Loooking at some 22s for target and plinking

I went shopping for rimfire ammo, yesterday.
500rd bricks of standard velocity (that is, low velocity) CCI, only $70, or more than handloaded 9mm.
Or, $17 for 100 CCI stingers; more than .45 ACP handloads.
 
SW 22A

I have the SW22A. For the most part I like it and it is accurate. I'm not sure putting the mag release in the middle of the from of the grip was such a good idea. It took me a while to get use to that. I've released the mag a couple times when I did not intend to. Barrel comes of easily for cleaning.
Live well and be safe.
Prof Young
 
Got a kick out of TailGator's comment regarding bulk .22 ammo. If you have some bulk .22 ammo, you can probably trade it for any of the pistols mentioned.

Reloading 9mm is most likely less expensive than "attempting" to buy .22 rim fire.
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LOL, or at least a big grin. The fact that I know it to shoot bulk ammo reliably says something about how long I have had it, huh? :o

A basic reloading setup is my next purchase. Looks like it might be the only way to keep shooting. I hope .22LR pistols don't wind up being relics, but when you can, as you aid, reload and shoot 9 mm for a comparable price, it takes away a lot of the reason for shooting a .22. Still a great way to get young shooters started, but the days of shooting .22LR without thinking about ammo costs seems to be gone, at least for now.
 
Thanks to all for responding. Lots of info and I was able to understand everything but the abbreviations. I did not know you could reload 9mm cheaper than buying 22 ammo. I have two 9mms. Where can I learn more about what's needed to reload?
 
I can just barely remember .22LRs in 50-round boxes going for $0.50 per box when I was really young. I can remember pay $1.00 per 50-round box at K-Mart also. Past that, around $7-8 for a 500-round brick. That was the last time I bought .22 ammo. :(

To reload for the least amount of money, you also need to cast your own bullets. You can get a lot of reloading information over at:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com
 
I have a Ruger MKII stainless with a 10in Tactical Solutions upper. Super shooter. I also have a Browning Buckmark Camper. This one is also fairly accurate with bulk ammo. Won't try good high velocity ammo unless I take it hunting. Too hard to come by still and I don't want to deplete my supply. Don't worry about the nightmare stories you here about the Ruger take down. Just keep the manual with the gun and read it. It's really not that hard to take it apart and get it back together correctly. As far as paying $70.00 for a box of bulk ammo, he who pays these prices is only adding to the problem. Walk away. Pretty simple.
Ralph
 
There is a "Handloading, Reloading, and Bullet Casting" forum right here on TFL. A good starting place is the sticky "For the New Reloader":

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230171

Lots of info here, on the web, including YouTube, and in reloading manuals. You are going to need a manual anyway, and they aren't expensive.

ETA: Not sure how I missed seeing Hal's post directing to the same sticky. Oops.
 
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i opted to get the mkiii and regretted it. i heard all the stories and dismissed them. im young and has small nimble fingers how hard could it be. i dont know if i had a bad one or what but everything was so tight. when the manual tells you to use a hammer you know its going to be rough :D i ended up selling it. im the type to clean after every shoot so it had to go. if you can live with a dirty gun on your conscious get the ruger. the frustration of breaking it down was just to much for me
 
jsust said:
i opted to get the mkiii and regretted it. i heard all the stories and dismissed them. im young and has small nimble fingers how hard could it be. i dont know if i had a bad one or what but everything was so tight. when the manual tells you to use a hammer you know its going to be rough
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Given your reference to a hammer, I assume you're talking about separating the receiver from the frame.

This is NOT necessary for routine cleaning. Mobuck's post is spot-on. A pistol-length Boresnake is your friend, and the main Mk-series trouble spots- the breech face, bolt face, extractor, and recoil spring and guide- can be cleaned with CLP and Q-tips through the ejection port with the bolt locked back. A more detailed cleaning can be done by removing the bolt stop assembly and pulling the bolt, but leaving the frame and receiver alone. This saves you the trouble of separating them and particularly lining them back up afterwards.
jsust said:
im the type to clean after every shoot so it had to go. if you can live with a dirty gun on your conscious get the ruger.
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Dirty guns don't give me a guilty conscience. I find that one's attitude is more easily adjusted than the Mk-series field stripping procedure is. ;)
dlflyer said:
I did not know you could reload 9mm cheaper than buying 22 ammo.
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When .22LR ammo prices and availability return to normal, you once again won't be able to. :)

Although I don't want to dispute this here- I've made my views known in other threads- I'm in the camp that believes that .22LR is experiencing a classic commodity price bubble, and we're headed into a major downturn in demand, to be rapidly followed by a price-depressing glut in supply.
Prof Young said:
I'm not sure putting the [S&W 22A] mag release in the middle of the [fropnt] of the grip was such a good idea. It took me a while to get use to that. I've released the mag a couple times when I did not intend to.
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Additionally, this position can make things needlessly difficult for certain members of the fairer sex; the button is difficult to operate if one has long fingernails.
 
I bought a used Hi-Standard that I will never part with. If you are patient and look around you can still find them at a realistic price. I do have to "shop/hunt" for standard velocity ammo, but it is worth it. Parts are still around if you need them. It is true that you may have to do some adjusting on magazines. I have found with a good tool and patients you can get them to feed reliably once you get them lips just right. I know I came late to the party, but did not want the one mention of these great guns to be the only one in the thread.
 
When .22LR ammo prices and availability return to normal, you once again won't be able to.

