.22 caliber bullets - rare glimpse at how they're made

A year or two ago .22 caliber bullets were harder to buy than gold. Most people attributed the ammunition shortage to the policies supported by President Barack Obama and people fearing more restrictive gun laws, ammunition taxes, and social decay. People with a survivalist mentality always list .22 bullets among the top ten items you need to have stockpiled, saying they are relatively inexpensive and huge quantities are easy to store.

There was a subsequent massive buying spree, and manufacturers were unable to keep pace with demand. One article in American Rifleman said manufacturers could not, or would not, gear up for demand because of a costly and "fairly dangerous manufacturing operation." That led to price increases and/or "Out of Stock," messages and signs everywhere when people went looking for .22 caliber ammo. And once suppliers finally caught up with demand, retailers were using the return of stocked shelves as advertisements reading, "We have .22 bullets!" And some retailers continue to limit how many boxes each customer can buy at one time.

The huge surge in demand has ended, or at least slowed. Now .22 caliber bullets are back in stock in most places.

So, how is .22 caliber rimfire ammunition manufactured?

The well-known manufacturers of CCI ammunition recently allowed a peek behind the curtain, opening up its manufacturing process to a tour by YouTube personality 22Plinkster. The CCI factory operates 24 hours a day continuously and at its height, was capable of producing more than four million rounds of rimfire ammo in a single day.

“I couldn’t possibly show everything that went on at the factory," wrote 22Plinkster. "However, hopefully I showed you enough for you to grasp the concept of how rimfire is made.”