I don't completely blame the hoarders either. The people hoarding now probably hoarded 10 years ago. I had 5k rounds of .22 ammo going into this mess. It wasn't because I was scared of not having ammo, I just shot around 2k rounds of .22 a year and wanted a decent supply. I have a buddy that had close to 20k rounds, but he used to shoot around 10k rounds a year. Every evening he'd sit on his back porch and plink at empty shotgun shells for 20 minutes or so. I have a new respect for some of the larger sporting goods chains. They seem to be the only ones who haven't raised the prices on .22 ammo. When I find it, it's still around $22/brick, and they still keep some in the back to sell along with people who buy a .22 rifle or handgun from them. All the small shops have raised prices on their ammo 2x-3x. They often still have it on their shelves, but you'll pay for it. I was in a gun shop in Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky last fall, they were advertising that they had a sale on bricks of Thunderbolts for $75/brick. They had about 8 cases of the stuff. If that was the SALE price, I'd hate to see what the normal price was!!
Me and another guy were out checking gun shops out in Norcross Ga. $140 for some bricks at one place. They advertised they had ammo in stock and I could see why at that price.
And you can reload it!! I shoot 38 now. Shoot slower out of the wheel gun and I can load it cheaper than I can buy 22 if I could buy it at a decent price.
Reloading stuff like dies and primers have gotten more normal. Primers have dropped $12-18 a thousand. And you can find them. Dies have shown back up and dropped a bit in price too.
I might be lucky in that I live right outside Cincinnati, and we have a couple large outdoors stores here. When I was at Field and Stream in the spring, they told me they had been getting in about a pallet a week. Every time it sold out in a day. I haven't been back since though to see if that's still happening.
i haven't bought a brick of .22 since early 2008 for $15. went to a gun show in late 2008 and saw federal american eagle and remington thunderbolt bricks for $40-$50, and decided i would stop buying for a while... never thought it would be this long with prices going even higher. in the meantime i've started really enjoying my mosin nagant due to still being able to get 7.62x54 ammo for less the 20 cents around, or a box of 20 for about $5. it's frustrating how people continue to come out of the woodwork and hoard so much .22. i figured the hoarded rounds would be 9mm, .45, .223/5.56, and 7.62x39.
I picked up my bricks of thunderbolts for $30 each, and the golden bullet packs for $23 for 525 rounds.
i'll probably eventually start buying .22 again, but the $30 brick prices still kill me. i'll someday come to the realization that it won't come back down, but in the meantime, i can't bring myself to buy double priced .22, when centerfire ammo has come back down to probably just 20%-30% over what it was before the rush.
I'll buy .22 if the price is right, last purchase was $2.54 per 50- 3 box a day limit. I got 9 boxes. I thought that was OK only because I hadn't seen .22 on a shelf in like,- fore-ever. Funny thing is, I have 'Tupperware' tubs full of .22 I bought a number of years ago. Just can't help myself.
I bought 50 count boxes about 6 months to a year ago for around $3 but I also hadnt seen any in months. One box limit then.
I remember when .22 was so cheap. I think they used to sell for under $.03 a round back 2o years ago. Wallyworld had a bucket of bullets that was 500 rounds I think for under $15.
It may have been even under $10. I just remember those were plinker rounds. You could fire off a bunch cheaply without giving it a thought. The .45 and above was expensive...a little less to reload, but still around 10 cents a round if you saved the casing and threw it in the tumbler to clean it off.
