How much .22lr ammo do you have?

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Tailhunter said:
Unless you're just wasting it, blasting it or "plinking" as some of you call it, how much do you really need?

Now if you're talking killing stuff, 3 or 4 boxes a year should be plenty.
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Tailhunter, I will get on a 22 kick and that is all I will shoot for a few range trips. Both in handguns and long guns. I am about at that point now after reloading from the last 3 range trips shooting anything but the 22s. When I take a new shooter out, we always start with the 22 and might work our way to the 9 MM. I guess I will shoot 2,000 22-rounds a year.

I will do everything I can not to put myself in a position not wanting to go shooting because I do not have any 22s or having to pay 8 cents around again.
 
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Weav said:
Anyone concerned about shelf life? Rimfire doesn’t keep nearly as long as Centerfire ammo. Under fairly constant environmental conditions it’s still good for decades but... throw temperature or moisture fluctuations in and it’s “no bueno”. My buddy kept his in an ammo can in his garage where it was allowed to get hot and cold for years. It started to go bad. Some Low velocity results and a squib load lodged in his barrel was the result. I try to use my oldest stuff first when practical. That means I have to tell myself to not be a lazy slug and pull out the old boxes
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I have a opened brick that I bought as a kid. The company is no longer in business. It was great ammo. Killed a lot of stuff with it. It is every bit of fifty years old. Shoots as good today as it did back then. :D
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
At my age...a lifetime supply.
My neighbor says the same thing. He's looking to pass on by Thursday.
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Reminds me of Acme Parachutes, with the lifetime guarantee.

If it ever fails to open, just bring it back for a full refund. ;)
 
Still have Sandy Hook ammo stored somewhere, I bought a ton of it after things calmed down. I did, however, learn that I will not buy just because it is cheaper, bulk packaged 22 ammo. It is garbage, spend the money when there isn't a crazy scramble and buy quality.
 
Firemedic54 said:
Still have Sandy Hook ammo stored somewhere, I bought a ton of it after things calmed down. I did, however, learn that I will not buy just because it is cheaper, bulk packaged 22 ammo. It is garbage, spend the money when there isn't a crazy scramble and buy quality.
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There was a point in time I woulda fought you on this...but there is a lot of truth here. When first getting into shooting I think the bulk, cheap stuff is worth it. But there comes a point where a bit of extra money needs to be put in. And I also realized that often the price difference between the "good stuff" and the "cheap stuff" was less than a tank of gas or going out for lunch.

Kinda reminds me of when this whole "pandemicpanic" crap started. The wife and I had set aside the staples...beans, rice, bottled water. Stuff that will last, and will be great in an emergency. But I certainly dont want to have beans and rice nightly for dinner, and I enjoy my sodas and other drinks.

So, buy the cheap stuff to have enough on hand to practice with or be held in reserve if all else fails...but spend that extra penny per round to get some good pewpew seeds.
 
I bought 1/4 pallet of CCI Blazer .22 the morning of Sandy Hook. I have shot all of that (given part away to friends who were caught with their pants down). I am down to 20,000 rounds or so of other brands. I have slacked up shooting .22’s since my daughter started shooting with 4H. I try to keep enough for her and for them if they need. I could use a few thousand Eley Action Premium .22’s if anyone runs across any..haha
 
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This whole thing about cheap vs. expensive ammo reminds me of something someone once told me about water Skiing. He said "you know who falls the most water skiing? The best water skiers."

Let that sink in for a moment.

If you only buy the best of everything so it never fails then you will have no idea what to do when it fails. And it will fail. Murphys law.

In that respect having a failure once in a while teaches you what to do when it fails.

I agree whole heartedly to use the best available for everyday carry. Use the cheap stuff for practice cause practice is what teaches us what to do.
 
Schattenreiter said:
This whole thing about cheap vs. expensive ammo reminds me of something someone once told me about water Skiing. He said "you know who falls the most water skiing? The best water skiers."

Let that sink in for a moment.

If you only buy the best of everything so it never fails then you will have no idea what to do when it fails. And it will fail. Murphys law.

In that respect having a failure once in a while teaches you what to do when it fails.

I agree whole heartedly to use the best available for everyday carry. Use the cheap stuff for practice cause practice is what teaches us what to do.
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I dont think anyone will completely disagree with you on any point you made.

I also think, that to a point, we live in an era that word gets around so fast that a bad product doesnt last long. So even in the world of "cheap ammo" the quality is still pretty good. I use a lot of Tulammo, Red Army, Wolf, Monarch and all that stuff. Because for my needs, it always goes bang and puts a bullet pretty much where I want it. I also like knowing, for what its worth, that if all went to pot and the world was ending and I was in a ditch and the last magazine left in existence to hold off the zombie hordes was filled with cheap russian steel cased ammo that my trusty shooter could handle it. So while it will be frowned on by the "poors" calling elites, I like my cheap steel and russian love.
 
