We had a grand opening here in Troy of a new store called Field and Stream, which turned out to be something like a Bass Pro for more educated consumers with a layout more like Cabelas. There was a huge media push, mailed advertisements etc. but what really stood out was that they were advertising that they had 3,000 bricks of .22LR in Remington Golden Bullets and Thunderbolts, as well as 900 value buckets of RGB holding 1400 rounds. Prices were $24.99 for the bricks and $69.99 for the buckets. There was a two box/bucket limit.

I am stacked pretty deep on .22, but I thought it would be worth taking a chance on going after work as it would be unlikely that roughly 2,000 people would come and buy their 2boxes of ammo before I could get there. On the way there after work, I met with a friend at the barber shop he was getting cut at to pick him up to go with me. The owners wife said that her brother was there for the opening and that it took 4 hours to get thru the line in, get his ammo, and check out. Those 900 buckets of RGB were gone before he got thru the line at 2pm. I got there at 4pm and they were down to the last three cases of Remington Thunderbolt bricks from two pallets, as well as an unknown quantity of 333rd. Boxes of Winchester. The line in the store was 120 to 150 people deep, and virtually every one of them had their two bricks of ammo. It was a rush to get back to the gun are, the place was a madhouse-I didn't get to see the rest of the store.

So, I brought the GF out there today, no .22 out on the floor, but I did see a 300 round box of mini mags behind one of the gun counters. They'd were busy and taking numbers for service so I didn't want to hang around to find out that someone was neckbearding it. We went around the gun area and I saw a guy with two sleeves of Winchester 100 rounds and he told me that they were handing them out at the counter.. So we went to the place he pointed out and there was a feeding frenzy for these sleeves. I get up there and he asks if I want some so I say yes. As he hands me the two sleeves, I spy another 300 count box of mini mags and ask about them.... He hems and haws, looking down the backside of the gun counter as if seeing what his coworkers are doing and mummers something about that one being held for someone, them turns to me and swaps one of my sleeves of Winchester. My GF shoots and pipes up asking if she can have some too, so he gave her two sleeves as well.

Remember, this is the third day after opening, and the line was still at least 100 deep to check out and leave. Most people still had .22 in their hands with their purchases.

Cost for the ammo was good-the minimags were $30, the bricks of thunderbolts were $20, and the sleeves of Winchester were $10.... I can't imagine how many thousands of rounds of rim fire flew out of that store over the last three days... I'm pretty well connected in the gun community here in the area and have never had a problem getting any-it wasn't always the price I would have liked to pay, but it was available to me. The people in that store hadn't been able to find any to buy for ANY price for a year and a half.. As gun people, we in the ARFCOM world might not see this shortage for being as serious as it really is-this was as close to a panic as I have ever seen in a store. The first day, I couldn't get around the inside of the store for all the people rushing and clamoring to get to the ammo trough. Quite a few likely went out to their cars and came back in....

All in all, it was a really nice store and I plan to go back. They had buckets of Mountain House for $50 and Life Straws 2 for $30.


Really interesting thing to witness....

I saw it was almost finished a few weeks ago, now they are open huh?

I may have to stop by in a few weeks to see what they have.

I got pestered for posting about the shortage and asking about solutions. They do make margin on 22 or they wouldn't make it.  Why in the hell would someone not take advantage of this and install more capacity?

I went there, nice place. I didn't even bother looking for .22.

LOST

Probably because the demand is artificial.

Neckbeards sell, I shoot.

Maybe you should have called me a Hoarder, that's more accurate.

Field and Stream is Dicks is it not?

The Irony.....

Field and Stream (owned by Dick's) in TROY.......

No idea. If it is, they went upmarket-the camping section looked more like an REI than a Bass Pro.

LoL....

Troy can eat a bag of dicks AFAIC, the whole bag.

Bull.shit.

 

Demand is DEMAND.


People buying product, with Money is the very definition of demand.

Uh what does that mean? Im not an economist so please explain in simple terms.

I liked the Field and Stream store in Raleigh, NC.

Prices were not too bad at all, and in general seemed like a smaller Bass Pro with Cabelas accents.

Whatever the reason the effect is bad for shooting and gun ownership. Like many here the first gun I ever shot was a .22 LR rifle. How many kids or first time shooters have missed out on range time over the 2 years due to .22 LR shortages?

all the .22lr makers are saying they are at max capacity. dunno if that means 24/7 but a few of them say they are not adding a new plant as it supposedly costs about $50 million to setup a high volume operation. Some suppliers are trying to bring more in from outside the USA but it is mainly the pricey stuff. I did not make the gun show this weekend to see prices, but locally last I priced a brick it was $49.99

There are a lot of dicks in Troy.

They are owned by Dicks.

Nice store. I went a week ago Friday hoping to find some FGMM but they had none.

I like the focus of the store.

tl;dr

Yes, Field and Stream is re-branded, firearms-focused, Dicks.

The shortage will be lasting a very long time.... The U.S. ammo plants were running 24/7 before the panic, so there is no extra production capacity to make up demand based shortages. Sometimes you can't just open your checkbook and add on to your plant-a plant may be land locked, the regulatory cost may be too high etc. so I can see how CCI, Federal etc would be shy about investing the money. What I would like to see is more of the European companies using this as an opportunity to get a foot in the door in the U.S. market and make up the shortfall there.

