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WV Hunter said:
Al-53 said:
Does any one know why they stopped making the deep Curls and some of the other older good bullets...

What I have heard is that according to Speer they haven't stopped making them at all, and are at full capacity - just that most of the bullets are going to other sources than retail right now. :huh?: ???????? How much demand is there anywhere for a .50 cal pistol bullet? I could see demand being much greater for .40 & .45, but alot of .50's have been out of stock forever also.

I dont think any of us know whats actually behind all these bullets (from a variety) of companies - conveniently being out of stock everywhere for a year and a half or better, when the companies tell us they are producing as many as they can. I have my suspicions, but no way to confirm it.

:wall:

http://www.americanrifleman.org/article ... -shortage/
 
During a "normal" production period a company may have a line devoted to each product such as a 40cal line, a 45cal line and a 50cal line. During peak demands for a certain caliber a line may be retooled for another. Since a 50cal bullet has only a fraction of the demand as a .451-452, they simply retool that line for .451-452 until supply meets the demand.

Sierra gives tours of their plant if you are ever in Missouri.

Speer supplies many many ammunition manufacturers especially for the high end self defense market. A huge chunk of bullets goes to these companies. Speer also uses a totally different process for "plating" bullets than your typical jacketed bullet. The process probably takes longer than swaging a jacket and core together. Speer isnt geared to making ONLY the DC/GD/UniCor type bullets like Berry's or Rainier either.

Some calibers simply take a back seat to calibers that are higher in demand. Jacketed and plated 458s for example are nowhere near as plentiful atm. Im sure DHS is not using any 45/70s or 458Win mags and im sure its not nearly as popular as a 308 in the civilian market. :p
 
I am sure a good percentage of bullets go to the ammo manufactorers and and some to the reloaders....the gun shops near me that use to carry a good amount of reloading components do not any more...also lots go to the military contracts...when i find bullets that work for me I stock up..cause next year you may not find them

whats funny is the shooting sport has really increased in the last few years...but the components to shoot with have decreased...

I know during turkey season here lots had a hard time finding turkey loads even Cabelas said they are wating for them to come in..been late for 3 weeks now
 
Hollow points are not allowed in military "war' ammo as defined at the Hague in the Laws of War aka Articles of War. Other contracts though surely place a high demand on the manufacturer and side line component sales.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/dec99-03.asp

The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions.
 
Well, here is my theory of 'why the non-availability' of Deep Curl. Me thinks Speer has lucrative contracts to supply Gold Dot bullets and/or ammo to law enforcement, and this is occupying their production i.e. production lines, are tied up producing 'self defense' bullets, and they have no space to make hunting bullets. The reason i think this is, because at this time, Gold Dot bullets are available, in sizes used in self defense pistols. Recently, over a period of time, i have purchased a pile of 230g Gold Dot bullets. These bullets i load and shoot in 45 acp pistols. These pistol bullets work just like the revolver hunting bullets we shoot in our rifles.





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Seems i caught them in a pop bottle trap, because i didn't want to wait for sister to drink milk. Knowing what was going to happen i stayed back, but still got a little wet. That catch wasn't videoed. This pop bottle video is similar to when the Gold Dot was captured, and just as fun.
 
Any chance you could try one of the 230gr with a "semi mild" BH209 load? Maybe in the 80gr by volume range. If they hold together, they might be worth considering for deer.

Powder Valley list them in stock for $27ish/100 http://www.powdervalleyinc.com/
 
I think the same as Ron, that the self defense market is what they are concentrating on. That market is bigger than Reloaders. :twisted: :roll:

If any one is Really interested in .500 dia 325gn Unicores, there is a Huge bulk box of the on GB for sale. Its been there off and on for a while. Good very accurate bullet. If I had not started casting for my .54, I would take the hit a get these to use in my .54.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =483479460

There are a couple of other single or double boxes of the .500 300gn DC too. The .45 300s seem to have all sold out on GB but may see a box now and then.
 
I'm sure there's validity to everything that has been posted. However, I personally believe that the massive demand for self defense / law enforcement is by design. Back door gun control, even if its only a small segment of the overall game. Right now there is alot more available than there was a year ago, when you basically couldn't buy hardly any bullets.

Regardless of if that is the case or not, thanks to Ron L I have enough of the 240gr DC's now that I'll likely not run out for a long time. Maybe by then things will have loosened up.
 
One of the Speer bullets that tends to come up more often is the 300gr .451 UniCor soft point. #4485. These are the forerunners to the Deep Curls and Gold Dots. They used to be cheap in comparison when you could find them. Speer's website listed them as jacketed but the ones ive bought absolutely dont look or act like a jacketed bullet after being recovered from media.

Powder Valley lists them as "Special Order" atm.
 

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