For years the shelves were empty around here where there was supposed to be 22 caliber and but lately the hole is full and the prices are once again low. Anybody know what happened to cause this sudden abundance of fun to shoot cheap ammo?
22LR has been reasonably cheap and plentiful around here for a few years now - and online prices/availability is good as well.
Interesting feedback on this. Maybe it's because I live in such a red county and people were hoarding
I only buy online, and have had no trouble finding abundent and cheap .22lr for the last several years.
First, Donald Trump became president of the united states instead of Hillary Clinton. Second, the aforementioned election of Donald Trump was sufficient to let ammunition profiteers know that there was no point in hoarding large quantities of ammunition at the market price in order to turn around and sell it at a greatly inflated price to anyone who was desperate enough to actually pay such an amount.
.22 was the cheapest option for target shooting. most folks can't afford a couple hours of shooting anything else. So even though .22 was the cheapest, demand skyrocketed its price and limited its availability.
Nevertheless people were hoarding them. Our local Walmart had a sign up saying two boxes per customer but I never saw anything but empty space there for two years.
I think the reason is that the lowly 22 is widely considered the best survivalist ammo to stock up on and could even be currency in a collapse of society scenario.
The nearest gun store is about 1/2 hour drive so I often checked the local Walmart for ammo. Just very recently they have finally got in stock several brands of .22 LR. I haven't seen hardly any for the past couple years there.
Apparently the panic is over or the hoarders larders are full. Glad it's back to normal and I think I'll stock up in case this happens again.
Then pray tell, exactly what is the truth to explain the abundance of certain calibers of ammunition in the united states once again?
Beer Game theory. Customers created a high demand, which led to suppliers facing allocation decisions on capacity and raw materials. It's likely that centerfire ammo is more profitable than rimfire and manufacturers steered production in that direction. Couple that with a consumer facing possible long term shortages of all ammo types, they could have stock up on 9mm for example, "just in case" and with .22 to do all of their shooting with. Some of this is explained here: https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2013/12/17/why-weve-had-an-ammunition-shortage/
I stocked up on .22 before The CMP had their shortage and am still sitting on most of it. I don’t shoot much .22. Also stocked up on 7.62x 39. Everything Else I reload for. I cast and reload 9MM, .40, and .45 for $.05-$07 a round so that is what I burn through the most.