.22 shortage, according to Win. rep

[221 Fireball]

For what it's worth, I talked with a Winchester ammo rep yesterday at the National Wild Turkey Federation convention in Nashville. As an outdoor writer, I had my media badge on and went in early yesterday morning, so I was able to find a rep at the Winchester booth that had a few free minutes to talk. Of course my first question ... when are you going to catch up with the .22s? Without hestitation, he said "two years." Really? "Yep."

 

He based it on the outcome of dealer orders at the Shot Show. He did say Winchester (and the rest) has kicked up production to record levels, and have no intention of slowing down for a long time.

 

His other opinions of that conversation were...no government conspiracy, but plenty of 'civilian' rumor, enough to cause panic buying like they've never seen. I asked if the industry took a hit of .22 firearm sales slowing due to the rimfire availability. He said "not at all."

 

He finished with a smile and said, "business is good."

 

No doubt!

[173rdABN]

Yeah business is good, when you have record sales and boost production to unseen level, and have no intention of slowing down because you still have a higher demand than you can produce! haha. 

[No_0ne]

This can't be true, because it says right here on the internet that it's all the fault of the government and their co-conspirators, the Wal-Mart resellers ...

[Jason in TN]

I have heard the same thing two years just to fill orders they have now. Looks like I am not going to be shooting much 22.

Jason Edited February 16, 2014 by Jason in TN

[bersaguy]

I don't doubt that a lot of it is panic buying but I still put most of the blame on the Walmart Campers and other places that cater to these kind of people just as much. And I don't just blame the scalpers as much as I blame to stores that allow it to take place. You will never convince me that the management does no know what is going on. They should have stepped in a long time ago and put and end to it. It is not just Walmart but all of the stores like Academy, Dicks, and all the big box stores doing it which in turn is putting major pressure on the small business owners that own Gun Stores. Some folks said it is just good competition. I say it is pure good old greed. They have to know that there are employees taking payoffs to favor a small group of the same people every time a load comes in and know exactly which days to be there. The guy at NRange told me that he has a standing order for 22lr from his distributors and he never knows till he opens the boxes whether he will have 22 lr's in the box or not that day. When he does they put them out with a limit on how many per person. He also said he will not say yes or no to someone calling asking if they have any. He just tells them they need to come in and see. I don't know how true that is because I have never called but I don't think he had a reason to lie about it............jmho

[varmint11]

Where does it all go? not seen any dealers or wm got more than a few boxes at a time. they are making millions of rounds per day. ???????????

[orientalexpress]

If you were talking to painter you may want to be careful because while he's a Winchester rep he does not work for Winchester.

[CM1021]

I went into a gun store up here yesterday morning and they were holding back some boxes for people. I didn't really take offense to it because it was the first time I had visited the store so I'm not exactly a regular.

[221 Fireball]

The sad thing is about this 'adult' game of snatching up every last .22 round on the planet, is that the kid's suffer. The .22 rimfire is the number one kid's gun, period. It's what our children cut their teeth on whether at the range or backwoods, plinking some coke cans. How many dad's and grandpa's are feeling the pinch of rimfire availability, to where its tough to take the kids out for an afternoon of burning a couple hundred rounds? A lot would be my guess.

 

The hoarders who think they have to stockpile 50,000 rounds of .22s for the end of the world ... well ... I'd call that a bit obsessive. :2cents:

[Guest theconstitutionrocks]

 

 

The hoarders who think they have to stockpile 50,000 rounds of .22s for the end of the world ... well ... I'd call that a bit obsessive. :2cents:

Now wait just a cotton pickin second...we NEED those 50K rounds!...I mean think about it...at 10 squirrels a day x 365=3650 rounds  x 10 yrs=36500...conservatively that's only gonna last you betwen 15-20 yrs..HOW IN THE WORLD are you possibly gonna survive?..no sir, we must have more!!! (quoting one of my favorite lines from Rommel's character in the Longest Day..."vier millionen meine?....nein, sechts, sechts millionen...(the response) aber feld marshall meine menne sind erschopt....(the follow on response)...meine leibe general...was morchte ihre menne.....erschopt oder todt?    :rofl:

Edited February 16, 2014 by theconstitutionrocks

[221 Fireball]

Now wait just a cotton pickin second...we NEED those 50K rounds!...I mean think about it...at 10 squirrels a day x 365=3650 rounds  x 10 yrs=36500...conservatively that's only gonna last you betwen 15-20 yrs..HOW IN THE WORLD are you possibly gonna survive?..no sir, we must have more!!! (quoting one of my favorite lines from Rommel's character in the Longest Day..."vier millionen meine?....nein, sechts, sechts millionen...(the response) aber feld marshall meine menne sind erschopt....(the follow on response)...meine leibe general...was morchte ihre menne.....erschopt oder todt?    :rofl:

 

Ah...my Deutsch is rusty ... four or six million? Dead in the end? lol... love that movie though.

 

And about your squirrel theory ... there ain't enough fricken squirrels at 10 squirrels a day for a gazillion preppers! That be like 36 billion squirrels a year and then we'd have a squirrel shortage ... and you can't stand in line to wait for that to come back! :rofl:

[Guest theconstitutionrocks]

Ah...my Deutsch is rusty ... four or six million? Dead in the end? lol... love that movie though.

 

And about your squirrel theory ... there ain't enough fricken squirrels at 10 squirrels a day for a gazillion preppers! That be like 36 billion squirrels a year and then we'd have a squirrel shortage ... and you can't stand in line to wait for that to come back! :rofl:

They were talking about the number of mines on the normandy beachheads (and frankly the number seems high...hollywood) anyway, when Rommel wanted the increase, the general said his men were exhausted to which Rommel replied....which do your men prefer...exhausted or dead?

[Dustbuster]

Wish you could have shown him the photo of the ammo bitches in wal mart, explained how they operate and asked him if he can do a group sale to a TGO vendor ...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 of course it ate my spelling.

[glowdotGlock]

[quote name="Dustbuster" post="1111928" timestamp="1392565305"]Wish you could have shown him the photo of the ammo bitches in wal mart, explained how they operate and asked him if he can do a group sale to a TGO vendor ... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 of course it ate my spelling.[/quote] I like this! I would be in for 200 -300 dollars worth.

[No_0ne]

I like this! I would be in for 200 -300 dollars worth.

 

Hoarder! ;)

[glowdotGlock]

[quote name="No_0ne" post="1112023" timestamp="1392574886"]Hoarder! ;)[/quote] hey, if it's available! :p

[bersaguy]

Where does it all go? not seen any dealers or wm got more than a few boxes at a time. they are making millions of rounds per day. ???????????

It's not what you see but what you don't see that counts. For every box you do see on a shelf there are 10 boxes hidden in the back for the scalpers that are paying off the people working in the sporting goods departments in the big box stores that you don't see. The stores are getting the ammo. It's just not getting onto the retail shelves for the general public to purchase...................jmho

[xjsnake]

2 years? Crap, I've got enough .22 for awhile but I'll definitely be scaling back even more than I already have. I shoot way more 9mm than I used to because it's at least available.

 

 

Used to shoot .22 to 9mm in a 6:1 ratio. Down to 3:1 and probably dropping to close to 1:1 for the foreseeable future.

[No_0ne]

As was pointed out in another discussion on TGO about the 22lr shortage, the entire 2014 run has already been sold in advance.  That means there is no chance of catching up this year.  2015 is doable, if the demand falls back to pre-panic levels, if not, then expect the current conditions to continue ...

[Jason in TN]

The only way it will ever stop is if folks refuse to buy it at any price higher than normal retail and that is not going to happen. So no time in the near future may be years I suspect a couple before you will see it on the shelf to amount to any thing. So if you want to shoot you will have to buy it at what ever price it is double retail or more in most cases. There is a local gun shop here that has a bunch of 550 boxes for $30 a box but will not sell you a box at all unless you buy a 22 fire arm then you can have one box.

