Reason number five is kinda interesting. I think many people have thought it but never said it.

I know for a fact that some shops haven't seen .22 in 6+ months. I agree with everything else.

This is just something that bothers me when someone talks and constantly says "you know"! He makes some good points.

 

I am lucky I bought 2k worth of CCI mini mags and I used to shoot 2 rimfire matches a month now I only shoot one as the one match went to precision and I don't have a precision gun to use. So it's just a steel match a month and I still have enough ammo and never had to buy recently. I am getting low but I will wait until I have none before I will buy at from a gouger!

I couldn't endure nearly 12 minutes of his "you know"s.  What were his five reasons?  I made it through:  .22 is popular, people are buying it whenever it becomes available.

I love when someone says, "I understand this is America, supply and demand..." and then demonstrates that he actually doesn't understand.

 

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy ammo at any price. Nobody is forcing anyone to wait in line at WalMart at 5:00 am. That goes for individual "gougers" (reason #4) and gun shop gougers (reason #5). 

 

If .22 Plinkster could make 3x as much money blogging for GlueTube or BlueTube that's where he would go. He wouldn't give a moment's thought to whether his content is actually worth three times more than he gets from YouTube, or that he might be ripping someone off.

 

Funny how often we limit our concepts of freedom and liberty only to our very narrow world (e.g. guns, our OWN incomes).

 

If hoarding and gouging were the answers, after a couple of years we would have reached saturation on the former and an equilibrium price on the latter. I actually think we have, to some degree, reached that magic price number. If Armslist.com listings are any indication, bulk .22lr is valued by shooters at nine or ten cents per round. You can sometimes find it for 7-8 cents in huge quantity from motivated sellers. Some assholes are charging 15 cents but you know what? If the price were "too high" other assholes wouldn't be lining up to buy it. Thank you, supply and demand.

 

We went to a restaurant in Newton the other night with two other couples. Ordered a carafe of "merlot." Absolute swill. If that was merlot then I'm Louis XVI. The stuff they sell by the gallon is better. Did not know the cost until we got the bill: $24. Didn't want to make a big stink but I'll never eat in that dive again. Supply and demand.

 

(I'll provide the name of the restaurant if you PM me).

 

My reasons for no .22lr:

 

General popularity

High cost of other calibers over last 3-4 years

 

Every time I hear someone mention Merlot, all I can think about is the movie Sideways "I am NOT DRINKING ANY EFFING MERLOT!"

Another perspective:

 

Nearest Walmart that sells ammo is 37 miles from here. I'm limited to two bricks for, say, $24.95 + tax. It takes two hours of my time to go and come, and 2.5 gallons of gas. Assuming my time is worth $35/hr those two bricks cost me:

 

($35 x 2) + ($25 x 2) + ($8) = $128, or a a tad over 12 cents/round. Call it 13 cents with tax.

 

That's if the ammo is in stock, and if they let me buy more than one, if it's not Thunderbolt (which wrecks my gun), and if it's not a hollow point and I'm not stopped and searched on the way home and charged with 1050 felonies.

 

God bless the guy who stands in line with his twelve disciples, and charges me nine cents plus shipping, and lets me buy 3,000 rounds at a time. 

Reason number five is kinda interesting. I think many people have thought it but never said it.

 

Me too...I've suspected this as well.

The guy takes half an hour to make 6 points. What's number five, or better yet a bullet list. This is a perfect example where text would beat video in terms of not wasting my time. 

I watched 5 min and my head hurt

http://www.cabelas.com/checkout/retrieveShoppingCart.cmd?cartId=9b8f16210850f310a786a8c6e8f7f74e

blazer up

His points:

 

1) AR-22s and 22 conversion kits got very popular.

2) Opportunity buyers: we're all paranoid we'll run out of ammo, so whenever we see it for sale, we buy it, even if we don't need it.

3) Hoarding / Prepping. Of note, "Prepping" became very popular, and many have started stockpiling .22 because the Internet says it is the "ultimate survival round."

4) Price Gougers: Line up at Wal Mart, sell it on Gun Broker, etc.

5) Local gun shops: Buying ammo and not putting it on the shelf; instead, they're using their industry supply contracts and selling it online, then telling their customers the manufacturers are not shipping it - perpetuating the supply myth.

 

All sounds valid. One more I'd add: the Internet created the illusion that the supply of .22 was much larger than it was. We all assumed we could order anything at any time, and we all did. The panic will not subside until manufacturers begin charging what the market will bear - $40-$50 a brick. Once they undercut the online reselling market, we'll see a new norm of $0.10 to $0.15 a round. Just speculation.

http://www.cabelas.com/checkout/retrieveShoppingCart.cmd?cartId=9b8f16210850f310a786a8c6e8f7f74e

blazer up

You are my hero for the day.

Now you will see that blazer for like 3 times the price onbhereband gunbroker and armslist. Makes me sad..

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

Pretty simple solution--spread the word to more gun owners NOT to pay for over-prices .22LR, if the "ammo scalpers" can't quickly flip cheap .22 for inflated prices, they're going to no longer go and get the ammo as early as possible. 