My thoughts on bulk 22 ammo, is that there is a lot of decent quality bulk out there. Federal auto match, CCI blazer, the Federal 550 packs. Not too expensive.

When my father passed I got a few 50 cal ammo cans full of bulk 22. about half of it was remington thunderbolts, and they have been consistently bad in almost every autoloading 22 I've used them in. Dirty, unburned powder, even had one squib round get stuck in a rifle barrel a few years ago. I've sworn the stuff off, unless I get a cheap 22 revolver to plink with.

For centerfire ammo, I've had good luck with almost every brand I've tried. Cheap steel, all the way to the expensive factory match ammo. Tula has been very reliable in every AR I've shot it in, and the accuracy is certainly good enough for casual target practice.

The only centerfire ammo I've had issues with was some oddball Italian 9mm I picked up at a gun show (it felt very underpowered) and a box of Winchesters USA steel 9mm that ran fine, but it was the dirtiest ammo I've ever shot.
 
RedneckFur said:
My thoughts on bulk 22 ammo, is that there is a lot of decent quality bulk out there. Federal auto match, CCI blazer, the Federal 550 packs. Not too expensive.

When my father passed I got a few 50 cal ammo cans full of bulk 22. about half of it was remington thunderbolts, and they have been consistently bad in almost every autoloading 22 I've used them in. Dirty, unburned powder, even had one squib round get stuck in a rifle barrel a few years ago. I've sworn the stuff off, unless I get a cheap 22 revolver to plink with.

For centerfire ammo, I've had good luck with almost every brand I've tried. Cheap steel, all the way to the expensive factory match ammo. Tula has been very reliable in every AR I've shot it in, and the accuracy is certainly good enough for casual target practice.

The only centerfire ammo I've had issues with was some oddball Italian 9mm I picked up at a gun show (it felt very underpowered) and a box of Winchesters USA steel 9mm that ran fine, but it was the dirtiest ammo I've ever shot.
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Come to think of it, that Winchester Steel is the only ammo I know of that I will actively avoid. It worked, and it shot ok, but it was filthy. Not just in a "got my gun dirty" kinda way, because I could care less about that...but in a "my hands were black after handling it" kinda way. And while I am far from a sissy when it comes to getting my hands dirty or anything, it just seemed unnecessarily dirty. when alternatives that are just as cheap or cheaper dont have the same problem. (and it was also filthy when fired.)
 
The "worst" ammo I have is part of a bucket of Remington Golden. It's not too bad from a reliability standpoint; I mainly use it to get rounds through a firearm, maybe some steel shooting. The rest of it is typically more reliable stuff. I'd like to have more of the "good" stuff than I do have. By "good" I mean that good target ammo that's in the centerfire price/round range, like higher-end Lapua/Eley/SK. Rigorous testing (as opposed to minute-of-steel or minute-of-squirrel shooting, or just plinking) gets pricey with that stuff. I have two CZs and one upgraded 10/22 that I'd like to wring out with it, though I'm never going to go the bench-rest buy-target-ammo-in-case-lots route.

I sort of mentally divide 22LR into three categories: bulk (Blazer, Win M-22, Federal at 2-5 cents/round), light duty target/decent shooting (CCI, Federal Automatch, Aguila SV, maybe Wolf Match Target at the high end at 6-10 cents/round), quality target (the aforementioned Lapua/Eley/SK at OMG cents/round). The first two categories, I'll grab when there's a good deal. That last category? Heck, I only have a 50 round box or two of stuff like that. It takes 22LR right out of the "cheaper shooting" category for me :oops:
 
FWIW, those of you who still shop at Walmartian Boxesium du BodyOdour aka Walmart....they're selling boxes of CCI 38gr LRN 'blazer' for just over 4 cents a pop. Had the wife pick one up when she insisted on going to that hated store.
Will be trying those out. They also sold 200rd boxes for just over $8 with tax.
 
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I bought a bunch of cheap stuff years ago and still have most of it. I'd probably have already given it away, but I am staying ahead of the hoarding curve coming up on the next election. As for "good" ammo, I am again eligible to buy another 5000 round case of Eley CMP standard from the CMP as of Tuesday. I will probably go ahead and order it today, because now that they are back open, I am sure they are backed up with rifle orders and it will take a while to come in.

I shoot the Eley CMP stuff a lot, and my CZ455 absolutely loves it. I've bought my full 2 case allotment both years since it came out. Every batch I have shot over my Magnetospeed so far has had a single digit SD. It will give you pretty repeatable hits on a 3" plate at 200 yards. And I regularly shoot it out to 500 yards with consistent hits on a 20x30 steel IPSC plate, even with a bit of wind. It is not Tenex or that level by any stretch, but it is really good quality bulk ammo for $35 a brick.

