.22LR scarcity

by bj , Saturday, April 23, 2016, 23:07 (3074 days ago) @ ERSisk

I understand wanting a small cartridge to use in place of .22LR. .32 and .327 seems like a good replacement for that in revolvers, and even 9mm in autoloaders. Almost anything in a rifle would work if you handload light loads with cast bullets, but the larger bores obviously require more powder and lead.

I seem to remember a story I read some time back about someone that created a .22 centerfire cartridge to use in Bullseye competition. I don't recall the details or what parent cases were used. I suppose a lengthened .25ACP cartridge could be loaded for very little cost beyond the price of primers and the cases themselves, so it would be of importance to find a reasonably cheap case to start with.

I was in the local Walmart today to pick up a few things and out of curiosity I went by the ammo case. Of course there was no .22LR ammo in there but the case was reasonably full of other ammo such as shotgun shells, 9mm, .30-30, etc. While I was staring through the glass an employee came by and asked if I needed any help. I asked him where on the shelves they put the .22 long rifle if they had any. He said they haven't gotten any in a long time and didn't know when they would ever get some again. So since they didn't expect to ever get any to sell they no longer even provided a place for it on the shelves.

I'm thinking maybe what we should be doing is scrounging empty rimfire brass and figuring out how to prime and load it.