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We've received questions lately on something we've all been wondering about: Why is .22 rimfire ammo still "scarcer'n hen's teeth"? The shortage of centerfire stuff ended a while ago, so what's up?

Here's the scoop from some of our industry friends who are really plugged into the ammunition business. It's not as bad as it was. Rimfire ammo IS making its way onto store shelves, but demand is still sky high, so it zooms off those shelves almost instantly, usually with a limit on the number of boxes you can have.

Premium brands of .22 LR are sticking around longer in stores because customers who were willing to pay high prices just to get any .22 ammo have slowed down their buying. But the less-expensive ammo - the "buy a brick and plink all Saturday afternoon" stuff - still gets gobbled up as soon as it hits a shelf.

The biggest issue is, unlike centerfire ammo, rimfire is produced on dedicated machinery that can only load rimfire. Centerfire machines can load many different cartridges, so if there's a big shortage of .308 Winchester, the ammo factory can switch a bunch of machines over to it and ramp up supply much faster. That's why calibers that were in short supply in 2013 and 2014, like 9mm or .223 or .45 ACP, came back a lot faster.

Rimfire is a whole other ball of wax because of the way the cases are primed. It's really, really expensive and takes a long time to set up new rimfire production machinery - so costly that manufacturers can't spend the time and money to do it unless they're absolutely sure higher demand is here to stay, so the .22 LR production capacity in the U.S. isn't going to expand much any time soon. As long as demand for less-expensive rimfire ammo remains so strong, it will continue to be hard to get. Our guys tell me supply will probably stay very tight right through 2016.
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Wayne

Being as I retired from a career in manufacturing, (last 15 years in automotive), I do buy what Texasmac posted.  High volume manufacturing is a tough, complex business.  It took us about three years from decision date to get a cylinder block line to run production.  Granted making .22RF ammo is not as complex, but I'd strongly doubt that the machinery to make .22RF ammunition is a commodity.  Just getting the machinery designed, approved, ordered, built, and delivered might easily be a year.  Then you could spend months sorting out all the malfunctions.  Maybe you get up and running in time for the Feds to ban your product.    

Thanks for the update, Wayne.  I have been dealing with Brownell's since way back when and they have never tossed any cow patties my way.

Quote:

CCI - Federal - Winchester are making them and are on the market ...
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And might add ... there are 3 of us in the States making Black Powder 22LR reloads!

Here's my take on the availability of 22 rimfires:
* CCi & Federal are owned by ATK.  ATK has 2 major small arms ammo contracts - Home Land Security & the military.  So they basically shut the rimfire production line down for commercial sporting sales to concentrate on the centerfires
* Winchester? Who knows what their production run plans are for any ammunition or powder! 

The Federal Match ammo is Loaded by RWS. Even has the RWS head stamp on it

Wolf is made by SK which in return is loaded by Lapua .... again same head stamp on them. Wolf Match Extra same as SK Rifle Match. At Champions the price is the same for Wolf and SK.

Norma is also loaded by RWS. 

CCI is reputedly loaded by Federal and/or Speer. Green Tag used to shoot well for me, but the new seems to be much different these days. May just be that my new Shilen barrel doesn't like it while my old GM barrel did.

Just because Winchester & Remington put "Target" on the box does not make it target ammo. Shoot some groups of the real target ammo at 100yd & 200yd and then try some of the phony stuff and you'll see.

SSShooter wrote on Nov 28^th, 2015 at 10:18pm:


Ain't THAT the truth!

Yeah, fairly clear 'Target' means 'standard velocity' for the major US brands.

Never had any Green Tag that would shoot in my various 'match rifles' either. And my Smith M-41 won't even cycle with the stuff. Bulk packed SK is my choice now. Groups nearly as well as Eley, and leaves my hands so soft and silky smooth

Wesg, if you feel ok sharing the information, where do you get the bulk packed SK ammo?

Thanks
Regards,
Stubb