.22 Ammunition Sure Has Come Down!

Remember after the 2008 election how .22 ammo in particular just went through the roof on price and became almost unobtanium? At the worst of it, ammo was 10 cents per round, if you could find it.

Well, the pendulum has swung...

About a year ago I added 10,000 rounds to my stash when the price hit $200/5,000 rounds (4 cents per round).

Well, I just added another 10,000 rounds today. Bud's has plinking ammo (Remington Thunderbolt) for 2.4 cents per round!

I cannot imagine prices going much if any lower (this has to be about cost after you factor in packaging and transportation to the vendor).

My grandkids are going to love me....Gramps will be a giant 22 ammo vending machine!

I love the Winchester Wildcat ammo. My 10/22 thinks it's great!

It's pricey though at 3.1 cents per shot! Do you know how the Remington ammo compares? That price is tough to beat....

I remember in 2009 I found some Aquila for like $330 for 5000 and had to wait over six months to get it and I was thrilled! Loads are really light though and about every 8th shot doesn't cycle. I need to get a bolt action .22 just to shoot it up with.

How was shipping Tim?

Not too long ago, the local Wally World would get ammo on a Thursday and the flippers were there to buy all of it for resale on gunbroker. That operation is over and now they have all sorts of rimfire brands and types on hand.

FYI, CCI has a rebate program ending 3/31/19, buy five, get one free.

Well I will just have to put up with my 300 rnds of .22lr a year....and that's only cos I have couple of rifles.

Bullthrower338 said:

How was shipping Tim?

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It was $25 per case to my office.

The office mail girl is going to hate met!

Royal27 said:

Do you know how the Remington ammo compares? That price is tough to beat....

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I've shot many thousands of the Wildcat and Thunderbolt in numerous rifles and handguns over the years but have never done a head-to-head comparo of the two.

To me they are both plinking ammo and either one will make a can dance, or allow you to draw a smiley face on the prickly pear!

tarbe said:

It was $25 per case to my office.

The office mail girl is going to hate met!

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Nancy quit picking up small packages for me after the first time she picked up a 5000 brick of lr.

tarbe said:

I've shot many thousands of the Wildcat and Thunderbolt in numerous rifles and handguns over the years but have never done a head-to-head comparo of the two.

To me they are both plinking ammo and either one will make a can dance, or allow you to draw a smiley face on the prickly pear!

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Gonna go with the cheap stuff then !

That shortage of 22 ammo still pisses me off every time it comes up!

But, I spent the last few years buying a box every time I went to the store. So next time it happens they can FRO. I have my lifetime supply and enough for the kid and his kids....

Yep..... I started grabbing bricks, as I found them available.... so I don’t get caught up in the demand feast nonsense.

wildcats can be insanely accurate in some guns. I have made dozens of 75 yd head shots on turtles. (across the pasture road, past a fence, 50+ yds of pasture and to the middle and far side of a 2 acre pond)

Royal27 said:

... Do you know how the Remington ammo compares? That price is tough to beat....

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Funny you would ask Royal. I finally convinced a friend who is coming to Africa with me in July that he needs to shoot 5,ooo .22 LR (and a few boxes of his 7 mm Rem Mag to finish) from the sticks before we go, and he just bought a CZ 455 and 5,000 rounds of Thunderbolt. He was asking me what to expect in term of accuracy? I told him I do not know but I have been shooting tens of thousands of Thunderbolt for 20 years at a 6" steel plate at 100 yd so it is accurate enough for that, and I will check accuracy...

So, yesterday I took my Winchester 52 B Sporter (modern Miroku production), my Walther KKJ Sporter, and my Anschutz 1418 Stutzen (all three with Zeiss scopes in Talley rings) to the range for 4 hours and shot groups off the bench at 50, 100 and 150 yd. For context, I used to shoot Three Position Olympic 3 x 40 for years, so I kind of know how to shoot a .22 LR. The results with the Thunderbolt are dismal by Anschutz 1914 / Eley Tenex (what I used to shoot) standards. In all 3 rifles, Thunderbolt barely hold 2" at 50 yd and 4" at 100 yd. This is 4 MOA ammo !?!?!?!? At 150 yd, you can legitimately claim that you occasionally miss the 6" plate because of ammo dispersion. Dispersion is mostly vertical, but also horizontal, and my diagnosis based on years of shooting both the old and newer production is that inconsistency in powder charges is the main culprit. Heck, you can clearly hear that not all shells are loaded the same!

So, I would say Thunderbolt are probably not what you want to get a kid to shoot paper with, as they are not capable, even at 50 yd, of nice dime-size 5 shot confidence-building groups. CCI Standard are probably best for that. For ringing 6" steel at 100 yd virtually for free, Thunderbolt are unbeatable. At 150 yd, they will give you the perfect excuse for missing the plate from time to time LOL

By the way, I also verified the drop. It varies a bit between rifles but sighted 2.5" high at 50 yd, all three are zeroed at 100 yd (give or take 1/4" or so), and drop at 150 yd is around 10" (hard to say because the cloud is so large (12") and so random - one cannot legitimately talk about group anymore - that it is hard to find a center point).

I am buying 10,000 more...

Ok I'm sold!

And it sure doesn't sound much worse, is any, than the wild cat . And much cheaper

Considering that the wholesale price of lead has recently had a spike I suspect the present price of 22LR may be about as low as it's going to go. I used Thunderbolt for the live fire portions of my hunter education classes. there was about 1 misfire per 50. After the classes I'd attempt refiring them with the firing pin in different spots. still no fire, so I suppose their primer painter missed them.

If and when things get tight again, and they will, there's always this option.

http://22lrreloader.com/design-details/

Hogpatrol said:

If and when things get tight again, and they will, there's always this option.

http://22lrreloader.com/design-details/

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Thanks for that link...I have never seen this tool before!

The Prime-All compound sure seems easier to deal with than my stash of strike-anywhere matches!

Well my 5k is here. Ordered on Sunday and delivered by Wednesday at 5 PM.

That's pretty good.

Royal27 said:

Well my 5k is here. Ordered on Sunday and delivered by Wednesday at 5 PM.

That's pretty good.

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Guess I better go sneak into the mail room tomorrow...early....before anyone shows up.

Thunderbolt ammo cloud (can't really talk about "group")...


Winchester 52 with 20 rounds of Thunderbolt .22 lr at 100 yd. The ammo barely groups 4 MOA but this is enough to practice ringing a 6" steel plate off the sticks out to 150 yd.


Walther KKJ with 20 rounds of Thunderbolt .22 lr at 100 yd. The ammo barely groups 4 MOA but this is enough to practice ringing a 6" steel plate off the sticks out to 150 yd.

FYI, to move the zero from 100 yd to 150 yd, the .22 lr has such a rainbow trajectory at this distance that the Thunderbolt requires + 32 clicks 1/4 MOA to go from 100 yd zero to 150 yd (+ 8 MOA).

Dismal accuracy, but standard performance for cheap .22 lr purchased by the 500 rounds pack. At $25 for 500, it comes out to $0.05 per shot, and it works about perfect to 150 yd where it mostly stays within a 6" plate...

Try it! You will be amazed at the wonders 2,000 rounds of .22 lr off the sticks at 150 yd on a 6" plate will do to your shooting


6" plate at 150 yd. Not as easy a target as one might think. Ringing it 10 times in a row off the sticks might challenge you more than you thought...

Yep, Thunderbolt hasn’t shot much better in any of my 22s whether Ruger, Marlin, CZ, Remington, target models nor hunting/plinking models...none!