Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Sierra Bullets have lost the market.

The big gun shop I was in this week had very few Sierra bullets. They had rows and rows of Hornady and other brands including a large selection of bulk bullets.

When I started out reloading in the 50's Sierra was the talk of the town. I shot them for game, pests and target.

Recently a rifle was not shooting well and drastic changes in loading technique were tried. I saw an old box of Sierras and thought: "Heck I might as well shoot these up, at least Sierras shoot."

Sierra is a good old company that has lost the market. Is there any hope? What should they do? Do they care? Now that lead is under attack I wonder.

One customer, one store, one observation. ???????

Many stores, many observations, one customer.

Also I don't hear much Sierra chatter on the forums. Its Barnes, Berger, Hornady etc.

I see that too. I always thought that the two groups that made sierra money were varmit and target crowds. I have no idea what the varmit guys shoot, but 20 years ago when I shot some target it was all Sierra and some of those guys went through more bullets than 50 hunters would have in a year. Now days there are a lot of accurate, high BC bullets and though I no longer hang out in those circles I suspect its not all matchking like it once was.

I have chatted with a tech at Sierra for years. They just recently got caught up on their inventory.

Many stores, many observations, one customer.

Still not near enough for a concrete answer IMO !!!

Sierra is doing just fine. Big game bullets have always been a relatively small part of their market. The biggie for them is target shooting, with varmints second, and there's been a big increase in both markets in recent years.

I spoke with my friend Carroll Pilant at SHOT and asked why they had no new products this year. He said, "Because we're already running the production line at maximum capacity with our established bullets. When would we make something new?"

They're shipping them as fast as they can make them. If you don't see them on shelves, it's possibly because people are buying them equally as fast.

Plus, many shooters who use LOTS of bullets (which describes target and varmint shooters) tend to buy in bulk via mail-order. So the bullets they buy don't ever show up in stores.

I was thinking the same as the OP about Speer bullets. Speers are hard to find in the gun shops and online sources I frequent. Lots of Hornady stuff to be had. I can't find Speer bullets.

At SHOT, I ask every manufacturer the same question or two. This year, I was struck by the relative lack of new products, so that's what I asked about. Almost every company gave one or both of two answers: We decided not to risk much R&D money in the current economy OR We are producing at capacity and simply can't make new products without decreasing the supply of high-demand ones.

All good and valid observations above.

A company can indeed maximize profit with an old investment. Its a right answer.

However in my world Sierra seemed big and then when controlled expanding bullets, plastic meplats and partitions came out they ignored them.

They lost me when, it seemed to me, that they did not put the plastic metlats on bullets until after Nosler did.

There is nothing better for free enterprise than healthy competition between companies that produce the same goods. Now we have Ballistic Tips, V-Max, and Blitz Kings.

Sierra, Speer and Hornady all keep canceling the bullets I like from their production lines. My old school thinking and lives, don't jive with the current trends of other varminters and hunters.

" new and improved" sells... time proven doesn't...

Although the distance game is traditionally taken at hasn't changed... people's thoughts on needing a bullet and caliber that can 'take game at 500 yds' the size of a truck...

or 1000 yd prairie dog capabilities is what too much of the market wants, so that is what is catered to....

I've been by Sierra's plant, Speers, Nosler's and Hornady's..
the one that was focused on expanding their physical size was Hornady....

I always thought it was ironic, that as the number of bullet company's increase and their lines expand as people are supposedly shooting more...that the number of companies making powder has decreased... even tho more and more 'types' of powder are becoming available... almost all distributed by a company that doesn't make powder, just distributes it..Hodgdon.

Myself, I think more folks would buy Sierra Bullets if they were lower in price, but they are always the highest price of generic bullets eg: non premium..

I like sierra bullets and want to get some for my 6.8 but haven't yet. Wish I would have. I usually load blitzking in my 22-250 but couldn't get them at the local store so I went for 52gr. a-max. Sucks wish I could have just stayed with the blitzkings but I haven't shot the hornady yet.

spot on i live about 120 miles from ther plant and shoot with some of there techs. i alone will shoot (HP shilhoutte 6.5 142mk) more bullets in a years time than most big game hunters will ever and alot of shilhoutte shooters will do the same thats not even as many people a the bench crowd! alot of this crowd still shoot sierra too.

I'm not thinking they have lost the market. There is a much bigger market now than 12 years or so ago. There are also many more players. It would be interesting to see the real numbers for a comparison. I don't feel the Sierra is as price competative as they once were.

I have not bought a Sierra bullet in a store in years and years. They rarely have them in lots of 1K+ and that's how I buy them.
I don't care if they increase capacity or not, as long as they keep their QC where it's at.

I don't think so...



You mean on THIS forum. Guys here tend to get in a rut of following certain trends. One of the trends here is Barnes. That's not everywhere.

Kind of like your one man/one shop observation on bullets, you're basing that on a one forum observation.



Very true. I shoot a lot more bullets at paper and groundhogs than I do deer. The vast majority of those shot are MatchKings.



Also true. The High Power guys at my club make a bulk buy drop shipped direct from Sierra. We need a minimum $5000 per order. There are "multiple" buys per year....



See my comment above. Mine usually come in boxes of 500 at a time, and there will be multiples of those in the box that I get. A typical buy for me in that group buy is usually between 2000 and 4000 bullets. Can't remember the last bullets I bought in a store.



Big +1 on that!

Five years ago I was buying several thousand sierra bullets a year. I have not bought any in at least 3 years, and still have 500-1000 (6.5s) of the sierras sitting in the shop. I started liking bergers and hornady bullets better.

Hornady used to have factory rejects available for purchase, and I think they still have. I was never aware of Sierra having factory rejects for sale. It always bothered me hornady had so many reject to sell while the other manufactures did not. It has always seemed to me that Sierra consistently for years have had the most accurate, repeatable bullets available from a large manufacturer.