Consensus seems to be yes, there's some supply chain impact on Lapua rimfire attributable to the war in Ukraine, but Nammo Group is still definitely running its rimfire plants in Schonebeck, Germany, and is sending .22lr to the US.
From the demand side of the equation, two possible contributors to the perceived shortage come to mind quickly:

• The rimfire shooting sports have exploded, with NRL & PRS taking off, and those shooters buying top-end ammo that largely was the domain of precision rimfire shooters, such as the benchrest competitors.
• The (perceived?) decline of Eley's upper tier offerings (Tenex and Match), sending more shooters to seek out Lapua's X-Act, Midas+ and Center-X.

 

Ukraine has nothing to do with rimfire production, except that starved centerfire shooters started getting into rimfire instead and are now insisting they need the best of the best rimfire ammo.

It might not be so bad if Eley was comparable to Lapua in quality/accuracy. I've tried a dozen on so lots of Match and Tenex in the last year, none had great accuracy and most lots had some FTFs.

Lapua has not turned up production rates nor reduced quality. (They also haven't jacked prices!) So you're seeing a great increase in demand on a fixed supply. Use your best match ammo wisely and get what you can.

 

Midway has some in stock-ordered this am

 

Mark is correct. Just 7-10 years ago, NRL22 and PRS 22 matches didn’t exist essentially and the only people buying match grade 22 were benchrest and small bore bullseye shooters. These new disciplines have caused demand to skyrocket with literally thousands of new shooters demanding high grade ammo. And there does seem a general consensus that eley quality has gone downhill. 20 years ago, everyone serious about rimfire accuracy used eley, lapua and SK were barely a blip on the radar.

 

Ukraine has nothing to do with rimfire production, except that starved centerfire shooters started getting into rimfire instead and are now insisting they need the best of the best rimfire ammo.

It might not be so bad if Eley was comparable to Lapua in quality/accuracy. I've tried a dozen on so lots of Match and Tenex in the last year, none had great accuracy and most lots had some FTFs.

Lapua has not turned up production rates nor reduced quality. (They also haven't jacked prices!) So you're seeing a great increase in demand on a fixed supply. Use your best match ammo wisely and get what you can.

Mark is correct. Just 7-10 years ago, NRL22 and PRS 22 matches didn’t exist essentially and the only people buying match grade 22 were benchrest and small bore bullseye shooters. These new disciplines have caused demand to skyrocket with literally thousands of new shooters demanding high grade ammo. And there does seem a general consensus that eley quality has gone downhill. 20 years ago, everyone serious about rimfire accuracy used eley, lapua and SK were barely a blip on the radar.

Thank you