Petition for a Canadian bullet manufacturer

tjhaile said:
Bullet Barn's pricing seems rather high for cast bullets. Both Cactus Plains and M.T. Chambers (Ben Hunchak) sell perfectly good cast bullets for much less.
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I don't know about Hunchak's bullets but comparing the Cactus Plains bullets to ones from the Bullet Barn is a non-starter.

The Cactus Plains bullets are cheap and it shows in the quality. Mis-formed bases and noses with voids and craters in a lot of the bullets.

Lois - the owner-operator of the Bullet Barn - has a lot of pride in her product and it shows. Hers is a top-quality bullet capable of accuracy that is just not possible with the cheaper stuff.
 
There is a cast bullet manuf in Nanaimo already and pricing for cast is CHEEP by comparison to my assortment of jacketed stuff. A WHOLE lot cheaper. Getting set up to cast load for my 38-55 and may play with the 308 to see what that does. May be too fast but may not. Anybody out there loaded cast for 308?
 
I've never had any problems with the Cactus Plains bullets. Any that I have ever used have had no voids and are of consistent diameter and weight.
 
Why not? said:
Okay, boys and girls, here's the first group shot with the 9.3 Matrix 270 gr bonded core.

Shot late this afternoon, rifle set up just the way it hunts with Leupold 3X scope, 100 yd, -15C, starting load, 58 gr Varget, WLR primer, Norma brass, 2364 fps out of 21 inch barrel. Target grid is half-inch.

This is good news. :) Will post some more tomorrow.

Ted
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Hi Ted

Is this the Higgins 9.3X62? I hope all is well with the rifle.

The velocity you're getting is virtually the same as I was getting with Speer 270 gr bullets. Interestingly enough, the same load with some 286 gr Hornadys was only 10 fps less than with the 270 Speers.
Paul
 
Roger that, Paul. AOK, headspace corrected, rifle doing very well. ;)

I know that is very low velocity for a 270 gr, but brand new bullet for me, so just loaded six to get started. The other three shot group was the same size. Am going to start load workup next week, and expect to make it well past 2500 fps easily.

BTW, Bevan King is rebarelling a Marlin XL7 to 9.3X62 for me. I'm tired of beating nice wooden-stocked rifles up on a Skidoo. Should be right at eight pounds with scope, sling and a full magazine. :)

Ted
 
Wow, lots of Canadian companies I was not aware of!
One not mentioned yet is ABC, Accurate Bullet Company, in BC.
I think they do lathe turned brass rifle projos.
 
tootall said:
Wow, lots of Canadian companies I was not aware of!
One not mentioned yet is ABC, Accurate Bullet Company, in BC.
I think they do lathe turned brass rifle projos.
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Hmm, what a coincidince. When I first started shooting IPSC, the best cast lead bullets in Ontario were made by a company with the same name. They were beautifully formed, excellent weight, nicely lubed, and with a nice cleanly cut sprue.
 
And then there was McCracken - world-class benchrest bullets. But he would have lived "in a van down by the river" if it was his sole income - maybe it was. Long gone now, I still have a box.
 
Boomer said:
Seems to me we used to have a Canadian ammunition manufacturing corporation that existed under 3 different names in my lifetime, before they disappeared altogether. They produced loaded ammo, produced their own line of bullets, and produced brass for a broad range for cartridges available to handloaders. Sounds like a can't loose situation, I wonder what ever happened to them?
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What ever happened to Dominion and Imperial? Where did their tooling go?
 
The tooling from CIL/SNC/Dominion Civilian plant was sold to Eldorado/PMC, then recently to Jamison. I was speaking last year to an ex-employee and he stated it was in bad shape when they sold it. Needed a complete rebuild. This was one big reason why they did not continue.

BTW Dominion and Imperial are alive now only as trademarks (for now)
 
CanAm said:
The tooling from CIL/SNC/Dominion Civilian plant was sold to Eldorado/PMC, then recently to Jamison. I was speaking last year to an ex-employee and he stated it was in bad shape when they sold it. Needed a complete rebuild. This was one big reason why they did not continue.

BTW Dominion and Imperial are alive now only as trademarks (for now)
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I see. Was there anything special enough in their bullets to warrant a patent - for example KKSP or Sabertip?
 
That's interesting, I didn't realize that the KKSP was bonded, that would have been a pretty dramatic departure for a bullet designed in the '50s or early '60s. Same goes for the nylon tip of the Saber-Tip, now various versions can be seen from several different makers. CIL's Copper Point Expanding and Remington's Bronze Point Expanding were very similar, so clearly there were some pretty talented engineers over there. The fact that Dominion/CIL/IVI did not see the continued production of sporting ammunition as viable enough to warrant continued investment in tooling is curious in hindsight, as handloading and shooting today consumes far larger quantities of components than it did in my formative years, and the international markets have expanded. Perhaps chosing not to reinvest in the tooling was not a business decision, rather perhaps those leaders of industry decided they did not want a Candian flagship company associated with the civilian use of small arms.
 
I just checked, KK was not bonded, it was a method of preventing jacket separation by creating "teeth" in the jacket to bite into the core (ala Rem Core-Lokt). I had assumed it was a hot core/bonded core process.
 
I'd like to sign up for this petition as well. I require match accuracy, 30 cal hunting rounds. I am willing to pay $15 per 100, including taxes and delivery. Put me down for 100, please. If you also tool up for .224 bullets, I'll take 200 blitzking equivalents for $25 please.

When can I expect delivery?



:p
 
acrashb said:
And then there was McCracken - world-class benchrest bullets. But he would have lived "in a van down by the river" if it was his sole income - maybe it was. Long gone now, I still have a box.
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I can agree with that, I have a hard enough time selling bullets at cheap prices... if I had to make them I would just have to give them away because the market in Canada can not support what is already being manufactured...

I have had some types of bullets sitting on the stock shelf for 2 years now they are compeditivly priced and still no one buys them...

You would be really foolish to try and sell to civilian market if you wanted to start up a bullet mfg business.

I talked with general dynamics about why they no long mfg for cilivan market place and now I know why they stopped.
 
I have been tooling up for the past 4 months to make bullets I will be making .224 .243 .308 in rifle bullets and some handgun bullets as well in the most popular calibers.
I will also be making the necessary dies and punches to make other popular rifle bullets as time goes on, it is a lot of work to set up , each caliber requires many dies and punches and alot of midnight oil.The next on the list is 7mm so maybe you guys could let me know what you might like it would give me a better idea what will sell better .
I should have some bullets available shortly after the new year .
 
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