Friday, April 24, 2009

why is there no .22lr ammo?


well i bought a walther p22 gun this week. this picture is a stock picture, but it's the same model my gun is. i like this little weapon and it is little. the picture makes it appear to be much larger.
anyways, so i sat through the florida 3 day waiting period for handguns...which by the way is a joke as it can actually be much more than 3 days. for example i bought it on sunday. well the fdle and atf and whatever other govt organization they have to process the paperwork through isn't open on sunday. so my pick up date turned out to be thursday. so it actually was 4.5 days. counting sunday and if i counted thursday, since i couldn't get to the store to get it until around 7pm that night...it would be easily 5 days. so critics of the 3 day florida rule quit complaining that the law is too easy.
look if someone was crazy, whether 2 weeks, 5 days or the same day it wouldn't matter. time doesn't deter craziness. even though the bulk of this article is on why there is a ammo shortage...i should mention there is a gun shortage as well. i had to go to almost every gun store in a 25 mile radius to find the one i bought...but there were plenty of guns to be had...just not maybe the one you wanted or in the caliber you wanted at every location. so keep your eye out for a possible upcoming gun shortage...if any of the theories below on ammo shortage prove to be true. especially the dhs or govt theory.
anyways, so my plan was to shoot a dozen rounds through it at the store's gun range. to my shock they had no .22lr ammo at all. as i walked around the store they had almost no ammo in any caliber. so i stopped by a couple more ammo stores on the way home, same story. so the next day i called around to every gun and ammo store including walmarts, etc. nothing zip. so then i hit the internet. same story nothing in high velocity anywhere. so being the way that i am, i started to do research. it appears to be across the entire country for the most part. so this leads me to come to four basic theories on what is going on.
theory one. people have gone raging crazy with fear of obama and his anti-2nd amendment thugs stopping private gun ownership, and are stockpiling ammo. as well as typical non-gun people running out and buying weapons and ammo as well. creating more demand than supply can handle. well this theory makes sense until i talked in detail to the walmart store managers and various gun store managers. they all said the same story. they can't get even close to what they were getting pre-obama. they all said demand was up a bit, but supply was way, way down, long before the demand side went crazy. in fact they all said demand was created by this lack of supply. so it leaves the question who is getting all this supply and stockpiling it before the gun stores and wholesalers and even the mighty walmart can get it?
theory 2. the ammo makers are cutting supply on purpose to drive up prices. this is a good theory as well, except i heard from a large wholesale distributor of ammo, that production is being run 24/7 at one ammo manufacturer. so they can't make anymore any faster.
theory 3. the two wars are draining supply. good theory too, on .223 or 5.56 nato rounds and 9mm and other worldwide military type rounds. except last time i looked a machine line didn't switch between center fire ammo and rim fire and i can't imagine the army needs .22lr ammo for wars. so this theory seems the least credible of them all but it's being pushed from the media as the main reason.
theory 4. this one i have seen on the super intense gun forums. the department of homeland security is placing huge purchases of all ammo calibers. being govt they get first priority over regular citizens and private business. now i know this one sounds conspiracy to the extreme, but i hate to admit it, it makes the most sense. as to why they would do this, who knows. i can say nothing the govt does would surprise me anymore.
theory 5....well, i have no more theories at this point to explain what is going on, so i have to stop at 4.
so maybe it's a combination of all of the above...which would be the most likely...but then again who really knows? one thing is for sure. something stinks to high hell.
well to sum up, it appears the liberal anti-2nd amendment winners in this last election got what they didn't want. they are directly responsible for re-arming america, and even to the point where they have pushed non gun people to go out and buy a weapon. it's ironic that they aren't smart enough to realize the more you try to scare people from owning weapons the more it drives them the other way and makes them a gun owner. if they would just stop talking about banning guns and leave it alone and respect the 2nd amendment, interest would dwindle down to the standard small group who engage in collecting and shooting sports and hunting, etc. and that would be that.
well i hope to get more info on where the ammo is going. i will continue to track down info, but i have spent many of my free hours available and this is as good as i got. i don't think with my lack of available reliable reseources i can get anything more than this. in the meantime i suggest everyone pay close attention to the govt as well as the ammo and weapons supply industries. something stinks badly...i can't explain whether it's obama or it's the gun/ammo industry? one of them is doing something that should be addressed and exposed to the voting and buying public, imho.

5 comments:

Robert McDonald said...

It's pretty crazy. I own to 1911 pistols and I like to shoot a lot but .45 Auto ammo is hard to come by anywhere. Any store that gets it in is sold out within hours, if not minutes so when I see it, I buy it. I haven't bought .22 LR in a while...I think I have a couple thousand rounds for my .22 rifles. .223 hasn't been too hard to come by for one of other rifles, just expensive.

jhb said...

yeah i heard .45 was very hard to get ahold of as well. interesting on the .223. ironically at every gun store they seem to be out of 22lr handguns, .32 handguns, and most of the .380 stuff....but all had at least one or many more ar-15's ready to go. which i found odd the media keeps saying their is a run on assualt weapons but i can find them everywhere. unless the media considers a .22lr pistol an assualt weapon? i do, but i'd be the rare exception to this. i consider them assassin guns. small, accurate, low recoil, low noise, and even though most gun guys laugh at them and call them mouse guns, etc....i've never met anyone who was willing to be on the receiving end of a .22lr bullet, let alone 10 bullets. not to mention there is plenty of data on it's killing power for not only humans, but mid to large animals with proper shot placement. hell a guy took a not quite defrosted turkey wrapped in three layers of clothing and hit it at 300 yards with his rifle and punched holes completely through it using standard velocity rounds. imagine hyper velocity hollow points in a handgun at 10 or 15 yards.

mike t said...

i don't hesitate to take a 300 yard shot at a ground rat. i know i could do some damage at 500 yards with a 22lr to a human if it came down to it. it is all about shot placement.

Ryan Carpenter said...

I can't believe this shortage is still going on and there is no further updates on it. Have people given up and accepted this as a part of life? You would think it would be better by now. Even better is that all the military rounds and even handgun rounds are coming back but no .22lr. I can't afford to be shootn squirrels with big game ammo, you would think someone would have figured this out.

Anonymous said...

can't see how living in Texas would make a difference, buy here at cabelas they have rimfire ammo of all kinds. Picking up a 500 cnt if Winchester with dry box for $25 and some 17hmr. Been loads of rimfire, but. 45 and 223 have been low at times. I blame all native Texans for this, stocking up in fear. Nor originally from here I can blame them easily.