Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bullet pricing

I like the 30 cal Partitions I own. It’s likely a lifetime supply considering the number of hunting shots per year. I will buy a box or two of 25 cal Partitions when they return to availability.
But for the rest of the target/range use in the rifles I’m grateful for the Speer, Hornady, and others I have found in good supply.
If our state goes off the deep end and declares copper for hunting I have a nice stash of Barnes TTSX. (Even just found some 25’s)
I don’t think Nosler is trying to hold back, but if they were mandated by their state gov to restrict business that must be a heck of a hole to climb out of as a business. Their stuff is well made and in short supply. And guys are buying at the price the market will hold. No issue with the free market. I Just can’t see punching paper at that $ point.

years ago i stock up my reloading supply also living within 30 miles of a great ammo factory my uncle was a engineer , very good friend i hunted and fished with a lot was a very important engineer/manager at that ammo factory ,many friends worked there too . so i got plenty free-bees , enough bullets ,brass cases , primers ,powder probably for 3 life times for hunting , most of my bench rest ammo i reload for i stock up heavy on . if your a ammo handloader you need to get your inventory built up when you can mine is from 45 years of buying extra plus family and friends have helped me a lot too. i still buy some bullets yet i am very impressed with Hammer Bullets . good luck ,Pete53

In the past,I have had three friends who have past on and their wives have asked me to sell their reloading supplies and keep some of what I could use.

Aside form buying some 38 cal cast bullets and sales from SPS thru the years, I have not bought much in the way of supplies. Less than 3 pounds of handgun and AR powders..

Now I find myself close in age and health to those who I sold supplies for. Not too long in the future, someone is going to get a heck of a deal like I did.

Me, too, if you can’t tell by now.

DF

One good thing about stockpiled stuff is that after a certain amount of time has passed, it becomes essentially “free”, especially if I’ve forgotten I had it. Just realized I have at least 750 40gr Varmageddons that will work well for loading 5.7x28. Might be more, it’s hard to count with all those little bags in a plastic tub sliding around.

I’m short on .358 Partitions but found a new box in my stash. I won’t pay $100 for a box of Partitions until Hell freezes over. If the People’s Republic of Oregon is stalling their production output, shame on them for staying there and tolerating that environment. Sad…

A person today needs to have a few years of supply on hand so they don't get caught with their pants down.

Nosler just got greedy. Sometimes the obvious answer is just what it is.

I've got enough bullets, powder, and primers to last the rest of my life. If Nosler wants to run themselves out of business trying to milk the golden goose it's not my problem.

Well I have a lifetime supply of primers and 25cal Hornady bullet's. Ever get store's stocked up again I'm putting in a lifetime supply of bullets and powder. Everything else I have lot's of. I think if we got rid of the scalpers somehow it would help! Oh BTW, I've got a lifetime supply of 22 cal bullets right now. Problem is no 22 cal rifle and they are very old Herter bullets! Have tried a lot of Herter bullet's but not the most accurate I've ever seen. Hornady fan for 50 yrs and pretty big on Speer Hot Cores too, only the hot cores!

You don’t really own bullets. Someday you have to send them off into the world, and you won’t get many Partitions back……

Pretty sure all my .308 Partitions are 150s, either the Gold version I got from Graf’s sale flyer for $8 a box years ago, or the overruns SPS sold for $20, so I could shoot them at paper without too much remorse, but those are really good deer killers and my progeny can use them when I don’t need them anymore.

It isn't any of my business why a company charges what they do for the finished product. I either think it is worth the money and buy it, or not.
Not much different than asking a self employed plumber or electrician to explain their hourly wage.

The last time I bought partitions was about 13 years ago. Bought 2,000 seconds, 30 caliber, 180 grain. Cost was $10.99 per 50.

