The Truth about the Rimfire Shortage

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22-rimfire

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Anyone who shoots 22 rimfires knows that they can be hard to find, especially at the old prices. But here is an author who suggests that the rimfire shortage is all Ruger's fault. :D I view it as a bit of tongue and cheek, but the articles is a fair read about a Python vs Coonan 357 shoot off.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/357-shoot-off-coonan-vs-python/

From the article: "Where have revolvers faded from popularity? You could argue that it is capacity. I think it is both capacity and the speed of reloads. The GunsAmerica crew was talking recently about the scarcity of ammo, and why we can’t find .22LR in big old bricks. One hypothesis is that we’re shooting more. Rimfire used to be a single shot game. Now we’re blowing through bricks in single range trips. Want to know who’s to blame? Ruger. Their BX25 mags for the 10/22 make shooting rimfire rounds easy."

I think that there is some truth to this. So, if you want to read about pistol vs auto, read the article.
 
The author is definitely on the right track. 20 years ago, very few people thought about blasting away through a 100 rd box of ammo in less than a minute. Today, it is commonplace.

Ammo companies either totally ignored the trend in shooting or they were blind and didn't anticipate it. Either way, current production can't keep up with demand. They really need to consider this to be a permanent shift in demand and not a "bump".
 
Agreed.....next to a machine gun, the 10/22 is the most ammo thirsty gun ever created.

Years ago I bought my two sons each 10/22's and a case (5000rds) of .22 ammo. They had it shot up in one weekend. Had I purchased bolt actions we might have stretched that ammo to a month.
 
Sort of agree, though the shortage was exacerbated multiple times through the past few years with each mentally disturbed person acting out-with us gun owners fearing gun control initiatives, and causing us to stock up on all things gun & ammo!
 
Ruger 25 round mag.s???:confused: Seriously

Mitchell 100 round wind up, Ramline 50 and 25 round, several others...and those are from the 80's and 90's. Running rapid fire w/ a 10/22 is nothing new.

The plethora of the Umarex 22's and other like items has definitly contributed to some degree BUT>>> Priming the brass is the slow point in rimfire production. Batching centerfire primers is easier than injecting the compound into a rimfire and spinning it in place.

People buying anything and everything is also a problem...it's called production capacity. The crazy buyers have caused an issue where demand exceeds supply. Who in their right mind pays $60 for a brick of Rem. Golden?
 
Don't blame the provider.

Blame the customer......without him there'd be no demand for such stuff and thus no problem.

Shooters are nutty these days.
 
I used to plink a lot. I thought 100 rounds was a lot. Combine 500 round bulk packs, big mags and a fast loading and shooting semi, and you get a very thirsty gun. This is especially true when someone else is providing the ammo.... you know... Dad or Uncle Bob.

Thought I would add that I bought my very first box of 22 ammo (CCI Velocitors) in over two years on Friday at Cabelas (limit two).
 
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Don't blame the provider.

Blame the customer......without him there'd be no demand for such stuff and thus no problem.
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Sure, you can blame the provider. If your favorite beer brewer ignored an increase in demand and didn't boost production so that you could only get your favorite brew once a year wouldn't you blame them?
 
Bogus. The increase in demand was FAR more dramatic and fast than anyone could have imagined.

For years American consumption of 22 was between 3 and 5 billion rounds a year.

In less than a year effective demand essentially tripled.

No company can anticipate that kind of increase.

Build more machines?

Millions of dollars and a significant time investment, and an uncertain future. As quickly as the market can heat up it can collapse.

The ONLY thing the ammo companies should be pilloried for is forgetting just what an irrational, panicky mind dead beast people can be.

And that's on the morons who started screeching "THE BAMAS GONNER OUT LAW GUNS AND AMMO WITH A SECRET EXECUTIVE ORDER!"

Quickly followed by their going out and buying every damned thing they could.
 
In terms of buying ammo, you have to admit that most think of a couple bulk packs ("bricks") as being normal now to take on a family shooting-plinking outing. It wasn't always like that. The rimfire manufacturers did it to themselves to be honest along with a cooperative buying public as they can only produce so much. Instead of buying 50 or 100 rounds (one or two boxes), you'd buy 500 or 1,000 rounds (one or two boxes).

Mitchell 100 round wind up, Ramline 50 and 25 round, several others...and those are from the 80's and 90's. Running rapid fire w/ a 10/22 is nothing new.
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Those Ramline mags caused jams a lot. I have a couple still from that period.
 
Well, don't blame me!:D

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I think it's more panic buying than a high increase in shooting. There continues to be significant hoarding with people grabbing everything that hits the shelf.
 
I agree that panic buying (hoarding) contributed heavily to the shortage, and then the scalpers moved in, waiting for stores to stock the shelves and then buying everything they could get their hands on. When normal shooters had no luck finding ammo at stores some resorted to paying the scalpers outrageous prices, which only served to motivate the scalpers to keep cleaning out stores. As more and more people stop paying crazy prices the scalpers profit margin will disappear (along with the scalpers), the cycle will end and availability will return.

That's my 2 cents FWIW
 
I think it's more panic buying than a high increase in shooting. There continues to be significant hoarding with people grabbing everything that hits the shelf.
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Agreed, although I do think there has been a significant increase in shooters over the past decade or so. This shortage started with resellers/panic buyers. Now it seems it's just guys hoarding.

That being said, I haven't had too much of a problem finding ammo online. It's not as easy as just walking into Wal-Mart on the way to the range, but it's no longer unobtainium anymore.
 
It's a classic viscous circle. Panic buyers clean out the shelves, the empty shelves reinforce the panic, drawing in people who did not originally participate in the panic buying.
It's like a stock market crash. Everybody sells because their stocks are going down, stocks are going down because everybody is selling.

The viscous circle can also work the other way once this viscous circle breaks, nobody buys because the shelves are full and everybody already has a huge stock of ammo, the shelves are full because nobody is buying. This is the scenario that makes the ammo plant owners reluctant to expand production capability.

When I go to a public range, I really don't see that many people shooting .22.
 
Many manufacturers have increased their production capacity, but it's still going to take awhile for things to level out.

If Hillary Clinton becomes President, I fully expect the panic mongers to lose their collective minds -- AGAIN -- and we'll be off at the races once more.
 
My Walmart had 100 round boxes of minimag last weekend, $7.50 a box. I bought two, and the clerk told me he sold 20 already.
I looked on gun broker just for fun...people are trying to get $25 plus shipping for the same box!
 
Bogus. The increase in demand was FAR more dramatic and fast than anyone could have imagined.

For years American consumption of 22 was between 3 and 5 billion rounds a year.

In less than a year effective demand essentially tripled.

No company can anticipate that kind of increase.

Build more machines?

Millions of dollars and a significant time investment, and an uncertain future. As quickly as the market can heat up it can collapse.

The ONLY thing the ammo companies should be pilloried for is forgetting just what an irrational, panicky mind dead beast people can be.

And that's on the morons who started screeching "THE BAMAS GONNER OUT LAW GUNS AND AMMO WITH A SECRET EXECUTIVE ORDER!"

Quickly followed by their going out and buying every damned thing they could.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Its interesting that most other ammunition appears readily available now, but there still is a difficulty with .22lr.
 
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