The powders available to reloaders are generally not used by big brand commercial ammunition manufacturers. They have their own proprietary powders and blends of powders.Y'all are more than welcome and perhaps we'll start seeing an end to this nonsense soon.
I wonder what powder they use in loading .22 LR. I'd sure like to see some Bullseye cross the get on the shelves. They may not use Bullseye but it's gotta be a quick burning pistol powder.
The ammo companies could invest in equipment and pay for it in a short time IMO.
Agreed that in the last 3 decades .22 consumption per range trip has increased immensely due to high capacity mags in semi-autos and the video game blast away mentality. Serious marksmanship is too boring for the new generation of shooters and most are horrible shots.
If all new shooters were introduced to shooting with something like the Appleseed program, ammo consumption would not be what it is.
Oh (not to get off track, but) I'd disagree there. DOOM came out in '93. By '94 it was a craze.FPS video games did not get popular till years after the AWB of 1994
Absolutely 100% correct and a point completely missed by the article. The cause of the 22lr, at its core, is pricing.If the prices rose in a shortage - like it does with gasoline - we'd have more .22LR available - just like with gasoline.
Wal-Mart and other gun shops commitment NOT to permit price increases during scarcity ensures shortages at those stores. Shops that are willing to pay more - and charge their customers more - will get inventory replenished more quickly than those that won't.
For some reason the community, all of us - manufacturers, retailers, and the customers - won't tolerate a price increase in .22LR like we will with gasoline, milk, beef, or any other commodity. Prices are what communicates shortages in a market economy, and the higher prices draw investment, profit, and increased capacity.
Oh well . . . it is what it is.
I still believe the demand curve for .22LR has shifted to the right over the pat decade. The sheer variety of dedicated .22LR copies of popular firearms (AR15) and .22LR uppers for others today really didn't exist 10 years ago.
Back when I got into shooting .22LR was for hunting, small bore and bullseye competitions, and shooting as cans and such with kids.
Today the round is ubiquitous as a low-cost training alternative. Or at least it was . . .
Shops that are willing to pay more - and charge their customers more - will get inventory replenished more quickly than those that won't.
I think you are addressing my post and the post from bullfrogKen. And I think you missed our point. We are not talking about distribution.Whatever price the shop is putting on the ammo has nothing to do with how much they were buying when the panic started. It's been explained elsewhere, but the mechanism is very sinple - when there is more demand than supply, the manufacturers ship according to what percentage of their sales the buyer had before, and that is what they get now.
Whatever the buyer then prices the ammo at has no value in their rationing - and, in point of fact, they don't really want to know. It leads to price manipulation which becomes a matter of enforcement under the law. About all they are concerned about it discounting it too heavily from MSRP, which would imply that it's inflated and other customers are getting gouged. It's a balancing act.
Postulating that one internet web site selling at 2X over MSRP can then get more ammo than another, who buys in truckload shipments, is a false notion. It's rationed by previous sales history - if they were a 5% buyer overall in the past, they get 5% of the current production. When things start piling up on the warehouse floor, then it's open season on ammo sales. Buy all you can. That way no one is discriminated against and everybody gets some, rather than a few getting it all.
Lets consider - under these circumstances, if the big players could buy all they want, would you see ANY ammo at the little gun shops across America? And yet when I recently bought a compact 9mm, they threw in a box of new Hornady Critical Defense. It's the biggest gun store in town, but they aren't anything like Bass Pro, Academy, Cabela's, or even Walmart. They got it. Price wasn't the guideline.
