Which .22 lr brand to get, CCI or Blazer?

[aack73]

wow i see where all the rimfire ammo went. lol

[Oldgringo]

If it's CCI SV (standard velocity) I would buy that.  BTW, Green Tag is CCI SV that's been weight sorted.  Even so, fifty bucks a brick is no great bargain, especially for Blazer.

Oh, if you are shooting targets, you will find many guns do better with standard velocity over hi-speeds although some, like the old Westherby XXII semi auto like fast steppers.

I agree on the standard velocity.   My CZ 452's shoot CCI SV as well as they shoot Wolf MT and SK Std. Plus.  As at least one other has opined, the current unavailability .22 LR is what moved me into airguns.  I checked my .22 stash a couple days ago and I'm good for more than a little while; however, I wouldn't try to shoot my .22's in my backyard...... 

[stevemag]

Picked up some blazer yesterday, $3.50 a box. A rip but not as bad as the could have robbed me. 3 box limit. Only other thing they had was American eagle for the same price.

[umpreacher]

Its hard to get .22 lr ammo in my area but I did find some Blazer. Paid too much for it $50 a brick but better than nothing. Strange thing is it has no velocity listed on box. Salesman was surprised too.  Does anyone know its velocity?  Thanks

[cwlongshot]

Its hard to get .22 lr ammo in my area but I did find some Blazer. Paid too much for it $50 a brick but better than nothing. Strange thing is it has no velocity listed on box. Salesman was surprised too.  Does anyone know its velocity?  Thanks

I got two bricks at cabelas in a door buster sat am!!  But it's always been HV. Your right we knoticed no vel as well...

CW

[only1harry]

Walmart stores have .22LR in stock at least once every other week.  The problem is many stores (namely the Sporting Goods Mgr & employees) don't bring it out.  The employees and their friends buy it.  As soon as it comes in they call their buddies and relatives.  I have a friend who works at Walmart and she suspects that they are reselling it on Gun Broker or Armslist because of the enormous amounts the SG employees have been purchasing over the course of 14 months since Jan. '13.  I have been able to get a few Mini Mags and bulk boxes only part of the time she contacts me, but only by getting the store manager and making a big stink about it.  Even the management is in on it.  They have lied to me on many occasions saying there is no ammo in the back, when my friend told me the ammo was in the secure cage and were selling it little by little to employees and their friends.  I usually go back to the store early in the morning and get a different co-manager who goes in the back and brings it out 3 boxes for me (not all the time).  They still don't put it out and when I ask the Mgr why, they say they will, but never do.  These SG employees and some WM managers are contributing to the shortage by not putting it on the shelves and allowing the employees to buy it all up.  Now my 2 Walmart stores recently changed their policy from 3 boxes max. to only 3 boxes of .22LR.  No limit on all the other calibers.  I am sure it's corporate policy and Corporate has no idea who is really buying all the .22LR.  It's ironic because that is the only caliber they keep in the back for themselves.  It's fine if the employees purchase a few boxes or a couple of thousand rounds for themselves or their friends, but when they get in 20 to 40 Federal 550 bulk boxes (2-4 cases usually), Win 555/333 bulk, etc. every few weeks and it never makes it to the shelves, it makes you wonder where these hundreds of thousands or millions of rounds per store are ending up (GunBroker, Armslist?).  And how can employees that make $10/hr afford to purchase that much ammo throughout the year?  When I am informed by my "insider" that ammo has arrived and what brand and how many, I usually see it 4sale locally on Armslist a day or 2 later.  They are reselling it for profit.  At least the 2 WM store employees and their friends near me. I can't speak of other stores.  I have sent a couple of emails to WM Corporate about it, and never get a response, or nothing comes of it.  I have even spoken to the store managers (not co-manager) and one of them implemented a policy that ammo has be brought out in the morning and supervised by an asst.store manager.  That lasted only for about 2 months last Spring during which myself and many other customers were able to purchase ammo between 7 and 8 or 9am before it sold out, but they stopped doing it just before the summer.  It's a shame that WM has let this go on for so long in certain stores.  The only .22LR ammo my 2 stores put out once in a blue mmon is Rem. Thunderbolt, Federal Lightning (510) 50 round boxes, and one time CCI Quiet which my guns hate.  The low end stuff.  100 round plastic and bulk boxes never make it to the shelves. 

So don't think your Walmart does not get any .22LR.  As a matter of fact, whatever .22LR Midway, Cabelas & Natchez gets or sells out on that day, Walmart stores get the same ammo 1-3 days later which is the time it takes to get it from their warehouses to the stores.  My only advice is don't buy any of it from Gun Broker and Armslist and advise your friends to do the same.  As long as people are willing to pay 2-3X more for .22LR through those web sites, we will continue to have a "shortage" and high prices.

BTW, I have seen a decline in QC/QA across the board with domestic ammo. Manufacturers are rushing to get the ammo out the door without proper QC.  I have had 7 duds total from 3 boxes of CCI Standard Velocity.  It was a bad lot (10 box brick) and I have not shot it all.  I expect to run into a few more duds from that brick.  I never had any duds with CCI SV in the past.

