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Sportsman's Finest, Austin, TX (courtesy The Truth About Guns)

The great ammo shortage of 2013/2014 is now . . . the slightly less great ammo shortage of 2015. At least in terms of .22 caliber pills. Other calibers are gradually catching-up with demand – despite the fact that ammo-starved consumers are stocking up like never before. Gun owners who were formerly just-in-time ammo buyers are now ammunition hoarders. How’s supply in your neck of the woods and are you buying more ammo than you used to?

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103 COMMENTS

  1. Supply is still a problem here in my part of Florida.
    If there is 22lr around??
    Or 22 magnum.
    Im no longer even looking for it at the going prices its now at.
    I switched to 9mm. More bang for my buck. Literally.
    Im not willing to pay $70 or more for a brick of 22lr now or ever.

        • Paying 0.10 or less per round of Ely Match here, but last gun show I went to had vendors selling Rem Thunderbolt for $75 per brick. Even saw one charging $90 for Thunderbolt brick. In-sane.

          It wasn’t selling. Folks were buying the snot out of other ammo, but the shelves of .22LR at those prices were not getting touched.

    • Here in NE Florida I haven’t seen .22LR on the shelves since I don’t know when and the gougers at the gun show are still asking $70 for a 500 round brick. Though I have noticed that they seem to have nearly as many boxes of it at the end of the show as they did at the start, so there aren’t many takes at that price..

      • Why are they “gougers”, exactly? If no-one else offers a better price anywhere, then that’s just the new market price for this ammo. Live with it.

        FWIW, you can buy that stuff online for about 10c/round. Of course, then you’ll pay for shipping …

        • They are gougers because they have their flunkies that don’t have jobs or a life stand in line at all the stores before the open and clean everything out.

        • actually, I was able to pick up two 500 round bricks for $25 +tax, each at Cabelas this summer, while driving through northern Indiana

        • “They are gougers because they have their flunkies that don’t have jobs or a life stand in line at all the stores before the open and clean everything out.”

          So, they are gougers because they have found a way to solve a supply problem and then charge what they think the market will bear?

          The term “gouger” and psychology behind it is fundamentally Statist in nature.

          The consumer does not get to demand both acquisition of the product and the price to pay. That sounds to me like a spoiled 3 year old screaming “I want ice cream. Gimme, gimme, gimme.”

    • This week, I picked up a new Heritage Roughrider .22 revolver ($128). I did not see any .22 ammo on the shelves, but when I asked about it, they said they could sell me 500 rounds of Mini Mags at $6.99 per 100. I guess because I bought a .22 gun. That seemed pretty reasonable.

      Generally, I am still not seeing .22 other than specialty rounds like subsonics etc. Since I have revolver and a bolt action .22s, as well as semi autos, I’ve picked up some of those here and there. I am very tired of the .22 shortage (although I still have quite a bit on hand.) I’ve generally been stocking up on 9mm 12 guage and 7.62×39.

      • I haven’t seen Mini Mags on a shelf in several years. What .22LR I see (rarely) on shelves is generally brands I wouldn’t normally purchase – so I have a hard time justifying paying a premium price for it.

  2. I’ve still not any reasonably priced bulk (as in by the brick) .22LR anywhere, either online or at retail, in going on a couple years now. Oh sure I see .22 all the time, but it’s always in 50rd boxes, or Aguila CB cap, or crumbs of the sort. Or if it’s actually bricks of what used to be good stuff, it’s a fortune now. But that’s just merely supply and demand at work.

    I think the greater question is, who’s playing games with who?

    Tom

    • What exactly is “a fortune”, and how much do you need? I’ve bought 5,000 rounds of CCI mini-mags on GunBroker for $586 (this includes shipping) – that’s under 12c/round. That’s more expensive than it used to go to, but even before all the craziness CCI was not exactly cheap.

      • Anything under $20 for a 500 round brick or thereabouts would be reasonable. Hell, I might even give $25 in the name of inflation. Yes, I’m aware that would be Federal, Winchester and Remington bulk and CCI would naturally cost a bit more. But $58 per 500 is just a bridge too far, for me anyway. Fortunately I have plenty of .22LR on hand of several varieties and now that I got a pellet gun, I shoot it very little. I don’t care to sell it, either. Like most if us I just simply wish we could replace what we shoot at a reasonable cost without having to look under rocks. You know, the way it used to be.

