Ammo manufacturers to increase production of .22 rimfire

[Scootertrash]

Some good news for all of you shooters:

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/01/dean-weingarten/cci-federal-to-increase-22-production-by-20-in-2016/


Over the last year, Vista moved to increase .22 rimfire production to meet the increased demand. Good news, but it will take about a year to implement that decision. Vista gave the green light to the .22 investment based on the belief that the astounding demand for .22 isn’t based on hoarding. The overall market has expanded to include more new shooters, young shooters, women and urban shooters

Vista includes Federal and CCI

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2016/01/aquila-increasing-22-production-by-30.html


Aquila made the decision to significantly increase production a couple of years ago. Their machinery is state of the art, an almost completely automated, top of the line, process. Last year, in 2015, they increased their production by close to 30%, producing somewhat less than a billion rounds of ammunition. I recall a figure being mentioned of about $2 million dollars being invested in .22 rimfire production last year.

Rod Taylor said that they were hoping to increase production this year, again in the neighborhood of 30%, and that total capacity would be "somewhat over a billion rounds per year." Exact numbers were impossible, because no one can predict the market entirely, and no one wants to give a possible competitive advantage to other producers.

I've been buying .22 when it's available on wikiammo. For those who aren't familiar, wikiammo alerts you when certain ammo is available. Best have your CC ready tho, it disappears fast. Typically I've been getting mine from Cabela's and Gander Mountain, Cabela's has free shipping to store, GM has free shipping to your house.

In my area this is the best method, very very spotty in stores, I don't have to stop by stores and check, or try to beat the neckbeard hoarders who line up at Walmart at 5 in the morning waiting for shelves to be stocked.

[Mosh]

It is odd. We have had 1000 round buckets of 22 lr ammo available here for a long time, even during the 08 panic. I dont shoot it a lot so it has never been a issue for me. Granted the prices have doubled since the late 90s it has been readily available. I wonder if it is just a geographic supply and demand thing?

[Scootertrash]

Yea, it's weird. The Federal ammo plant is about 1/2 hour from my house, still very little .22 to be had. My Dad worked at Federal for 40 some years. Those were the days! Deep discounts on ammo, really cheap .22 seconds. the .22 seconds had a lot of "no fires" from bad primer fills, but for the price we had a blast (pun intended) as kids.

I love shooting .22, it's just a fun little round.

If those are the Remington 1000 round buckets, I've never had much luck with that stuff. Federal or Winny for me!!

[Dirtweed]

Don't have the 1000 round buckets, but we have the 325 and 500 round boxes usually in stock at Field and Stream. I've loaded up with a few thousand rounds so we are good for awhile.

[Chopsaw]

I was buying the Federal 525 round boxes long before the shortage for ,,,, $8.50 a box , just because I was at the store . Never knew a shortage was coming . Good info though if someone needs it .
The .22 " freak out " is bad in St. Louis . They all want .22 . i guess thats all they own ?

[bkm]

I was buying the Federal 525 round boxes long before the shortage for ,,,, $8.50 a box , just because I was at the store . Never knew a shortage was coming . Good info though if someone needs it .
The .22 " freak out " is bad in St. Louis . They all want .22 . i guess thats all they own ?
I don't understand it either. I just happened to be at Wal-Mart at 7am for a random purchase one day and walked back to sporting goods like always. There was 40 guys standing at the counter waiting for the desk to open. Turns out they just received a shipment of ammo and these guys were there to snatch it all up. I saw a pallet of .22 ammo disappear in about five minutes. After all the madness subsided, I talked to the clerk who said it's like that every delivery date and it's 50 percent the same guys every time.

[BOB MARLIN]

22 ammo in California is almost never on the shelf. And if you are lucky enough to find some you are limited to 3 boxes of 50 rounds, at a premium price.

[ironchop]

.22 ammo has cost more to produce than it was sold at for a long time and its mostly due to its size and the way rim fire ammo is primered and the cost of brass itself. My sources at Remington and Federal say that they were cool with little or no profit on .22 ammo because it helped retain market share and that their name on the box was worth something in advertising as well. The engineers at Remington said that their plant was already operating at full capacity to produce .22 but in order to meet demand they would need new lines and machinery. Investors don't like to buy new machinery and employ new operators to make a caliber that has no real profit potential at its current pricing. This is why most plants refuse to ramp up their production of 22. That's straight from actual industry insiders.

The increase demand for .22 is due to the sharp increase in .22 caliber firearms on the market. There's a twenty two version of just about every popular weapon be it rifle or handgun on the market today. The initial reason was to offer cheaper plinking guns for training, practice, and fun and the idea took off. The ammo market could not keep up and now you can't find food for your cheap plinkers that everyone went out and bought to save money. The same thing happened with .380 seven or eight yrs ago when a bunch of manufacturers jumped on the .380 train and produced pocket pistols in that caliber.

Lots of folks do need to purchase large volumes of .22 for their competitive shooting programs like 4H and FFA youth competitive shooting teams. Some chapters were begging for ammo donations because the shortage had all but shut down their teams. One team I know of burns through 3K-5K RDS every two weeks just for practice up until recently.

There are a large amount of hoarders (in ANY caliber), yes, but the answer as to why the shortage is much more complicated than just hoarding or panic buying.

Some manufacturers are now willing to spend a few bucks to increase production because pressure from investors in both ammo and firearms need more availability to increase the lagging sales of .22 weapons as a result of ammo shortages. Many of the same investment groups own both ammo manufacturing and firearm manufacturing shares.

My two local dealers will not sell .22 unless you bought a new .22 firearm from them because "people don't want to buy a new gun they can't shoot yet until they find ammo"

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[plastikosmd]

I have plenty set aside but don't want to feel that I am shooting some rare commodity. I have been reloading 32 short and 25-20 lately. Same fun at less cost

[AK47KID]

22 ammo in California is almost never on the shelf. And if you are lucky enough to find some you are limited to 3 boxes of 50 rounds, at a premium price.
Here in Oregon it's the same so is north Dakota. could only get 1 box 333 rounds of minimags by winchester one time at sportsman warehouse

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