that bullet manufacturers keep discontinuing bullet designs that have worked for years??

Every year, seems the favorite bullets that I have used for eternity, are discontinued and "new improved" super trendy bright ideas replace them??

Sure we all know it is about marketing... by the marketing department are convincing the sales and manufacturing depts that many of we hunters don't want bullets that have worked for 50 or more years...

we Round Nose fans are really SOL...

even tho most deer/elk are taken within 200 yds or less... we are being 'convinced' that we need super premium bullets, that open up at 500 plus yds.. and we continually need MORE velocity...all at dramatically super increased prices...

you are contrary to these trends, they want to treat you like you are living in the pass... like still thinking fuel at $1.25 a gallon is realistic...

or using the Marketing add that's slogan for Shampoo was " it costs more, but I'm worth it!"

Can't you envision a picture of a hunter, covered in camo from head to toe ( even tho Orange is mandated in most states) with his Super Whiz Bang New Magnum rifle.. with the stainless barrel, McMillian stock, Nightforce scope.. smiling at the Camera...

"My bullets cost more... but I'm worth it..."

all this to kill a whitetail or mule deer, or in my case here on the west coast, a blacktail that averages 100 lbs...

for the right to hunt and take one, you're looking at your expense to be $40/per lb...when all is said and done...

sorry Guys, but WTF??? are we that stupid as a society anymore??? or just overly gullible..

so I'll put on my Flame Suit..and brace myself to be called all sorts of names, and be told I am "behind the times".. and go out in the field and all my untrendy " non new idea" stuff will work just fine, just like it has for 50 years...

well as long at least as long as my supply of 'old style bullets' last...

Agree--Wholeheartedly.

Dave Manson

Seafire I guess I had this problem a few year ago, Now I am considered a hoarder.
When I find a Bullet that Iam goin to stick with like 140gr btsp hornady I buy by the thousands untill I have 10k to 15k on hand.
same with other components.
they will probably ban lead before Iuse them up.
Dave
one other thought. You can not have enough .223 bullets of any kind.

Discontinuing is only one issue. What I really hate is when they change bullet design without any notice. Sierra is well known to change ogives, OAL, length of the boattail, or reconfiguring how the bullet balances front to back and not saying a word about it. The next box you buy is just a guess.

When I build a sporter and finish load development always buy enough primers, powder, cases and bullets for the life of the tube.

This is a trick I learned when I started to compete.

Benchrest Shooters 101.....

Could not agree more. I have 500 .264 Hornday RN Interlocks, the bullet that made the 6.5's into big game guns for my son's 260 and after that; he will have no more.
Yes; we are that stupid and gullible. Taken a listen to the folks "occupying wall street" lately?
dmw

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
sorry Guys, but WTF??? are we that stupid as a society anymore??? or just overly gullible..

A lot of people are that gullible apparently as evidenced by the posts on various forums about the "failure" of a bullet that killed some animal or wondering what type of bullet will kill a deer.

I prefer bullets by manufacturers that haven't changed things a lot and then I buy a bunch. Speer, Sierra and Remington bullets haven't changed much.

Actually I regret not hearing about Lapua discontinuing .300 Win brass. I woulda bought a truckload.

The market is driven by demand, and I think that the demand is being driven by clever marketing for bullets with special features, much like cars with special features that will only make them more suseptable to breakdowns.

My favorites are interlocks, corelocts, powerpoints, hotcores, spt's ect and alot of my favorites are rn's, I hope there is enough demand to keep them coming.

I have had the same hassle with powder.
AR2206 was discontinued downunder I am on my last 2 tins.

My name is Bob, and I'm a hoarder. I try to keep 500 30-06 rounds on hand with 220 partitions, another 500 with 220 hornady round noses, 500 300gn 375 partitions and 500 with 300gn Hornady roundnoses.

I reload when I dip below those numbers, figuring if any of them get discontinued I'll switch to other bullets for practicing and have my stash to meet my hunting needs for the rest of my life.

I've learned the hard way more than once how much it sucks when a favorite load you've invested countless hours in and that your gun loves is suddenly impossible because a component is unavailable. It took a few years to amass but the piece of mind that I'll always be able to shoot what I want is worth every nickel.

Bob

In the late '90's I developed a super-accurate load for my 375 H&H using Fail Safe bullets. Nothing else came close.

Now I am experimenting with TSX's but I sure liked how those Fail Safes performed, on both paper and game.

seafire/B17G,
I'm with you, the world is changing too fast for me. I keep expecting to see chinese bullets take over.
David

quote:

Originally posted by FMC:
Actually I regret not hearing about Lapua discontinuing .300 Win brass. I woulda bought a truckload.

Funny you mention this... I have 1000pc I bought and then found out that Norma actually manufactured this for Lapua. Good stuff I use it for my Warp 7 which is based on the 300 Win.

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:

quote:

Originally posted by FMC:
Actually I regret not hearing about Lapua discontinuing .300 Win brass. I woulda bought a truckload.

Funny you mention this... I have 1000pc I bought and then found out that Norma actually manufactured this for Lapua. Good stuff I use it for my Warp 7 which is based on the 300 Win.

This is a serious question, not a smart-axx one...have you since found Norma .300 Win brass to be virtually the same as Lapua headstamped .300 Win?