        Tom

  3. Anytime I see an article about ammo shortage there are inevitably folks who will brag about their significant ammo stashes. In an era where it is becoming increasingly obvious that very aspect of our lives is tracked, traced, and databased…..I’m going to err on the paranoid side of caution and suggest that it probably isn’t a good idea to share that kind of info online anymore.

    • Irish1776,

      I agree entirely with your concern that Big Brother is tracking this stuff.

      Please keep in mind that if you purchase ammunition with a credit card — especially from an Internet vendor — I am nearly certain that Big Brother knows exactly what you purchased.

      The only way to purchase ammunition without Big Brother’s knowledge is to purchase it with cash at local distributors.

      • Which is why I always laugh when I hear some gun grabber talk about anonymous ammunition purchases on the internet. There is no such thing. If I were a gun grabber, and knowing that I losing the battle, I would require all purchases of guns and ammunition be done over the Internet. That way I would know where every new gun purchased belonged. It’s instant gun and ammunition registration.

        • >> Which is why I always laugh when I hear some gun grabber talk about anonymous ammunition purchases on the internet. There is no such thing.

          There is, actually. It’s called Bitcoin.

          Mind you, they hate it as much as they hate cash, and for the same reasons …

      • As someone who writes credit card software for a living, this is pure bull.

        Where you spend is tracked.
        What sort of store is tracked.
        How much money is tracked.

        But there is no record of what exactly you purchased.

        Sure, if you buy from Freedom Munitions or Joe’s Gun Store, they get the idea. Even then, though, there’s no code for EvilGunStore, so any roll-up data mining would be difficult. But if you buy from a general retailer, there’s no way to tell it from toilet paper.

        • As someone who is professionally involved in data mining, I can assure you that, even if there’s no label that would directly identify this kind of purchase, there are plenty of other features that would. For example, the amount that you paid for your order – if it matches (or is a multiple of) the sticker price on a box of ammo, that’s already an indicator; and the prices are public and can be easily scraped directly from the website.

          False positives? Sure, if all you have is a single data point, but once you start gathering data and cross-analyzing it, you can easily build up profiles. E.g. this guy bought something for $14.99 today, and $12.99 next week, and $14.99 the week after, and all those correspond to prices of various brands of 9x19mm ammo in that store he’s shopping in; and, every weekend, his credit card shows spending on food and beer within a 2 mile area of a local indoor range. So it most likely is ammo.

          Obviously, data mining will never give you 100% certainty, and won’t work as proof. But for the purposes we’re talking about here, proof is unnecessary – it’s not going to end up in the court room.

        • You are assuming that it is tracked through the credit card purchase transaction. There are many other ways that they might track this info, which is getting into a conversation beyond the scope of the comments section of an article about supply issues. Even a decade ago tools like the Narus Insight splitters present at almost all major telecommunications hubs could send duplicate streams of massive amounts of data to government datamining farms.

  4. This is a joke right? After what the ATF just did to m855 say good bye to this lull in the shortage. Que panic hoard mode to the max. Again. Uhg….

    • This ^^

      I was taking my time ordering some reman m855 for $.30/rd. well, this was all the motivation I needed to take care of that order.

    • Dang straight. Walmart where I’m at (a Red State military town) was entirely out of ALL the 5.56mm ammo on Sunday after the low-key BATF announcment of a pending M855 ban on Friday afternoon. Gone. Zip. Zilch. Nada. They had .223 Rem (untouched, bonus packs even) but folk know the difference. M855 and M193 Ball went. Poof.

      • In some cases, the difference is not actually there. For example, Wolf Gold .223 is advertised as .223 – it has that on the packaging and all – but if you chrono it, it actually gives 5.56 velocities, so in effect it’s M193 equivalent.

  5. Finding .22 ammo in stock at the Walmarts near me is a rare thing. I have found it only one time since all this craziness started.

  6. For many years it has been my policy to buy more than I need, so I have a pretty good reserve at present.
    However I am down to a couple of bricks of .22LR, purchased before the crunch.
    Need more Mini Mags!

