How much .22 ammo is enough?

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I have about 3500 rounds of .22LR left, bought when it was plentiful. I wish I had about 10000 more, but not going to buy it while it's scarce (if I ever even see any again) because someone else might actually need it. But still getting uneasy about the whole thing.

Meanwhile I'm shooting .38 Specials instead, and casting my own bullets.
 
I shoot every Sunday, and I do tend to shoot a good amount of .22LR. As of December '13, I had about 12,000 rounds on hand and am now down to about 4-5,000. I keep buying it any time I find an acceptable deal, and I now plan to continue until I get close to the 20,000 mark. My goal is to be able to continue shooting for a good long time after ammo gets either too tough to find or too expensive to buy. Hell, I'll probably go well beyond that 20,000 if .22LR returns at a decent price.
 
DANG! You running s shooting school Stevie ?
I thought I had plenty reserve at 3k rim fire. I guess I don't get time to shoot enough
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I don't, either. I haven't been shooting since... Thanksgiving..? :rolleyes:
But, I'd much rather pony up the cash to buy when it's cheap, and sit on it; than have to worry about picking ammo up on my way to the 'range', and being stuck paying whatever ridiculous price the shop wants for it (if they even have any).
 
22RF ??????
I understand 22LR, Long, 22 Short, 22WM or winmag.
But never heard of 22RF. A bit of enlightenment would be helpful, if you please.
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Rim-Fire. All those you mentioned are .22RF, and since I have a few of some of the others, it's easier to just say .22RF to separate it from the .22 centerfires.
 
I guess the answer boils down to you should have as much as you believe you need. The corrolary is if people wouldn't try to buy 10,000 rounds all at once then everybody could find a couple of boxes of .22 almost every week.

Greed, paranoia, and outright stupidity have created the shortage and continue to maintain it. Sorry if that angers some of you but it flat out is the truth.
 
The corrolary is if people wouldn't try to buy 10,000 rounds all at once then everybody could find a couple of boxes of .22 almost every week.
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10,000 rounds is nothing, during "normal" times (which is when people like me place our bulk orders - not when prices are sky-high and availability is zero :rolleyes:). Under normal circumstances, 10k is a drop in the bucket.


It's the huge number of "a box here - a box there - two boxes on Saturday" type of people, that are killing those of you that didn't think ahead, and got caught with your pants down.

The domestic ammunition industry, as a whole, is set up to produce about 4.2 Billion rounds of .22 LR in a year, running at absolute maximum capacity. They can't run any harder, and produce any more.
That's 11.5 million rounds per day.
...Or, 230k per state, per day.

It only takes 230 people per state, buying 1,000 rounds each day, to dry up the ENTIRE supply that's being manufactured.

...Or, 5 people per day, to dry up the entire supply for the county I live in, in Idaho (44 counties).

...Or, 1 person per day, to dry up the entire supply for each county in the state of Texas ... and some counties have to go without. :eek:


Buy when it's available. Buy when it's cheap. And buy everything you can afford. Anything less is ... well, that's the point of this thread. ;)


(The poor people that just bought their first gun, in .22 LR, during this panic-driven shortage.... I do feel sorry for them. ....Bad timing.)
 
Those numbers look VERY familiar, FrankenMauser. It is almost like we've had this conversation before. :P
 
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"A box here, a box there, two boxes on Saturday" is how I built my stockpile, in all calibers that I shoot, before the shortage hit. Not everyone can afford to buy 10,000 rounds at once but for those that can good for you. I don't buy anything at the inflated prices that are prevalent right now and I rarely sell any of what I've got and when I do it's for I paid for it, no markup, and then only to a couple of friends that got their first .22's. I still have plenty for myself, and I will continue to pick up a box here and there when I can find it at a decent price. As for how much is enough well I guess that depends on your individual needs. As has been mentioned, 25,000 is a nice round number maybe I'll shoot for that:)
 
During the first paranoia, panic, fear buying frenzy that caused a shortage six years ago I bought a box of bulk at Wal-Mart whenever they had it. I got up to ten or eleven boxes on my shelf and felt silly and quit buying. Now, I am wanting CCI Stingers and want to stock up but they aren't available. WM did get in two cases, I got two boxes and they sold out in about 30 min.
 
Those numbers look VERY familiar, FrankenMauser. It is almost like we've had this conversation before.
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There's a similar comparison online somewhere, where they break it down by people buying 5k rounds at a time, per state. That could be what you're thinking of. ;)


Not everyone can afford to buy 10,000 rounds at once but for those that can good for you.
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If you can afford to buy it a box at a time, you can afford to buy even more, if you buy 10, 20, or 30 boxes at a time.

I just don't understand why people always assume that buying in bulk means the buyer has a bunch of money to throw around. (Even if that's not what you were implying, I see it alot.)
I can only afford to shoot the .22 LR that I do, because I buy in bulk. If I was paying the prices the "box at a time" guys pay, I'd be broke or shooting half as much. ...and I don't get to shoot a whole lot, as is.

Rather than wasting gas money, my time, and paying retail prices once a week to stock up a box at a time, I have a savings account for "gun money". On the 5th of each month, $50 automatically gets transferred into the account; and on the 21st of each month, another $25 gets transferred.
With some exceptions, $75 / month is my total budget for all gun-related expenses, including firearms, optics, accessories, magazines, ammunition, reloading tools, reloading supplies, gunsmithing tools, etc. And, if an emergency expense comes up (with very few exceptions), the "gun money" account gets drained before our primary savings account is touched.

