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Zeke

22 lr silly question

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Why is .22 lr so expensive? 3 theories I've heard....

1. Manufactured in Philippines and typhoons done wiped em out. ...

 

2. Hoarding, but why?

 

3. Lot of new shooters( thank you Obama) and .22 is the caliber of choice.

 

 

 

Or it's a zombie thing.....

 

 

Your thoughts?

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Eventually, the supply should increase to meet the demand.  It seems odd to me that it's been almost 2 years and nobody's expanded or built a factory.   If it was possible to make a living selling .22 at $.03 a round 2 years ago, you'd think somebody would have jumped on the opportunity to manufacture the same for $.10 a round.

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Lots of 22LR sitting on shelves in homes and prepper's "caves".  They bought it after Newtown because they were afraid of new laws limiting purchase of ammo.  Abundance of new firearms owners as well.  Supply could and cannot keep up for 2013 and 2014.  Hopefully better in 2015 when we may see a gut in supply and prices plumment for a short while. 

 

Investment for new tooling of 22LR would be real expensive.  Industry knows it's a "bubble".  Nobody invests that kind of green on a politically hot short term (yes, 2 years is short term) crisis in the market, they just ride it out.  Happened before will happen again.  

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You forgot #4 Ammo Scalpers.  They know when the shipments arrive, line up in the morning, buy out all of the stock and resell it on-line or in retail stores marked up 100 to 200 %.

 

# 3 is a major factor.  New shooters have been increasing the demand, a demand manufacturers are already having a hard time keeping up with.

 

#2 is probably the biggest cause.  Shooters are still in panic mode.  Until .22lr can be found on the shelf 24/7 these spazes will buy all the .22lr they can find in spite of already having 15k rounds tucked away in their bunker.  .22lr is cheap, even at twice the normal price, so they wont stop buying it.  it's a sickness with them.  The #2 people are often seen in line with #4 types and fighting over how many boxes they should be allowed to have.

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Lots of 22LR sitting on shelves in homes and prepper's "caves". They bought it after Newtown because they were afraid of new laws limiting purchase of ammo. Abundance of new firearms owners as well. Supply could and cannot keep up for 2013 and 2014. Hopefully better in 2015 when we may see a gut in supply and prices plumment for a short while.

 

Investment for new tooling of 22LR would be real expensive. Industry knows it's a "bubble". Nobody invests that kind of green on a politically hot short term (yes, 2 years is short term) crisis in the market, they just ride it out. Happened before will happen again.

22LR was scarce before Newton. My opinion is center fire ammo became so expensive that shooters started shooting 22 instead.

 

I don't know if the typhoon in the Phillipines has that much of an impact most of the rimfire ammo is made here. CCI makes 1 million rounds a day out of their plant.

 

 

Who is John Galt?

I am so excited I figured out how to change my signature.

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I think it was simply supply and demand. Ammo prices went up in general because of hoarding and the fear factor. This exacerbated the shortage of .22s because they were always cheaper than other rounds.

 

It may no longer cost $0.03/round but it's still, at about $0.10, approximately one-third the price of most other ammo. I would never think of shooting 400-600 rounds of .380 or .357 magnum in one day. I still ration those calibers on my trips to the range. But not .22s. 

 

Now that 9mm, .38 sp, even Makarov is falling people will shoot more of those calibers. Demand for .22s will fall relatively speaking, and supplies will free up. By my estimate the best price for .22s is down approximately 5 cents/round from the peak. 

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Discussed here back in March (among many places) and nothing has changed:


 

On your list, #1, Armscor is made in the Philippines, but the shortage was in effect long before. They have expanded their US-made production capability significantly (read about it here and here). The best 22 is manufactured in the US (CCI) and Mexico (Aguila). There's also the more expensive target brands, which cost $9 - $15 per 100, and still go for about that.

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NOT....anymore...

Incorrect. Maybe the stores or private sellers have jacked up the price, but the manufacturers haven't. Fact is that 22 manufacturing is a slightly more complicated process and due to the low price per round the manufacturer doesn't make the profit off of it like they do 9mm 45 or 5.56. Low profits = low priority.

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Supply and demand.

 

.22 has the lowest profit margin so it's not going to be a priority for the ammo companies.

 

I don't doubt that it's low margin...but it's a gateway drug.   They need to keep it in the distribution channels until newbies get hooked on the harder stuff.

 

Centerfire is where the profits are.    :-)

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Incorrect. Maybe the stores or private sellers have jacked up the price, but the manufacturers haven't.

 

Private sellers certainly have; perhaps some light: my 12 month+  back-orders for match grade 22 were recently filled at $350 a case by a major retailer. That same ammo is now listed at $450 to $500 a case and sold out - this is still short of the $60 a brick this ammo goes for on Gunbroker, but it's a much more narrow gap.

 

For the record, all of my .22 is for competition; I don't sell any of it, but do the math and see why a lot of people do. 

 

I agree with what others have said. Until manufacturers remove the profit margins for the scalpers, the shortage will continue.

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.............

 

I agree with what others have said. Until manufacturers remove the profit margins for the scalpers, the shortage will continue.

 

Palmetto State Armory is dealing with this in an interesting way.  PSA is keeping the price per round floating between 9 and 11 cents per. on almost all of their bulk 22lr.  Not so high as to be outrageous but high enough to discourage the scalpers from wiping out the stock while at the same time undercutting the scalpers.   I'd buy some .22lr from them but those stupid bastards seem to think .22lr is the same as .357 Mag ammo and insist I send them a copy of my FID.  I refuse to buy .22lr from PSA on principle but if you are already getting handgun ammo from them or have no qualms about sending them your FID, then go for it. 

 

There is also another element we seem to have missed.  The jack asses that are paying the scalpers ridiculous prices.  They are only encouraging this trend.

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For what it's worth a lot of gun stores aren't even putting it out for sale, it's going on gunbroker. BS right there.

BINGO! I've been monitoring Gunbroker very closely and that's exactly what's happening. So many shops are auctioning it in bulk and making big $$ on it (as .22 ammo goes). My guess would be that if you were to go to their shop and try to purchase it outright, you'd be told that you could only buy 1 or 2 boxes (at reasonable rates) to keep local customers happy or that they were sold out. They are basically creating a "perceived" shortage which drives up the supply/demand factor. They are moving cases of this stuff.  There's plenty out there it's just that its being controlled from "choke points".  From a sales perspective it's pretty shrewd.......As a consumer, I think it outright sucks. But it gets better...... After this ammo is auctioned (for about .10+ a round or so) the new owner  then breaks it up into smaller parcels and auctions it again to get another .02 or .03 a round out of it. Couple that with the "hoarding" due to the so called "shortage" and you have a the driving force to keep the prices high. I still can't believe that people will dump the kind of money (per round) that they do for .22 ammo. As long as that keeps happening, the price won't come down. 

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On Saturday, Dicks in Paramus had several boxes of Winchester Super X in 100 packs @ $10.

 

Had to pass on it.

 

Most ammo was on sale at 20% off, but not the .22

 

Even at $8 I'd still pass.

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