Recent bullet orders

[Joe4d]

I disagree, USPS isnt subsidizing bullet makers. 
Ground shipping is generally a volume thing, not a weight issue. Use a standard size box and it fits in the trucks, machinery better. So you get a discount, flat rate. Saves the post office time and money, saves the customers money.

[iflyskyhigh]

I disagree, USPS isnt subsidizing bullet makers. 
Ground shipping is generally a volume thing, not a weight issue. Use a standard size box and it fits in the trucks, machinery better. So you get a discount, flat rate. Saves the post office time and money, saves the customers money.

A 60lb box of bullets isn’t getting across the country in 2 days via ground.

They are going by air.

And weight makes a difference on airplanes. More weight equals more fuel burn equals more expensive.

The post office is bankrupt and without an infusion of cash soon will be in real trouble.

Their business model is unsustainable. They aren’t saving themselves time or money. I can’t remember exactly when but it been almost 2 decades since they were in even in the realm of profitability.


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[firewood]

12 hours ago, RobW said:

Bayou - 124gr. just received an order placed 7/1, about six weeks from order to shipment

 

SNS - 147gr. shipped and received in less than a week.

 

I placed a case size order with Bayou two weeks after you did, my order is nowhere as of today. When I placed the order the backlog was 4 weeks, now they are saying 5-6 weeks. I'm ok and understand the issues but if I don't have them in-hand in another 4 weeks than then I will have to institute "Plan B". I don't actually have a "Plan B" so this should be interesting. My normal practice is to have plenty on hand. I got a bit relaxed on bullets because in the past when things got tight component wise, bullets were the easiest to find, powder and primers were the real dogs. I have enough powder and primers to last me a long time. I guess I will have to start putting a few years worth of bullets in the bunker now.

 

I loaded up all of my steel challenge bullets this past weekend. I have about 1300 rounds now. I guess Plan B will involve shooting rimfire and/or CO in 9mm I have a lot of 9mm bullets on the shelf.

[terrapin]

Had an order from BBI sitting in some USPS facility in Tennessee for a couple weeks now.


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[iflyskyhigh]

It’s hit or miss but it seems that the lead/coated manufacturers are the only ones with bullets in stock. Even if it takes a while to ship.

Do you think this is this because it’s less labor intensive and requires less raw materials to manufacture?


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[terrapin]

It’s hit or miss but it seems that the lead/coated manufacturers are the only ones with bullets in stock. Even if it takes a while to ship.

Do you think this is this because it’s less labor intensive and requires less raw materials to manufacture?


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I think it is a variety of reasons... lower capital barrier to entry, therefore many distributed smaller companies. Smaller companies don’t a) shut down the entire facility when the lunch lady sneezes don’t have large box store and government contracts that way up production volume before it gets to consumer sales c) have much less complicated supply chains that are subject to disruption.


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[belus]

On 8/18/2020 at 9:54 PM, Joe4d said:

I disagree, USPS isnt subsidizing bullet makers. 
Ground shipping is generally a volume thing, not a weight issue. Use a standard size box and it fits in the trucks, machinery better. So you get a discount, flat rate. Saves the post office time and money, saves the customers money.

I think they are, especially if you're ordering to a rural location.  I could mail a 50lb box of bullets to my parent's island village for about $20. Any other carrier would charge more - probably double. The USPS keeps other carrier prices low by offering a cheap alternative and they deliver everywhere. It's also very stable pricing removing some uncertainly from the COGS for commercial casters.

 

On 8/18/2020 at 10:17 PM, iflyskyhigh said:

Their business model is unsustainable. They aren’t saving themselves time or money. I can’t remember exactly when but it been almost 2 decades since they were in even in the realm of profitability.

If you think the USPS has an unsustainable business model wait 'til you look at the Federal Highway Administration. They don't even collect revenue for their service.

 

21 hours ago, iflyskyhigh said:

Do you think this is this because it’s less labor intensive and requires less raw materials to manufacture?

I think most jacketed bullets are going into loaded rounds where they can get higher margins. It's primarily reloaders who have caught on to the value of coated bullets. The majority of people buying 50-100 assembled rounds at a time expect a nice copper colored jacket.

