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The .22 ammo drought continues. Or does it? What’s the supply like in your neck of the woods? Anecdotally, I recently sold my SIG SAUER 1911-22 to a Coast Guard vet who was looking for some cheap plinking. And sales of the venerable Ruger 10/22 remain strong. Are you shooting .22 again? Did you ever stop?

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74 COMMENTS

    • The lack of abundant .22 has made savoring each and every shot as a new dimension in plinking. Got some 10/22s but like my 77/22 bolt action when it comes to enjoying every single shot (gun pun intended) in isolation of the others. Mag dumps are only fun when the rest of the bang in the mag pay well with others.

      So a shortage can be a good thing. In a twisted way. In fact, it is exactly how I learned to shoot back when I was about four. One shot at a time with maximum learning in between. Those new shooters raised on semi-autos with high cap mags might learn to shoot, but with ten times amount of ammo. Think about it.

      • I consider plinking an exercise in fun and not so much practicing shooting skills , unless your using your .22 pistol to practice defensive exercises .
        I use my air rifles for plinking and keep my 15,000 rounds of 22 LR and 5,000 rounds of 22 WMR for target and prepping .

  1. I try to keep a thousand rounds handy, not too hard to get local just have to be there the day the stores get some in. Never stopped plinking, lol.

  2. I’ve got about a thousand rounds I can’t use because I don’t have anywhere to shoot. I haven’t gone shooting in 2 years because of it. (The only place I could theoretically go are the public ranges. They are not maintained or supervised, and as a result can get quite dangerous, not to mention filthy)

  3. I found a whole one box of Federal Auto Match at Walmart yesterday for about 5.8cpr after taxes. Not too bad.

  4. I’m more more mad at the people that buy at flea markets than anything. Evidently people aren’t slid on this internet thingy around here. When I see Cabela’s has some ill buy a bulk pack and have to drive 30 miles to get it.

  5. I find premium .22LR is readily available at a premium price (Green Tag, Eley, RWS, Etc.). Reasonably priced hunting/plinking ammo can be hard to come by.

  6. 20 miles south of St. Louis, no luck at Wallyworld. Local pawn shops, yes but overpriced. Local sporting/hunting (non-chain), in stock and priced reasonably! Shout out to Dunn’s and Denny Dennis!

    • In the ’70s/’80s there used to be a magical place called “One Stop Boats-Guns” located in your neck-o-the-woods, on 61/67 where Bucheit is now. The rifle row in the back was thousands long, the glass cases of pistols went on seemingly forever. Ammo was on pallets, or overflowing shelves. Makes me all misty-eyed…

      OTOH, Denny Dennis is one of the many reasons I seldom frequent local gun stores. Trying to get the attention of the crusty old farts behind the counter, too busy talking about Korea to the other old farts, who aren’t actually buying anything, to take your money. I’ve had precisely one good experience there in 30+ years, the rest have been hold your nose because you need it today. Haven’t been in 4 years, did they get some people who actually care to work there?

      • I think you misread what I typed. I said I haven’t shot a .22 in 5 years, which is when I traded my .22 for the .444. I shoot the .444 marlin and all my others regularly.

    • How would you rate the fit and finish on your Marlin? I have always kinda wanted one of their stainless lever guns for a weather resistant survival/hunting rifle. I never had any issues with the 9mm Camp Carbine I used to have (great plinking gun), but that was a long time ago. I hear Marlin hit a bad patch under the Freedom Group.

      • Get your Marlin from the 70s/80s/90s. Easy to tell by serial number.

        As far as Freedom Group, it’s a disaster. I’ve handled NIB lever actions that feel like they sand in them, finish work not even close to complete.

  7. Finding .22lr is fairly common. I don’t even buy it anymore.
    Heading to the range in a few minutes to dial in the 10-22 and the Savage .22 mag.
    Sage rat shooting will be here very soon!