Plus, it's becoming a problem because it could lead to a permanent increase in the price of .22LR, since the market has shown they're willing to pay more  than pre-panic prices. But if enough people stop supporting ammo scalpers, they'll stop buying up  all the .22lr, it will be available again, etc. PLUS, I'm hoping some of those assholes who bought ammo they'll never shoot get stuck with it, and end up having to sell it for a stupidly low price to get rid of it later on.

How is it possible that the manufacturers are making as much as they can, they say, and yet it never shows up at your dealers door? Its a real simple question and can anyone explain that?

How is it possible that the manufacturers are making as much as they can, they say, and yet it never shows up at your dealers door? Its a real simple question and can anyone explain that?

 

Sure lots of explanations

 

The ammo is going to bigger contracts, not local dealers

The local dealer does gets it but sells out immediately.

The local dealer gets it but sells it online

 

No one want so to accept the cold hard truth that there is a limited supply and basically an unlimited demand right now.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-nuts/2014/02/rimfire-ammo-shortage-continues

 

 

February 20, 2014

Rimfire Ammo Shortage Continues

 

By Phil Bourjaily

While supplies of centerfire and shotgun ammo seem to be catching up to — or maybe we’ve just reached the new normal — rimfire ammo remains scarce. And it goes fast when it does make it to dealers.

A friend of mine is on the waiting list for .17 Mach 2 at several online ammo retailers. The other day he received an e-mail at 4:05 from MidwayUSA telling him the Mach 2 was back in stock. By the time he logged on at 4:10, it was sold out. It literally didn’t last five minutes before it was all gone.
 
I asked an ammo industry inside about the rimfire shortage at SHOT. He was honest with me.

“Everybody is loading rimfire as fast as they can with the machines they have,” he said. “The problem is, the margins on rimfire are so low it doesn’t make sense to invest in new equipment and expand production. We’ll catch up eventually.”

His best guess? Ammo makers hope to be caught up sometime later this year.  What I want to know is where this ammo is all going. Are people shooting it, are they hoarding it or speculating?

What I do know is that it’s not good for the shooting sports when the ammunition that’s traditionally the cheapest, easiest to find, and most fun to shoot is in short supply.

How is it possible that the manufacturers are making as much as they can, they say, and yet it never shows up at your dealers door? Its a real simple question and can anyone explain that?

Think of it this way, whenever we see a post on NJGF about .22LR being in stock, typically it's "Cabelas, .22 cci in stock" (Which HP is as of my posting), or "Midway has .22!" or ".22 Bulk packs at Gander Mountain"!

 

The big dealers who have a longer rapport with suppliers tend to get first pick. Whatever's left over has to be divided up amongst all the LGS in the nation. If a LGS gets it, they may not even get their full order (depending on how it's distributed), if they only get a small amount, they might just sell it online because it's not worth putting out. And if you're gonna do it online, may as well jack the price a little bit like the ammo scalpers, maybe undercut them a little bit since you got it at dealer price. 

 

Sure lots of explanations

 

The ammo is going to bigger contracts, not local dealers

The local dealer does gets it but sells out immediately.

The local dealer gets it but sells it online

 

No one want so to accept the cold hard truth that there is a limited supply and basically an unlimited demand right now.

 

 

Pretty much, large influx of new gun owners, people like to have .22 to introduce people to shooting (such as myself), etc. etc. I think a big share of the problem is ammo scalpers though.

 

 

Granted, I only took one microeconomics class, but I did pretty well. It seems scalpers are putting an undue strain on the supply, if people can try and get the word out not to support them, they'll lose incentive to scalp, and things should improve.

Not looking to start trouble, but I've seen some ridculous prices right here on the forum, and recently too. You have to resist buying from these good buddies of ours so they too get the message and stop swooping in and scooping up the supply whenever any of it hits the market. Also, it would feel good to stick it to them.

Look at some of the recent for sales ads and realize that even Heritage Guild had some this past week at 8.99/100 for mini mags. and everyone is always ragging on HG's prices.

Not looking to start trouble, but I've seen some ridculous prices right here on the forum, and recently too. You have to resist buying from these good buddies of ours so they too get the message and stop swooping in and scooping up the supply whenever any of it hits the market. Also, it would feel good to stick it to them.

Look at some of the recent for sales ads and realize that even Heritage Guild had some this past week at 8.99/100 for mini mags. and everyone is always ragging on HG's prices.

 

 

Hmm... $8.95 is what I paid about 2-3 years ago for 100rds of minimag from Bob's Little Sport Shop, I just found some I had forgotten about, and that's what i paid. 

 

But I agree, I think I saw the same listing here...

Not looking to start trouble, but I've seen some ridculous prices right here on the forum, and recently too. You have to resist buying from these good buddies of ours so they too get the message and stop swooping in and scooping up the supply whenever any of it hits the market. Also, it would feel good to stick it to

Wrong logic. Seriously speculators do the market a favor during shortages. Yes, they charge a lot for reselling a good, but they resell it. The rest of us would stack it in the basement until the floors cracked at $20 a brick.

 

Basically there still wouldn't be any ammo on the shelf and there wouldn't be any to buy at any price.

 

You don't have to like it, I don't either, but it is what it is until supply catches up to demand.