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I learned a very hard lesson when Speer changed their Grand Slam alloys. Then I moved on to Nosler Partition Gold-Moly and was very happy. We all know what happened there. Then I tried North Fork, same deal. When they went belly-up the light finally came on for me. Swift Scirocco never worked out. I do appreciate the Swift A Frames with limited use. As an avid reloader I can list the bullets "I wuz gonna" try in order to finalize my big game bullet needs in an effort to settle on something I could always buy. Gotta say, the only trustworthy choices have been CoreLokt & NBT's as far as reliable availability goes. But, even so, Nosler changes the BT construct at will without public notification.

After my realization it was then I decided to lay in a supply. BobinNH mentored me on that due to his true love of Bitterroot bullets. So now I have quite a hoard of bullets I may never shoot, but I have them. I even purchased a supply of Trophy Bonded when that craze started. Then, they pulled those & decided to redesign them to the EDGE TLR which I bought a supply of.

Obviously the marketers cannot make up their mind what they want to offer on a long term basis. So, I have opted to rely on Scenar, Accubond or NBT's & working on a lifetime supply of them. I'm about halfway there. Don't even get me started on reliable gunpowder supplies.

Due to this, I now buy reserve supply of products I like at the onset. I'm thinking I aint the only one quite disenchanted with the whole thing.

I’ve been “stocking up” for several years now on the components of which I use a lot. My problem is that I like to shoot. A lot! I keep using up my overstock....

I haven't had much trouble keeping a supply of Nosler Partitions on hand. The original premium hunting bullet still works and is still available!

I haven't drank the premium bullet Kool-aid, plain old cup and core bullets like Hornady and Sierra Game Kings are accurate enough for me and perform well on the game that I hunt. Don't obsess over such matters, find a good load and go out and shoot stuff, works for me.

ACTUALLY sometimes I think it's all just because the marketing ass h*les get bored from one week to the next.They tell design people to "improve" something so they have a new advertising line. So something that works and sells is sacrificed for the chance of a percentage increase in sales for something that isn't as good. Classic example is the distortion in the market caused by Sandyhook. Bullet makers could not keep up with demand but Hornady used that as an excuse to discontinue old favorites like the.243 100 gd SP and the100 gr .257 SP so the SST line could be promoted. I guess it works because when I run out of favorites above I'll move on to the 95 gr NBT& NPT 243 Noslers and 100 gr Npt & Nbt 257. When you finally get comfortable with a product buy lots because sure as sh^t some some moron with his ball cap on backwards and his pants halfway down his ass will come piss in your raisin bran and fock it all up or make it go away for " new & improved".Everthing that is new and improved not allways is Mb

I beg to differ – it's the tinkering shooters that can't make up their minds.

In my industry and what I'm working with now, we've come up with the product and asked marketing to sell it.

Might be a little backwards compared to the rest tho.

Partitions aren’t going anywhere

While working for a major consumer products company the motto seemed to be "Perfection is on barrier to change"

Got a lifetime supply of Partitions in 358. But I have a large supply of Corelokts too. That, with the 223 and 308 I will never have enough of. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Nosler solid bases, speer deep shocks, speer deep curls, 100 and 120 Hornady 257s; 120ge 257 Hot Cores; 100gr RN 243; 117gr Sierra PH. I seem to have a knack for picking bullets that will soon be discontinued.

Me too.

Winchester Failsafes were impressive bullets.

180 round nose Core-Lokts for the .300 Savage.

Hornady 154 round nose in 7mm. I have enough for my needs. I guess with long range dialing they and some other round nose bullets have lost favor.

Two examples of screwing around that come to mind are a bad run of Accubonds caused by some ding dong employee trying to do things his own way, and about 10 years ago when Hornady changed the construction of the 180 .308 interlocks without telling anyone. In both instances a fine product people had come to count on was sullied and consumer trust was lost.

I've been able to pick up some vintage Speer Grand Slam and even Speer Deep Shock component bullets through watching numerous online venues. However I haven't become a reloader yet, and who knows when I might get the opportunity to now. My still in production component bullet choices have been Nosler Accubond and Norma Oryx. I have some 7mm 155 grain Federal Edge TLR bullets on hand and I still plan to try them. The similar Terminal Ascent bullets have the same BC, I figure the second wide groove is just for further reduction in barrel fouling since the published BC & minimum impact expansion velocity is the same as the Edge TLR. I don't shoot a whole swarm of 7mm cartridges.

In other areas, several of the smaller, more boutique ammunition manufacturers I've purchased from still show ammunition in stock, and availability of hunting rifle ammo in stock increasing since the end of 2019-2020 Whitetail season.

I really wanted to test those & had intended to adopt them solely in my 284’s. But, I did not want to go through the same “off the market” phase after putting the load testing efforts into it.

I have some calibers that I haven't reloaded in 10 years or more. I've found out that some of the bullets that were common at one time are no longer available. I don't know if it's permanent in all cases, or just because of other calibers selling more at the present. Hornady no longer makes a 220 grain .375 for the 38-55 and .375 Winchester, and Remington has stopped selling some of their popular bullets as reloading components. This is just a couple.

Like the OP, I used Speer Grand Slams until Speer changed the core. And, again like the OP, I went to North Fork, Swift A-Frame and Scirocco II. My hunting buddy still uses his stash of 7mm 160g Grand Slams (some of which I gave him) and I used his rifle to take my last bull elk, a 6x5. 411 yards, 4 steps and down. I suspect the bullet was the newer core variety but I could not tell any difference in performance.

Tried Barnes blue XLC (coated X) as well, with very inconsistent and unacceptable on-game performance. Developed loads for the TSX in several rifles but could not bring myself to use them on game due to my experience with the XLC bullets. When the MRX (tipped with tungsten core) were introduced I tried them and was very happy with the results. When the were no longer available I switched to TTSX and now use LRX as well.

When Mike Brady sold North Fork he sent me about 250 prototype 7mm 140g SS/HP bullets, They are awesome - I still have about 200 and use them in my 7mm RM and .280 Rem. Also stocked up on .308"/180g, .308" 165g and .458"/350g North Fork SS. Still have over 100 each of the 180g and 165g for my .300WM and .30-06 rifles and about 300 of the 350g for my .45-70. (I know, way more bullet than needed for the .45-70. But 5-shot E.S. of 5pfs, super accuracy and great on-game performance, I don't care. Love them!)

These days I still use the 120g A-Frame in my .257 Roberts, 130g Scirocco II in my 6.4-06AI, North Fork in my .280 Rem, 7mm RM, .30-06 and .300WM rifles. Elsewhere, and even for those rifles, I've worked up loads for Barnes TTSX, TAC-TX and LRX; Nosler Ballistic Tip, AccuBond and AccuBond Long Range and Hornady SST, ELD-X and ELD-M. When I find a load my rifles like, I stock up on the bullet.

Did an inventory yesterday. It totaled up to this:

650 12 gauge (00, Turkey, goose and dove/clay)
2,460 Loaded centerfire rifle and handgun (mostly handloads except for semi-auto handgun loads)
6,750 component bullets
17,800 Rimfire (.22 Short, Long Rifle and Win Mag)

26,000 primers
Thousands of pieces of brass ready to load (guessing about 5,000, handgun and rifle)
~80 pounds of powder



Bought more component bullets yesterday. Going to build reduced recoil loads (in .32 H&R Mag brass) for the .327 Fed wife uses for home defense. Once done and tested, I will lay in a stock of the bullet weight for the load I prefer.