Do .22LR Ammunition Shortages Translate Into More Airgun Use?

By Patriot Outdoor News

Are you shooting airguns more?

Today’s airguns are more powerful, more reliable and more accurate than the lever-action toys common to many of our childhoods.

They are used in everything from precision shooting competitions and weekend plinking sessions to hunting small and even large game, with the majority of modern air rifles most similarly matching the close-range shooting performance of another target-time favorite-the .22-caliber rimfire rifle.

But have limited supplies of .22 ammunition in recent years caused more sportsmen to make the switch to shooting airguns? Pellets are readily available and markedly cheaper, air rifles and air handguns can be safely fired in a backyard, and with the improvements in technology, it would seem to be a natural switch from .22 to airgun.

Of more than 4,500 shooters surveyed on ShooterSurvey.com, 40 percent reported shooting an air rifle in the past 12 months. In that same time span, 33 percent of those same sportsmen would have purchased more ammo had it been available and 17 percent said they were not able to buy all of the .22 ammo they wanted. So did those shooters stymied by the shortage opt to shoot air rifles more as a substitute for their rimfire rifles?

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Source:: Patriot Outdoor News