Harry

[cwlongshot]

I agree 100%

Only way I see this stopping is if WE ALL STOP BUYING FROM SCALPERS!!!!!

If they don't have a store front or a ledgit internet sight don't buy!!!

CW

[aack73]

i concur Harry. I personally think its going on, on a much bigger scale across the board. more so than we even think. i have not and will not pay outrageous prices on any .22 ammo. from anywhere. however i think the days of .50 and $1.00/box .22 ammo are long gone. i personally expect bricks to be $20-$35 depending on brand. some high end stuff will bring more but that is a different issue. i will buy .17 hmr 1st. hopefully everyone will stop buying it. if everyone would just not buy any and i mean any .22 ammo for a whole year, then it would come back to reality.

What if we could get everyone from the GTA to send an email to Walmart corporate? maybe even make a bluff that we arent gonna shop there anymore at all if they dont put a stop to it. if they got enough emails maybe they would do something.??

[mudduck48]

i concur Harry. I personally think its going on, on a much bigger scale across the board. more so than we even think. i have not and will not pay outrageous prices on any .22 ammo. from anywhere. however i think the days of .50 and $1.00/box .22 ammo are long gone. i personally expect bricks to be $20-$35 depending on brand. some high end stuff will bring more but that is a different issue. i will buy .17 hmr 1st. hopefully everyone will stop buying it. if everyone would just not buy any and i mean any .22 ammo for a whole year, then it would come back to reality.

What if we could get everyone from the GTA to send an email to Walmart corporate? maybe even make a bluff that we arent gonna shop there anymore at all if they dont put a stop to it. if they got enough emails maybe they would do something.??

Yes you are right. Right now we have 8945 members. A lot of them are in the US. If everyone stopped buying .22lr ammo and told the scalpers, get DUCKED, the price would come down. QUIT BUYING.

[Bicycleman]

Duck, I stopped buying about two years ago.  In fact, the last .22 LRs I bought were Federals (550 box) for which I paid about $18.00.  All we need is about a million more to stop buying today.  And let us look and see what the prices would do over the next three months.  [Many businesses prepare quarterly reports.]

[cwlongshot]

IMHO we can buy, just NOT form the scalpers and like on Gun Broker and like places with STUPID INFLATED prices!

Local shops IF THE CAN GET ANY would be fine to buy from that's where we WANT to buy form!

CW

[stevemag]

if i see .22 lr and the price is super inflated. i wont buy and i make a little mental  note of the price gouger (sp?) and when things get back to normal i will shop elsewhere.  maybe I'm wrong but $2 a box for standard velocity plinkin ammo was the norm before it all went crazy. $7 for 100 rounds of cci in the plastic box

[Bicycleman]

Good point, Brian; sort of like the guy I buy my Western Boots from.  He is a small businessman struggling to compete with the Outlet store that rhymes with Branch.  The local people are often family and always friends.

Steve, you are correct = gouger (overcharge; swindle) is not my friend and I refuse to go business there.  When it gets down to the short hair, none of us can afford to support gougers.

I am thinking about making a t-shirt. . . .  LOL

[only1harry]

I don't know about a year, but if we all stopped buying .22LR (at least on line) for 1 or 2 months, that would get the message across and prices would definitley come down.  Unfortunately the distributors set prices high as well because of the high demand.  They are to blame too.  That is what local gun shops are telling me - that the distributors have raised the prices unfairly, and not the manufacturers.  We know the manufacturers have not done it other than the customary 10-11% annual increase, because Midway and Walmart still charge $6.99 and $7.47 respectively for CCI Mini Mags when you can find them.  Yes these companies buy huge volume, but I read stories of small local gunshops still asking $2.99 for Blazers and $7.99 for Mini Mags and $25.99 for 500 round bulk packs, so we know the markup is by certain distributors, but mainly by the retailers who are gouging.  It kills me when I see on line retailers listing Mini Mags for $19.95 and Federal 525 bulk packs for $89 and they still sell out within a few minutes.  That's a shame.  If those people would stop paying those high prices, we would all be better off.  I could make a small fortune with my .22LR stash, but I am not like one of those gougers.

Feel free to send an email to Walmart Corporate. It certainly can't hurt.  It's somewhere off their main web site where they ask for feedback, and one of the options to select is "problem with a store" IRCC.  Like I said one of my ammo complaints did get back to the store manager and he made them put the ammo on the shelf every morning under a asst. manager's supervision, but that didn't last long and they went back to their old ways.  The Sporting Good employees excuse was that gougers come in to purchase the ammo for reselling so the decided to put ammo out at differents times to throw those people off (they never put out .22LR).  That does not hold water with me because they can only get 3 boxes, or 6 if they bring their wife.  These gougers on Gun Broker and elsewhere have BOT programs that scan all the online stores for ammo, and are programmed to purchase the ammo and automatically enter the credit card# and account info, etc.  They do it 100 times faster than we can by typing, and they also purchase more ammo under different account names, because it's all done very fast by the BOT programs they run.  That's how they get all their ammo.  They don't waste time driving to Walmart to check for ammo every day and get 3 boxes.