  7. Everything seems to be available in CT although 22LR is sparse but Walmart seems to have plenty of 17HMR.

    22llr can be found online, but often you are paying 9mm range ammo prices. I myself have given up and taken up to shooting airguns which can do in my basement even in this miserable sub-zero cold.

    It seems that many people have taken up reloading, and it is more difficult to find powder and primers. Okay, not difficult but maybe not the power I like to use.

  8. Ammo is easy to find and the prices are what they were before the silliness. Of course, during the silliness the prices didn’t change where i shop, either. Powder, on the other hand, is just not to be had.

    • Where in WI are you?

      In/around Milwaukee, 22lr is almost impossible, and .380 FMJ in gone except for the rare box of 50 for $25.

  9. I already had 2000rds mix of M855 and SS109 and bought a 1K case of PPU for $339 off PSA w/free shipping early in the panic. I never shoot the ammo because of local range rules so I’m thinking of off loading the SS109 for a profit.

  10. Must not be as many shooters out here. I see .22 so often, I usually don’t buy it anymore. Last brick I bought was before Christmas when they had CCI subsonics.
    That reminds me. Time to go to the range again. The sun is shining!

  11. In Central Ohio .22lr is still somewhat scarce, but you can find it if you look hard enough. Nothing else is difficult to find at all.

  12. Here in MO it’s fairly easy to find anything but 22lr and 22 mag on the shelf. Prices are normal except for a few hucksters trying to make a buck off the newbies.

    I keep about 300 rounds for each gun. Down to 200 for my .40 and I have only shot my precious .22 stash when the wife wants to shoot her gun. I bought 2k rounds of 22 when obama got elected. That stash is down to about 1k–Glad my SR22 runs bulk. I’d hate to have to search for mini mags like my buddy with his P22.

  13. Was on a public computer last Thursday. Decided to check Wikiarms and what do I see? Federal .22 at Midway 1,000 Rds. for a little over 60 bucks including shipping. I was a bit hesitant to use my card there and was out of town so I went to the car and called my kid at his work and asked if it was OK to use the company’s computer to buy on-line. He said sure, went to Midways’s website and in a little more than 5 minutes it went from in stock to out. Unbelievable. Still.

  14. Central Kentucky, the brass locusts still keep WalMart cleaned out of .22LR. I was able to buy a significant amount when I went to KYGunCo for a Black Friday deal. I haven’t seen anything bigger than a stray 50rd box since then.

    Defensive calibers are becoming more available but not what I would call plentiful. Hunting calibers were never a problem so my FUDD friends have no idea what I’m talking about.

    • Yes, WalMart has more ammo than I can afford. When they had a three box limit, I would buy the limit a couple times a week. Now that the limit is lifted on all but 22lr, I find that $14 for 50 rounds of 9mm and $8 for 20 rounds of 5.56 on my budget is too high to stock up.
      I recently ordered 1,000 9mm for $225 and .223 for $270. I ordered from SGAmmo. You can find cheaper 9mm elsewhere as well as .223 but not at the same place.
      This stuff is first run brass so I think it was a good deal.

      • I am very very selfish and would appreciate if you could try to help me keep sgammo our little secret. /sarc (kinda)

        Their prices are too good to announce to the hoarders.

        • Despite the alert from UPS that my shipment would be delayed due to global warming, It came in on time today. Forgive my joy as this was my first bulk purchase of online ammo. http://1drv.ms/1ASVCq8 This is only half of it. I also received 1,000 rounds of CCI Blaser 124g 9mm.

          I understand the value in 22LR. I would like to get a conversion kit for my AR. But I also value the advantage to training with full powered .223 so that I can learn to manage recoil during rapid fire. It’s worth paying double for that experience.

  15. Everything is available in MA, but the price of .22LR can be four or five times what is was prior to the Great Ammunition Extinction.

  16. Everything except .22lr is back in my area of Northern Illinois. 22 mag was probably more rare than .22lr for the last couple of years, but I am seeing it regularly now. .22lr is hit and miss. The odd thing is that when I do find .22lr it is almost always the same price per round. CCI sells for almost pre-panic prices, but Remington and Winchester garbage are selling for about the same price as CCI. There’s no spread. Everything is in the $.08 to $.10 per round range regardless of quality.

