Life Post-Ammo Shortage #1 & #2

[FITASC]

Except, EVERY SINGLE TIME the price approaches reasonability, it sells out.

Guess it depends on what you consider reasonable........... I remember, (not that long ago) that 500 round bricks were $8; I bought .22 by the case of 6250 rounds for $90.....Those days are NEVER coming back. 6-10 cents a round, depending on brand and volume, seems to be the norm. Either get a .22 air rifle or cast your own pistol bullets and shoot for less.

[Reloadron]

B.L.E. :

Also, the next buying panic may very easily NOT be .22 LR ammo but something else. Beer perhaps.

Toilet paper, rumor control says toilet paper so get all you can now as a roll is expected to peak at $10. The good stuff, multiple ply should hit $12 a roll easily.

Ron

[FITASC]

Not funny to the folks in Caracas.....................

[B.L.E.]

Toilet paper, rumor control says toilet paper so get all you can now as a roll is expected to peak at $10. The good stuff, multiple ply should hit $12 a roll easily.

Ron

I can always step into the shower to clean myself off.

[rickyrick]

I would skip lunch when I was a kid sometimes and stop by Gibson's when walking home from school and buy a brick of 500 22s. If I had a couple of extra bucks I'd get some cans of freon for reactive targets ( we didn't know it was harmful ) I gave up on 22lr when they started costing real money.

As far as hoarding goes, we do cause the panics. I buy ammo almost every payday because I can now and I know there will be a time again when I can't buy it.
I won't go two years without shooting again like the 08 panic.
[...]

[JohnKSa]

I do what I've always done. I buy when I see good deals and keep enough stock on hand that I don't have to buy when the prices are high.

Speaking of which...

Ran across a couple of good deals on some practice ammo.

$5 per 50 or 100 round box rebate for American Eagle handgun ammo. Max of $50 per household.
https://www.federalpremium.com/downl...upon_web_f.pdf

5 cent per round rebate on selected 5.56/223 ammo with minimum 100 round purchase. Max $200 per household.
https://www.federalpremium.com/downl...romo_web_f.pdf

I found an online seller that was offering free shipping on orders of $200 or more and who was selling American Eagle 9mm for $214.50 per case. After the rebate, that's less than 17 cents per round. Not a bad deal at all for good quality brass-case practice ammo.

I'm liking these post-panic prices!

[zukiphile]

I do what I've always done. I buy when I see good deals and keep enough stock on hand that I don't have to buy when the prices are high.

For ammunition, I do what I've always done as well. 25 years ago, I generally had between 20,000 and 30,000 rounds of 22lr on hand. I sometimes bought it for less than two cents per round and didn't want to have to waste time stopping by a store on the way to the range. I sometimes had a couple thousand rounds of 5.56, but it was the cheap stuff, less than 10 cents per round.

My problem is that after the 2012 shortage, 5.56 prices destroyed my sensitivity to price. I've paid 35 cents for 5.56 and been happy to get it. That's nuts, but it's not the real problem.

As 22lr prices fall, five cents per round looks like an extraordinary deal to me, so my "buy it cheaply" reflex kicks in too often.

[B.L.E.]

I won't buy junk .22 ammo, no matter how cheap it is. If it doesn't group and has a FTF in every box, I don't want it. I like to hit distant targets with deliberate aimed shots, I have no interest in seeing how much lead I can spray downrange during a range session.

I remember back in 1970 saving my lawn mowing and odd job money for .22 ammo and I seldom had enough to buy an entire brick. However if you take the price we paid for .22 ammo in that time and adjust for inflation, today's quality ammo is priced about the same as it costed then.
Also, a failure to fire was almost unheard of then. The quality was better which is why I compare today's high quality ammo to the price of ammo back in those days.

Here's a link to an online inflation calculator to compare prices of today's ammo with yesterday's ammo.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Shotshells are a true bargain today. Even the high quality loads like STS or AA, which cost about $10/ box should have costed about $1.65 in 1971 if adjusted for inflation. I remember the prices of 12 gauge paper shells going for about $2.75 or so back then.
The fact that a lot of high volume shooters like skeet and trap competitors no longer bother to reload their ammo speaks volumes.

Five cents a round for .22 ammo would have been 0.83 cents a round in 1971.
You can't buy a Coke for 10 cents or a candy bar for a nickel anymore either.

[kenny53]

I had enough during the last 22 shortage it didn't hurt me. I still have enough but buy it when I see it on a good deal. I shoot a bunch of 22 every time I go out. In 72 I was making $2.75 an hour and I could buy a brick of 22's for $5.00. The price of ammo has gone up but so has my income. I look for good deals and buy when I find them. Shoot them if you got them and enjoy our sport.

[JoeSixpack]

ammo outpaced inflation, in the case of 22lr it doubled in like a year.

Now maybe it's true adjusting for inflation the price we see are about right compared to whatever time period.

Even if that's true I suspect the economics of scale are at play.. because that means in 08 when price jumps happen it would have been beating inflation.
Probably because of the sheer number of production and allowed for thin margins per round.

However the fact remains when it went up in price it went up in jerks.. I remember cleaning out walmart of their federal 550 packs @ 8.98 (2008) just a few months before the price jumps, no crystal ball just good timing.

It went up a few dollars every couple weeks, last price I seen was 19.98 I think it's went up even more to about 26.95 or something like that.. but after it hit 20 bucks we had the shortage and I've not seen it on the shelf since.

You can now find it online but still nothing at my local walmart in years.
Im sure it comes in but it is never there when I visit.

22mag same situation it's been off the shelf for years.

Other ammo has came back, and if you wait for a good deal can get pricing that resembles something like before the shortage and price hikes.

22lr however does not seem to have recovered.

[B.L.E.]

I think the official rate of inflation during from 2008 to 2017 was artificially low because of the depressed value of homes and real estate in a housing market collapse and the sudden glut in oil supplies. The jump in ammo and component prices more closely reflected the actual rate of inflation.
We even had a period of "negative inflation" but the people buying groceries, and new cars would never have guessed.

[FITASC]

I found an online seller that was offering free shipping on orders of $200 or more and who was selling American Eagle 9mm for $214.50 per case. After the rebate, that's less than 17 cents per round. Not a bad deal at all for good quality brass-case practice ammo.

Target Sports USA will deliver a case of ammo (IIRC, ANY ammo) for free. I usually get Speer Lawman 9mm 124 FMJ for $199.90/1000 delivered. Good stuff in my guns.

[B.L.E.]

You can now find it online but still nothing at my local walmart in years.
Im sure it comes in but it is never there when I visit.

22mag same situation it's been off the shelf for years.

Other ammo has came back, and if you wait for a good deal can get pricing that resembles something like before the shortage and price hikes.

22lr however does not seem to have recovered.

The last time I went into the nearby WalMart, .22 ammo was back on the shelves again, a sign that the crisis is pretty much over.

[JoeSixpack]

I was just at WM last night buying shoes.. we had a 3 day tax holiday for clothing and school supplies.

Hopefully the stock starts coming back around here, but it wasn't there last night.

[kenny53]

I am finding 22 ammo everywhere. Anywhere from 4 cents to 7 cents a round. Haven't looked at Walmart. I do buy a bunch of ammo on line.

[Eazyeach]

Joesixpack, not sure where you are in the buckeye but the Troy,Ohio Walmart has had 22mag and 22LR. Maybe it will eventually get to your part of the state. Happy hunting!!

[rebs]

I had about a three year supply of reloading supplies. I have kept up since availability and prices were back to almost normal and then bought some stuff. I have replenished my stock back to about a three supply.