  8. Just got 3 bricks of Winchester 555, and 12 boxes of Eley Match locally yesterday. Not hard to find around here anymore, I still buy it when I see it, though.

  9. Near Louisville, KY and can find 22 without too much trouble. Also have a Cabela’s nearby and they have had premium available recently but also at a premium price. Generally I can find bricks in the 6 to 8 cents a round range and buy it when I see it. Did not stop shooting during the drought, bought some online when I could find it.
    Bigger problem I have currently is .22WMR to feed my Kel-Tec PMR 30 though I had stocked up prior to the mess so I have enough to last 6-8 months. CCI .22 is still hard to find.

  10. I’ve been finding standard velocity (ie, sub-sonic, but just sub-sonic) target ammo locally in Wyoming for $45 to $60/brick. It doesn’t last long.

    Reloading powders and primers are back on shelves in large abundance, along with bullets (cast and jacketed). Bergers are back on the shelves, too, in many more calibers than the oddballs that were left over.

  11. No .22 guns for me, at least not until it becomes a lot cheaper again, and I am not holding my breath. In the meantime, a BB replica of my carry pistol is great for cheap practice at home.

  12. In my area (northern Detroit, MI, suburbs) .22 rimfire ammo remains essentially non-existant. People camp out on delivery days at various sporting goods stores and buy out the shipments in a matter of hours. The local gun shows have plenty of .22lr, but they’re charging 10cpr for the cheap stuff and higher prices for target-grade ammo (1150fps). Sometimes Gander Mountain will have unannounced sales but will limit quantities on the whims of the individual gun dept. managers, but only in certain stores of the chain; no consistency or published company policy on this. One of the sales staff at a local store told me to come back when the manager was off-duty and he would sell me whatever quantity I wanted at the sale price. He got a real nice Christmas present from me last year!
    I generally buy ‘the good stuff’ for my S&W M41 in one to two thousand-round quantities for the same lots and have a reasonable supply built up to where I’ve backed off on routine buying except when I see store “super-specials” or announcements of new store openings in the area.

    • Yup. Western Detroit ‘burbs here, in the Ann Arbor area.

      Local Wal-Marts haven’t had one single round of .22 LR ammo in three and a half years. I am told that it does actually occasionally come in, but the local Neckbeard Ammo Mafia is camping out in the parking lots at 4:30 in the morning then driving their Rascal electric scooters into the furniture department to take a nap until someone tells them the ammo’s in, which they proceed to try to flip on Armslist or at local gun shows at a 600% markup.

      Some gun shows very occasionally have very small quantities. The Cabela’s down in Dundee will occasionally have Federal Automatch, for example, but it’s ridiculously scarce, and I would bet that 98% of what they sell is bought by ammo scalpers who have no intention of using it themselves. I am told that they have more .22 ammo if you can be there when the doors open in the morning, but those of us who have actual jobs to go to are strictly S.O.L. on that score.

      I buy what I can when I can–and I can’t even shoot right now. It’s winter, so every indoor pistol range in this part of the state has a line out the door and down the block all weekend long–at least if you have a job and you’re restricted to being able to visit on weekends only. I’m saving up ammo that I hope to be able to expend during the summer, or whenever I can go to any indoor range around here and actually go and shoot without being told there’s a two hour wait to get in.

    • I have a local shop here in Macomb that usually has had it in stock at a fair price 8 cents a round, for 4 months. He limits customers to 1 box/day, but I can go twice a week with my work schedule. Just got another .22lr plinker. Sorry don’t want to name the shop and have scalpers read this.

  13. I can still only find it at the gun shows in my area. However lately I can occasionally find it at what a reasonable price is or used to be. Otherwise it’s 50 to 100% markup usually

  14. Higher quality .22lr I have been able to find regularly for the past year.
    I can fairly easily get CCI Mini-mags, CCI AR Tactical, CCI Standard, and Federal Match.
    These vary between .08 and .10/round.

