I was in Cabela’s, Rogers MN and to my surprise they had .22 LR ammo. They also had handgun and rifle powder. There was a supply of one shot shell powder, but not the more common one’s I wanted. Not being a hoarder I bought a 100 pack of Remington .22 ammo. First I have purchased in a few years. I did not like the $9 price tag for 100 rounds, but at least I have some.
I saw Midway had a “sale” on subsonic .22 lr yesterday. $.15 a round didn’t feel like a sale but I don’t purchase subsonic either so maybe that is a fair price.
I still can’t find Varget powder readily.
$9 sounds like a steal compared to L&M in Park Rapids. $7.50 for a box of 50. They have a four box limit.
Good find, but IMO it’s not yet the time when we can declare the shortages over.
There has been improvement over the last 6 months, but it’s still WILDLY inconsistent. I’d be willing to bet if you went back today, there wouldn’t be any left at that Cabelas.
Don and Kooty are both right on with my experience. Powder is still largely unavailable. There’s a little here and a little there, but seldom what you want, when you want it.
A friend tipped me off to Varget in stock last November at a place in Ohio, so I managed to mail order 10 pounds from them. This was cutting it very fine, I had only half a pound left. That was literally the last time I saw anyplace that had Varget in stock.
Currently, I use somewhere between 8 and 10 pounds of various rifle and handgun powders per year on average. About 80% of this is Varget, Benchmark, and 8208. But even the oddballs and old school stuff can be devilishly difficult to find when you want them. 3031? I looked for ages, finding nothing, then found Cabelas had half a shelf of it.
IMO, what HAS gotten easier to find is bullets. Except for the super-popular varmint and bulk bullets that still drop off the radar, I think my success rate in finding what I want, when I want it, is probably 70%. If you took the past 10 years as an average, that’s really good.
Grouse
Very encouraging trip to Cabelas yesterday. I saw more powder in stock than I have seen in almost 3 years. The even had… VARGET! This only is the second time I’ve seen Varget on a shelf in the last 3 years.
Since I found an 8 pounder of Varget and still had 5 pounders in stock, I figured I’d leave it for the guy who really needed it. But I did hold a pound of it for a while. Just because I could.
They also had .22 rimfires in stock. Remington 50 packs. For $5.99 per 50!
Normally, I would engage in a little RantFest here about the price, but I don’t really think this is gouging. We needed something to break the run of the hoarders and nothing breaks off the hoarders like having to pay real money for something they’re just going to throw in the closet with the other 50,000 rounds.
I hope rifires come back soon. It’s been way too long and I just can’t believe that there is much more hoarding that the hoarders can do.
Grouse
I had to stop at farm and fleet last night and I figured since i was there i would go and look, I did a double take because they actually had boxes of 525 counts. I was like you are kidding me. granted they wanted 39.99 for them but at this point I bought one because I was down to under 300 shells and we have pretty much quite shooting.
I can’t remember the last time i was able to find a bulk pack sitting on a shelf. They had about 14 there when i left
Just stopped in the new Roch Scheels last night. Big beautiful store. They had a total of 4 50 paks of Remington yellow jackets at $7.99 a box for .22 ammo
I still can’t find Varget powder readily.
If you can get down this way Runnings in austin has a good supply of varget and numerous other powders as well. 22 is a different story haven’t had any on the shelf in probably 4-5 months. I had probably 10 people come up to the gun counter on Saturday asking me for 22 shells.
sounds like the hoarders are content for now, see above posts. should leave enough on the shelf for the guy who really “needs” it. 
sounds like the hoarders are content for now, see above posts. should leave enough on the shelf for the guy who really “needs” it.
We’ll have to see what the latest nut-case shooting incident does to things now. The problem spot we seem to be in is that we’re always on the brink of another panic buying spree.