Instead of handing my money over once a week for retail-priced ammo, I save that money and hand a bunch of it over, all at once, for deeply-discounted ammo. Often times, I can buy nearly twice as much semi-premium ammo in bulk for the same price I would have been paying for bargain basement bulk packs at retail prices.
 
Frankenmauser,

I couldn't possibly disagree with you more. You blame the guy who wants to go shooting with his kid on Saturday so he buys ONE box of .22 as the culprit in the shortage. That is absolute nonsense, it is the idiotic panic minded hoarders that buy up every box every time they see it that created this mess.

I built up my stockpile of ammunition, .22lr in particular, mostly before the +pre-panic hoarding, by buying one to 4 boxes a pay period, or if it was on sale. I never paid more than $19 for a box of 525 other than the one box I bought for my grand daughter for Christmas. If you want to bulk buy through the internet or whatever, good for you, that is an entirely different deal than the guy waiting at WalMart at 0500 on delivery day so he can buy all he can carry to resell online for 3 times what he paid for it or because he is afraid it will be the last box of ammunition they will ever see.

If people would calm down, realize they don't need 100,000 or 1,000,000 rounds purchased all at once things might return to normal.
 
SocialAnarchist,
Those numbers were intended to illustrate just how easy it is to buy out the entire supply of .22 LR production, without even trying.
It only takes 23,000 people buying one "box" each (500 rounds - I call it a 'brick'), to buy out ALL production for that day, and take everyone back to empty shelves.


It isn't "that guy" or "those guys" hoarding massive amounts of .22 LR that are ruining it for the rest of you. It's those of you that have been hurting for .22 LR for the last year, plus. When you walk into a store and see 8 "boxes" of .22 LR on the shelves at a reasonable price, you buy 2, 3, 4, or the store's limit. When people all across the country are doing it, the supply is gone before it ever has a chance to be seen.


And, very few people (if any) are buying 100,000 rounds at a time. ...because they can't get it, either. :rolleyes:
 
I only buy now to replace what I have shot up out of my ammo. I have, what I believe, is more than enough of a surplus on hand. So I am not really adding to it to make the storage amount bigger.
 
I also got mine from years of buying a box here and there. I don't shoot it as often as I would like now ( 22 ). But still have over 12000 rounds left. I have not looked for it in a long time now as I don't need it. I did not hoard or impulse buy.
Frankenhouser- I do as you do- I donate Plasma 2 times a week for $280.00 a month. That is my money for all things needed ( still is not enough ) I never have to hit the paycheck or other money. It keeps me in components to load and shoot every weekend. I did pick up a SW MP15-22 last summer along with 5 Mag's. I take it with all the time,but only shoot it now and then. Plinking is stress relief for me. It's the only rifle I shoot that I am not OCD on accuracy with.
 
I've got a few boxes of different 22's that are 40+ yrs old. It's interesting to look at the prices on old ammo if still marked. 50 cents a box was common for shorts
 
Do some math because it's different for everyone,,,

A friend of mine could have one 500 round brick and be set for a year,,,
His only .22 is a single-shot rifle that's just a range toy,,,
He might shoot 25 rounds per range trip.

Me on the other hand, I have semi-auto pistols,,,
So on any given range trip I'll shoot between 200 and 300 rounds.

During the summer I get to the range about 3 times a week,,,
Less in the spring and fall and much less in the winter,,,
So I guess-timated about 75 range trips per year,,,
75 trips per year times 250 rounds per trip,,,
That works out to 18,750 rounds per year.

When Obama was sworn in back in 2009,,,
I happened to have one new brick of CCI Blazer on hand,,,
All 22 ammo evaporated immediately and this had to last me the summer.

When it became available in the stores around October,,,
I said this wouldn't happen again and I started stocking up.

I decided that 20,000 rounds was a good bench stock level,,,
So every time I had a spare $20.00 I bought a brick or a bulk pack,,,
I started to lay it back and when Obama was sworn in for the second time,,,
I had amassed right around 30,000 rounds and that's why I was able to shoot all summer.

I'm down to just about 21K or 22K rounds now,,,
When it is available again I'll start replenishing the stock.

So the question of "how much" is going to be different for everyone,,,
It all depends on your shooting habits and your finances,,,
Fortunately for my habits I'm a single man,,,
I can splurge on ammo when I need it.

Analyze your shooting patterns for a year and do the math,,,
That's "How much .22 ammo is enough" for you.

JMHO - YMMV

Aarond

.
 
The way some people are buying it you would think that you should have enough to fill a large bathtub. If you get in it and none fall out you don’t have enough.
A year ago GM had 4000 round plastic ammo cans for 175 +/- I don’t remember. I picked up 2 and have 1 ½ left.
I saw someone on arms list several months ago wanted 450 for the same can.

I think we should stop blaming what you call hoarders for the ammo shortage. The gun sales are out the roof and have been for the last two years. More guns sold more ammo.
If you want to blame anything, blame it on the top gun salesman of the year, for the past two years.
Pres Obamma
 
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