But there's a lower barrier to entry for coated bullets too. A magma caster costs you ~13k. Lead is just under $1/lb on the spot market, so the machine will make about $200/hr profit casting 147gr 9mm. Maybe another couple grand for a tumbler and oven to apply the coating and you've recouped your capital costs in two weeks of work. @terrapin gets it.

[johnmyster]

My last order from Missouri (June?) was about four weeks to arrive due to backlog.  He also moved a replacement order (for a mis-shipped product) to the front of the line and got it out the door next day.  Edit: saw a poster on another forum say purchased to received in about a week, so perhaps they've gotten through backlog.

 

My last order from DG (late July) shipped same day from in-stock items, less than a week to arrive.

Edited August 20, 2020 by johnmyster

[ML123]

I ordered 60#(2850rds) of 147g Coated bullets from Hoosier today and they said it was in stock, we'll see maybe I got lucky because site says they are out of stock now?

[SJBriggs]

Coming from the LA Times, this article is obviously politically motivated, but it's an interesting read.

 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-20/usps-cutbacks-post-office-chaos

[mscott]

Ordered some Precision Delta 147 gr bullets on July 1 and they shipped yesterday on Aug. 20.

[78Staff]

I've got an Blue Bullets order in for 158g SWC, ordered back in July with 3-4 week wait, now been pushed to 10-12 weeks.  They said hopefully mid Sept.  Also have Gallant 9mm bullet order in for a few K - didn't need them right now but will eventually so figured I would get the order in, they said 5 weeks.  The 158g stings a bit, I really wasn't shooting that much 38spl, but wound up picking up a couple more 357's so my 158 consumption increased quite a bit lol.  So much in fact that I moved my 38spl loading from the 550 to the 1050.  But, by the time I realized I need to restock, I was already too low.  Thought I still had a bag or two but I had already used it and had forgotten.  So I am out of 38spl til the Blue order arrives .  Will probably go ahead and order a few more K to get ahead, as I will likely load all I get in Sept.  Everything else I am flush pretty much... 9, 10, 44, 45 and powder.  Also good on LPP have 10k.. SPP getting iffy though...  I like to keep 5K reserve on primers and when I load the 38's I'll be dipping into that.

[Cuz]

I ordered a case of Blue Bullets sized .356 (125gr RN) to try. They came in a couple of weeks ago, and while the box has a big “.356” on the label, they were all .355”. I had also ordered a case of Precision Bullets to try, and all of them that I checked are .356”. I guess when things get real busy at Blue, they don’t pay to much attention to what they put in the box. I won’t order from them again. Besides, they still turn your fingers all blue when reloading.

I’ll stick with Precisoon for now, if I can get them. Currently running 8-10 weeks behind and only allowing single case orders. This is crazy.


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[Joe4d]

My Missorri order placed 4 aug arrived monday the 24th. S no problem here. Less than 3 weeks total

[Joe4d]

On 8/20/2020 at 9:42 AM, belus said:

I think they are, especially if you're ordering to a rural location.  I could mail a 50lb box of bullets to my parent's island village for about $20. Any other carrier would charge more - probably double. The USPS keeps other carrier prices low by offering a cheap alternative and they deliver everywhere. It's also very stable pricing removing some uncertainly from the COGS for commercial casters.

 

 

And how many of those flat rate boxes do you think they ship that are way under weight ? In fact alot ship that would actually be cheaper to send non flat rate.
I seriously doubt bullet orders are more than a drop in the bucket in overall volume. I also firmly believe its a size thing, not a weight thing.  Sure if you had an entire load truckload of bullet orders it would burn more gas,,, but the handful of heavier boxes isnt gonna matter.
And so what if it did. The post office is a government service. It isnt supposed to turn a profit. Probably not a business in the country you couldnt make a claim that the government isnt subsidizing in some way.

[iflyskyhigh]

And how many of those flat rate boxes do you think they ship that are way under weight ? In fact alot ship that would actually be cheaper to send non flat rate.
I seriously doubt bullet orders are more than a drop in the bucket in overall volume. I also firmly believe its a size thing, not a weight thing.  Sure if you had an entire load truckload of bullet orders it would burn more gas,,, but the handful of heavier boxes isnt gonna matter.
And so what if it did. The post office is a government service. It isnt supposed to turn a profit. Probably not a business in the country you couldnt make a claim that the government isnt subsidizing in some way.

Again. Not going by truck. So the post office is paying UPS and fedex to fly there stuff around because the post office doesn’t have any planes. Most priority packages are going by air.

The post office has severely restricted the size of things you can send 1st class.

Most packages of any size now a days are required to go by priority mail. Priority mail prices have gone up but still way cheaper than UPS or Fedex package of similar size. I’d have to do some research but I’m guessing overall (since the USPS is completely bankrupt) they are paying more to Fedex and UPS than they are charging customers. Hence hemorrhaging cash.

Yes, the government (you and I ) is subsidizing everything at this point.


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[iflyskyhigh]

I really hope I don’t have to go back to shooting coated bullets... [emoji20]

 

Sounds like that may be the only thing available going forward. For awhile at least.

 

 

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[Intheshaw1]

So I'm the business account side of things, it's cheaper to ship UPS or FedEx for anything that isn't heavy that is larger than a flat rate box. You can't beat the price of a flat rate box if you can fit it, even light things unless you're talking like a lb.

 

And I was looking my RMRs but with no price breaks for orders over 1k for the 124 matchwinners, I'll be ordering a few cases of coated bullets until RMR catches up.

[risingsun]

8 hours ago, Cuz said:

I ordered a case of Blue Bullets sized .356 (125gr RN) to try. They came in a couple of weeks ago, and while the box has a big “.356” on the label, they were all .355”. I had also ordered a case of Precision Bullets to try, and all of them that I checked are .356”. Besides, they still turn your fingers all blue when reloading.

 

Yikes. I've just ordered my first blues to try, 3600 of the .356 125gr TC. I'm thinking to cancel it now based on your feedback.

[Cuz]

I wouldn't cancel them based on my experience.  Worst case you can use them for practice.  Right about now I'm thinking of just ordering a case from EVERYONE that makes coated bullets and increase my chances of getting something to shoot...

 

[gnappi]

I don't know why, but MANY of the orders I place have bounced between states like a ping pong ball. I have even seen several occasions where stuff was sent from Miami, to my local post office, to Fort Lauderdale, back to Miami, then to my local post office and delayed another day. 

 

Once a package went from (ground) Oregon to Jacksonville and then retraced its steps BACK to Oregon. 

 

I'm thinking...

 

1. USPS has hired dyslexic employees who will not use the scanners.

2. The programmers protesting by playing with scan code destinations

3. Somehow due to COVID they're getting bonuses for handling packages as many times as they can.

4. They're throwing packages in "Nixie" bins to avoid delivering it.

5. The aliens from MIB are now REALLY working there and have need of more training

 

Add to this "shipping partners" are holding packages for days before the USPS sees them. 

 

 

 

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Precision Delta bullets have been GREAT!

Came home to find a box on my doorstep. Wet and half of the bullets missing.  No fault to Precision Delta bullets the box was double taped. Ginger contacted me follow up to see how my experience was and if I would respond.  Ginger said my order will be reshipped. 

[jubi351]

I had one bullet order supposed to be delivered on Aug 30th and the other today. Both show in route but arriving late. There has not been any update in the tracking history since USPS took possession of them.

 

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[RaylanGivens]

Anyone had any luck buying Berry's plated bullets lately?

 

They used to go on sale every once in a while, but haven't seen any now for months...  Not sure if they don't make them anymore or if they get sold out in 5 minutes when they are available.

 

[ChuckS]

52 minutes ago, RaylanGivens said:

Anyone had any luck buying Berry's plated bullets lately?

 

They used to go on sale every once in a while, but haven't seen any now for months...  Not sure if they don't make them anymore or if they get sold out in 5 minutes when they are available.

 

I got a couple K through Powder Valley a couple weeks ago. Haven't tried since...