    The cheaper stuff like Remington Golden, I see every now and then. It usually is running 0.6 to 0.8/round.

  15. No problem finding it around here or on line for a reasonable price. I do have a tendency to overstock, so I never stopped shooting 22s.

  16. In my area (metro Colorado) I can usually find it at Cabela’s and Bass Pro. I have enough in stock that I’m comfortable shooting it whenever I’m so inclined. I’ll buy some to replenish, or if there’s a promotional price.
    WalMart is still a crapshoot-they still seem to get cleaned out by the hoarders and resellers.

    As DysG notes, I’m also finding components much more readily available. Now all I need is the time. . .

  17. I have 100 rounds less than I did at the start of the drought–and I haven’t bought any or seen any on the shelves the rare times I go to a big box gun store. So no, I haven’t been shooting .22.

    Instead I’ve been stocking up on center fire pistol ammo through the internet ahead of the dreaded Newsome voter initiative proposal that is expected to be on the November ballot that will require ammo ID cards, ammo sales “registration” and a virtual ban on internet sales. The process has been complicated as I’ve added three new calibers.

  18. Haven’t found much in my area (Northeast Tennessee). Walmart on occasion, non existent at Academy or Bass Pro. Haven’t checked at Cabelas lately. When you do find it, way overpriced and limited to 3 boxes. Walmart has the same sign stating they are out and it’s been hanging up for 3 years now….

  19. I have plenty of 22 at the older realistic price of 8 or 9 bux a brick days.
    Unfortunately here in my part of Florida. Palm Beach County no place to shoot my rifles.
    The state gave the Gubbinor another 3 million bux to build a county range. But that happens every year. Money allotted. But no County range is being built……………..we have one of the largest populations in Florida and NO stinkin County range. Also no gun clubs since theres no place to shoot here. It stinks here.

  20. I buy it if the price isn’t stupid and I somehow have managed to get up to 15000 rounds (2 big scores at the local Walmart really helped that total) in my basement and I’ve been shooting around 500-600 rounds per month.

  21. Mostly these days I shoot shotguns. Got a pellet rifle and trap for cheap target shooting. Looking at more pellet guns for plinking and even small game hunting.

    • I just got a .22 Gamo Whisper Fusion Pro. I haven’t got the iron sights zeroed in completely yet. Nor have I installed the scope that came with it. What I can tell you is that it’s FUN!!!

      • I have a .177 that I’ve been target shooting with. Looking to get a .22 to hunt with. Lots of non game species in CA that are legal to hunt during the off seasons. Most of these are easily taken with a .177. But jacks are bigger.

  22. I think I’m close to giving up on rimfire ammo. I want to get an NAA Black Widow in .22 Magnum and a 12 gauge to .22 Mag adapter, but .22 Magnum is even tougher to find than .22 LR. .22 LR is not tough for me to find, but all I can find is CCI Standard Velocity and CCI Mini Mags. I want hyper velocity Stinger, Velocitors, or Aguila SuperMaximum and that stuff is as rare as dilithium crystals now.

    I’m getting close to the point where I may give up all the rimfire guns I have and go to the next best thing whether it be subsonic .223, .25 ACP, or even cap and ball .31 revolvers.

    • I’ve already given up on 22LR. Moved up to 9mm and can reload extremely cheap with cast bullets and previously fired brass I bought from the military base. Got 100 or more lbs of lead wheel weights from the tire shop for free.

  23. It’s available in my area of the southern swamps of Florida, except the new “normal” pricing. Which sucks.

    The hard part for me and plinking is looking at the 525 rds of Remington 40gr HP with a $15.99 sticker on it, and the “new” cost to replace my stash.

    As posted, $45-60 for the same box is still pissing me off.

  24. The Walmart I work at gets cleaned out of .22 less than an hour of it being put on the shelf in the AM, but I buy mine at an LGS where I can get cheap lead round nose stuff that Walmart doesn’t carry.
    I keep about 2k in reserve, and usually go out plinking with my Winchester 1906 once a week, so it’s not hard to replenish what I use up. I buy a couple boxes of 7.62×39/54R/51, 30-06, and 12ga every paycheck, but I rarely shoot that stuff.