  17. Palmetto State Armory has free shipping on orders over $100 through today. I just ordered 500 rounds of M193 for $154! Most online retailers when you add the shipping costs make online ammo buying pointless as I can get it for cheaper here at the PX or Walmart. Especially with the frequent 10% off ammo sales at the PX.

  18. Still having problems finding 22LR; still having problems finding defensive ammo at a decent price. 5.56 seems to have come back down though.

  19. .22 is starting to sit on the shelf for a little while anyway. .22 mag is more scarce. Everything else in in good supply. People still post on Facebook when they find some in a store. Maybe it’s just the weather, but people aren’t going apeshit anymore over a few rounds of .22LR.

  20. The local Palmetto State has 22 in stock starting at about $0.10 a round. I bought some MiniMags the other day just ’cause I was so excited to see them. Whoo hoo!

    For 9mm range ammo I usually buy from Freedom Munitions. Their reloads are good stuff. They have $5 shipping on all orders over $250 today.

  21. Weird…I just checked Lucky Gunner after seeing this post just to see if anything was going on and their 5.56 bulk inventory seems to have disappeared completely. Wow.

  22. Here on Long Island the other day, Dick’s had 1400 round buckets of Remington Golden Bullet for $70. Limit one bucket, but some stores had many buckets.

    Still, I missed out. 🙁

    Gradually, even .22LR is at least becoming “getable”.

  23. I buy whenever I can for all of my calibers and pay for it with cash. This administration made me feel that ammo hoarding was no longer for fringe groups but for every law abiding citizen.

  24. Literally just got back from Walmart in So Cal. It seemed like anything you want was there at a reasonable price except .22. Even if they did have it there was a one box limit on .22.

  25. I’ve bought 1200 rounds of .22lr in the last few weeks at Walmart @ 5 cents a round here in Illinois. Brassbadger is your friend.

  26. Can get anything I want up here, as long as they don’t ban it (62gr SS109 went out of stock everywhere within 48 hours – even through the big snowstorm). 22LR is more expensive than it was pre-madness but you can still find deals here and there. I’ve even see 300 blackout in Walmart…

  27. South Louisiana is doing pretty well actually. I woudnt have any issues getting 22LR any day of the week, too many places have it. As far as every other caliber, we barely noticed much of a crunch at all, even during the height of it. .223 got scarce, 9mm somewhat, but it never got dire. Cablela’s an hour from where I live has ammo falling off the shelves.

  28. .22 is a rare sight in Michigan, I’ve managed to score six boxes(four 50s one 100 and a brick of auto match) since sandy hook and that is near daily checking at multiple stores for ammo.

    5.56 is back in now, just very slightly inflated.
    Pistol ammo is….usually in stock, occasionally I can’t find .38s but that’s it.

  29. Still no .22s that I can find in the OKC area. I haven’t checked every Wally World or LGS – but nothing at the bigger stores like Academy or Bass Pro. I’ll do mail order .22s at anything under a dime a round but that is mostly low end stuff.

    Everything else is pretty much available – 9mm, .40, .45, .308. I haven’t looked since the latest 5.56 flap hit but I’m sure the SS109 stuff is all gone. Maybe that will ease up the demand on .22 as the speculators put their money into 5.56.

  30. My two sons have recently expressed an interest in shooting (finally!) and we began shooting up all my old .22LR ammo. Silly me, I guess I didn’t realize that it’s rare and expensive now. I know it’s been cliche’ but why is there a .22LR shortage? It seems to me that it’s faster to produce and the demand to purchase it is explosive.

    • Low margins. Why would an ammo manufacturer make cheap rimfire ammo when it can sell every higher-margin centerfire cartridge that it can pump out?

  31. I have a decent stash of various handgun rounds. I gave up looking early 2014. Last time I bought some .22, it was late 2013, American Eagle 100rd bx for $1.99 at Big R.. Hard for me to pay anything more than that per/100. BTW what the hell happened to PMC SKU .357B? Its a hot hollow point that I love.