Buck, Thats a very good post and a reality of unhealthy markets. They are using 22lr as a loss leader just like a big retailer would do with cheap TV's. I think that is what a lot of businesses are doing. In fact, personally speaking, If I owned a gun store I would probably do the same thing.I live in a small town in the rural Mid-West. Around here, the good stores are not jackin' the price up on their .22 ammo. They are out of it as often as they have it. Some stores have outrageous prices on their .22 ammo and have it on hand all the time. The former gets folks coming in regularly lookin' for .22 ammo and those folks often will buy something else if .22 ammo is not there. When they see the .22 ammo there for a decent price they are compelled to come back. The latter of the two gets those folks looking for .22 ammo because their buddy told him they have it in stock. They go, see the price and either pay it resentfully or walk out thinkin' the store is a rip-off. Because they think that store is overpriced on their .22 ammo and has no problems rippin' folks off, that their other prices will reflect the same.(most times it is) For example, a small LGS in a near-by town has a sign in their front window claiming they have .22 ammo in stock. They have had .22 ammo and that sign continuously since the shortage began. The ammo is priced @ $9.99 for a box of 50. The ammo is stacked on the counter by the cash register. 3 months ago I went in there and on the top of the stack was a box with a torn flap on one end. Last week I went in there and that same box was on top the stack yet. The guy was whinin' to me about the poor economy and how few folks he had comin' thru the door. I was in there for probably 15 minutes and never saw another customer. The same handguns were in the same position in the case as they were last January. The week before I was at my favorite LGS in another town and the line was 5 deep at both counters with folks lookin' at guns and buyin' ammo....even tho they had no .22. When .22 ammo is easy to find again, I wonder where the customers will be?
* -- Not capitalizing on a boom is bad. Spending a year or more and hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new plant, and finally opening just as folks finally decide they've got enough ammo stacked away, the political situation changes, the pressure's off, and the bottom falls out of the market would be MUCH worse. Companies could go bankrupt over a badly played action like that.
I agree that is a major factor driving demand."What Americans have been doing is reacting to a lack of comfort about changing times - it's a backlash against that, and they are using ammo as their pacifier."
I think this is a bigger factor in the prolonged shortage than is usually acknowledged. I'm guessing that most of those millions of guns bought in the last few years (or any other year) are not being shot very much, and many of them not at all. You don't have to be a sociologist to recognize that there's a general feeling of uncertainty and malaise in the country, and I would think that more .22 is being stashed than at any time since WWII.
They can't just "turn it up to ELEVEN!" Even running at near 100% will end up being problematic. Actually taking steps to change their total capacity is an enormous undertaking.
But "won't buy" is a discretionary choice on your part. If you -- or anyone else -- finds themselves in NEED of .22 for some reason (you're out and the grandkids are coming to down, or there's a match you want to shoot, or squirrel season's coming ... whatever) have the option of ponying up a little bit more cash and actually GETTING ammo.I see no benefit for me in a price increase. ... Either leave the price alone, and I can't buy due to lack of supply, or raise the price and I won't buy due to the higher price. Makes no difference to me in either case
GREAT! No body WANTs you to go buy now. The only incentive you should have to buy .22 right now is if you NEED .22 right now. If you can hold off for a while, by all means do so. Buying up ammo is not some altruistic act, contributing to "the cause." STOP IT if you can, and help the demand settle back down.... so I have no incentive to spend now.
Ok, I think we've dispensed with the myth that the manufactures are "refusing" to increase production and production capacity. These things require careful analysis, and then enormous investments and time -- IF the manufacturers agree that more production capacity is the right long-term strategy. Getting stuck paying for machinery to pour out 5 million rounds of ammo a day will KILL a company if the demand falls back to 900,000 rounds a day next year.... since they seem content to ignore the potential increase in sales by raising production capacity.
My conclusion is that many shooters are simply unaccustomed to paying any more than Walmart bulk pack prices for ammo and would prefer not shooting to spending more. We all have a budget by which we must live but seeing 20 somethings walk from $11 ammo while sporting $80 jeans (with holes) and $150 sneakers tells me that not everyone is as serious about shooting as many of us tend to be.
My conclusion is that many shooters are simply unaccustomed to paying any more than Walmart bulk pack prices for ammo and would prefer not shooting to spending more.
So if my assumption that the current shortage is due largely to politics the Republicans winning control of both the Senate and the House will effectively end any threat of anti-gun legislation until after the Presidential elections in 2016. Thus 22 inventories should increase the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015.