Monthly Archives: May 2015

Ammo: Rimfire Shortage, Homeland Security Huge Buys

Like many Packwood citizens, I look for businesses that could come here bringing jobs for local people. You who are local know that last winter we lost the 50-jobs ammunition manufacturer Nosler who had come here four years ago, partially replacing the 350 jobs Packwood lost (over 90% of Packwood’s total jobs), with the spotted owl shutdown of our timber industry, that included shutdown of our lumber mills, the Forest Service ranger station, our school, our clinic, most of our restaurants, etc.

I came up with the idea of using the factory buildings to manufacture .22 rimfire ammunition, which seems to be in such high demand and short supply that it is almost impossible to buy nationwide.

I went looking and here is info:

American Rifleman 2014 report about shortage of rimfire ammo:
Sales of .22 rifles have grown hugely since 2006 and most of them use larger than 10-round magazines. Further here’s an excerpt:
“The two most obvious are speculation and hoarding. If you can hit the local big box store because you have the time to wait for the ammo truck to arrive and resell $20 worth of .22 for $60 through the Valley Trader or at the next gun show, you are an opportunistic speculator. There are some other words I might use, but I will restrain myself. And if you are a guy that typically buys .22 Long Rifle 250 rounds at a time who just bought 10,000 because you could not find 250 when you wanted them, then you are a hoarder. ”
http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/10/1/ok-really-what-s-going-on-with-22-rimfire/

American Rifleman 2012 excellent ammo report incl Homeland Security buy numbers and explanation: Many have examined, concluding that though DHS’s ammo buys seem huge, their ammo buys are reasonable and not out of line:
http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2013/12/17/why-weve-had-an-ammunition-shortage/

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