Although I don't want to dispute this here- I've made my views known in other threads- I'm in the camp that believes that .22LR is experiencing a classic commodity price bubble, and we're headed into a major downturn in demand, to be rapidly followed by a price-depressing glut in supply.
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I hope you're right. I really, really, really hop you're right.
I have this nagging feeling though that prices will never return to what they once were.
 
You are right about that. Now that distributors know that there are people who will hoard a product priced at three or four times what others will pay for any, there's no need for the price to come down, much.
That said, you can't eat ammo, and when people who've taken out a second mortage to fill their garages with ammo find themselves out of work, we just may see all that ammo back on the market, and cheaper than it's been in years.
Rimfire ammo apparently makes no money for ammo makers. I don't really undertand it, but rimfire ammo is, in some ways, more expensive to make than centerfire ammo, but there was a belief that nobody would pay more for it.
Of course, I still subscribe to that theory, not being willing to pay more for rimfire than centerfire!
 
I greatly enjoy reloading but I have to say that the idea of reloading 9mm for a "comparable cost" to .22LR is entirely unrealistic.

Sure, .22LR is hard to find right now but a number of brands are still available in 525 round packs for $20 or less.

That's under 4 cents per round.

Primers alone are mighty close to 4 cents each. Powder charge is going to be 2-4 cents per round in 9mm. Those are the CHEAP parts. Bullets are much more than that, unless you cast your own. You're typically going to be paying 10-12, up to 20 cents, per bullet if you buy plated/jacketed, 8-10 cents for lead. All this without including the brass prices.

Let's say you do, somehow, load 9mm for less than .22. You're looking at $350-$500 for reloading equipment, probably at least $250 for casting equipment if you do that.

Let's say you spend $500 and you load at 3 cents per round.... a virtual impossibility but let's just say you do... you're saving 1 cent over 22. At that rate, you have to load 10,000 rounds to get a $100 return. You'll be at 50,000 rounds to break even.

You're much more likely to be spending 3-5 times as much loading 9mm as buying 22LR.
 
Not doubting you Brian, but there are a lot of us who would like to see the 525 pack for less than $20.00. Where is it at?
:confused:
I bought three of those packs in the Remington brand about two years ago for less than $15.00, but I have not seen it at either price since then.
 
but there are a lot of us who would like to see the 525 pack for less than $20.00. Where is it at?
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Hard to find at stores right now, at least on the shelves whenever you walk in. My local Gander Mountain is getting it almost daily now though. All you have to do is be there in the first couple hours. It'll come back around eventually, it always does. In the mean time, 22 ammo is available sporadically (and higher priced) online... but still cheaper than loading your own 9mm...

http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/rimfire/22lr/
 
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The new Cabela's gets Blazer 500rd bricks in fairly regular, and its about $27 per brick.

The local PSA gets in CCI ammo every few weeks, but $12 for a box of 100.


If I ration and buy a bulk box when I find it at a reasonable price... I can keep shooting it. But the range trips of blowing through a whole $16 brick of 22lr are gone for now.


As far as the pistol... I have an SR22, and like it a lot, but I want a good target pistol sometime soon.

I like the all metal build and reputation of the Ruger... the assembly isn't too bad, but not ideal.

The S&W uses a plastic buffer that I don't like the idea of.

The Buckmark is nice, but requires tools to field strip, something I am against when possible.

Right now, I am looking hard at the Beretta Neos... It is dirt simple to disassemble and clean. It has a carbine kit for it as well.
 
In the mean time, 22 ammo is available sporadically (and higher priced) online... but still cheaper than loading your own 9mm...

http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/rimfire/22lr/
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I just calculated the cost of loading 115 grain FMJ 9mm rounds and it comes out to $.12 per round per 1000.
Online for .22lr runs $.13 per round for the cheapest.


All this without including the brass prices.
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Brass is free - that's why it's called - reloading.

:D

Once fired brass is pretty cheap though.
9mm usually goes for ~ $20.00 per 500.
Figure ~ $40.00 per thousand for ~ $.04 per round.
Then divide that figure sown again by the number of times the brass is reused.
Figure 4 times and it's a penny per round.
(9mm brass is pretty stout and can take more than 4 times through the die.
Loss of brass is a bigger thing - which is why I say figure only 4 times)

You're looking at $350-$500 for reloading equipment
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That's simply not true at all.

I. like thousands if not tens of thousands over the years, started reloading/handloading with a Lee basic (pound em in with a hammer) reloading kit.
My .38/.357 mag kit ran me about $11.00. My .44/.44mag ran about the same.
I added a dipper set for about $5.00 and a loading manual for about $10.
Both of those items were/are 100% optional.

Later on I added an auto prime for a few bucks.

The little Lee kit was all the equipment needed.
I made thousands of round of very high quality ammunition with just an $11.00 kit.
I made thousands more with the extra dippers - which allowed me to expand to using different powders.

I'm rambling now - but - the statement that you have to invest hundreds of dollars into equipment is false.
A $30.00 kit is all you really need.

Sure, .22LR is hard to find right now but a number of brands are still available in 525 round packs for $20 or less.
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Sorry - I forgot this...

I just did this dance w/another member over in the General forum.
Don't assume that because you can find .22lr, locally that everyone can.

In the last 9 months, I've run across exactly one box of bulk .22lr and they wanted like $50 or $70 for it.
Other than that, our shelves have been bare.
 
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