    • You need to stock some incendiary and/or tracer rounds. One day, long from now, your relatives will be lighting up your bitchin torch corpse on a vehicle going over a cliff.

  25. The website Wiki Arms will email alerts to you for 22 ammo at the price point you set. I have been able to get cci mini mags occasionally but Remington, Winchester, Federal, etc, I get emails for almost every day in the .06 -.07 price range. You have to pay S&H, but I will damned if I will EVER pay some price gouging jack ass $50 a brick for plinking ammo. I have been able to purchase 5000+ rounds in the last year.

  26. Yesterday at a show in Wisconsin, a guy was selling 325rd boxes of AutoMatch 22LR for $25, which is the lowest show price for 22LR that I’ve seen in years. The newest price bubble is 7.62X54R! The price of Mosin ammo is skyrocketing.

  27. I’m down to my last four bricks and don’t intend to shoot them until I can replace them. Unfortunately, the supply in Massachusetts is spotty.

  28. Casual shopper in Western NY checking in. I haven’t seen 22lr in a store since 2012. I have only been able to buy from reasonable scalpers and online before the “internet sales ban” went into affect. I can’t compete with the retirees waiting in line at walmart and dicks every morning.

  29. Burned just short of 100 rounds couple of weeks ago, CCI minimags at Lone Star gun range outside of Lockhart with the ladies. Had not taken Ruger SR 22lr pistol out for a while. Recently purchased a new 8 round Ruger LCR 22lr so sister-in-law and I took it out for some fun on family rural property. Were shooting CCI Quiet from 500 brick I found at local Academy Sports. I was in Academy getting snap caps for LCR 22l, didn’t see 22lr on shelves, asked guy behind gun case, had CCI Quiet so got some. Still have around 6000 rounds of 22lr, primarily CCI brand but some other brands as well. All from retail stores and online purchases. accumulated over the years and added to as I find it.

  30. I ordered a brick of Winchester from Midway at six cents a round plus shipping and it should be in tomorrow. I still don’t see much locally (Oklahoma City area). Nothing at Wally World or the OKC Bass Pro. I did find some .22 at the Tulsa Bass Pro a couple of weeks ago. I can occasionally find .22 at Academy Sports.

    I recently hit my self imposed goal of 10K rounds in stock so I may go out and shoot my .22s again. I’ll replace ammunition to stay at that 10K level. Right now I can find ammo on the internet for eight or nine cents a round which isn’t cheap but it is available. My rule is to shoot the Armscor, Federal, Winchester and Remington stuff and replace that with the same, and hold on to the CCI stingers until I can replace them at a decent price.

    On another note from where I’m sitting it looks like reloading components are available again. I note that there are actually sales on primers on line. I need to pick up thousands more before the silly season gets going full blast. I can even find pistol powder on line which has been in very short supply for the past couple of years. I also need to order more 5.56 and I’d like to find a source for black tip .30-06 for my Garand. One never knows.

  31. I’ve been trying to pick up a box or two at my LGS once a week for the last couple of months. Really, just an excuse to go and peruse.

  32. I can get .22 for under 10 cents per round at most of the LGS around me. I can’t get it at Wal-Shart as the hoarders still line up there like zombies and attempt to sell it at guns shows, or online, or wherever they try to sell it. I haven’t shot .22 since last summer. I have a healthy stock of it, but I just don’t shoot my pistol or two rifles much.

  33. my gun club always seems to have bricks of Aquila available…though for $35 a pop. at least its high velocity and plated.

    i have a box of remington thunderbolt i want to give away. stuff leads my barrels something awful.