4C22ELYSTD-5000.jpg
 
East of Here said:
I bought a bunch of cheap stuff years ago and still have most of it. I'd probably have already given it away, but I am staying ahead of the hoarding curve coming up on the next election. As for "good" ammo, I am again eligible to buy another 5000 round case of Eley CMP standard from the CMP as of Tuesday. I will probably go ahead and order it today, because now that they are back open, I am sure they are backed up with rifle orders and it will take a while to come in.

I shoot the Eley CMP stuff a lot, and my CZ455 absolutely loves it. I've bought my full 2 case allotment both years since it came out. Every batch I have shot over my Magnetospeed so far has had a single digit SD. It will give you pretty repeatable hits on a 3" plate at 200 yards. And I regularly shoot it out to 500 yards with consistent hits on a 20x30 steel IPSC plate, even with a bit of wind. It is not Tenex or that level by any stretch, but it is really good quality bulk ammo for $35 a brick.

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I can, with relative certainty, say that in the history of man, no one has ever said "Things were going great, but we just had too much ammo..."
 
B00ger said:
I can, with relative certainty, say that in the history of man, no one has ever said "Things were going great, but we just had too much ammo..."
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That is most certainly true. The funny thing is, as an adult I really never shot much 22 anymore, and never gave any thought to "quality" in relation to 22 ammo. I just figured that for the most part, 22 ammo was all basically the same and it didn't really matter what you bought. That ignorance and attitude changed when I bought the CZ455. The rifle itself is so accurate, it made shooting a 22 fun again. And it also educated me in how important ammo selection is in exploiting and maintaining that accuracy. Now, I buy in bulk not because I fear a panic or because it is cheaper that way. I buy in bulk because the rifle likes that specific lot/type ammo and I am trying to buy up as much of that lot/type as I can to preserve the consistency and accuracy for as long as I can.
 
Yeah...I stack Fed 38gr CPHPs deep and buy em when they're cheap. Goes bang 95% of the time, relatively inexpensive, and relatively clean. Then there's Winchester and Remington. I have those to trade or sell for future lean times.
 
RedneckFur said:
My thoughts on bulk 22 ammo, is that there is a lot of decent quality bulk out there. Federal auto match, CCI blazer, the Federal 550 packs. Not too expensive.

When my father passed I got a few 50 cal ammo cans full of bulk 22. about half of it was remington thunderbolts, and they have been consistently bad in almost every autoloading 22 I've used them in. Dirty, unburned powder, even had one squib round get stuck in a rifle barrel a few years ago. I've sworn the stuff off, unless I get a cheap 22 revolver to plink with.

For centerfire ammo, I've had good luck with almost every brand I've tried. Cheap steel, all the way to the expensive factory match ammo. Tula has been very reliable in every AR I've shot it in, and the accuracy is certainly good enough for casual target practice.

The only centerfire ammo I've had issues with was some oddball Italian 9mm I picked up at a gun show (it felt very underpowered) and a box of Winchesters USA steel 9mm that ran fine, but it was the dirtiest ammo I've ever shot.
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Yeah, I've never had a problem with Remington center-fire ammo but the thunder-turns and golden garbage aren't worth the box they come in.

I've had. 22lr firearms that would eat ANYTHING. Even tried with some super grody and old Western Super-X just to see what happened. No problemo. But that Remy crap was just horrible. I will take it if it's given but then with a grimace lol. Wouldn't even buy the stuff after all rimfire dried up lol.

As far as how much .22lr I have..... Bought the wife a .22lr pistol for the anniversary. We finished off a box of bulk and I pulled out a hundo of CCI. She was didn't want to shoot up all my ammo:D:p. But at my assurance she did.

Got home and I showed her one big "idk what it held bit way bigger than a fiddy) ammo can. She couldn't lift it lol.

I have very few .22lr firearms. But after they disappeared I stocked up anytime I could. Never bought out all the stock but if the retailer had some I'd buy some.

I have many friends with kiddos trying to learn to shoot and I'm also bad to give a bulk pack away at the range if there is a youngster there enjoying their rimfire session:oops::rolleyes:

So I vowed to never be without even though I never shoot the round. The wife tried to lift one of three;)
 
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22 comes in 5000 round cases, except for Fed Automatch in 3250s. Usually multiple cases at a time except for good target ammo.

That’s how you keep up with burning a brick or two every time you shoot.
 
JT said:
I'm just curious what the mean inventory is. I just completed counting and, aside from a few partial box 'strays', I currently am storing 11,350 rounds which, on sober reflection, seems like it's less than it should be. How about you?
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alot
 
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Digging thru a box today I found 1000 mini mags I had packed from moving 3 years ago.
 
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