  32. Like most other people, .22LR is very hard to find in Texas Panhandle. Walmart has resisted the temptation to jack up prices too much, but as a result not much stock. Supposedly is you are in line at 7AM at the right, randomly selected day you can score some. I have been lucky 1 time ou of 20 attempts. The sporting goods stores have a bit more stock, but the price is doubled an you are limited to 3 boxes of 50 or 1 box of 100.

    I end up buying on-line and paying 12 cents/round after shipping. My addiction requires 200 rounds a week mim, I gave up beer to afford ammo. Probably better and healthier for me in the long run….

  33. 2 500 round bricks Blazer 22 LR delivered last week for $60 with 15 pack shoot n c targets
    Would rather have more mini mags but this will work for plinking

  34. SW Ohio, I found 6 boxes of CCI at a Rural King. $4.50 per 50. Too high for me. That is the ONLY .22lr I’ve found retail within 10 miles, granted, I won’t shop Wal-Mart. Evar! $.09 per round is too much for disposable brass. I still have some in stock, but I’m starting to get a bit low. .308 is still a bit high, but everything else seems to be settling to ‘normal’ pricing.

  35. The .22LR I find in NH is overpriced and there’s still not that much around. It’s been better price/performance for me to buy 9mm or reload 44mag.

  36. My local gun club in Scottsdale has pretty much everything you could want, including .22. I picked up 2 bricks of Aguila yesterday with no mention of a limit.

    Someone disparaged Aguila ammo earlier but I’ve had very good luck with it in my 15-22 and 22/45, suppressed and unsuppressed. The only fault I can find with it is that it smells funny.

    It’s not super cheap because Scottsdale but prices are down by $15. http://sgcusa.com/ammunition/22.html they had .22 magnum yesterday which is now gone, so don’t lollygag.

  37. Guys, quit being afraid of the internet! Go online and order the .22LR ammo you need. There are several companies with a large supply—-Midway is one; also look at Sportsman’s Guide and Cheaper Than Dirt. They have all you want. At one point, when CTD was in Fort Worth, they were shipping over $20,000,000 in ammunition a month! Do not be afraid of ordering online. I have been doing it for years with excellent results.

  38. I can get what I want… maybe not at the price I desire. Locally, walmart is fine except .22. It’s the old people here in Florida who literally have nothing better to do that snag it when working people can’t get it. That and when I was in Gainesville I KNOW a wal-mart employee who was stashing it and selling it the gunshop up the street. When my schedule was free I’d go when they got shipments (for the record I wanted .223/5.56 which I had less than 1K of) and if this one guy was there the 22 wouldn’t make the shelves… and then magically 22 would be at the shop later that day.

    Oh well. I just don’t shoot it like it’s as cheap as it used to be. I shoot it the same as my centerfires, about 100 a range trip. I’ve only got a few 100 of mini-mags in the last years. The last bulk I got was as Sandy Hook was happening. I was watching the news and knew with the election coming there was going to be a run and I bought a few thousand.

  39. Because there are so few gun owners in NJ, the impact of panic buying wasn’t as visible. That said, I haven’t seen a 500 round brick of 22 LR anywhere in the country since August 2012, just fifty round boxes of primarily CCI. I also passed on buying Romanian surplus 8mm Mauser when it was cheap and boy oh boy did I pay the price for that mistake.

  40. Just left a Las Vegas gun show, $10 per 50 for the booths that had .22 was pretty standard, everything else was reasonable minus the great green tip freak out of 2015, saw one old boy slinging them for $35 per box of 20 or 60 for $100

  41. LGS has .22lr in stock after a 2month drought, $27/100 cci’s. Could not get close due to how many people gathered around it…..

  42. The .22lr is dead. If you want some here in SE Michigan you have ro put your name on a waiting list or learn when the weekly shipment comes in. I’m not going to do that. I use a high-point carbine in .40 for pest control now. Caliber matches my sig carry, which is handy.

  43. Went to new gun shop a few miles from where I live in S. West Michigan, and they had no limit on .22 LR and .22Mag. Bought all 5 boxes of .22 Mag. for $13.99 a box. .22 LR was going as cheap as $4.99 a box.

  44. My son got his reloading set up up and running. Today we went to the hills and he shot .308, all reloads, and factory fresh 12 bore. He got a reloading set up for the shotgun but apparently shotgun powder is rare as common sense in a dem politician.

