photogpat wrote:maddhunter wrote:
You may be closer than you realize to the truth. I have two friends that work at Federal. One works on the .22 line. He says that 90% of everything leaving the facility is marked either military or leo. Somewhere in the middle is the truth!
Your friends are either liars or not paying attention.
^this
There are at least three Federal employees posting in this thread, who work in both buildings, who are explaining the situation. There is no grand conspiracy.
People are buying record setting amounts of 22lr, and have been for the last 3-4 years. People have awful short memories of how we got where we are today. After the 2008 election of BHO, there was a run on CF ammo of common caliber (5.56/223/308/9mm/40SW/45acp etc). But 22 lr sat there on the shelves, prolific. And a common theme began to ring across the intertubez. "Buy full size guns or 22cal conversions, there's always 22 on the shelves". Try a search on any gun forum with the keywords "22 Conversion" and start looking at posts from 2008-2011.
And people did.
Suddenly, you were seeing 1911 conversions and 1911 platform 22's hitting the market in mass. And every manufacturer started to offer a 22 version of their fullsize pistols, dedicated AR15/22 uppers, and 22 upper conversions. And a the market boomed with new 22 offerings. And more people needed to feed their guns. And new shooters flocked to 22's because they were cheap and prolific "and there's always going to be 22 on the shelves".
From a manufacturing standpoint, making huge increases in production is a difficult undertaking. 22 lines are expensive. Not just the loading lines, all the associated equipment to make components. Much of the equipment used is old, and not available for purchase, there is no plug and play equipment, each machine needs a huge amount of retro-fitting. Each new piece of equipment requires engineering to build tooling, which often cannot be done until the machinery is installed and in running condition. The equipment all needs space to operate. these things are all a huge cost. And then you have the prospect that all that money is spent, and availability increases, and you hear cries like:
Still I think high, but I am more than happy to let all those hoarders stock up on Remington rimfire.
Actually found some at the Fleet Farm in Lakeville about three weeks ago (maybe four). Price wasn't the greatest ($3.69/50), but they had some.
This leads to questions about the long term viability of running all that expensive new equipment. If people aren't willing to pay what it cost to setup all that new equipment, why would a manufacturer make the
investments risk?
Make no mistake, if it was easy to make money on 22lr, you would see companies like Nosler and Hornady and others who make some ammo already, jumping into the game.
"a man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box." Frederick Douglass
When I get time, I'll search for some of those stories.
