22 Shortage

I have heard recent stories about people who can't find :22 caliber ammo at their local retailers to the extent that some guys, if they're lucky enough to find them, are selling them on the black market. I called sporting goods store owner and hunter friend Chris Claunch: "About three years ago the military retooled their practice weapons from a :223 ammo down to 22 caliber in an effort to save some costs and it put a strain on the manufacturers of :22's as far as I can tell from my research. Guys went into Walmart and tried to buy :22 shells about two years ago and Walmart was out. It started a literal frenzy of buying. I saw the price of :22 shells in a brick online which started at the beginning of the frenzy at $14 for 500 and I saw that price go all the way up to over $100. That created a marketplace on the black market that was absolutely insane. To proliferate the issue, the big box stores started putting limits on how much people could buy and people actually began to hoard them and put them in the basement or the backyard or the shop. There was a shortage of ammo and that was real. The real hoarding began when the panic hit the market and I believe that was also in conjunction with the administration change in the fear of gun and ammo laws." If you looking for 22's, you are in luck. Claunch has plenty at his store,

Hagerman Valley Sports and Mercantile, down in Hagerman, Idaho.