As you know, Norma has made brass for a lot of different companies, even inlcuding Winchester. Thing, is when Norma makes brass for other companies, they make it to the specs the other companies want used, not necessarily the same specs as the stuff retailed with their Norma headstamp.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:

quote:

Originally posted by Boss Hoss:

quote:

Originally posted by FMC:
Actually I regret not hearing about Lapua discontinuing .300 Win brass. I woulda bought a truckload.

Funny you mention this... I have 1000pc I bought and then found out that Norma actually manufactured this for Lapua. Good stuff I use it for my Warp 7 which is based on the 300 Win.

This is a serious question, not a smart-axx one...have you since found Norma .300 Win brass to be virtually the same as Lapua headstamped .300 Win?

As you know, Norma has made brass for a lot of different companies, even inlcuding Winchester. Thing, is when Norma makes brass for other companies, they make it to the specs the other companies want used, not necessarily the same specs as the stuff retailed with their Norma headstamp.

Cannot tell you---have never seen a Norma 300 Win case. Have other Norma brass but the Lapua 300 made by Norma looked perfect inc the drilled not punched flash holes.

Your dead on Lapua is friggin top notch brass.

Well I'm gonna buy some Norma, (even though I don't need any) just to check it out.

I wound up getting RWS for my .300 Win when I couldn't get any more Lapua.

OK sorry for the hijack.........................

Seafire, I agree with you but just cruise this forum and you will be told time and time again that the game you are shooting is worth a little extra you spend on a premium. So many guys want to use light for intended game calibers or bullets so they depend on a premium bullet to hold together. Then they believe those who use a caliber sized large enough to do the job with some leeway should also use a premium.

I've only been loading since 2006. I really have had great success with the AB and Interbond on both paper and game.

I've learned though, that my very accurate Sierra Pro-Hunter and Game Kings shoot like match bullets and kill most game very well for substantially less.

I'm a hell of a horder as well!!!!!! I feel you can never have enough, and it's not like the stuff goes bad!! Besides, it's always nice to ahve enought to loan a buddy in need --

Agreed.

Should I tell my 12 year old great niece who shot her first buck Saturday with her Ruger MK II 257 Roberts and 100gr Partitions that according to recent marketing trends those bullets from that old marginal cartridge should have bounced off that deer at 125yds like popcorn instead of leaving two blood trails. That's entrance and exit.

Nahhhhhhhhhhhh, it would break her heart.

Firearms marketing these days is mostly about perception, creating a need, where realistic or not; to sell product.

In the vein of this thread, I'm still PO'ed that Barnes long ago discontinued their original line of bullets that earned them their reputation initially- those cup and core bullets made with dead soft copper jackets and dead soft lead cores. Ugly and crude looking but boy did they work well for me.

quote:

Every year, seems the favorite bullets that I have used for eternity, are discontinued and "new improved" super trendy bright ideas replace them?

I second that!

The Speer 270 calibre 150 grain Hot Cor is just one such! Fortunately I managed to purchase all five hundred that a gun shop in Wales had is stock.

And I had and enjoyable two hour train journey to do it with lovely views of the coast as the railway swept along between roadway and the sea.

... bring back the 45 grain Nosler SP solid base ....

Most of the old components are available if you check old stock and auctions.
You may have to bring money but how many boxes of hunting bullets do you really need to expend in the field?

It's a balancing act. Once they figure that everybody has squirreled away 500 or 1000 of them, they change tooling and create another need. With, of course, a higher price. If they add the word "tacticool" to it's description, they double the price. Kinda like new and improved soap powder.

Seafire,

That is why God invented cast bullets.

Cast bullet (heavy for caliber) + 2,200 fps = dead game within 200 yards

Barstooler

A lot of what it is about is discontinue your favorite bullet/s. Bring out some thing new or old and say it is new then jack the price per hundred or even the same price but for 50 only.
I just hate those new round plastic powder jugs. They waste space on the shelf and the bigger mouth sucks too.
I saved a crate of the black plastic oil bottles and washed them out good. When I buy a jug of powder I trans fer it to a old oil jug with a freash home made label.

Al

quote:

that bullet manufacturers keep discontinuing bullet designs that have worked for years??

Every year, seems the favorite bullets that I have used for eternity, are discontinued and "new improved" super trendy bright ideas replace them??

Damn straight! My favorite bullet for my Winchester M70 Featherweight is the Sierra 170 gr. round nose. Dunno when they dropped it but when I called about trying to get some, they had no interest in ever running another batch. They said there would have to be a big phone call and letter write-in to ever get that one back on the scene. So I have to switch to the 175 gr. Hornady but I'll be damned if I can find any in town and I feel current price from Midway is just a bit out of line.
I was talking with a guy here in town that had three boxes of the Sierras that I like but somehow we never could hook up.
I've developed some serious arthritis in my right shoulder so the harder kicking rifles are not getting used like I did in years past. The magnums are wasting away from disuse and about the hardest kicking rifle I'll shoot anymore is my .35 Whelen and that's if I do an elk hunt.
I'm getting close to my seventh decade on theis planet and the old bod complains more and more all the time. Recoil just isn't the fun/challenge it used to be. I might do one more elk hunt and after that just stick to deer and antelope. I figure for them, the old 7x57 will work just fine.
Paul B.