How much is too much for .22 ammo?

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I am just curious how much per round is too much for .22lr ammo.

Pretty good deals happen, and the cost hasn't risen like some of the dealers would have you think. Cost has gone up absolutely, but 99% of the cost rise is purely supply and demand and gouging. I'd guess 99% of that is gouging. Personally I don't believe for a second that ATK is charging Walmart "yesterday's" wholesale price on a 100ct box of CCI, but is going to the local guys and charging them whatever ratio above that to get the local dealer to claim that they are "only barely breaking even". Bullshit I say. Gouging I say.


BUT that's not the question here..

The question is what cost per round is too high for you to not be willing to buy/shoot .22s anymore? Even if realistically they are still, on average, the cheapest thing out there to shoot.

For reference a 500 rnd brick at $.03 is: $15
.05 is:$25
.10 is: $50
.13 is: $65
.15 is: $75
 
The most I paid for .22 was for a brick of CCI SV at Dick's last summer for $40 plus tax = $42.50 / 500 rds = 8.5 cents per round. Paid the same for 2 bricks of Eley Sport SV 22 almost a year ago at Patriot Arms in Ipswich. Both of which are some of the most consistent/accurate 22 ammo I've shot. I'm not sure I'd pay up to $50 for a brick quite yet..maybe once my stash gets smaller.

2 months before sandy hook I bought a 5000 round case of CCI SV for $275 shipped! which is a little over 5 cents per round. Man I wish I bought more than 1 case.

Just bought 2 325 rd bricks of Federal Automatch 22 and 1 CCI mini mag 375 rd brick off a fellow NESer earlier this week for $80. 7.8 cents per round - not bad. Very fair price considering some people are trying to sell bricks of remington 22 for like $80 per brick.
 
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I paid too much recently, in PA.

Brick of 500. I wasn't paying attention, and just signed the slip (I had bought several items...). The dude wasn't able to scan the brick, and charged me the price for the box of 50, times 10. Think it ended up costing me $70. Didn't notice till I got home to MA, too late to return or ask for a price correction.
 
I don't believe for a second that ATK is charging Walmart "yesterday's" wholesale price on a 100ct box of CCI, but is going to the local guys and charging them whatever ratio above that to get the local dealer to claim that they are "only barely breaking even".

That may be exactly what's happening. Wal-Mart is big enough to tell ATK to take their price hike and shove it, or risk never doing business with Wal-Mart again. ATK will do a cost-benefit analysis to see what the impact of losing the Wal-Mart account will do to them.
 
My buddy who just got into guns and recently bought at 15-22 texted me today that he found a 50 round box of Aguilla for $8.25 and that they wanted $90 plus tax for a brick. He said maybe he should go in and buy more since they actually had some 22 in stock. I said I really advise against spending that much man.
 
My buddy who just got into guns and recently bought at 15-22 texted me today that he found a 50 round box of Aguilla for $8.25 and that they wanted $90 plus tax for a brick. He said maybe he should go in and buy more since they actually had some 22 in stock. I said I really advise against spending that much man.

Good god, $90 a brick!?

My dad is waiting on his LTC and wants a 22 pistol so I explained to him that finding 22 ammo is currently pretty difficult which he was shocked to hear. So I've been out looking for 22 ammo once he buys a 22 pistol he can actually shoot it.
 
Good god, $90 a brick!?

Yeah exactly. I texted him well at $8.25 for 50 what the heck do they want for a brick and he texted back $90 then stopped texting after I advised its not a good deal. I think I burst his bubble about the glory of finding 22 but not really knowing what a good price is since he never really bought it before.
 
The last brick I bought was $22. That was like 1.5 years ago. Its half empty.

everytime I see your Avatar I chuckle. So far my favorite deal with it GIF is the lady using the Neti Pot. Because in real life you are like what the F is she doing and then bam shades start dropping.

[video]http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6764721/neti-pot-deal-with-it-gif[/video]
 
paid 8 cents a round for a bunch of cci mini mags. I am trying to slowly stock up. I will only pay sub 10 cents a round.
 
I suppose it depends on what the ammo is worth to you, and how badly you need it. If you have no ammo stockpiled, don't reload, and you want to go to an Appleseed this weekend, I guess you'd buy whatever is available and pay whatever they're asking. Even at $90 a brick (which is ridiculous, from a historical perspective), it's still cheaper than buying centerfire rounds.

I stocked up on Federal Bulk packs from Walmart and Aguila from the CMP circa 2007-2009, and haven't had to buy .22LR since, thank G*d. I also reload, and it doesn't cost me much more to press my own centerfire rounds than what some people are asking for .22LR. But if I was going to buy .22LR ammo now, I would refuse to pay more than $40/brick.
 
Madness to spend more than .07 for a decent quality brick or .10 for Mini-Mags and other more specialized ammo.
 
That may be exactly what's happening. Wal-Mart is big enough to tell ATK to take their price hike and shove it, or risk never doing business with Wal-Mart again. ATK will do a cost-benefit analysis to see what the impact of losing the Wal-Mart account will do to them.

ATK was just an example. I am 100% certain that Wal-mart (pick your large store with huge buying power) gets a slightly better price than "Chucks Butts-Booze-n-Bang" on the NH border. But I do not accept for one second that last month I got (3) packs of Winchester 333 for $18, Acme Armament was selling Federal 500 packs for slightly more per round (Maybe $34?? I forget) and then the guy local to me is selling a 500 pack of "whatever" for $74.99 and claiming that he's not making any money on it. Nah. Don't think so.

That isn't the point though. I was really just curious what people's break point was.

Someone pointed out the Appleseed and such, and I agree. SOMETIMES, you pay whatever. But I am not going to go to the backyard and crush through a brick of .22 if it's more than say .10 as someone else suggested. More than that and I'll just pony up and shoot something heavy.

I also agree with whomever it was that said they wish they bought another/more of the huge cases of .22. I am saying the same thing. "But when will I EVER use 5k rounds of .22?!" When .223 is .40/round... that's when! ;)
 
I am just curious how much per round is too much for .22lr ammo.

Pretty good deals happen, and the cost hasn't risen like some of the dealers would have you think. Cost has gone up absolutely, but 99% of the cost rise is purely supply and demand and gouging. I'd guess 99% of that is gouging. Personally I don't believe for a second that ATK is charging Walmart "yesterday's" wholesale price on a 100ct box of CCI, but is going to the local guys and charging them whatever ratio above that to get the local dealer to claim that they are "only barely breaking even". Bullshit I say. Gouging I say.

They are indeed charging them the pre-BS price, otherwise Walmart wouldn't be selling it. Walmart doesn't seem to change their profit margin on ammo much. Their prices go up when the legit supply price goes up. The problem is the rest of the ammo that's not going to WalMart, ends up at mid level distributors, who have more demand than they have supply. Obviously, they take this invitation to gouge the piss out of everyone in the process because they know they can get away with it, and they know all their competitors are doing the same damned thing to some degree or another.

-Mike
 
It took every bit of will I had to actually pay $50 for a 1000 rounds yesterday. I felt like I was being robbed.

$50 per 1000 is actually cheap as hell given current market conditions, that's like walmart territory.

Regardless of the shortage now, this isn't 2004 anymore.... there are no more $8 packs of golden bullet at WalMart. Not happening again. Ever.

-Mike
 
$50 per 1000 is actually cheap as hell given current market conditions, that's like walmart territory.

Regardless of the shortage now, this isn't 2004 anymore.... there are no more $8 packs of golden bullet at WalMart. Not happening again. Ever.

-Mike

I know it is but for me it's like a mental block. I still got a bunch of the cheep stuff. I even left 2000 at the store at that price because I couldn't do it.


Disregard spelling I will blame my phone.
 
Wal-Mart signs a contract with a fixed price for products (ammo in this case) for a set period of time, likely 1 year. No matter what, the mfr is obligated to deliver at that price.

My town does the same thing for gas, diesel and fuel oil. We have gas and diesel pumps for town vehicles and our costs are fixed for the year, renegotiated each year.

Distributors and dealers don't get this privilege and get charged "market rate" whenever they buy, thus huge price variations between a WM and a LGS. FWIW, a WM management employee once told me (some years ago) that WM makes ~30% on ammo.
 
But I do not accept for one second that last month I got (3) packs of Winchester 333 for $18, Acme Armament was selling Federal 500 packs for slightly more per round (Maybe $34?? I forget) and then the guy local to me is selling a 500 pack of "whatever" for $74.99 and claiming that he's not making any money on it.

Like everyone else said, the further you get from the "big guys" the more the price will fluctuate, and, as we've seen in the walmart thread, there are LGS that poach all the ammo at Walmart and then have to mark it up to make a profit. $75 is a stretch, but after paying for the poachers, tax, etc, etc, it could add up.
 
The most I have paid so far for a brick is $35. I'm not going to go over that since I can find it occasionally at a couple places for between $22-$30
 
Depends on what 22, pre hysteria I paid $0.07 round for CCI mini mags, and $0.11 round for RWS target. The RWS was high but it's been rising for the last decade. For bulk ammo I paid $17 for the 550 round federal boxes - bought 12 of them following first panic in 2008. I doubt I would pay more than $20-25 for bulk or $40 for a good brick of CCI std.
 
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