just heard that woodleigh bullets has burnt down Geoff will not be rebuilding his business...sad news!!

Bugger. Any details?

Real shame. I guess Geoff is getting on a bit now and feels a re-build is not want he wants at this time of his life. Hopefully RWS and Norma have enough stock of his bullets to continue loading their big game ammo for a while. Both companies have produced their own bullets, Norma still does, RWS not so for the large calibres in recent years relying on Woodleigh for these but I guess may still have the capability in house.

Damn, a real icon in the world of specialty large calibre bullets gone.

Apparently Shirley is in hospital with smoke inhalation, wishing her a speedy recovery..

Woodleigh have always been great to deal with and a fabulous asset for NE shooters, and shooters of obsolete cartridges.

Let’s hope they rebuild.

From another forum, Geoff is fine and Shirley back home but factory is totaled.
I imagine it would be a major job to rebuild the business if all the machinery is totaled. Buildings can be rebuilt easily but specialized machinery not so. Only surmising but much of Woodleigh's tooling would be custom built or very modified to produce the type of bullets that Geoff was producing. Profiles, jacket thicknesses, etc., were pretty unique to Woodleigh.
To see a good part of your life's work completely destroyed in an instant would be heartbreaking and a long way to come back from even if you could find the energy and the will.

I recently contacted Woodleigh as I was missing a couple of their catalogues from my 'collection' from when they first started and was kindly sent some of what they still had from early years.

Geoff made his first safari on Aussie buffalo in 1979 after he acquired a couple of large calibre guns. This was a year after I arranged a cobbled together buffalo hunt for myself and a fellow hunter in 1978. From Geoff's description of his safari with a couple of fishing mates ours sounds very similar. None of us had dangerous game experience or really knew what to expect, but in the end it all worked out, for Geoff going on to founder Woodleigh from his experience on that safari. Very sad to think it has ended as it has.

I just managed to score a box of 303’s. I now have my son looking for them

I have a sealed box of 9.3 286 grs FMJ`s that are too solid for my use here if any members want to buy.

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
I just managed to score a box of 303’s. I now have my son looking for them

Hey Bakes, pretty sure I have some laying around here somewhere if you're interested?

Cheers,
Mark.

Yeah mate. I’ll PM you.

quote:

Originally posted by gryphon1:
I have a sealed box of 9.3 286 grs FMJ`s that are too solid for my use here if any members want to buy.

Did you sell them, John? Do I glean that they might have steel jackets, considered possibly a strain on double-barrels?

No I havent sold them.