22's finally coming back?

[Slasher]

So I had pretty much given up on finding any more cheap 22's from Wally World after two incidents about two or three months ago.  I'm an early riser so it's nothing for me to be up by 5:00 or so.  Sunday morning is when I normally do the grocery shopping and I know that Wal Mart puts the ammo out a 7:00 every morning so in the hope of someday finding 22's I would normally go grocery shopping on Sunday's around 6:00 and hope that I might get luchy one time.  After starting this a couple of months ago though I found out you need to be up earlier than that and willing to go to multiple stores to have a chance.  Two weekends in a row a couple of months ago I stopped by the sporting goods section to find a couple of guys in line waiting.  The first week the guy that got the ammo had gotten there at 4:30 that morning, of course they only got in 2 1000 round boxes and he got both of them.  The following week a new set of guys and the first guy in line talked about how he had gotten 2000 or 3000 rounds the week before  by hitting a couple of the Wal Marts.  He had gotten there around 5:00 that morning and was able to pick up another 2000 rounds so, I thought to myself there is no way I'm waking up that early and standing in line for a couple of hours just to get some 22's.  It's been so long since I have seen it in most stores I figured it would take another year or so to get back to normal.

 

Maybe it's just that I have gotten lucky the past two days but i have found more .22's in the past two days than I have for the past year or longer.  I stopped my Avery yesterday on the way home and low and behold they had a 500 round box of 22's, havent had a chance to get one of those in more than a year or so.  The guy said they got six boxes in that morning and I grabbed the last box around 1:30 or so.  Then this morning I had to grab a couple of things from Wal Mart and wasnt even going to go look but I figured what the heck, it cant hurt anything.  There were about a dozen boxes or the 222 count 22's sitting there.  The guy said it had been a slow morning and only about two other guys had been in to check and this was around 8:30.

 

I'm happy to see what I've found because I'm trying to get enough 22's together for me and my son to go to an Appleseed shoot  by the end of the year so this was a good start. 

 

Anyone else seeing 22's starting to come back around or did I just get lucky?

[Garufa]

You got lucky.

[Jonnin]

its hit or miss still.  Its out there but the demand still far outpaces the supply.  And some brands have vanished -- haven't seen a blazer in over a year. 

[miller_man]

As long as there are still people standing in a line at wee hours of the morning, its not better in my book.

 

Until I can randomly walk in to any give gun store/department and grab a few boxes, everybody else can have that crap - I'll be shooting my 9mm. 

 

But I will be dreaming of spending $20 and having 22lr to shoot for hours, the way it used to be.

[JAB]

As long as there are still people standing in a line at wee hours of the morning, its not better in my book.

 

I agree.  Until things return to the point that I walk into the Walmart Sporting Goods department at any time pretty much knowing that I will see at least some kind of .22 ammo on the shelf (and that means .22LR and .22WMR), I will not believe that things are 'better'.  I don't necessarily mean seeing bulk packs galore, just that I could at least expect to see a good stock of 50 or 100 round boxes of .22LR and at least a few boxes of WMR Dynapoint if nothing else.

 

For the anti-Walmart crowd, yeah I know that Walmart isn't the only place to find ammo, it might be available online, so on and so forth but I believe that - whether the Wally haters like it or not - that is the true and ultimate benchmark of things being 'better.'

 

Still, congrats to Slasher on finding what you did. 

[musicman]

Been finding 50rd boxes and the occasional bricks right at 50% of the time at my local Academy when I stop on ky way home from work on MWF, after 4pm. It's there.

[Wingshooter]

.223 has pretty much replaced 22lr for me. I still have my rifles and ammo for them, but they're in hibernation. Hope it comes back around though

[LawVol]

I'm hopeful that it'll come back pretty soon.  You can buy .22's pretty easily online for 10 cents a round right now, so the incentive to flip ammo has to be shrinking.

[JAB]

Been finding 50rd boxes and the occasional bricks right at 50% of the time at my local Academy when I stop on ky way home from work on MWF, after 4pm. It's there.

 

I keep reading that in posts from folks on this forum in other parts of TN and in posts on other forums by folks in other parts of the country.  In Knoxville, that simply is not the case.  There was even an article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel a couple of months ago that talked about how the ammo situation was improving elsewhere but, for whatever reason, was not getting any better in the Knoxville area.  In other words, I don't doubt you when you say that, "It's there."  However, while it may be "there', it isn't "here".  Not yet, anyhow.  I sometimes wonder if that is because we have so many gun shows in this area, especially around this time of year.  Not only the RK shows that seem to take place about once a month but also smaller shows here and there.  Maybe the large number of shows keep the profiteers operating in this area even after they have started to slack off, elsewhere.

 

I haven't seen any .22LR ammo on the shelf of a big box store in at least six months.  That means the Knoxville locations of Academy and Gouger Mountain as well as several (Turkey Creek, Lenoir City, Madisonville, Athens and Rockwood) Walmart locations in the area, the Outdoor World/Bass Pro store in Sevierville or Dunham's Sports in Athens, TN.  I have seen a handful now and again at my favorite LGS but as a small business his costs from his distributors have gone up enough that his prices on .22LR are generally more than I want to pay.

