What did I pay back then?

[carbuncle]

I was moving ammo out of my safe last night and found a box of 50 Blazer .40 brass with a $14.99 price tag. One tear slowly crept down my cheek.

 

[HARRYM]

I shoot a lot of .22. Years ago, when ammo was plentiful I made a habit of buying a box or two every time I was in Walmart. At one point I had over 15000 rounds on hand. When things got crazy I still had plenty without having to search around for it. I now have some open space on my .22 shelf that needs filling. I happened to be in Walmart today and they had 1000 round boxes of Winchester for $67 so I picked a couple. For the life of me I can't remember what I used to pay for them. What did they cost four or five years ago?

Used to buy .22 by the bricks....all day fun. My Brother had a Marlin that he shot the darn barrel out of it.

 

[btnh6668]

federal bricks of 36gr 550 was $16 at walmart in 2008

 

[paulleve]

As to OP's question, I think Walmart was charging around $40 per 1k of Win M22 prior to the pandemic.

And for the nostalgia crowd, here are a few old timers with price tags I keep in the ammo safe:



My father was a fan of buying ammo at the Fair in Spencer, MA. Someday I may shoot these, but then again, I'll never replace them for the price Dad paid in 1977!

 

[Uzi2]

$5.00 a brick of 500 22LR almost everywhere circa 1965.

Daisy BBs were 25 cents a tube of 300.

 

[Lank]

I remember buying .22's 50 for .99 $ as a 15 year old in the early 90's in NH.

 

[Dennis in MA]

I remember buying them for $9.99/500 on sale back almost 20 years ago. I was living in CA and they were toying with the idea of a $0.10 tax per round on all ammo, which was oppressive on normal ammo, but totally crazy on rimfire, so I made a habit of buying like you did. I've not had to sweat the rimfire shortages since.

I think I still have the box from a 550ct Win X-spurt that was $5.69 or something. Around a penny. . . a round. Those were crazy days. 2000-2001ish.

 

[MGnoob]

I’m pretty sure if you bought them in bulk not at Walmart even for five years ago you could still get them for two cents apiece for CCI

 

[Mark from MA]

A brick of utility grade .22 was $10 for years from the eighties up until probably 2000

This.......ammo prices didn't fluctuate that much because of political climate back in those days.

Credit was something people didn't use like they do now. For the most part, unless you were a serious shooter, no one went in a bought cases of ammo, they bought it as it was needed, and let Walmart and gun stores keep it on the shelf instead of hoarding large quantities for no apparent reason. Handloaders always had supplies available to them, there was never stupid shortages.

I remember my dad buying slugs to go hunting, he always would buy 5 packages of Remington sluggers, every year, right before shotgun season. He was lucky to use 1 package. I still have some of the ones he bought a Spags or Kmart for 1.50 a package.

 

[Retired-LEO]

A brick of utility grade .22 was $10 for years from the eighties up until probably 2000

I miss those days. I usto shoot an insane number of rounds weekly.
Back then I was paying about $100 for 1000 rounds of remanufactured 38's; and $10-12 for a brick of 22's

 

[Zappa]

Not a bad price today, But Thunderbolts being the worst garbage ever produced, they are only worth about a half cent, just to throw into the campfire to shake everyone up!

This^
Chunderbolt is complete crap, I wouldn't use it in my guns if you gave it to me for free.
I've also had some cheap Aguila .22 that was junk too, the brass was so thin I was getting case head blowouts every 4th or 5th round.
After a few cylinders of it in my revolvers, my trigger finger was getting too burned to continue, so I used up the rest of it in a bolt action rifle.
Still go blowouts, but wasn't picking brass fragments out of my hand.
Also, the smell of the burned powder and priming compound made me sick to my stomach, never got that from any other ammo.

 

[PatMcD]

I'm so old, I remember my buddy and I going down to the boatyard/hardware store on the island to buy a box (50rds) of 22 Longs to shoot squirrels with. We bought Longs because they were like 20 cents cheaper than Long Rifles, and that meant 4 fewer returnable Coke bottles we had to find (back in the day when the only returnable can or bottle was the green Coke bottles).

 

[Agnotology]

Not a bad price today, But Thunderbolts being the worst garbage ever produced, they are only worth about a half cent, just to throw into the campfire to shake everyone up!

.22 Thunderbolts taught me how to properly deal with misfires and failures in a 10/22. I switched to CCI Stingers in a hurry. Was also always jealous of my cousin who had the old 25 round banana mags.

 

[Taipan01]

.22 Thunderbolts taught me how to properly deal with misfires and failures in a 10/22. I switched to CCI Stingers in a hurry. Was also always jealous of my cousin who had the old 25 round banana mags.

I use them as foulers as I clean my stuff after each range day. I do find there is a difference in my groupings with a slightly fouled .22 by way of settling in. A couple cylinders, a mag or tube. I don't get much build-up as I wipe any oil off and replace it with Remi dry lube before I go so for the extra grubbiness, I don't really get much.. A quick bore snaking, rag wipe down, respray every 150-200 and I'm good all day long.

As for actually using them beyond fouling and as we all know, .22's are weird by way of ammunition likes and dislikes even from one and the same model to another so with a new .22, you brig a variety to see what it likes best. I have a Ruger single six convertible that loves those crappers. You do get a flyer occasionally but I can pick off pieces of clays on the 50 yard berm with them and the six.

 

[Remote Camper]

I don’t know about 10 years ago. But right after Obama got out Walmart had Winchester white box 555 rounds of .22 for about $29. With tax here in Maine.
I made it a habit for a while to buy one or two boxes every time I went to Walmart.
I probably have 6k or more .22 now.
Without counting, how many loose 22 bullets does it take to fill 2, 30 cal ammo cans??


RC