Prices Drop as Supplies of .22 LR Ammo Increase
Photo ©2016 by Dean Weingarten.
Are we seeing an end to the “desperate days” for .22 LR rimfire ammo? Are supplies finally starting to catch up to demand? At least one industry analyst thinks so. Gun journalist Dean Weingarten has been watching trends. Makers of .22 LR ammo have increased production by 20%. That’s a good thing. We are starting to see the effects, Dean observes, with increased supplies and falling prices for rimfire ammo. Here is Dean’s report from Arizona.
Report by Dean Weingarten, GunWatch.com:
I chanced to be at the local WalMart in Yuma, Arizona today (July 8, 2016). This is the store on the frontage road off of old Highway 8, East of town. Until Friday, June 24, 2016, I had not seen any .22 Long Rifle in the store for three years.
On that date, there were 2,300 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags and 1,000 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity. The Mini-Mags were in plastic 100-round boxes at $7.47 a box. The Standard Velocity were in paper, 50-round boxes at $3.47 a box.
Just 10 days later, on the 3rd of July, I was in the same store, and there were 1900 rounds of CCI Stinger, in 50-round boxes. It is premium .22 Long Rifle ammunition, and has always been pricey. The price was $6.47 for a box of 50, or a little under 13 cents a round. They also had CCI .22 Maxi-Mag, .22 magnum rimfire cartridges, for $13.47 a box of 50, or nearly 27 cents a cartridge. It has been scarce, but not as bad as the .22 Long Rifle.
Two sightings in 10 days after three years was remarkable.
.22 LR Ammo for 5.36 Cents Per Round
Today, the 8th of July, there were two cases of bulk pack Federal .22 Auto Match. That is 6,500 .22 Long Rifle cartridges.This is only five days after the previous sighting. The boxes contained 325 cartridges. [The clerk] was just opening the cases to stock the shelves when I showed up. She said there had been a couple of bricks of .22, but they had been purchased immediately.
Photo ©2016 by Dean Weingarten.
At $17.42 for 325 rounds of Auto Match .22, that is 5.36 cents per round. A little over two years ago, I wrote that the .22 ammunition bubble would be over when you saw .22 LR ammunition on sale below 4 cents a round:
“You will know that the bubble is close to the bottom when you see .22 LR on sale for below 4 cents per round. At the lowest, we might see .22 LR cartridges below $10 for 500.” Read Article from 6/7/2014.
Many dismissed my prediction. They said that we would never see .22 cartridges below 4 cents a round again. People said that I was crazy when gasoline was at $4 a gallon, and I wrote that we would see it below $2 in the future. It went below $2 a few months ago.
The .22 ammunition bubble is hanging on. The push for more Second Amendment infringements by the Obama administration keeps it inflated. But with only six months to go to the end of that administration, the bubble has become fragile. The .22 ammunition manufacturers have increased production by 20%. That puts a lot of strain on the bubble.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten. Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to GunWatch.com.
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Tags: .22 LR, ammo, Ammunition, Dean Weingarten, Rimfire, Walmart
Its about time. The shortage coupled with the price increase has easily cut rimfire shooting in half in this country over the past several years.
I wonder if they take into account the number of people who have switched to a high end air gun. Pellet prices are up quite a bit in the last year.
Well it’s not been happening in Eastern Kentucky! I check out the .22lr every time I end up at a Walmart anywhere and I was lucky enough to find some 325 round boxes of Federal HP’s about 8-10 months back.. the last month I bet I’ve visited 6 different Walmarts in different towns and even in Lexington KY and every one has said, ‘No, we’ve not seen any .22 in a while.’
I just saw .22 ammo at a local Meijer’s for the first time in at least 6 years.
No such 22lr or much else in our local Wal-Mart, even the Gun Shops don’t have it pouring out, limited to 2 boxes per customer, IF they have it….It’s really not getting better, and Gas is $3.79/gallon, never saw it less than $2.50.
This is not happening in western KY. You can find a few 22 LR but you have to hunt for it. You can forget 22 mag. it’s not on the shelf, hasn’t been for over a year.
Well here in Texas, the Academy stores have plenty, and have removed any quantity limitations. It may not be the brand you’re looking for but it’s there. Last year I bought ~20 bricks of Federal Automatch at $18 or $19 per at Academy. Of course quantity limits were still in place then so I just planned stops a various Academy stores here and there as I went about my business over 2-3 weeks.
Dealers here in Idaho do not seem to be inclined to share any savings with customers as of today.
The excuse is the same one as gas stations always come up with.
“we have to pass on the increases…”.
First to raise, last to lower prices.
By time I check and see the same boxes of 22 shells with the third or fourth sticker on each box I just go shoot my FWB 300S.
How the hell prices there are so high?! Finnish webshop:
http://www.ahtihuvila.fi/cgi-bin/webio2kauppa?Pienoiskiv%C3%A4%C3%A4ri/Federal_22LR_High_Velocity&naytasivu=1518&id=1401&saitti=ahtihuvila
sells at 33€ 500 rounds? looks like it´s bargain price?
I am in Texas. At Academy, for the first time in years, tonight I seen that they no longer kept the .22 lr behind the counter. It was actually out there with the other ammo. I bet they had 8000-9000 rounds out there.