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At the Truth About Guns, Dean Weingarten highlights yet another result of replacing Barack Obama with a more gun-friendly president: it seems prices are falling and availability is rising for .22 ammunition.

Weingarten cites the following from the Lewison Tribune (Lewison, Idaho is the home of Vista Outdoors’ new .22 rimrifle plant):

Vista recently debuted a new, 37,000-square-foot, $35 million rimfire ammunition plant near the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport, which has resulted in what company officials describe as a “very satisfying” reduction in the time needed to complete an order.

“It pays dividends when you come out of the trough,” Metz said. “We’re able to make some changes in our facilities that will enable us to participate really strongly as the market returns.”

Vista Outdoor has reduced ammunition prices to maintain market share as its customers work through stockpiles they amassed under the administration of Barack Obama – when they feared new regulation that never came to pass.

”We’re the market leader in rimfire,” Nolan said. “Brand preference in ammunition tends to be somewhat sticky. It took us a long time to gain our market share. … We are loathe to cede that during a period of challenging pricing because it’s going to be very difficult to get that back.”

As Weingarten notes, ammo manufacturers would rather not have to sell their wares so cheaply, of course, but that’s the thing liberals never seem to appreciate about the free market: it doesn’t guarantee negative or positive outcomes for businesses. They have to satisfy the desires and needs of their customers if they want to reap the greatest possible rewards.

Weingarten says a few more words about capitalism and the ammo business:

Market competition works. Aguila of Mexico saw opportunity and increased their production before Vista Outdoors did. Aguila almost doubled their production to capture some of the increasing American market.

That is reflected in the availability and price structure seen today. Aguila’s brands are at the lowest price point in the market. Vista has to reduce prices to keep market share. Federal low price brands are in direct competition with Aguila.

The lowest prices are now at 3.7 – 4 cents per round.

Prices are going to continue to fall. If you look at the prices on the old Remington box, it was purchased on sale at less than 2 cents per round. I will not be surprised if we see prices at or below 2 cents per round, at sporadic sales, before the end of President Trump’s term.

I hope so!

Sometime between 2003/4 I bought .22LR @ $9.98 for 550 bulk Federal 1.81 cents a round and I bought several cases. This has gotten me me through the crazy times but i still had to cut down on my usage too. Still have over a dozen boxes but when it hits .03 cents a round I will jump on several cases again.

Did anyone else notice what was "missing" from the above story? The ammo companies have said that higher raw material costs was the reason ammo prices were high and continuing to rise. This is what they told distributors and the shooting public. I actually checked brass, copper and lead prices and saw a slight rise over a decade but nothing that would have added several cents or more per round. Funny how they can now mfg and sell at lower prices now and expect it to drop by 50% or more in the next few years. Material costs may have rose a little BUT profit Mfg gouging was what really drove up prices knowing full well desperate folks would pay. That led to a supply/demand shortage with distributors and retailers profiteering and re-sellers gouging. With profit margins so high, some Mfgs ran 24/7 for maximum capacity and others expanded their facilities or buit additional ones. Kits for reloading .22 LR also hit te market.

I think a lot of people cut back on their ammo consumtion and bought more for home stock piles, and have not resumed prior usage levels. Ammo supply has returned but usage has not. This has Mfgs and dealers offering discounts and rebates as production now exceeds demand. The little .22 LR is projected to be under .02 cents a round and raw material prices are not dropping, mfgs and dealers will still make a profit: you just don't have to bend over when you buy it.

It doesn't matter how cheap it is, if it doesn't group well. If it's like Remington thunderbolts I wouldn't give .10 cents for a brick of it. I stocked up when Obama was elected and still have enough to last a while, but not forever.

well they did not say it was going to be .02 a rd for bad ammo...I am thinking most manufacturers don't do that on purpose if it happens at all. Many 22's don't shoot different ammo accurately and it is not necessarily the ammo.

I have enough to last forever, there will be plenty left over when I'm gone.

I must have 15000+ rds and never shoot it or the 22 guns I have, seems like such a waste...lol I keep hoping for a 22 can so I can burn the ammo in the back yard

The Obama period of crazziness post Sandyhook turned me into a re-loader. Had to hoard .22 though. Now just need to clean off the reloading bench and get hot (again) while we have fall/winter weather.

Damn .22 ammo is crowding out space for other more preferred ammo like 223. It's in stock at every store around. Even cheaper on-line.

Picked up some .22 and .223 over the weekend at Bass Pro, .22 was .06 cents a round and .223 was .42 cents a round. Not as low as Walmart prices but I grabbed a bit since I was there. Just got this from Truth About Guns, down to 3.6 cents a round in a Texas Walmart! If I can find the .22 for 3 cents a round or less I'll be stocking up for my boys, plan is to give them each a 50 cal ammo can of .22 for their 21st birthday, only have 10 months left before Anthony turns 21!

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There is nothing cheap about Bass Pro, but good times are here...guns are cheap, ammo is cheap and getting cheaper. This ammo crunch was the first one I experienced as an avid shooter...I always hunted, but only about 10 years ago did i really jump into shooting...burning up hundreds of various rounds a month. In the home I live in now (and the one before) i put together a "backyard" shooting range which will keep me consuming ammunition and components for many, many years....it is not Hickok45 worthy, but pretty good as I have been adding steel every year for the past 5 years or so.

The thing here is that now...and in the next couple of years, is the time to stock up. There will be another crunch but nobody knows when. I will be well stocked going into it and not find myself where I was in 2010. I also hand load now and so far, the most expensive component, bullets have not dropped in price significantly. Hopefully they will. I was not hand loading prior to the crunch so I don't know what is a "good price" for powder, primers and bullets. Probably something I will know when I see it.

I've been shooting some Aguilla .22 ammo and it is not bad...their standard velocity is around 1080 fps so it works wonderfully through a suppressor. Now, we need the hearing protection act passed so suppressors can enter the open market of supply and demand...you want to see some falling prices, wait for that one to happen! Those $1000 cans probably have $50 of material and labor in them! In fact, if anyone has seen you tube video's of oil filter suppressors, its not hard to imagine average people building/making their own! Frosting on the cake would be the SBR BS to go away too...i still can't figure out why that was ever made into law.