Posted on 03/07/2013 9:44:35 AM PST by JoeProBono
They need to start making .22 long rifle hollow points, they will never run out of work.
A good .22 with a good scope will reach out a lot further than most people suspect. The little rimfire scopes are almost useless.
I understand all that...it is why I stipulated “seconds” or overage, or QC’d - quality control..... This ammo I’ve bought that was seconded was largely cosmetic...works fine.
I also am very familiar betweent he difference between .223 and 5.56 mm.... the latter has higher chamber pressure and a longer “leade”....I’ve had arguments about this before but there IS a difference. The “leade” is a difference in case length at the neck and relates to the chamber reaming in the barrel....you can google the SAAMI specs on the two and readily see the difference.
If your barrel doesn’t say 5.56mm don’t shoot that ammo, period... Some say Bushmaster rifles can shoot either, but I wouldn’t try it. I’ve got a 1970 AR-15 COLT SP-1 that has .223 on it and I won’t even try the 5.56 surplus in it, even though the old wives say all early Colts were 223/5.56 optional.
Back when there was plenty of 5.56 NATO ammo to be had, there were ads advertising “Made at Lake City ammo plant to Federal’s specifications for commercial ammo...”, or some similar words to that effect.
There's a specific hand-turned reamer that cuts only the leade / throat area of a .223 chamber to 5.56 NATO specs. It doesn't mess with headspace because the cartridge neck area is not changed. You just oil it, drop it in and turn it until you feel it turn smoothly (cutting completed).
Cost of centerfire ammo has, for some time, made 22LR the ammo of choice for regular practice. I had already gotten to doing 75% of my rifle practice with my 22 and a smaller amount with my other calibers. That would partly account for higher demand for 22LR.
However, 22LR are cranked out in huge quantities and the amount showing up on the retail market at any price is almost nothing. Logic says that we should be having higher prices but still reasonable availability. Not the case, you can’t get target grade 22LR at any price. Production is either way down, or a huge amount is vanishing when it leaves the mfg. I’m not making up conspiracy theories, but anecdotal evidence says that the quantity reaching the retail markets is a fraction of a year ago. A very small fraction. So, if production hasn’t dropped, where is it? There ought to be a crapload out there for $50 a brick. There isn’t.
You can do that. Just don’t try to load 5.56 in a .223 chamber. Pressure Likely it won’t do much. But I won’t try it. Certainly not a wholesale switch. Reloading and k owing what you’re doing is a different story.
I’ve goat a lot of Guatemalan surplus. Shoots real good.
CCI in Idaho can make over a million rounds a day, and they're just one manufacturer.
It's basically the same thing I had done to my dad's old 20-gauge side-by-side years ago. That shotgun was designed for paper shells and fiber shot wads; the plastic shot cups in modern shotshells call for a more gradual forcing cone (shotgun version of "leade"). That simple mod made the gun pattern better and reduced the plastic fouling in the bore.
CCI in Idaho can make over a million rounds a day, and they're just one manufacturer.
So, do you have any theories?
I knew a guy that had owned the cabinet chest company that made the ammo cases that Lake City liked and specified. He sold is company for a fortune in the mid 1970s and lived another 40 years on what he made.
Yeah, they range from complete whack-job, to normal and mundane. The complete whack-job theory is that someone's pressuring them to reduce production, and telling them not to be public with it. There don't appear to be any recent government contract stories on .22LR.
The mundane is that, with the rising cost of everything else, folks are turning to .22LR for practice and plinking.
Combine that with the increased real fear of infringement of rights/societal breakdown and folks are simply stripping the shelves bare of anything they can get their hands on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.