I sort of find that hard to believe, especially considering that retail prices have gone up considerably in the last year or so. It is not just hoarders. A lot of new gun owners are out there buying ammo or trying to. Existing owners see a need to "stock up" because of current and past shortages of reasonable ammo on retail shelves. It is complicated and I do not see an end to it for some time. Prices will also continue to rise along with the price of everything else that we buy.

"It appears to me that the only way to stop bulk purchasing by hoarders and others is to limit sales to each individual of one box per calibre, per visit, per day. That way everyone gets a chance of at least some ammunition. The companies selling the ammo to the public are not going to loose out, they can still sell all the ammo they can get their hands on"

For anyone shooting competitively, this just makes no sense at all. I can't find anything even close to useable for match shooting at any local gunshop. I have to buy ammo mail-order/on-line, which means buying bulk quantities to keep shipping costs under control. Buying several boxes or even a brick at a time gets very expensive when the UPS charge is over $15 for each order. I have a friend who has been buying ammo one brick at a time and has finally decided to buy a case. He figured out that buying one brick at a time will cost him $170 in shipping charges. Also, some sellers will also give a price break on case purchases. Buying by the case is a pain in the wallet, but cheaper in the long run.

As far as limiting purchases, the hoarders have the edge on that.  #1 comes in along with his wife, kids, uncle, grandpa, and a few cousins, each buys the limit to add to #1's hoard.  Seen it done many times at local Wally World and other stores.  Only a few hold some back for other customers.  Doesn't seem to be an easy answer to the problem.  GW

I'm a serious rimfire shooter, going through better than a case a year, and maybe two, depending on other demands on my time.  Been buying in bulk, mostly by the case, for the last 10 years, chiefly because of price breaks and shipping charges, but also because most good target ammo does not show up on retail store shelves. In most markets, there is not sufficient demand to stock it, with or without hoarders.

The ammo shortage has hit the "practice level" pretty hard and has extended into the club or lower intermediate level.  The lower grades of Wolf, Lapua & SK have all been hard to come by.  Looks to me as if the breakpoint for availability has been $12 a box, at least for target ammo.  If you are willing to pay $1200 a case, for stuff that was always in that price range, there has never been much of a shortage of any of the Eley or Lapua types, nor has there been much in the way of price increases.  The US companies gave up on that market years ago.

Harry, if I were a CCI poobah, given US politics, lawsuits & general criminal activity, I would take whatever steps I could to remove the video from the net.  They are already selling everything they produce. The video will not increase sales & may cause problems. 

Not all those who shoot the AR rimfires are just blasters.  We allow newcomers to shoot any 22 RF in our Tuesday league. Not everyone has a traditional single shot & we want to encourage new shooters. Some young people do very well on the 25-ring target with their AR rimfires, at least at 50 feet or 25 yards. Never seen a serious trial at 100 yards.  Don't think the sights will adjust for 200 yards.

.25 Stevens?  Probably will never be made again, unless in Brazil, maybe by the same outfit that made .32 RF years back.  Too many old Stevens of dubious strength still around for a US maker to take that risk.  Someone could sell primed cases, but is there a market?

All the new product development seems to be in .17s.

I believe that one of the reasons shotgun primers have not gone up is that since the price of shot went over
$40.00 a bag and powder went up for the last couple of years you could buy shotshells on sale almost for
the price of reloading.  Where I worked at there were 5 people shooting sporting clays and nobody has 
reloaded for the last 2 or 3 years.  They wait and buy 4 or 5 flats of shells when they go on sale.  I do not
believe there has ever been a shortage of shotgun shells.  At least not in my part of Ohio.
    Rifle and pistol primers are now plentiful and so is powder locally.  Also seeing some .22 shells being stocked.
I believe the shortage is being resolved slowly.  Could it be some distributors are holding back supplies to keep
prices up?

I think it is mainly hoarders.  Think about this...if 20 people in each of our 50 states all bought just one brick of ammo it works out to 500,000 rounds.  Now, I think that I personally know at least 20 people who will buy a brick any chance they get in this market so it doesn't take long for a few million rounds to disappear!

ATK, corporate owner of CCI & Federal donated 10,000,000 rounds of 22LR's this year to the Boy Scouts for their Summer shooting program

If one thinks that 22 rimfires are tough to find at a decent price ... I called Remington and asked the status of #11 caps because they not locatable on the vendor market.  Remington Customer Service looked up their production schedule ... " We don't have #11 caps or any percussion caps scheduled for production."