Jason

[Jason in TN]

It's not what you see but what you don't see that counts. For every box you do see on a shelf there are 10 boxes hidden in the back for the scalpers that are paying off the people working in the sporting goods departments in the big box stores that you don't see. The stores are getting the ammo. It's just not getting onto the retail shelves for the general public to purchase...................jmho

I know Walmart the local one here is lucky to get 10 to 20 boxes a week. I am friends with the manager in sporting goods he does not even get to buy any. If any one is caught texting or calling to let any one know when it is put out that workers there they lose there job. I have a suspicion that the guys that unload the trucks are letting friends know as it comes off the truck though. When they put them out they last less than 30min. I have been lucky enough to be there once at midnight was just passing through and got three boxes in the last three months.

[Erik88]

It's beyond frustrating at this point. I've sort of hit it off with one of the clerks at Wal-Mart and he was telling me the last shipment that had .22's on board was over 50 bricks of the 550 count Federal. Do you want to know how long it lasted?

 

5 minutes. :surrender: 

 

 

Like I said, if .22lr ever becomes readily available again you'll see me on an episode of Hoarders. 

[10ga]

The only promising thing I see are the people that were hanging out waiting on ammo to come in are no longer around, at least that's the case here in Morristown and the Jefferson City store. I've only been a few times but back last summer there would be 10 - 15 people hanging out at the SG counter by 7:00 in the evening at Morristown and now there's no one. My cousin said he went down to Jefferson City this morning around 8:00 and no one was there. He said they got in several bricks of Winchester and they were all still there when he got there at 8:00. Another good thing, people have started verbally attacking re-sellers on sites like facebook and armslist so maybe they're tired of it. Some guy on a local FB site was selling 500 rounds of CCI Stingers for $50 and he received a lot of harassment from other members. Hopefully this will continue and the re-sellers with give up eventually. 

[Luke E.]

The only way it will ever stop is if folks refuse to buy it at any price higher than normal retail and that is not going to happen. So no time in the near future may be years I suspect a couple before you will see it on the shelf to amount to any thing. So if you want to shoot you will have to buy it at what ever price it is double retail or more in most cases. There is a local gun shop here that has a bunch of 550 boxes for $30 a box but will not sell you a box at all unless you buy a 22 fire arm then you can have one box.

Jason

 

 Any smart gun shop owner will hold 22 ammo back for people that purchase a .22 firearm from them. They will make far more .22 caliber firearm sales than will the owner that says here's the rifle you want but good luck finding any ammo to run through it. I call that smart business practice. Now if they are leaving it out in the open for everyone to see then I suppose he's not as smart as I give him credit for. That would just be asking for a headache and why would someone wish to have to explain to everyone who walked through the door what his .22 ammo policy is..

[Luke E.]

 We can keep blaming it on the folks "camping out" at Walmart if we want to but at some point you have to factor in how many folks had .22 firearms before all this started and how many new ones have been sold since the election.No, folks standing around at Walmart hoping to score some to resell aren't helping the situation but if you're honest with yourselves about how many folks just like yourself there are out the and the insane number that have joined the ranks by purchasing new firearms in the last year and a half I think you will realize here lies the root cause of the shortage. 

 I'm also sure that there are sporting goods associates that have a list of buyers that they call that will in turn put a little extra padding in their pockets but just because it sells out in 30 minutes doesn't mean that's whats going on. I don't hang around Walmart all the time but when i am in there I go browse the sporting goods and listen in to what folks are asking for. I stood there for 5 minutes one evening last week and heard 4 people verbally ask about .22 ammo and saw a handful more come hustling up to the counter, scan the case and then walk off after I assume not seeing any .22. Now if I saw all that go on in around 5 minutes time don't you think if they'd have had any .22 ammo it would have sold out very quickly regardless of whether someone was tipping buddies off or not? A very small part of me thinks that the ammo shortage is a good thing since that means there are a lot of new shooters but it sucks that it's at the expense of the seasoned shooters range time. 

 I think I, like the OP, hate it the worst for the kids that don't get to go shoot because of it but i'm not naive enough to think that this is anywhere close to being the all the fault of the ammo resellers. Just my  :2cents: