Wildcat Bullets Update
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royinidaho
Well-Known Member
WC B Kaput!!!
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Offical word I got from one of the three that purchased WB from Richard Graves was that for the time being, there are no plans to build any bullets but one of the owners plans to sell his current business in the future and possibly start making bullets.
Bad news is that I was told they do not plan to offer anything but conventional bullet weights for varminting and general big game hunting, NO long range bullet options will be produced....
What a waste......
Bad news is that I was told they do not plan to offer anything but conventional bullet weights for varminting and general big game hunting, NO long range bullet options will be produced....
What a waste......
bigngreen
Well-Known Member
I would imagine they would want to avoid the long range hunting crowd after ripping of so many of them!
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Ya, I would imagine about the same thing... That bridge is likely burnt to bad to rebuild!!
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
My understanding is that there were three guys that combined to purchase the company from Richard Graves. Two of them would be silent financial backers, the other would be the bullet maker. The two that were the financial backers owned construction companies.
My latest information is that the one that was supposed to be the bullet maker pulled out of the deal. No other information was offered and I did not ask for more information. Was told that one of these two financial backers was planning to sell his construction company down the road and then is planning to start making bullets.
Again, as mentioned, it sounds like IF anyone does start building WC bullets again, they will only be for conventional range varmint and big game hunting with no long range products being made.
Appears that what has seemed to be for the past several years is in fact the truth, WC bullets is a dead stick to us in the LR shooting sports......
Sorry for the crappy news but I guess at least now we know from the source and no one needs to wonder whats going on.
royinidaho
Well-Known Member
Kirby,
Thanks for the update.
Ticks me off. Way back when when Richard went to prospecting I talked with him about the equipment and inventory. He wanted $75K lock stock and barrel.
I shudda done it. . .
Having equipment and making bullets is two different critters. I spent a long day with Paul making bullets. None of which held together in my 270 AM.
Richard had some sort of a knack or whatever else it takes to bring good bullets about.
Among the dies that Paul had was a set of 375s that we talked about. Richard hadn't made any yet but the design was, I think, the same as his other bullets.
Maybe there is a way to fanagle some of the never to be used equipment to come up with some bullets.
Give it some tho't, mostly out of the box, maybe something could happen.
I'm open to some wierd stuff, at times.
Thanks for the update.
Ticks me off. Way back when when Richard went to prospecting I talked with him about the equipment and inventory. He wanted $75K lock stock and barrel.
I shudda done it. . .
Having equipment and making bullets is two different critters. I spent a long day with Paul making bullets. None of which held together in my 270 AM.
Richard had some sort of a knack or whatever else it takes to bring good bullets about.
Among the dies that Paul had was a set of 375s that we talked about. Richard hadn't made any yet but the design was, I think, the same as his other bullets.
Maybe there is a way to fanagle some of the never to be used equipment to come up with some bullets.
Give it some tho't, mostly out of the box, maybe something could happen.
I'm open to some wierd stuff, at times.
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Kirby,
Thanks for the update.
Ticks me off. Way back when when Richard went to prospecting I talked with him about the equipment and inventory. He wanted $75K lock stock and barrel.
I shudda done it. . .
Having equipment and making bullets is two different critters. I spent a long day with Paul making bullets. None of which held together in my 270 AM.
Richard had some sort of a knack or whatever else it takes to bring good bullets about.
Among the dies that Paul had was a set of 375s that we talked about. Richard hadn't made any yet but the design was, I think, the same as his other bullets.
Maybe there is a way to fanagle some of the never to be used equipment to come up with some bullets.
Give it some tho't, mostly out of the box, maybe something could happen.
I'm open to some wierd stuff, at times.
Ya, you should have heard the deal Richard threw at me when he was trying to sell his business. I thought about it HARD for a couple weeks but just could not figure a way to make it work and keep up SOMEWHAT with the shop workload. I fears I would not be able to do the business justice and did not want to take what Richard had build and just let it shrivel up because I could not keep up with demand.
Because of my connection to WC bullets at the time of the sale, Richard kept me in the loop on everything and even put me in contact with the new buyers. Right when they bought the business they asked me if I had any advice for them. Told them not really for making bullets but I did from a business stand point:
1. Totally figure out the bullet making process before you go public that you are producing bullets, as you say, it resembles more art then just slappin bullets together.
2. Build your inventory so that you have AT LEAST 100K of the 270 cal. 169.5 gr ULD RBBT, 7mm 200 gr ULD RBBT and 338 cal. 265 gr AT RBBT. Get this amount of product on the shelf with proven bullets before you go public that Wildcat Bullets is up and running and taking orders.
I told them there would be a dramatic initial run on their products and if they had an inventory built up, it would really help them take the initial rush on their products and they would be able to get back into production to stay ahead of orders.
Apparently that was deemed not nessesary. I got several batches of test bullets from Paul in the 270, 169.5 gr bullets and they always shot well for the first three shot group but after that, with any bore heat at all, they would come apart. Again, as mentioned, there is much more to bullet making then slappin lead in a jacket and swaging it all together. When your around it some, you gain a real respect for all bullet makers, at least those that make bullets that are consistent and accurate. Its easy to take our bullets for granted but when you learn whats needed to build a consistant, accurate bullet used in high performance rifles, it really is impressive.
MontanaRifleman
Well-Known Member
I think Matrix and Berger are filling the gap slowly. Between the 2 of them there are some pretty good LR bullets in most every cal with a few more on the horizon
Now if we could only get Rich to go into the bullet making business
Now if we could only get Rich to go into the bullet making business
