Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bullberry

Just found out about this and am disappointed to hear that Bullberry is shutting down. The made two barrels for my Contender and both shoot LIGHTS OUT!

https://www.bullberry.com/

Very sad. Only have one of their barrels. It's a dandy.

I had experience with him twice. One was a very good experience and the other was a joke. The .223 barrel I got from him did twenty shots in under an inch at 100, though.

Owned several of his barrels, visited the plant and did an article about him and his products.

We don't read much about Contenders these days; perhaps their time is past, also.

You may be right Rocky, but some of us antiques are going to hang onto them for awhile yet.

Dan

PS: Pigs hate them down this way.

PPS: Is this sufficiently "tacticool" to survive? I hope so because Mr. Sneezer is a cold hearted bastid.

This is the best backpacking rifle ever made.IMHO

Dan, Mr Sneezer is indeed a potent pig puncher. Chambering?

My tenders aren’t going anywhere. And when I’m gone my left handed shooting son will carry on.

Why it is the world famous .30 Sneezer. World hasn't figured that out yet.




185 grains of pure pig poison.


Working load these days runs about 1050 fps with a kick in the butt from Blue Dot.

What's in the grooves Dan?

That's a bummer, I had a custom Encore made by Virgin Valley Arms years back, and they shut down shortly thereafter......always thought about getting another barrel or two made for it.....

Tim

I lube them with dilute ALOX and when it is close to dry dust them with a mix of motor mica and graphite. They are sized .309 after the lube job and shot from a 12" twist barrel....they don't ever lead the barrel.

Have done the same with the Lyman 31141 w/o the gas check and it works as well. 5 shots on the top target. No Bull Berries.

Neat.

Years ago when Dad was casting/sizing a bunch he used Tamarack 50/50. It sure was sticky and I liked to put motor mica on them too.

Few years ago it took me months to sell a Contender with .223 and a 45/410 barrels at fair price, no one seemed to want it.
I understand, and don't miss it.
We used to have a fella at all the gun shows in this area selling T/C items, his display seemed to shrink and now AFAIK is gone.

The article mentions that Fred’s right hand man at Bullberry is looking to continue in Fred’s footsteps with the barrel making.

That case looks to be just a titch smaller than a 30 Herrett, which I suspect would work indistiguishably. Parent case for the Sneeze?

Whenever I see that cartridge mentioned I think of your article and my father taking up deer hunting with a Contender so chambered.

Well, another drift, sorry, but would like to know mold mfr. & alloy for those Beautiful bullets.

The parent case is the .357 Mag and I'll be the first to say the idea isn't original. Couple of other fellows have done similar things with the .38 Spcl and .357 Mag cases, but theirs were largely directed at jacketed bullets and full throttle. I went with my gut on the longer neck and intent to shoot subsonic with lead only. Bullberry's staff panicked a bit when I asked for the 12" twist, maybe because they are accustomed to those new fangled J-bullets? The case has very close to the same internal volume as the .300 BO. Like +/- a tenth or two of a grain.

Anyway, the alloy in the pictured bullets is 30:1 and I've since hardened it up a little with alloys that run in the range of 10-11 BHN. The 20# pot gets about 10-11 ounces of tin, 16 pounds of lead and about 3 pounds of clip on WW as I recall. The recipe is buried in the books somewhere but that's close. In the pic below is one made from the slightly harder alloy.


Not terribly relevant but the one of the left is a paper patch bullet for a .45-70 and on the far right is an AP core from an AK-47 that couldn't penetrate my hard head.


Mould maker was Steve Brooks https://brooksmoulds.com/index.html and the reamer was cut by Manson Reamers. https://mansonreamers.com/ I have nothing but the highest praise for both of those gents.

How very kind of you to remember it, mathman.