Thursday, October 30, 2014
Ammo SCORE!
I see that, slowly but surely, .22 Long Rifle ammo is making its way back to the market in sufficient quantities to satisfy demand. It's still hard to find the good stuff, but yesterday at my local dealer I walked in just in time for his delivery. Reese got in 20 boxes (2,000 rounds) of CCI MiniMag, and sold me the lot at a very reasonable price - only a dollar per box higher than I was paying before the ammo drought began. I didn't argue; in fact, I told him that if he can find more at that price, I'll buy it. He says he'll do his best for me.
Reese also had a case (10 50-round boxes) of Hornady's excellent .22 Magnum 45gr. FTX Critical Defense load. This stuff rivals .380 ACP performance out of a handgun, and is far superior to it out of a rifle. I bought the entire case for Miss D., who relies on her Keltec PMR-30 pistol and forthcoming CMR-30 carbine for defensive use. 30 rounds of that stuff should be enough to discourage almost anyone, if push comes to shove. (I recently bought her a second PMR-30 - also from Reese - on the grounds that "two is one and one is none", and all that sort of thing. We'll be taking it to the range over the next few days to break it in. Shooty fun times ahead!)
If you live in or near Nashville, I have to give a shout-out to Reese and The Gun Crew. His prices are good to excellent compared to other local dealers, he usually has stocks of most guns and ammunition in popular demand (or can get them quickly), and he's willing to try to get almost anything out of the ordinary, given time. I like and recommend the man and his store (and his dog, who's decided I give good scritchings and now demands them whenever I walk in). And no, he's not giving me any free ammo or other favors for recommending him - I'm doing it on principle.
Peter
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7 comments:
Congrats on the find! We've happened across fresh supplies of .22LR this summer, but not often. It'll get here last, unless the addition of Cabela's & Bass Pro to the local market has sped things up.
Nicely done! And that is GOOD news!
Now we all know the reason it has been so hard to find. The first person on the scene buys it all and the rest of us are SOL.
@Jim22: It gets passed on. See my earlier appeals to people to help me find .22LR ammo for the disabled shooters I train. I must have given away tens of thousands of rounds of the stuff over the past couple of decades. All this purchase did was to replenish my stocks of the 'good stuff' until the next need arises.
Nice!, I got 1x 100rd box of CCI Mini Mags (my preferred 'premium' .22lr load) a month or so back.
Over the last 2 years or so I have bought all the .22lr I could when it was available at sane prices, about 1,500rds in total.
If/ when it comes back in old normal availability I will sock away 2k in CCI Mini Mags and 10k in generic bulk pack to add to my stores.
Peter, do you see the .22Mag as a decent self-defense round? one of my dogpark pals relies on it as his main carry gun, and a couple of others deride him harshly. I am kind of interested in it due to the relatively low recoil factor.
@John Cunningham: It's one of the few rounds smaller than .38 Special or 9mm. Luger that I do think is a viable defensive proposition. It's not that the individual round is very powerful out of a handgun (although the right ammo, like Hornady's 45gr. FTX round, can boost its performance); it's that out of a pistol like Keltec's PMR-30, you have up to 30 rounds on tap. It penetrates deeply enough to reach vital organs, and if someone takes 5-10 rounds in the brisket or the 'inverted triangle' formed between the eyebrows and the base of the nose, they're going to be badly hurt.
It doesn't possess enough striking/wounding/hurting power on its own to be considered a 'stopping power' round, but in aggregate it's not a bad performer at all. Certainly, if you use well-constructed ammo and can call your shots and put them where they need to go, I'd consider it more viable than, say, a .32 ACP or .25 ACP round.
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