Harry

[cwlongshot]

Exactly Mike!

Take my Ruger take down I have pictured above.  I paid 340$. When we where cabelas for the blazer ammo my buddie pointed out they had same gun 319$. First off I would not deal with cabelas for a gun purchase. I was doing gun transactions before most of the guys behind the counter where thoughts in there daddy's heads. What most of them now call knoledge most of us have forgotten!!!!

My point a smaller shop cannot compete monetarily but the can clober them on customer service, convience and one on one comrodare. Not to mention the trust friendships that can be built and that to me is worth loads more than the 20-30$ I may have saved.

CW

[only1harry]

I agree Brian.  I will give my business to the local shop and pay $20 more for a gun.  There is nothing like talking to someone in person about the product, and a smile and handshake go a long way.  That way I also support the local small businesses, not a multi-million (or billion) $ corporation.

Most of the time I find that the price comes out about the same in the end.  If I order a gun from an Internet store it has to be shipped to my FFL and I have to pay him a $30 fee.  Most gun shops will waive the transfer fee if you purchase the gun from them, so I am usually only out a few bucks because of the sales tax.  However, I have discovered that some of my local gun shops (LGS) can beat even Bud's prices, Grabagun.com, etc.  Those online stores have also raised their prices a little too high, and appear to be taking advantage of the increased sales and high demand.  I was suprised when I got quoted lower prices by my LGS.  On my last gun purchase I actually came out ahead than if I ordered on line.

Harry

[Swedge]

one of my local shops IS one of the shops that "Saves" ammo for their friends and family!! I recently ordered a Savage FVSR from them and of course i asked "Got any .22LR"  immediately one guy said no, but before that the other guy said hang on a sec, went in the back room a brought me out 3 boxes of 22LR. the other dude gave him the "look of death" I asked when that came in because i am always looking for 22 ammo for my other 22s as well.. He said they get it in all the time and usually always have some in stock. Funny thing is i never see it on the shelf and when i ask if they have any i always get the "No" answer. but what clued me in was just the other day i was browsing around after i asked the firearms desk person if they had 22 in stock, of course they said no.. while browsing and getting totally ignored while the two good ole boy best buds talked about assorted &^^& i moved on, but while checking out i noticed good ole boy with 4 boxes of 22LR!!! I ask where did he find that!! he said that they had it at the firearms counter!!  So i rush back to the firearms counter hoping that perhaps they just got in a shipment. i was told they didn't have any .22LR I tell them i just saw some guy purchase some AFTER i asked if they had any!!!  i got that deer in the headlight look, then he fumbled around and said it was special 22LR ammo that the customer had ordered..  I then said cool i want to order some! It was the CCI high velocity stuff.. they promptly said it was on "back order"... yeah right..... 

[oldedges]

At this point in time I take any .22 I can get my hands on... provided the seller isn't trying to gouge me.

Agreed! There was a time that I would buy nine or ten boxes of different brands to see which one the gun I was shooting liked best, then buy five or six bricks of the same lot to do my best to insure consistency for six months or so. But these days I take what I can get most of the time. Around here they're lined up outside the Big 5 every Monday morning waiting to clean out that weeks shipment.

[only1harry]

Swedge, you will like the Savage Mark II FV-SR.  It shoots best with CCI Standard Velocity (good luck finding it) as far as subsonic domestic ammo goes.  It also likes the Eley line like Eley Target and Club. 3/8" CTC @ 50yds or sub-1/2 groups with a decent lot from those 3, and you can get 1/4" on a calm day with the Club.  It shoots the CCI Mini Mags really well too (0.6" @ 50) and better than any high-velocity .22LR ammo I have tried which is 15 or more other types.  Most Lapua & RWS (subsonic ammo) will give you 1/2" groups too but they are expensive.  Avoid CCI quiet.  You will get shotgun patterns. I can shoot better with an air pistol than I can with any of my .22LR's using CCI Quiet.  That ammo is junk. 

What you described is what is happening at the 2 Walmart stores near me.  They have not put any .22LR ammo on the shelves since June-July.  Their friends come in and they bring it out just for them, or take it out from the cabinet under the register/counter and ring them up when they think noone is looking.  It's a shame the store managers don't know they are doing this or don't care.

Let's hope this will be over in a few months.  It's already getting better gradually because the manufacturers have increased production, and many hoarders have enough ammo to last them several life times, but you still have to be lucky to find some.  I have enough for at least 10yrs in every caliber I own, so I stopped buying several months ago.  I still get some 9 and .357 on line here and there, because prices have dropped almost back to normal for those and I just can't resist

Harry

[bubba zanetti]

I am really glad to see some others who are like minded in this ammo "shortage". I have had to tell many a people that if you quit panicking and buying .22 at outrageous prices then the price will come down and we can all enjoy our .22's again.

A few weeks ago, and the first time in a LOOONNNNGGG time I bought 250 rounds of CCI Stingers. The price was decent so I bought them.

BZ