Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Stay Away from Conley Precision Ammo Company

Just want to give fellow shooters a heads up to avoid this company like the plague. The facts.... I ordered ammo from this company and was promised the order within 4-6 weeks. After 8 weeks still no word so I send a friendly e-mail to find that the order has not even started. 9 weeks, 10 weeks......no ammo. They have caller ID and refuse to answer the phone when I call. I know this because I called and got their answering machine only to get an e-mail from them 30 seconds later. They were clearly avoiding me and trying not to deal with the problem they created. I send another e-mail to complete the order or give me a refund. A week later I get half the order and half refund with no explanation other than sorry. So all that wasted time to still be unsatisfied.

This is the part where I blame myself a bit... I gave them a second chance to make good and place another order a few weeks later because they have better prices than others. I contact them ahead of time to tell them that I do not want to put up with what happened last time and I was willing to give them another chance if they could complete the order within 6 weeks. If they could not then I will not order. They oblige and I order. After all it couldn't happen twice... AGAIN 6 weeks go by and I send a friendly e-mail, nothing, 7 weeks another friendly e-mail and no response , back to 8 weeks and again no answering of the phone calls. Oh sheet why did I give them another chance?

Now a demanding e-mail...complete my order or refund me. A day later surprisingly a return e-mail saying they refunded my card. 2 weeks go by and no refund. I demand again my refund and they tell me it was processed and they refuse to deal with me any longer. I call my bank to find out that they never did refund me as they said they did. Now I have to file a claim to get the money back.

So stay away from this company if you know what's good for you. I was ordering ammo for a rare caliber for hunting season. I know you will all jump on me and say roll your own , which I plan to do next year the funds just aren't there to aquire equipment right now. This BS started back in May and I'm still suffering as a result and don't want this to happen to another of you.

If I may ask, what caliber was it?

Some things really do suck...and that do! Thanks for the heads up.

Caliber is my namesake .358 Win

Do you still need help loading it?

On a side note, you could get a cheap lee kit, awful cheap to start.
I don't know if they even offer the hand kits anymore, I started on one of those, with a plastic mallet years back as a kid..... I think 10 bucks for the kit and it did all my 243/6mm ammo for probably 5 years or more.

Jeff

That would be great if somehow possible. I don't plan on trying my hand at it this close to season.

My guess is that they are having brass supply problems; probably can't get brass with their headstamp - or any other name in 358 Winchester at the present time. War can do that. That doesn't justify what they are doing. Some simple communcation would have been nice.

The great thing about rolling your own for that cartridge is that you can simply neck up 308 brass and use that. People who sell ammo probably don't want the potential liability of building custom ammo in improperly headstamped cases.

Rost - They still offer the Lee Loader kits for about $15-18. Caliber selection is somewhat limited these days, but you can get just about anything you want on Ebay.

I know this doesn't mean much, but graf and sons has 358 in stock for brass, up to quantities of 2000...

Thanks guys for all your positive comments.

As far as the brass issue goes I also asked if they had properly headstamped brass in stock and was told they did. I wouldn't have cared if I had to wait longer for it as long as they contacted me and told me so. They just chose to deliberately avoid me not once and not twice but constantly and consistently. There is absolutely no excuse for that. Avoiding a customer only makes matters much worse. A friendly.. "sorry about the delay but were are having a hard time locating some of your components" is all I needed and I didn't even get that much.

My sentiments exactly. I have not had a good experience with them at all as well. I had the same experience with wait times, took me 14 weeks to get my only order from them and could not get in touch with them at all. I even sold one of the guns for which I ordered ammo and they wouldn't give me a refund. Luckily I had another 7mm caliber gun and made them use the same bullets to load for that gun. I liked the ammo when I finally got it and it shoots great and all are hot loads but I haven't ordered from them since and won't order again in the future.

Did you stop to consider that you are trusting these people to load safe and acurate ammo for you ? Lets just say they don't instill a huge bunch of confidence for me. Why not just order factory ammo from someplace like Midway, Grafs, Mid south ?

Believe me I tried to get factory ammo. It isn't exactly easy to find. There is only 1 guy who sells it regularly on Gunbroker and he raises and lowers the prices as he chooses to induce a supply and demand type thing, since he seems to have the monopoly on .358 Win factory loads. He also bids high on anyone else's auctions who tries to sell .358 Win ammo so that it would only make more sense to buy from him. I've had his number for awhile and don't like that kind of game play. Midway didn't even get any in stock this year as far as I know. My rationale was that why should I pay this guy around $60 or more now shipped for a box of lame Silvertips when I can get my choice of premium bullets loaded and delivered for much less plus it SEEMED that I was able to order many different loads so I could pick the most accurate and order again before the season. I was wrong.

Thanks for your reply Ebby, though I am sorry that you also had a bad experience. The Campfire is the place where I first found out about Conley and I know from time to time guys come in and ask about them before ordering so hopefully this thread will save some good people from getting it done to them.

Yeah, I thought they'd be great but no such luck. I have used superior ammo as well for my .358 and have had great luck. He does sample packs and will send you several loads in the same bullet or different bullets and when you find which one you like, he will send you a bunch of those. Always easy to get a hold of and very very nice fellow. I have used them several times and although their loads are not quite as hot as some, I will continue to use them. My .358 likes one load very well. Highly recommended.

Man that sucks. If you are near southwest Va I would be glad to load some for you. I have never fired a factory round through my BLR but I have only seen it a handful of times.

Get a kit and load your own. It's easy and fun and I'll bet there are plenty guys here willing to help you out.

http://www.kcprecisionballistics.com/rifle-ammo.html

I buy a lot of stuff from this guy. He has 358s'.

I actually stumbled upon a miracle yesterday. I quit going to gun shows years ago but since the show was in town this weekend I decided to go poke around and maybe find some ammo. Actually I didn't think I'd find any. I got 2 boxes of factory Silvertips for a good deal. Not exaclty what I had in mind to use for this year but as long as they do 1.5" or so I'm just gonna go with these and deal with it and next year get reloading equipment instead of another gun for my next project.

Thanks for the other 2 ammo companies. I didn't even know they existed. I'll check them out.

As far as the Lee hand kits, do they make them for .358? The ones I saw were for standard chamberings.

I was looking online at die sets. I have seen 2 and 3 dies sets. Which ones should I go for? Redding, Hornady, RCBS? Have you guys had better luck with any certain set? Many Thanks

Redding or RCBS is generally the route I go. I have bought Lyman, and occasionally Lee, but wouldn't buy a set of Hornady dies under any circumstances.