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according this article they are

Doomsday preppers made .22 ammo hard to find

Readers consistently send three types of e-mails. They like my work or they hate it — those are expected. The third type?

Everyone wants to know what happened to all the .22 ammo.

To shooters, the lack of ammo is old news. Even if you don't shoot, every bullet purchased by a shooter or hunter has an excise tax (Pittman-Robertson) on it that is routed toward wildlife restoration.

As state budgets decrease, Pittman-Robertson dollars have become a crucial source of revenue for a range of wildlife programs, including restoration of nongame species such as bald eagles, as well as for purchasing wildlife areas that provide habitat for all wildlife and are used by mushroom hunters, hikers, bird-watchers and the general public.

For several years, retail store shelves have been bare of the small-caliber bullets required for the nation's most popular firearms. This invariably results in speculation about a government or corporate conspiracy to drive up prices. It doesn't help that manufacturers say everything is just peachy.

It turns out the government hasn't bought up a bunch of .22s. Set that notion aside. Yes, there are people who might want to take away your firearms via any means at their disposal, but that's not driving the .22 shortage.

Not long ago, quite a few doomsday preppers decided that .22 ammo would become a form of currency if the market collapsed. They bought and ordered truckloads of the stuff. Combined with the fact that shooting participation has increased significantly, a shortage seemed inevitable.

However, it should have taken the market maybe six months to adjust. Manufacturers claim they're operating at full capacity.

more http://www.freep.com...../22664223/

that was the story I had heard a couple years ago as well