around 5%, on  the busiest weekend I can remember. Come out on a fifth weekend, when we don't have matches scheduled, and you might only have 100 people all weekend.

I do think we'll get busier when the ammo supply straightens out.  We've cut back in round count on almost all of our activities.

But who knows what the future will bring.

[grunt soldier]

It can be found but it requires work.  you can't just show up at walmart whenever and expect it to  be there but if you watch the stock and show up in the morning.  you can find it and for 25 bucks a brick still.  I suppose it may be different in other states but in Indiana this is how it has been working lately.  It is definitely much more annoying now than it was before that is for sure.

[RimfireJim]

I'm afraid that marksmanship is not as sexy as being a high-speed, low-drag, carbon-fiber-shelled tacticool operator.  We see a lot of growth in the action shooting sports, and growth in sporting clays, but not a lot of growth in midrange, and we've struggled to get a smallbore program running.  And only about 5% of our members compete in any discipline. 

I saw the same thing at my range this weekend. There was a grand total of six of us shooting the 4-position 50-yard smallbore match and I was the only one who shot the prone 100-yard smallbore. Meanwhile, over at the 150-yard range there was a tactical rifle match going on with a full firing line.