Been reading this thread all along. I have reloaded ctr fire since I was 14 and now 68 so I have all the components that I might actually need. Sometimes when you buy a rifle that is chambered for some cartridge you never had you have to scramble a bit to round up the components like 25-20,9.3×62, or the 307 win.but they are out there somewhere. If you didn't have to look hard for them chances are you would not learn as much. I like and use Nosler partitions but will gladly use whatever I have and still get the job done. Hate to see Nosler price themselves out of my business but I guess they did years ago and now so has sps. A person has to wonder why only nosler has this monumental amount of 2nds is their work force that bad or is their tooling crapped out? I have never waited until I am out of something to go buy it, I buy when I see a good deal and have a pretty good handle on what I have and need. Wasn't that long a go more than a few people on the fire considered you a hoarder if you had what they waited to long to buy..maybe the damned boy scouts screwed me up when I was 13 and learned "Be Prepared"...mb

I really liked Nosler bullets and, probably, used them more than anything from the early seventies until they went to 50/box at nearly the same per box price as 100/box had been. That’s when I went to nearly all Sierras for most rifles with a few Hornady and Speers in applications for which Sierra didn’t make anything I felt suitable.

I have seen other companies and businesses go down the road Nosler seems to be going down when there was an excess of progeny who seemed to feel entitled to fat income from easy jobs that they were qualified for only by an accident of birth. Whether that’s the case with Nosler, I don’t know.

Just my opinion, but Nosler has been overpriced for years. No reason to shoot them, when others make as good, and more accurate products.

There was a time when talk like that would have seen you pilloried here.

My belief is that you don't always need a bullet like a Partition or a Barnes to get the job done. Lord knows, the BP and cast bullet shooters would tell you that. But there are also times when you want something with a little "oomph", to use the technical term. Partitions fill that role quite well.

I guess its a combination of things. What you hunt and where and...how deep your pockets are.

Might be that simple Redgewell but I simply don't like someone trying to poke me in the azz...mb

Nosler has lost their collective minds. Shopping at 2 retailers yesterday, Sportsmans whorehouse and Bruno Shooters.
6.5 mm Nosler AB were $1.04 each!
300 brass was $99 for 25; $4 a piece.

I bought Sierra and Bergers for less than 60 cents a piece.
What a joke.

Yeah, I wish we knew what is going on in the heads of the board members at Nosler. Given that the prices of other bullets haven't gone up that much, it makes you wonder if they are squeezing shooters for what they can get.

I just don’t understand the need for premium bullets on deer sized game. I think loading the correct weight bullet at a reasonable speed is all you need.

Sure, if you have a magnum cartridge shooting a conventional cup and core at high velocity and shoot a critter up close you will have explosive results. That situation then leads me to the conclusion that most people hunting deer with magnum cartridges are over-gunned. My recent foray into more modest cartridges like the 6.5 Grendel really changed perception on what makes a good deer rifle.

I’m not knocking one’s decision for using a magnum round and/or premium bullets. I just think that when you fall into those categories then you have to accept the higher costs associated with shooting those more powerful rounds. Even still, if I used my 300 Win Mag for deer, I’d probably load a 200 grain cup and core around 2900 fps rather than a much more expensive, lighter weight premium bullet to chase speed. There isn’t a deer alive that will stop a 200 grain SGK at 2900 fps.

Took me a while, but I finally made meat with my Grendel last Fall, using the semi-premium 120gr Gold Dot. Made a marginal shot offhand and left-handed, but the bonded bullet dropped her in her tracks and sailed off into the ether after maybe a foot of penetration, including presumably the spine (someone else cut her up). Can’t imagine a better outcome. After years of blowing big, burping holes through deer with various cup & core bullets from .308s, .270s etc. I have to agree that often we’re over-gunned for average whitetails in the woods. Have to say, however, that Partitions have performed admirably in every instance where I used them, without excessive jellification of the eating meat, BUT they all have fortuitously been placed very neatly low in the chest, through the heart thus far. Different placement might change my mind.

My sons have each taken a deer with my 100gr .243 Partition loads with excellent results as well, but I wasn’t present to determine the shot placement. I suppose the case might be made for using the spendy slugs in smaller calibers, especially if you enjoy two holes in your deer. At some point, I hope to verify all the enthusiasm for the 95gr BTs, as I have a good many on hand, purchased cheaply as blems, and now essentially free since so much time has passed.