I was going to order 500 CCI subsonic .22 rounds, but the cost of shipping was so high it increased my total cost by almost 50 percent. So I ordered 800 rounds instead, the most I could get without a further increase in the shipping cost. I spent more, but it brought my cost-per-round down to about 13 cents.
I now have more than 1,000 subsonic .22LRs in stock. That should be enough to practice with and keep a few hundred for practical applications. Some claim this ammo is more accurate than standard velocity ammo because it doesn’t drop across the supersonic barrier which can add a little wiggle to the bullet’s path.
.22LR Ammo for Teaching
I learned to shoot long guns using a BB gun as a kid. Each year at Christmas, I would get a box of 5,000 BBs and I’d have to pace myself over the endless summer weekends to ensure I didn’t run out. Many a beer can tossed off the side of the road got perforated at my hands.
When I learned to shoot pistols, it was with the .22LR revolver. I think this was an excellent choice, and I have subsequently used the .22 to teach my kids, wife, and others to shoot. The minimal recoil and relatively quiet “crack” or “bang” of a .22 isn’t scary, making it non-intimidating and easy for beginners. Also, the ammo was cheap. Back in the 1990s, you could shoot 500 rounds for $10 or $12. That meant lots of practice.
The first gun I bought for myself was a .357 revolver, but a Ruger 10/22 quickly followed, as did a .22 revolver that held 9 rounds. I still own both. The revolver will shoot any ammo, from “snake shot” to .22 shorts, something I can’t say for most semi-autos.
Cheap Plinking Ammo
When you are in your twenties and money is tight, cheap ammo is a must. I used to buy .22s in small boxes of 50 rounds that were packed ten to a brick. I still have bricks of various Remington .22s in my deep storage that I acquired 20 years ago. The Remington Thunderbolts are the round I remember most, but based on what I recall, several companies sold their ammo in similar bricks.
Blazer also sold 50 rounds in a small box, but their boxes were a different size and didn’t have the internal sleeve you could pull out. As a result, their “brick” had different dimensions.
At some point, I splurged on a case of ten bricks of Blazer .22s—that’s 5,000 rounds. I got what I recall thinking was a great price. Unfortunately, most of them got wet when my basement flooded in the early 2000s. From that point on, it became my practice ammo. I shot Blazer .22LR for years, and can report the ammo held up better than the cheap paperboard boxes it came in. That same flood also “created” 1,000 rounds of .223 practice ammo and convinced me to storing ammo in sealed, waterproof .50 caliber ammo cans.
Learn from my advice and store your ammo in waterproof containers. Or at least off the ground.
Rising Prices
When ammo prices started rising, Remington and Federal started selling ammo loose-packed in bigger boxes—some the size of a school lunch milk carton. I purchased lots of Federal .22LR boxes in 325-round boxes—a strange number—when they would go on sale for $14.95 or $16.95 at Dick’s Sporting Goods, back when it was still socially acceptable to buy your ammo at Dick’s.
Throughout my .22-buying experience, CCI always made .22LR in small plastic trays. I would buy 50 stingers or mini-mags and keep them in my prepping gear, but back in the day, they were expensive. I considered them premium ammo and rarely shot any. Today, there is less of a price difference between 100 rounds of CCI MiniMag or Stingers and 100 rounds of another brand, so all my recent purchases have been all CCI.
Winner!
If you’ve ever been to gun shows, you’ve probably been hounded to enter a raffle or drawing as you squeeze through the crowded aisles. Organizations like the local Friends of the NRA chapter or the volunteer fire department raffle off guns and gear. Sometimes, against my better judgement, I would buy a ticket because it was only $2 or three-for-$5. Eventually, I won a raffle. While I wasn’t the grand prize winner, a case of 10 boxes of Federal .22LR ammo showed up at my doorstep with a nice congratulatory note. The boxes were the aforementioned ammo that came 325 rounds each. The many ammo varieties I pulled from my storage for the main photo, above, are sitting on the same cardboard case of 3,250 rounds of Federal. Still unopened.
As you can imagine, that put an end to my buying .22LR. for quite some time. I hung on to the new stuff and shot through some of the older stuff. I still have ammo cans in storage with 2,500 rounds of .22LR and a 10/22 magazine or two inside.
In practice, I find the Federal to be a little more reliable than the Remington, but the Remington is more accurate in most of my guns. CCI ammo tops them both for accuracy and reliability. It almost always goes “bang,” and my semiatuos feed it well.
(NOTE: Remington and Federal ammunition have both changed hands and they, along with CCI, are now owned by Vista Outdoors. My comments about reliability and accuracy may no longer be true as they are based on ammo made by the precursor companies prior to the acquisition by Vista.)
Carry Ammo
When my wife bought a .22LR pistol for concealed carry, the reliability of our .22LR ammo became more important. That solidified my decision to start stocking up on various CCI rounds, with the MiniMag being my favorite. (I don’t like the light rounds, 32 grains or less, because they don’t consistently cycle her semi-auto.)
More recently, I purchased a suppressor for rimfire calibers, and I decided I should have more subsonic .22LR ammo. If you want a quiet shot, a suppressor helps, but you also need ammo that doesn’t break speed of sound. That brings this article full circle, but for this one last point:
With taxes and shipping, I spent $106 to buy 800 rounds of subsonic .22LR. Thirty years ago, that would have purchased 5,000 rounds, or eight times as much ammo. I’d like to blame Bidenflation, but the price of ammo increased well before Biden took office, starting with Clinton and his gun ban. Ammo cost tends to rise under Democratic presidents, but prices have dropped since the shortage that occurred during the pandemic. I have seen those 325 round boxes of Federal .22LR on sale for as low as $20.
I recommend you stock up and buy some extra for practice and to train others. That case of 10 boxes I won was probably worth $150 at the time. Today, it would cost $200 on sale. Still, 3,250 rounds for $200 is not bad. Not bad at all. That much 9mm ball ammo would cost $800 or more.
.22LR is still the best ammo for inexpensive practice, and practice with the .22 is better than no practice.