Grouse
Picked up 3250 rds of Federal .22’s @ Gander (Woodbury) last week. 325 rd brick for $25, including tax. Bro-in-law in KC is really scrambling for .22 ammo for him and his kids so I laid in a good supply for us. I usually burn thru about 1000 rds a yr so that leaves plenty for him and the offspring. . .jerr
They don’t have the buy limit in MN huh? I would have liked to pick up a couple too I suppose I could have sent a wife or family member
I’m seeing them on the shelves in good quantity at nearly every dealer I visit in IL and WI.
All AMMO available but prices still not what they were before the last hoard.
Hopefully the latest shootings dont change things.
I feel like I have witnessed a miracle. I was in Fleet Farm yesterday and for the first time will over 2 years, I actually SAW .22 LR on the shelves. No, really! I saw them. They were there! $8 for 100, but they were there!
I think I had a brief out-of-body experience. I may have passed out briefly. They were still there when I woke up, but several people had crowded around to witness to the miracle.
I didn’t buy any though. I thought about it, but I still have some LR and I don’t want to be an ammo pig and take ammo away from guys that have none. I’m sure countless young people have been disappointed by this shortage in terms of not being able to shoot, or having to leave their prized possession in the cabinet unshot because there was no ammo to shoot.
I was also in Gander Mtn in Woodbury and they claim to be getting in multiple cases of .22 LR on a regular basis. The guy in the ammo area said they had enough last week that there were 2 brands available for at least 3 days running before they sold out on Saturday.
This shortage of .22 LR is one of the dumbest happenings of the 21st century.
Grouse
Wow, I hope the next thing I hear is the shelves are loaded with common shot shell powders like Red Dot and 700X.
Grouse – you need to get out more often. Been seeing 22’s all over the place for the last couple months.
Powder – still getting hung up (like a lot of other products) in the shipping mess. The ripple affect from the strike with the port workers is still lingering on. I’m still hearing a lot of manufactures with product stuck at port waiting…
Grouse – you need to get out more often. Been seeing 22’s all over the place for the last couple months.
For my sins, Randy, I live in a metro area with lots of people intent on cleaning out the shelves before someone else cleans out the shelves.
Also, there are just so many FEWER places to buy ammo these days than there used to be. Anyone else remember when Target carried ammo? And K-Mart? Every hardware store used to have it. Now many of the franchise places have gotten out of the ammo and guns because of liability concerns.
There used to be a Sportsman’s Warehouse near me (now bankrupt) and that was a good source of ammo. Now, I’m down to just 3 places within reasonable driving distance: Fleet Farm, Cabelas, and Gander. Of course, these 3 places are where everyone else is heading too…
Wow, I hope the next thing I hear is the shelves are loaded with common shot shell powders like Red Dot and 700X.
Yes, powder availability continues to be a big hassle. I thought all this would be cleared up by LAST summer. I see pallet loads of target shotshells in the sporting goods places, so I’m wondering if a lot of guys won’t just give up and start buying factory.
The irony is that all this comes at a time when there is a huge resurgence in the shooting sports.
Anyone else see the articles on the Minnesota State High School Trap/Skeet championships? They had something like 8600 kids participating this year. Wow.
Grouse
Dang, Varget is in demand again…. Brother n law is driving in from CO today and needs Varget. I checked all the large dealers along I80 and here in WI. Found about 17#’s in 1# jarrs scattered along the way. No 8# jugs to be found 
Don, I have 700x and Varget on the shelves along with plenty of .22lr. Powder has gotten much better in the past 4 weeks, rimfire is better but we still cant order what we want. Basically, we take whatever is available to us.
Don, I have 700x and Varget on the shelves along with plenty of .22lr. Powder has gotten much better in the past 4 weeks, rimfire is better but we still cant order what we want. Basically, we take whatever is available to us.
#8 of Varget in stock?
Glad to hear rimfire availability is improving.
Grouse
Was at gander a couple days ago and they did have almost every .22lr brand you would typically see. Even a good stock of the 300 round cases. Still some crazy prices on it but it is nice to see it back on shelves.
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