    I shot 12 bore, .243 and 9×18. No reloads. I need to get some dies and supplies and he’ll let me use his set up. I’ve saved every .243 case I’ve shot since I bought the rifle.

    Beautiful sunny day in CA and the hills were green with lots of shooters having a good time. One dad had his little girl working the spotting scope for him.

  45. I live on the Oregon coast. Tons of everything in stock locally except .22LR and .380 auto. Occasionally .22LR shows up and is priced reasonable. I think I paid $20 for a 525 round pack last time they were in stock.

  46. Central Iowa here.

    I speak of prices at big box stores, not small time LGS. All popular rife ammo in stock and not over priced. 5.56, 308, 7.62×39, ext. Prices seem to be pre-panic prices.

    Pistol ammo is the issue. What we have: 9mm is always in stock now, usually priced at $12 to $14 per 50 rd box. 45 ACP and 40 SW are good too, with pre- panic prices. 38 special is usually in stock at $20 to $24 per 50 rds. We have big valve packs at pre panic prices for most calibers.

    380 ACP is virtually nonexistent, when we do have it, its usually not under $20 per 50 rd box. 357 Mag is hard to find, when it is in stock, usually its soft jackets or hollow points, FMJ 357 mag seems as rare as .22

    Still after all this time, when stores get .22 they sell out as soon as it gets put out, or they’re out or in several hours. Bricks of .22 never got raised at our big box stores (Sportsmen’s Warehouse, Mills Fleet Farm, even Walmart). We have always been able to get a brick of 500 or similar size of .22 for under $25 (at least at Sportsmens and Mills) its just a matter of getting in line and getting it before its gone.

    Virtually all rimfire being on store shelves randomly is nonexistent, when you do see it, its usually .17 HMR

  47. .22 has been hard to find out in the Seattle area, but when I do find it, it’s usually only $30 a brick, not as cheap as it used to be, but much cheaper than 6 months ago.

  48. With all due respect for those who continue to believe that retailers who charge more then 5-6 cents a round for .22 ammo, are greedy price gougers, the true value of .22 plinking ammo is about 10-12 cents per round. A visit to a site such as gunbot.net will nearly always reveal a good bit of .22 LR available at that price.

    So long as retailers such as Walmart continue to sell every brick of bulk rimfire ammo they get at half of what it’s really worth, we will continue have a difficult time finding the stuff.

  49. At my local Cabela’s there is ammo of every shape and size (caliber and grain) on every ammo shelf all the time… except .22 lr. But, they get 22 about 2 or 3 times a week.

    They have a 2 box limit on 50 rounders and 1 box limit on anything larger to discourage hoarding and reselling of ammo.

    And about 20% of the time I go in, there is some on the shelf.

    I am kicking myself for not picking up some premium Ely (co branded with Remington) when I saw it. But I did score a 300 rnd brick of CCI mini mags for my wife’s Mosquito!

  50. LGS has pretty much everything you could ask for in stock, good prices, 22LR about every month or so. Good stuff. CCI Blazer copper plated, lead Blazer, Winchester… 50 rd, 100rd and bulk boxes. They do limit it to 6 boxes per customer or 1 bulk box but they always send out an email letting the customers when know it’s GOING to be in stock, usually the weekend. The CCI is still $9.99/100, the same price it’s always been, even during the Great Ammo Depression. LGS never raised their prices on ammo, well, the 5.56 went as high as $13.99/ box for XTAC 55gr but I digress. They did their best to keep the prices as low as possible unlike, say, Cheaper than Sh*t.

    I was in last Monday and saw they still had 22LR sitting on the shelves, CCI and Blazer, 100rd sleeves and 50 rd boxettes. The bulk boxes were gone but they had, oh… 50 boxes of each still on the shelves. I didn’t pick any up as I have my bank already and I only buy what I need when I am going shooting.

    Likewise Turners around the corner- they had the 550 rd boxes of Federal 22LR, I saw 6 or 7 on the shelves… Price was really good, so I left it on the shelf for somebody else to enjoy.

    California- of all places.

