ammo shortage why

gruntled

Why is there an ammo shortage? Particularly .22s? I am not looking for conjecture or conspiracy theories but any known data.
Is the problem mainly hoarding or is there a more basic problem? Any idea when or if the situation will improve?
I remember when it was like this just a few years ago but it seems that this is worse & has lasted longer.

rufe-snow

Nobama is the proverbial lame duck. Folks are afraid, seeing he has nothing to lose. Him and his libtard buddies are going to try to cutoff the ammo supply. As they haven't been at all successful, as far as guns are concerned.

What surprises me is that the hoarders of .22 rimfire ammo. Haven't ODed on it by now. It going on a year since the election, i.e. 11/12. When 22 ammo, seemed to have dried up overnight. In the past I bought a lot of my rimfire stuff at wallyworld. In the last year got a grand total of 150 rounds and that was mags, not even .22 LR. I can only imagine that some of the hoarders are sitting on 100 of thousands of rounds of 22's, after a year of squirreling it away.

Laredo Lefty

Part of the problem is people at on line auctions keep bidding $80 to $90 or more for 525 rd boxes of .22's so the speculators keep cleaning out the retail suppliers. As long as that keeps up .22 ammo will be hard to find. If folks stop paying the hugely inflated prices it might settle down. Of course hoarders and preppers aren't helping either.

Ray B

I don't have any hard facts, but my opinion, based on sound economic theory is that the shortage is the result of a few factors, that in combination. the first is that the world demand for lead has increased sharply in the last few years, primarily due to the China market and other countries getting involved with nuclear power (lead shields), secondly, the profit margin for the manufacture of rim fire ammunition was less than the producers could charge on centerfire metallic and shotshell ammunition, particularly with the massive purchases by the government, thirdly, the price spikes have caused retailers to limit wholesale purchases in the same fashion that gas stations limit purchases of gasoline when the price is considered high- so as not to be left with product that they purchased at a high price and now will have to sell it at a loss due to the reduction of price, and lastly, there are those that saw the decreasing supply, so panic purchased, which cleared off the shelves.

All of this appears to me to be the result of normal market action, but as with gasoline, price drops to previous lows are not likely.

n/a

Selfish old buzzards with a cellar full and bitching there is none available. Are you one of them?

Mobuck

22lr has always been a high demand item but supply has been adequate. When all those folks who normally kept 4-5 or maybe 10 boxes of 22 on hand decided there might be a shortage, they started buying 22 by the case. Supply couldn't meet that demand in the short term and buying mania ensued. Those with a lot of money to spend continued to buy at the inflated prices so a whole new circle of buying and reselling developed. Round and round it goes. I have no doubt there are people who have more ammo stashed right now than they've shot in their entire life up to this point.

richarda

Readers will note - NO hard data, just more speculation here.

rufe-snow

quote:Originally posted by richarda
Readers will note - NO hard data, just more speculation here.



If you have any better explanation(s)? We are all waiting with bated breath to hear them.

peddler

stupidity is the main reason, maybe the horders will have to eat all the 22's they have.

jonk

While there are seperate lines of production, companies make more money on centerfire ammo than they do on .22s. With that stuff still flying off the shelves, .22 ammo becomes less of a priority. Hence, less is made.

It's a little better than it was, but I don't expect to see it die down unless manufacturers bring more production on line or we get a gun friendly President and congress.

beantownshootah

The fact is, right now every domestic ammo maker is running their .22 machines at max capacity.

The reasons for the .22 shortages are multiple:

-Obama administration started this with talk of gun and ammo restrictions causing a panic. The fact is, no gun OR ammo ban is going to pass in the current pro-gun political climate, but the Obama administration has still been putting in a number of gun restrictions via executive action and its still spooking people (eg just read the comments earlier in this thread).

-Panic feeds on itself. With so little .22LR available, people tend to buy all they can see. That's not entirely irrational. . .if you know that the shelves might be empty next time you show up, and you can afford to buy extra today, you will. But the net effect of this is that any .22 immediately flies off the shelves, exacerbating the panic.

-"Speculators" buying ammo at retail then selling it above retail are depleting supply adding the panic. IMO, when the musical chair game ends most of these guys are going to be "stuck" holding a whole bunch of .22 not worth any more than "normal" market price, but in the meantime, they're not helping any.

-Bad economy is causing people to hoard .22LR, survivalist/"prepper"/depression style.

-.22 is by far the most popular ammo type out there, especially for new shooters. Number of gun owners right now is at all time highs, including recreational shooters. So "legitimate" demand for .22LR is at at all time high.

-Shortage of OTHER ammo types (that are more expensive) cause people to switch "down" to .22 for recreational/practice shooting, again increasing demand for .22.

Bottom line is, eventually all the "hoarders" cupboards will be full. At least 1-2 of the domestic makers actually ARE increasing supply with new tooling. And supplies ARE opening up again, albeit really slowly.