  34. .22LR supplies seem to ebb and flow in my area. Right now, we’re in another cycle where it’s tough to get. As far as my personal inventory, I’m in the same camp with earlier poster Dave Lewis in keeping a minimum of 10,000 rounds. I’m over by about 20% now, with an average price of about 7 cents per round.

    So, yes, I’m shooting. And supplementing my inventory when it makes sense to do so.

  35. I have over 800 rounds of .22 that’s been sitting around for about 4 decades and cost around $8. I thought I was solid then, but then I realized it’s all Sears and Remington High-Velocity and it’s gone up in value 1700%. So technically no, I have no .22 rounds. Walmart had them in NC for about an hour last month and that was the last time I saw any.

  36. I stopped looking for .22 a while ago. I have about 2,000 rounds stored for when I want to teach friends how to shoot, but otherwise I rarely put much of it down range. Forget buy it cheap and stack it deep. Put your money where your mouth is and stack it while you still can so you can’t bitch about not having enough later. I’m picking up a couple of boxes here and there of calibers for guns I don’t even own yet, ’cause if the election goes D, We’ll be looking back on the post-Newtown panic fondly, saying “Those were the days…”

  37. Here in Fargo you can usually find the expensive match ammo and on rare occasions the cheap bulk stuff at prices that make me wince. I haven’t seen any of my preferred CCI in over four years.

  38. Think I paid $59.00 / 1000 rounds in Denver couple months ago. It’s not being hoarded anymore. I’ve shot my LRN that I bought when it was scarce, and have replaced with JHP. I hate cleaning.

  39. I grab a brick whenever I can, sitting on about 20k subs right now. Lots of premium 22 available, but I’m not paying 10.00+ a box for it.

  40. I’ve been giving a Browning Buck Mark Hunter a covetous eye recently, but I need to conserve money, so new gun purchases are on hold for the moment. When I have the freedom to make that purchase, it’ll be my first .22.

  41. I’ve never stopped shooting any caliber or gauge due to supply shortages. Remember the old boy scout motto…”Be Prepared!”. I dont shop for ammo at big box stores or LGS’s but I see it advertised in the paper. All of the on line Etailers have some 22ammo albeit at $4 to $5 a box which is ridiculous. Still want an Anschutz but dont want to spend the money to find what ammo it shoots the best.

  42. For me the issue is not so much availability as it is cost. Before Sandy Hook, a brick of CCI Standard Velocity or Minimags was about $30-$35, with Blazer at a bit over $15. Now each are DOUBLE that.

    The problem is that at $5.50 a box ($55/brick) shooting .22 costs MORE for me than shooting my 9mm reloads.

    With that said, I laid up in excess of 15,000 rounds of .22 before the 2012 and have yet to have to pay the inflated prices.

    Don

  43. I was forced to clean out the dark corners of a couple of closets to find those $5.99 bricks of Blazer .22lr and I also stood outside in the dead of winter to get in the rationing line at the local big box sporting goods stores for some small amounts of ammo. I wasn’t caught “short”, but I didn’t have all that I wanted. I believe I have remedied that situation now. I should have plenty to pass along to my kids. Or in anti terms “a massive ammo cache” worthy of sending out the National Guard, SWAT and the Bomb Squad. Life is good.

  44. Infustry needs to offer 22LR Standard Velocity or SubSonic!
    We all have supressors now, get with the times please Mr. 22LR Manufacturer!

  45. I’ve shot .22lr all along as I shoot in a weekly bullseye league, but I don’t practice as much or as often because I prefer CCI SV for matches. Fortunately I know a guy that knows a guy……

  46. Ammo pricing was slowly starting to come down in the southern states, and a few big box retail stores are keeping amunition on the shelf for a couple of days, instead of hours, but the recent incident in Orlando, seems to have recreated the panic.

    Sometimes sites like http://ammoseek.com/, can help you find specific ammo you are looking for. Also, I have found this site http://www.ammofreedom.com/ to offer a wide variety of 22lr ammos I have not seen elsewhere…

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