I wanted to share my most recent correspondence with the project manager from Cam Pro, Arnaud. They are the Canadian manufacturer of bullets.....my inquiry was to ask if they would consider to manufacture an "exact" duplicate of the 303 FMJ MKVII bullet. Some of my figures I included im my emails are are purely based on my assumptions and not necessarily based on actual figures so don't be too hard on me, I don't think I'm that far off though
Sent.......
Hi there.
Just wondering if you have given serious consideration to duplicating the WW2 303 British MKVII bullets.....174 grain spitzer open flat based .311 diameter.
There would be a considerable market for you in Canada and the USA.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Thanks
Reply.....
Hi ######
Thank you for your interest in our products and company.
We are presently working on a new 303 bullet, the new design will feature, amongst other things a spitzer point.
I hope it will feed and shoot just as well as the old one, and I hope we will be able to release it shortly.
Thanks again,
Arnaud Patoine-Danylo, ing.
Project manager
CamPro bullets / Metoplus Inc.
Sent......
Hi Arnaud
I would say 99% of people that will be interested in reloading 303 ammunition are for the purpose's of shooting their vintage military rifles at the range and "not" for hunting purposes. There are a lot of people that are interested in reloading a bullet "specifically" designed for the Lee Enfield, and you have the opportunity to fill that market . I would say that the vast majority dont use the 303 for hunting anymore so please dont make another hunting bullet, options for that already exist. Based on that info Cam Pro should strongly consider an "EXACT" duplicate of the FMJ flat based 174gr 303 MKVII bullet that shooters have been looking from the manufacturers for quite some time.
Anything else you make will be considered a disappointment for the vast majority of reloaders and I think your sales will naturally reflect that.
Thanks
Reply......
Hi ###XX
I understand your point of view, and I appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.
Unfortunately tooling and operating a transfer press to produce the exact duplicate of the FMJ flat base 174gr 303 bullets is not economically viable, for a market the size of the 303, and not for a company our size at least. As much as we would like to offer it, as a business we have to make choices, and when we realized that it wasn't viable to produce that exact product we preferred to offer something different that will be economically possible, and offer a good products that will be affordable to our customers and profitable to us, rather than discontinue the 303 british from our catalog forever.
Regards,
Arnaud Patoine-Danylo, ing.
Project manager
CamPro bullets / Metoplus Inc.
Sent.....
Ok thanks Arnaud for taking the time to address this situation.
Yes I have absolutely no idea what is involved in bullet manufacturing so from a practical standpoint of manufacturing and profitability in duplicating the 303 MKVII bullet it appears that Cam Pro has considered this idea at length so we'll leave it at that.
You do make great products and its great to have a Canadian company making bullets and that as shooters we dont have to rely completely on our southern neighbours. We thank you for that.
By the way Arnaud, do I have your permission to share our correspondence (the emails) we have had over this issue? I would like to share them on a thread on Gun Nutz.
Please let me know.
Thanks
Reply......
Sure
Arnaud Patoine-Danylo, ing.
Project manager
CamPro bullets / Metoplus Inc.
So there you have it, right from Cam Pro themselves. Sounds like the economics is the determining factor as usually it is and they did their homework. Too bad for us.....I just hope they didn't underestimate the size of the market