Anyone who wants a 458 caliber 450 gr Flat Nose can buy them here, in USA, made by Mike Brady of North Fork. My order was shipped same day I made it and received a few days later.

The FN solid has a bit less pressure than his 450 gr. bonded "solid shank" soft point which was my favorite of twenty premium soft points I recovered in plastic 5 gallon water buckets. (The FN has about 50 fps less velocity at same powder load as the bonded soft point). They shoot to within 1 inch of same point of impact as the North Fork 400 gr or 450 gr. at 100 yards with no adjustment to powder or other components. (Plus 1-2 grs gets them exactly on).

They have a .325 diameter meplat and they feed like greased lightening through my CZ550 which is chambered for 450 Dakota.

They have six driving bands plus one at the heel. The GSFN has eight bands and a slilghtly boat tail heel.

For what its worth, the GSFN, NF FN and Barnes RN solid all shot to same point of impact in my rifle and all used similar powder charges and had similar velocity. I like them all as a group, and am not saying that to be nice. I really do!!!!

For those of you who must have a 500 gr 458 FN solid, Kodiak makes a bonded 500 gr, FN with thick copper jacket and very hard lead bonded core.

We are lucky to have so many good 458 FMJ's and solids available.

While I wold gladly hunt with the GSFN, the North Fork FN and Kodiak FN are here now.

Andy

Does it not seem that all this anxiety would be done away with if these bullets were sold through a US based distributor(s) only?

Regardless of the validity of past claims, it seems that this would solve the bulk of the issue.....make large shipments to the distributor(s) and be done with it.

What is wrong with this concept.....?


Bill

Westman, that is exactly what we are talking about. John at HVconcepts has been air-freighting bullets to Texas as fast as Gina will let him have them. He's on 6 month's back order, too.

The long and the short of it is that turning bullets on a lathe, one at a time, is a very slow process. Break a machine, once or twice, and all of a sudden you are 6 months behind. Additional lathes are a cool 120 grand or so, and most small businesses do not keep that kind of cash on hand.....

As a result, John sells out everytime he gets a couple of crates in, essentially by word of mouth. He's a good man to deal with, too. FWIW, Dutch.

Well I like the GS procuct and I have used it as much or more than anyone on this board or anywhere else for that matter, and the bottom line is I have not found anything to compare to their HV, and only Bridger could compete with their flat nose solid, and they are no more...

I'm willing to suffer for the product regardless of the difficulty..I want the best bullet obtainable and Barnes isn't in the same class IMO...

What anyone else choses to do is fine with me, but I will make my own choices and I'm going to remain true to GS Customs bullets as long as they produce these great bullets...My latest order is for some big 470 Flat nose bullets..My gun shoots the Bridger FN great, so the GS FN should work also, they are clones...

Hope I can get them in time for my June safari in Tanzania with Saeed, if not then I will make do with something else, and shoot them next year.....

Also I have always received my orders on a timely basis from GS, but that was before they got swamped with orders I suppose..They simply outgrew themselves, that happens often with a quality product I suspect...I also realise that the African Postal Service is made up of Ali Babba and several thousand theives... Must be the same gang that runs the communications services over there...Nothing works since Apartied left.

.

Alf, it is my opinion that there are probably several factors that contribute to the missing packages. Part SApost, part US postal service.

I had one order which did not arrive after 4 months. When I contacted GS, they said they re-shipped, and they arrived some months later. The package was in quite poor physical condition --- and I suspect there are a number of boxes in the "dead letter" office of the USPS, because the box broke, the address ripped off, etc.

And, yes, I suspect that at some point, GS made promises and statements they were unable to keep, attempting to maintain cashflow to stay in business.

In the end, though, I would not run a mail-order business without delivery confirmation, nor with a 3 month shipment time. In this day and age, those are not parameters the consumer is going to tolerate. When I order from HVconcepts, UPS brings me a neat little package in 4 days, and the shipping costs are a fraction. I love the bullets, but I will not order them direct. It's just not a workable system. JMO, Dutch.