Dreaming of Canadian .22 ammo.

Big Bad

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I have a dream, which is that some company in Canada will start making high quality .22 ammo again, most especially of course .22LR. It seems like a good time to start, none better, but I'm told the start up is expensive. Wondering if anyone has the financial expertise to state if it's at all possible or likely. American friends tell me there's a fear the bubble will bust and once everyone down there has stockpiled a million, they may stop buying. Failing Canada, I'm willing to settle for China, Vietnam, any delightful overseas democracy. Just no more R and no more W castoff junk please. Shooting the .22LR I was able to buy this year is like shooting black powder, you have to wait for the smoke to clear.
 
I have a dream, which is that some company in Canada will start making high quality .22 ammo again, most especially of course .22LR. It seems like a good time to start, none better, but I'm told the start up is expensive. Wondering if anyone has the financial expertise to state if it's at all possible or likely. American friends tell me there's a fear the bubble will bust and once everyone down there has stockpiled a million, they may stop buying. Failing Canada, I'm willing to settle for China, Vietnam, any delightful overseas democracy. Just no more R and no more W castoff junk please. Shooting the .22LR I was able to buy this year is like shooting black powder, you have to wait for the smoke to clear.

I'd love some canadian made 22lr or even .223/.308 among others...

That said, get your name on a list at a store so when quality 22lr comes in you wind up getting some.
 
List? We don't got no stinking lists! You can't buy Federal or CCI in the States, it's like they went out of business, and for sure none is entering the Canadian retail market. Maybe if you marry into a store owner's family.
 
As it happens I just received a notify of some 22 Federal AM22 being available from my online supplier, that hasn't been around for many months..
 
The local Canadian tire Port Hawkesbury NS, just got Federal blue box, win dynapoint gt'blackbox', and rem golden 525s in. The local walmart got win 333 white box and win dynapoint 'whitebox'. Overall its been a good week for .22 here. Its been pretty bleak for a while.
 
I'm told there's a Canadian ammo manufacturer that makes frangible stuff but does not sell any in Canada. All for export. It would be cool to be able to shoot steel at close range safely. :)
 
Ive been able to find .22 all over the place! Local CT has tones, Cabela's have tones... some of the smaller gun shops only have certain bulk packs, no real variety available.
 
Theres a place in Southern Ont with tonnes of federal and .22 bullets (considering the circumstances). They're not impossible to get..
 
From what i see following the forums...22 seems to migrate around the country. Previously there was lots in Western Canada, non in the East. Right now it is the opposite, seems like the East is well supplied and nothing out west. A store in Surrey got some about a month ago, sold out the most popular stuff in less than a day. One guy bought 20K rounds.

I could see starting production costs being in the multiple millions. Not really sure what the margin is on 22lr, but it can not be that much. I would think the mark up and profit would be at wholesale and retail, not manufacturing.
 
I just bought some .22 Federal boxed in 525 last week, Cabelas had lots on the shelf.

Cabelas aren't selling their stuff online then, not any good to me if I have to take a jet to buy some bricks. Since the OP, I heard of some CCI half-bricks of 333 selling locally for $30, more than a bit of a swindle though not as bad as in the USA.
 
The big issue with the 22 in the US is a lead shortage since the smelter closure. The margin is so thin, most the lead lead they can get goes to centrefire.
 
Stopped by the local CT today .
The shelves were overflowing with ammo
cases & cases of 22 , Rem , Win, CCI
Lot's of 9mm , 45acp , 44mag , 357mag , 7.63x39 as well as the usual hunting ammo
I was quite surprised .
Lot's of shot gun ammo as well . even had 12 ga bear bangers & flares
No Imperial shot shells though :rolleyes:
 
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when i was at ct last night the guy that runs the firearms is a friend of mine and he was telling me he can't keep any .22lr i was suprised to see a couple of cci still there.
he went on to tell me that the bucket o bullets he had 3 come in and some guy bought all three right there, goin on telling him that pretty soon there won't be any .22 ammo around.
 
I was working with some of our American friends last week and asked about the 22lr shortage. They said it was bad 6 months ago but the supply has since returned. I suspect any Canadian shortage might have something to do with the importer/distributors. But who knows.
 
I bought 2 bucket of bullets last week at The Gun Dealer in McAdam NB, looks like they had lots. If you're not opposed to paying for shipping you could see about getting some shipped to you.
 
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This is nonsense, there is lots of ammo on the shelves, Cabelas, Canadian Tire, etc
Even my range has a lot of .22 in stock



List? We don't got no stinking lists! You can't buy Federal or CCI in the States, it's like they went out of business, and for sure none is entering the Canadian retail market. Maybe if you marry into a store owner's family.
 
Jeez, where are you looking OP? I mean, what part of the country? I'm in Saskatchewan, we've never had any shortage of .22 ammo ( or anything else for that matter really). I was in all three Regina firearms retailers yesterday afternoon, all three had Federal .22LR....cases and cases and cases of it. Prices are good, supply is good...biggest issue I've seen around here this year is that so many farmers are poisoning gophers now that there are hardly any left to shoot. That's starting to take the coyote numbers down too; too much of their main food supply in the summer is dead or has been poisoned and they consume it before it dies naturally, and it gets them. We've found more coyotes dead from "unnatural causes" (i.e. not from a bullet) this summer than I am comfortable with. More wolves though, for some reason.
 
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