The people this sucks the most for are guys that shoot .17HM2... It wasn't a very popular round, or at least hadn't gained popularity yet when the panic hit. Those rounds are loaded by CCI in Idaho for everyone who sells them, even Hornady. They have to shut down a production line of Stingers to make HM2, which means it will be a very, very long time before any more orders are filled. Seems like a good time to splurge and buy what is available now if you shoot that caliber.

*[standard ARF answer] "because this panic will be over any day now and manufacturers don't wan't to be stuck with millions of dollars of equipment and no one buyingh the ammoz"[/standard arf answer]

We got a F&S a few months back. Same row of pallets of .22 but almost all prices are WELL above MSRP.

I don't buy much there. Really nice store though.

Field and Stream, Cabelas, Bass Pro all seem like the same store to me



$70 for a 3000 rd bucket is a steal

Dicks with higher prices.

I'm glad no other industries follow this model.

Also I hear that car fad will pass any time now.

Do they sell AR's and magazines that hold more then ten rounds?

It depends, if Consumption (ammo actually being shot) = Demand, then there is a good reason increase manufacturing capacity. But if Demand is significantly higher than consumption then there is likely to be a significant Slump in demand at some stage.
So it all really depends on if that ammo is being shot or neckbearded.

Field and Stream is part of Dick's

There is one in washington PA.  Stopped there just to see what they had.  Saw no good reason to go back.  It looked like Dick's used to be as far as all the camping and fishing gear before they changed to golf and womens clothes, mostly.

Are you just making that up or is it from some econ book? I mean maybe its just me, but I always want more ammo whether I consume any or not.

The part in bold is neckbeardy as shit.  

I don't even have a problem with it.  I couldn't possibly care less about the ammo shortage or jacked prices for .22lr and I think Cheaper than Dirt is run by savvy businessmen at the top of their game.  When I watch the movie Wallstreet, I pretend Gordon Gekko is the good guy and I was rooting for the RDA in the movie Avatar.

Still, anyone reading the part in bold has to be picturing you with a neckbeard and Cheetos crumbs on your three wolves shirt.  It's just comes off like that the way you wrote it.

I think I'm done buying .22

I think I'm done buying .22 firearms.

Phooey!

What he means, is that it's a Panic.    As soon as people can get it, they won't want it.    This is basic human behavior.  Not rocket surgery.

Ok thanks. That makes sense.

Neckbeard complaining about neckbeards.

If you're buying any and all the .22lr you possibly can, you're neckbearding it. You don't have to sell it. You're still depriving the more casual purchaser of available stock.

No joke. Is there a cliff notes version of this novel?

The same thing would happen in just about any town in the USA....I think we can put to rest the fear of waning demand that the mfrs use for not increasing supply.

Its been 2 years of this and supply has yet to catch up.

"oh but it costs a lot to set up a .22 line"... With the demand that is out there right now, you'd probably have it paid for in 6 months.

"we're running shifts around the clock".... Guess what, it ain't enough


I've said it before, neckbeards alone do not have the financial ability to wipe out the entire stocks of Winchester, Remington, CCI, Aguila, Wolf, Dynamit Nobel, ARMSCOR and Federal.

The only silver lining I can see from all this is that it makes for better shooters.  When you realize you are throwing $0.25-1.00 downrange every time you pull the trigger, it tends to make you more keen to making the shot count.

You're stacked with .22 yet you will wait in a line that is 120+ people deep?

Either you're a neckbeard or your stack is not very big.

Yep. I have a little less than 2000 rounds of .22lr on hand. I wouldn't put up with the lines and wait OP did for a little more.  OP is neckbeard.


I'll buy it from a local retailer when I can walk in, grab a couple boxes, pay and walk out.

Bullshit. He isn't depriving anyone of anything. In order to deprive, the person being deprived has to have a right to or an ownership of whatever is being deprived from them. Please stop trying to conjure up victims where there are none.

Yes it is. They did this because gun owners were not actually coming into Dicks anymore so they spun all their gun stuff off with the other items and did this store.

You wanna stop the shortage, stop the neckbearding?


For fuck's sake, if you've got enough .22lr to last you a couple years... stop buying it every fucking chance you get!!!!

Why should anyone allow someone else to dictate what they can or cannot buy?

I'm stacked fairly deep with .22 as well, but I shoot it regularly for pro am, steel challenge, or to introduce new shooters. Just because I have quite a bit now doesn't mean I will forever.

ARFCOM used to say "buy it cheap stack it deep". Now they just call you a neckbeard.

Yep.  Envy and jealousy are a real bitch.

LC

Tracking image removed...krp

How many rounds will have to use to get home?

Yeah, when people said that two or three YEARS ago, that sounded like a reasonable, educated answer.

"The shortage is artificial".  
Yeah, OK, so is it artificial when you produce a product and sell it at a profit ? That seems real to me.
Does it make any fucking difference in the world what the motivation is for people to buy your product, as long as they ARE buying your product ?  
How many YEARS does this "artificial" demand have to go on before it becomes real demand ?
How many years of potential sales do you have to miss out on before potential sales become real missed business opportunity ?


I'll give you my own theory as to why production hasn't increased to meet demand.
It doesn't have to.
They have no new competition. Nobody has stepped forward to fill the gap.
All the ammo companies can continue to produce what they produce without any new investment and you have no choice but to wait until they get around to producing it.  They can do this because the demand is real. It isn't going away. People arn't going to just stop wanting to buy .22LR. And they can sell all they can make without investing another dime into the business. Again, they don't have to.