The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

dromia wrote:They haven't had any Value stuff in for years, it has been a while since I last enquired so they may have restocked but I doubt it.

The story was that they had bought a job lot of Eley target ammunition that had failed quality control and slapped a Value label over the original Eley. Eley then upgraded their machinery and the QC was much better and the source dried up, I suspect that this just a one off buy and when it was gone it was gone and similar opportunity hasn't arisen, unless they have recently come acoss a source, when firing you could see why the ammunition had failed QC, good to excellent grouping with wild fliers. It was fine stuff if you weren't interested in small groups or high scores. A lot had the nippled Eley bullet so could have been Tenex or Match.

Yes, that what was I understood too as to both source and later availability. I bought a few hundred at the time Kranks had them which was some fair few years ago and they were Eley sourced - shot fairly well too. Whenever I've asked since, they've not had any replacements in stock.

A frequent problem with discounted items sold under the dealer's own brand name is that even when available the stock will regularly change supplier and/or QC standard. So you buy a couple of hundred of something, it works well, but when you go back and buy a thousand it doesn't anymore because it's been sourced elsewhere. Given the worldwide shortage of .22LR ammunition over recent years which as far as I can see hasn't completely abated yet, nor will until Remington completes its massive factory capacity programme, I doubt if there is much surplus rimfire ammunition around to be discounted by anybody.

As a barely related aside, I bought 100 'Value' .22LR tracer rounds from Henry Krank on that visit years ago and still have half a box somewhere in the depths of my ammunition cabinet. It worked very well at 50 yards, or at least the trace bit did - I can't remember how it grouped - I never got around to shooting it at longer ranges to see how far it went before burning out.

Nowadays the Eley stuff that produces fliers gets a 'Match' label and sold through Eley directly

We've been an Eley club pretty much since we were formed I think. Recent mediocre consistency and increased FTF have driven a lot of our members to RWS on the top end and SK in the mid price. If we could find a decent priced alternative to Eley sport we would switch over there too as we get through tens of thousands of that every time we order...

No Value stuff at Kranks. In fact not a lot of any ammo. Seems there is a shortage of most common calibres.
Our club has virtually run out of 22LR and told me tales of woe about the big shortage at the moment
I may have to cut back on my cavalier attitude with the ammo for a while

There has been a HUGE and growing shortage of .22LR for maybe 5 or so years now emanating from the USA. This is because US demand and consumption just keeps on growing and the few large US manufacturers failed to invest in additional capacity until it was too late. Also, a big chunk of CCI's rimfire production capacity has been diverted to producing 17s (which if of US origin are all made by CCI irrespective of name on the box).

The USA has therefore sucked in vast quantities of European manufactured .22LR ammunition, also from South America and has created shortages and increased prices elsewhere as a knock-on effect. The last I heard, Remington - the world's largest producer of the cartridge - was doubling its output, but so far that doesn't seem to have restored the previous supply-demand balance.

Interestingly Laurie, I keep seeing yanks thanking the gods that the shortage is over and long gone.

RDC wrote:Interestingly Laurie, I keep seeing yanks thanking the gods that the shortage is over and long gone.

As I understand it, that applies to centrefire factory ammunition, and for handloading most tools, bullets and brass, and some powders. However, there are still posts going up on AccurateShooter saying "Powder Valley has VarGet / H4350 / H4831 / whatever in stock" so the Hodgdon / ADI shortages persist for some grades. Also, there is still a dearth of certain primers and complaints that some favoured models haven't been seen in a long time, a good example being the Federal 210M Match, allied to grumbles about rapid price inflation for all makes and models.

The growth in US 22LR consumption in recent years has been nothing short of phenomenal and manufacturing output simply hasn't kept up. Some of that has been the result of lead times, some the result of political uncertainty during the Obama administrations where worries about gun control legislation stopped manufacturers making large long-term investments in capacity.

The days of over-supply and hence 'bargain deals' in .22 have gone though, and who can say if they'll ever return.

I buy the ammo for our (rimfire) club and haven't noticed any issue in supply or lead times. The price has gone up every other time we order, but that's as much to do with Euro movement, Brexit and new carrier restrictions.