  51. I’m still going through my pre-shortage .22 LR stash (of 5,000 CCI and 3,000 Armscor), though I have recently acquired another 5K of CCI and a few more bricks of other random stuff (Velocitors, Aguila SSS and the like) for maybe another 2K more, on the grounds that it’s not going to get any cheaper than it is now, and there will probably be another rush and the corresponding price hike come 2016, as usual.

    Let’s face it, 10 cents per round is basically the going market price for quality .22 right now, and it has been at that level for over a year now. For all intents and purposes, it’s stabilized, and it is what it is. You can complain about “gougers” and whatnot, but that’s what the market will bear, so it is what it is. You can wait for lower prices on that stuff if you want – just like you can wait for 10c/round 9mm ammo to return, or for Mosins for $50 and SKS for $100, or for cheap milsurp 7.62×39 – but those times aren’t coming back.

    OTOH, the prices for 5.56 are pretty good. Well, they were until the recent ATF’s announcement causing a run on M855, but while everyone is going crazy buying that, why not get a crate or two of quality M193? You can still get some for close to 30c/round if you buy in bulk, which was a pretty good price even before Sandy Hook. Wolf Gold is good cheap stuff (yes, I know it says .223 on the box, but chrono’d velocities are firmly in the 5.56 territory, and it’s otherwise clean ammo and great brass, so get it when you see it). Then there’s Prvi, Igman etc. Prvi 500-round bricks come sealed in thick cellophane so it can be stored pretty much indefinitely.

    Go buy it. You’ll thank me for the advice in 2016.

  52. Still not great 100 miles north of Austin. No 22lr on the shelves in 2 years. The guy at Walmart says that sort of hijacking the truck “it is not going to be happening”.

    9mm is decent. So is 223. 270 ran out early this deer season and never came back. That’s actually worse than last year. 380 is spotty, but less so than last year.

  53. Heck I just passed on a case of 9mm blazer for $12.50 per box of 50 (I tend to think in “box of 50” prices). I believe that works out to a quarter apiece.

    22 is the only stuff I don’t see here. Other prices have become sane again.

    The story about the “gougers” at gun shows apparently failing to sell at $70/brick tells me that perhaps the bubble they have been artificially sustaining by nabbing them as they show up on store shelves, might be about to burst.

  54. Need to start doing the same thing with pistol powders. It is a rare day when pistol powder is on the shelf in my area

  55. I’ve found the occasional box of 100 at non-ripoff prices, but larger packs are just non-existent in southern Wisconsin. I refuse to pay stupid prices for 22. I’ll be damned if the flippers and gougers are going to any of my money. I’ll just reload and shoot 9mm till the bubble bursts.

  56. Not having any problem getting .22LR. In fact, I just picked up 4 bricks last week. Everything else is pretty stable right now.

  57. What ammo shortage?

    I buy 9mm, 5.56, 30-30, 12 gauge and 22LR. All of them except 22LR have been priced at or below pre-panic prices except 22LR. It has been this way for about a year. I buy from a few online sources mostly. Local Dick’s and Wallymart are never getting my business again.

    As for 22LR, I just stopped shooting it. I won’t buy another 22 firearm either. I would love to know what is going on with it. Is it hoarders or are the ammo companies constraining supply to inflate prices? In either case they both can fooook-off!!!!

  58. Well, yes and no for me. I am in Northern Virginia.
    If you want to shoot a milsurp in any caliber but 30-06 or 7.62x54R or 7.62×39, you’re outta luck, although 7.62x54R can be found pretty dependably, but pretty much just new stuff only. 22 has been missing for more than a year; the only place I’ve seen it in a long time is at gun shows. If you shoot 9×19, 40S&W, or 45ACP, you’re good to go. Other common pistol calibers like .380ACP, 38SPC, and 357 can sometimes be found, but don’t count on it. 7.62×25 was really abundant until just recently, but now it’s unobtainium, yes, even the new production stuff. Shotguns in 12 and 20 gauge are a-okay. 5.56 is pretty readily available. 5.45 is nowhere to be seen, even at shows. 7mm Remington Magnum and 25-06 are bafflingly abundant. 308 is a bit thin on the ground, but it’s no trouble to find. And that’s all I can really think of right now.

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