Agree, there is no way that market forces can produce a shortage of 22LR lasting over a year.
22LR is the ordinary simple stuff which people use to put food on the table in hard times. Somebody does not want the American people to be able to do that.
I cornered Cabbelas when my CCI .22LR went over a year. They said bulk packaging was the problem. They delivered my order
in 375rd boxes @ 20.00 per. It was either that or just keep waiting.
The idea of panic/paranoia buying doesn’t hold up logically. There have been no reports of the fed buying .22LR. They don’t use it. Why would there be an 18 month run on the one round we all know the gov’t has no use for? It doesn’t make any sense.
The manufacturers are still making it, yet only scraps are showing up in the retail stores. It’s going somewhere. If anyone has a better, less sinister, guess as to where, I’m all ears.
Recall also that the .22 is a good urban warfare round. Chechens allegedly used it to good effect in the second war with Russia. It’s advantage was sniping effectiveness at 50-150 yards with nearly no noise fired from cover in a heavy conflict environment.