Edited July 30, 2014 by JAB

[Guest ab28]

They should have limited to one box per customer if there were several people in line and only a tiny shipment came in. No need to be greedy. 

[Major Kong]

I keep reading that in posts from folks on this forum in other parts of TN and in posts on other forums by folks in other parts of the country.  In Knoxville, that simply is not the case.  There was even an article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel a couple of months ago that talked about how the ammo situation was improving elsewhere but, for whatever reason, was not getting any better in the Knoxville area.  In other words, I don't doubt you when you say that, "It's there."  However, while it may be "there', it isn't "here".  Not yet, anyhow.  I sometimes wonder if that is because we have so many gun shows in this area, especially around this time of year.  Not only the RK shows that seem to take place about once a month but also smaller shows here and there.  Maybe the large number of shows keep the profiteers operating in this area even after they have started to slack off, elsewhere.
 
I haven't seen any .22LR ammo on the shelf of a big box store in at least six months.  That means the Knoxville locations of Academy and Gouger Mountain as well as several (Turkey Creek, Lenoir City, Madisonville, Athens and Rockwood) Walmart locations in the area, the Outdoor World/Bass Pro store in Sevierville or Dunham's Sports in Athens, TN.  I have seen a handful now and again at my favorite LGS but as a small business his costs from his distributors have gone up enough that his prices on .22LR are generally more than I want to pay.

I was at Academy last night and saw about 20 boxes of Blazer 22lr behind the counter.

[Guest Messer]

None to be found in Chatt!

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name="Messer" post="1173995" timestamp="1406768010"]None to be found in Chatt![/quote] Have you been checking Sportsmans Warehouse? Reports are they have been getting some in batches on the regular.

[Guest Messer]

Yes I went there last week after reading they had some but they were all gone when I got there!

[Guest BCR#1]

Yes I went there last week after reading they had some but they were all gone when I got there!

Because you get there too late.

 

Bill

[Guest 04 Rocko Taco]

Meh, as said it will be better when people stop buying up 3K a week cause they can, and I don't have to go through this mess to get some. 
When I can walk into Sportsman's and know they will have that big table of Federal 525 bulk packs again, it will be better, until then.... heck, its cheaper to shoot .45

[jughead]

havent seen the first box at my local walmart in over a year. have been told that people line up at 5 in the morning to get it. i could but i wont. i really hope these type of people get caught with it if and when the price goes back to normal and have to eat it.

[LCPfraTN]

The ones lining up at 5 am in the morning are never going to have to eat anything since they are buying at normal retail prices. The worst case for them is that they end up with a good supply of .22LR or they move it at cost. It is unlikely that they will ever lose any money. Walmart and other big box stores could help the situation by doing more stocking at random times, but that is too much trouble so most don't want to bother with it. The only thing that will ever fix this problem is for the manufacturers to get their heads out of their ass and realize that there is a permanent change in the demand structure.

[JAB]

I was at Academy last night and saw about 20 boxes of Blazer 22lr behind the counter.

 

That is good to know.  Maybe I should give them another look, soon.  Of course, not getting off of work until 5pm probably hampers my efforts.

[Cherokee Slim]

This week for the first time this year Walmart had about 20 boxes of Winchester Super X 100 sitting in the gun case when I went by.  The clerk said no one had come by  that day and let me buy 3 boxes.  Luck, right place at the right time? Who knows.  I do know some cowboys were at Sportsman's Warehouse Monday morning and got to buy .22s.

Cherokee Slim

[Erik88]

.22LR?

 

Hell, down here we're lucky if we can find 9mm consistently. I've only seen .22lr 5-6  times in the last 18 months. I've purchased some every time. 

[JAB]

I was at Academy last night and saw about 20 boxes of Blazer 22lr behind the counter.

 

 

That is good to know.  Maybe I should give them another look, soon.  Of course, not getting off of work until 5pm probably hampers my efforts.

 

Well, as I was coming in to work late today, anyhow (had to stop on the way in and renew the license tags for my car) I thought I'd check and see if there was any .22 ammo at Academy, thinking I might go by there before work.  I called and was told that they have none, didn't get any in this morning.  So I 'bit the bullet' and called Gouger Mountain.  Nope, no .22.  Turkey Creek Walmart?  Nada.  I checked Lenoir City Walmart on the way home yesterday.  Nope, no joy.

 

I do not doubt that people are finding .22 in the Knoxville area.  I just think that people who do are simply getting lucky.  Very lucky.  While I am happy for their good fortune, I still believe that finding .22 ammo on a store's shelf in the Knoxville area is an aberration.

[Sidewinder]

Murfreesboro's Old Fort store has had a dry spell for a few weeks now. Was talking to an employee that said a sporting goods manager told him that we may not see any .22s until December!

 

Murfreesboro is getting ready to open two more Wal-Mart stores...one out near the airport and one on S-231. I'm wondering if they are opening other stores in other areas too...and if they're not holding ammo back, for these new stores they're opening? If they were allotted so much .22 ammo from the manufacturer for their current stores, and it's scarce there...where are they going to get the ammo to stock all of these new stores? Just saying.