22lr replacement

Faster is not always better with airguns.

That being said a high quality airgun will likely give you lots of enjoyment. Just be prepared to spend firearm money to get an airgun that will feel like a "real" gun. Also understand that spring guns are a totally different discipline but will absolutely teach fundamentals like trigger, breathing, follow through, repeatable technique etc.

I have airguns that are better guns than any stock 10/22 or model 60 IMO
 
vl.

Cheap to shoot and faster than most. 22lr
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Not with a 40 grain bullet they aren't.
The very high velocities are done with very light pellets. The biggest complaint that one hears is that accuracy is so-so. YMMV.
Pete
 
Look at a PCP type air rifle- More consistent in cold weather than springers, CO2, pump pneumatics.

My Air Force Talon SS groups right around 1 MOA out to 80 yards or so at any temperature.
So quiet it makes you giggle.
Costs per shot are low if you are willing to work a hand pump.
 
I've been seeing 17hmr ammo on sale for between $10-$12 a box lately. It's still more than 22lr but at least I can find it.
 
i bought a ruger blackhawk elite air rifle recently. it is pretty darn accurate. just earlier today i shot a starling at around 50 yards.

i would shoot the wood chucks in my back yard but i am afraid that the the small pellet would not penetrate enough.
 
Cabela's has CCI standard velocity 40 gr 22lr for 8 & 9 cents/round.
Check out Ammoseek.com which listed 109 sources when I checked a minute ago.
Not cheap, but hardly anything is, anymore. :(
 
The problem is that .22lr at 8 or 9 cents a round isn't expensive.

What are you going to do to replace it? Air gun is an idea, but I am not sure it really is equal to .22lr. You could loading a centerfire to 1000 fps is going to cost near 20 to 25 cents a round. If you cast your own bullet and have the brass....then you could do it around 5 to 7 cents. Figure in time (a lot of people will consider that) and unless you are super high volume... dropping $50 for a .22lr brick isn't that big of a deal.

The problem is sticker shock! People just see the price as double a few years ago. A few years ago .22lr was a steal.

There just isn't a .22lr replacement that makes sense money wise.

I think the demand is actually there. Say there is 4 billion .22lr rounds made each year with 50 million gun owners. That is 80 .22lr rounds per person a year. When you think about it that way...there is a actual .22lr shortage.
Every gun owner that stores a brick in reserve just stored almost 7 gun owners annual production.

Cost of production only matters if someone else will make enough of it that the market price drops back to 20-25$ a brick. Gas doesn't cost $3 per gallon to produce...A 20 oz coke doesn't cost a $1.50 to produce, but people pay those prices.

You think .22lr is going to stabilize out anytime soon?
 
I think another problem is the Gun shops don't want to put the .22lr on the shelf. They know they can't charge market price without their customers complaining about the price increase.

So they put it on gunbroker to get market price. Then the local people fuss about there being no .22lr. If they do put it on the shelves at the old non market price, then someone buys it to flip it. If some gas station price gas at $2 a gallon, then they would run out of gas. Why? because they were way undercharging for it.

I wish everyone would just start charging market prices, so the flippers would be gone, then I could buy .22lr without having to meet someone in a parking lot.
 
I don't think there is a shortage really anylonger and I don't think the price went up either because I go to Walmart or anywhere that sells them and there still .08 cents a round now it's just that people got into price gouging and buying it all. Then when I go to the store there is no ammo so I'm forced to go online and buy it if I want it. So if people stopped paying those prices it would eventually go down just because something's rare doesn't mean its valuable.
 
Yet, if people stopped paying those prices, then they have no ammo.
If people stopped paying $3 a gallon for gas, then gas would come down in price. Yet, people would be walking to work, the store, and so on.

Anyone wants to sell me some .22lr for $20-25 a brick, then I am game. Yet, no one wants to sell any of it for those prices. They want $40 to 100 a brick.

It is valuable if people will pay that for it. 8 cents a round is $42 for a brick of 525. Anything cheaper than that and it is gone ASAP.

I just want to have it on the shelves at the store so it is there when I need it. Walmart isn't going to increase their price, but they require time and luck to get it there. Local dealers are throwing it up on Gunbroker to get top dollar (I don't blame them). The best option is Armslist at $40 per brick.

I remember buying bricks for $5. Is Walmart ripping people off charging $20-25?
 
Yet if people would stop paying $75 then the the people waking up at 6 and go to Walmart to get the daily shipment would stop because there's no money in it for them and then people could actually go to the stores and get ammo for retail. So if you find ammo at a store only buy what you will shoot and don't but from people price gouging.
 
Griping and venting about .22 ammo problems aren't the topic of the thread.

Least-cost alternatives to .22 are at issue here.
 
.17 Hummer and .17 Mach 2 are both in the stores, whereas .22 mag and .22lr are not, so that's what I'd do. Or .223 rem. Or 20 ga.
 
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All of this gnashing of teeth always leads me back to "variety is the spice of life". When the shtf, figuratively speaking the aa batteries go first, so have something in cr123 or cr2 or both.

9mm runs out, have a .45, or a .40 or a .308 or a .22 pellet rifle. We are all gun nuts on this board. You can hoard one caliber or diversify your stock portfolio. Diversification is more fun IMO.

At any rate I still stand by the best alternative for a .22 plinker is an air rifle, just don't go cheap.
 
and?

a box of 50 longer distance and better accuracy
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Longer distance than .22LR or a pellet gun? Pellet gun for sure. Twenty-two..I am not so sure. Maybe.
Better accuracy? Both .22s and pellet guns are capable of startling accuracy.
I have seen ten shot sub-moa groups shot at 100 yards with a .22....more than once.
This is a test target that came with my air pistol. Five shots....
FWBtesttarget.jpg
 
But I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a small mammal at 300 yrds with a 17 and wouldn't attempt that with a 22. Bullet coeffecient is so much better with the ballistic tip vs the hp. I know wind drift and all the variables add up. But this is just my personal preference.
 
Longer distance than .22LR or a pellet gun? Pellet gun for sure. Twenty-two..I am not so sure. Maybe.
Better accuracy? Both .22s and pellet guns are capable of startling accuracy.
I have seen ten shot sub-moa groups shot at 100 yards with a .22....more than once.
This is a test target that came with my air pistol. Five shots....
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Yes a lot better distance than 22lr, 150 yard shots are easy, 200-300 yards easy in good conditions, or doable with a good shooter.

Better accuracy? Probably not in perfect conditions under 100 yards, but when the wind picks up 17hmr bucks the wind a whole lot better than 22lr ever will so will be more accurate.

That being said it's still not cheaper than 22lr and no where near as cheap as air rifle ammo. Funny that you shooters in America have struggled to find ammo, yet on the other side of the world I have never struggled to buy it. The price has stayed much the same too, around $50 for 500 rounds, for certain makes, which funnily enough are USA makes. Biggest thing have struggled to buy is Hornady anything, but they don't make 22lr so is unrelated to that.

But to the OP, I don't think anything will be as cheap to shoot as 22lr even with hyped up prices. If it is cheaper, it's either terrible surplus ammo or cast bullets with reclaimed brass. But the time it would take to cast your own bullets and prep your brass would make the $50 for 500 rounds of 22lr a lot more appealing.
 
Someone just asked about this same question a week or 10 days back; my and others' answer still good.... .17 hummer is in the stores for sale, so there's that as probable best option. But ok, yeah - all manner of shotgun shells including slugs are also stocked, so there's that too.
 
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