Here's a great article from the Sierra X ring newsletter.
http://sierrabullets.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/why-cant-i-find-22-lr-ammunition/
Here's an excerpt
Demand â Now we are getting to the real meat of the issue. You hear manufactures say they are running 24/7 on their Rimfire lines which is putting somewhere around 25-30 million rounds PER DAY (estimate on my part from numbers I have heard from the big rimfire guys) into the market â so how can there be a shortage? I have asked this myself â until we start doing even a little basic math. You hear all kind of numbers about how many firearms owners are in the USA, but you hear 70-80 million quite often. So for the sake of us not arguing that number â letâs cut it to 35 million. Do you know a gun owner that does not own at least one firearm chambered in .22 LR? Do you know any that are not looking for .22 LR ammo or would at least buy some if they saw it for normal prices? How many would they buy when they found it? A lot â right? But again, just to keep the argument on the low end, letâs say they would all be satisfied with just a single 500 pack. 35 million multiplied by 500 .22 LR rounds for them all â is 17.5 BILLION rounds. Let that sink in. Even at 25 million rounds being made PER DAY â that is 1.92 yearsâ worth of production.
yep there's a lot to it.
http://sierrabullets.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/why-cant-i-find-22-lr-ammunition/
Here's an excerpt
Demand â Now we are getting to the real meat of the issue. You hear manufactures say they are running 24/7 on their Rimfire lines which is putting somewhere around 25-30 million rounds PER DAY (estimate on my part from numbers I have heard from the big rimfire guys) into the market â so how can there be a shortage? I have asked this myself â until we start doing even a little basic math. You hear all kind of numbers about how many firearms owners are in the USA, but you hear 70-80 million quite often. So for the sake of us not arguing that number â letâs cut it to 35 million. Do you know a gun owner that does not own at least one firearm chambered in .22 LR? Do you know any that are not looking for .22 LR ammo or would at least buy some if they saw it for normal prices? How many would they buy when they found it? A lot â right? But again, just to keep the argument on the low end, letâs say they would all be satisfied with just a single 500 pack. 35 million multiplied by 500 .22 LR rounds for them all â is 17.5 BILLION rounds. Let that sink in. Even at 25 million rounds being made PER DAY â that is 1.92 yearsâ worth of production.
yep there's a lot to it.
