Bad news for Berger's .20 cal 55gr bullet

[Woodchk]

Not sure if Unmussig bullets is still in business but they made so heavies for the .20 cal and it looks like Black Hole bullets makes a 55gr 20 cal bullet but I don't know much about them either. I just picked up 1000 Berger 55's so that'll probably last me through a couple barrels.

Don is still making bullets

 

[rr2030]

refresh my memory please, who purchased Berger ?

 

[RGRobinett]

refresh my memory please, who purchased Berger ?

Nammo/Lapua (?sp?) owns Berger Bullets, J4 jackets, VihatVuori, SK, of course, all things Lapua, and maybe more, operating under the U.S. corporate identity, Capstone Precision Group. LLC, headquartered in Mesa, AZ, with a sales and distribution branch in Sedalia, MO. RG

 

[Dean Slater]

Burger has gone down the tube IMO.

Aaron

Plus 1 on that !

 

[rr2030]

Nammo/Lapua (?sp?) owns Berger Bullets, J4 jackets, VihatVuori, SK, of course, all things Lapua, and maybe more, operating under the U.S. corporate identity, Capstone Precision Group. LLC, headquartered in Mesa, AZ, with a sales and distribution branch in Sedalia, MO. RG

So Lapua makes good stuff correct? Does not make sense they would acquire Berger and let it turn to shit. Growing pains, maybe?

 

[Skunce]

xswanted, Blaine Leisy is the owner of Blackhole Bullets...a really nice guy. 7315br

I haven't tried any of Blaine's bullets, but here's his email for those who may be interested.

blackholebullets@gmail.com

http://www.blackholebullets.com/

 

[L.Sherm]

So Lapua makes good stuff correct? Does not make sense they would acquire Berger and let it turn to shit. Growing pains, maybe?

Remington comes to mind.

 

[Rem06]

Nammo/Lapua (?sp?) owns Berger Bullets, J4 jackets, VihatVuori, SK, of course, all things Lapua, and maybe more, operating under the U.S. corporate identity, Capstone Precision Group. LLC, headquartered in Mesa, AZ, with a sales and distribution branch in Sedalia, MO. RG

Nancy Pelosi will be buying them all next and put up a wall between them and the shooting community!

 

[Evan]

If I were to guess, I'd imagine the decision was made to cut the 55gn line to increase machine availability for bullets that are in more demand, like the 22, 6, 6.5, and 7mm target bullets which have had intermittent shortages.

It sucks for us, but if it results in more consistent availability of more popular bullet lines, most would agree that's a responsible business choice on their part.

 

[BronzeArcher]

Been burned before by Berger discontinuing bullets. It is disappointing to try different bullets, do the workup, and then have a bullet discontinued.

 

[B23]

When I talked to them yesterday he did say it was one of, if not, bullets they had the least amount of call for.

From a business stand point, even though I don't like it, I understand why they would discontinue the 55's. It pretty much takes a specialty twist gun to shoot these 55's and I don't imagine there are a whole lot of us out there that are ok having a one bullet gun. I don't think there are very many 204Ruger, 20Tac/Prac shooters that are hanging 8tw barrels so they can maybe shoot the 55's if they get a wild hair. I think the folks shooting those cartridges are hanging 10 or 11 tw barrels because they know their "go to" bullet/s will be the 32-40 grainers. I recently had a 20-222 built with an 11tw barrel because I knew I'd never shoot anything heavier than a 40gr so there was no need to build it with a faster twist.

 

[FURMAN]

I played with some 55 Blackholes when I still had my 20BRs. That is where I would turn.

 

[TroyG]

This just saved me from going with a bigger 20 and a fast twist barrel. Was thinking a 20BR or a 20 Predator but that might be too much of a good thing? Any issues with the 40gr Berger driven at or slightly over 4100fps for harvesting fur/coyotes? Getting the custom 20s in Canada wouid be near impossible. So it wouid be Sierra BK and Vmax stuff and the 49gr Berger.

 

[17VLD]

This just saved me from going with a bigger 20 and a fast twist barrel. Was thinking a 20BR or a 20 Predator but that might be too much of a good thing? Any issues with the 40gr Berger driven at or slightly over 4100fps for harvesting fur/coyotes? Getting the custom 20s in Canada wouid be near impossible. So it wouid be Sierra BK and Vmax stuff and the 49gr Berger.

I shoot the 40 Berger right at 4000fps with no issues,kill coyotes like a big hammer.

 

[Knifeman]

Been running 40gr Berger’s in a 20 Vartarg at 3600. They are death on coyotes!!!

 

[long40shot]

I switched back to Sierra bullets. Now i don't have any complaints.

Matt

 

[Tommie]

Recall this statement from Berger?

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/berger-bullets-news-from-the-president.3902497/

Thankfully I never forgot the last time Berger abandoned their low-volume bullet customers. After pondering the (bad) idea of designing a wildcat around their 55 grain 20 caliber bullets, I woke up and stuck with the standard weight bullets. Got the barrel a month ago and ordered the reamer just last week. Guess I dodged the bullet. Pun intended.

Rumors continue that Sierra is considering a heavy 20 cal Blitzking.

 

[JASmith]

Blaine Leisy Black Hole Bullets did very well when ai was workin. y 20 Grendel.

He also has tipped versions that offer a tad better BC than the Bergers.

 

[martini]

The 55g tipped Blackhole bullets shot about the same as the Bergers in my 20 BR. Both were extremely sensitive to seating depth - needed to be within about 0.005 of the lands.

 

[EXTREME]

This is a great reminder for us all: don't build a gun that can only shoot one bullet. I'm counting myself lucky that I wasn't banking on the 55s and will be fine with 40s for my purpose of 300yards and in target shooting. I was thinking about focusing on the 55 and 40 Bergers, but I think I may just use up the box of each I bought to start out and focus on getting something good going with the 39 sierra or 40 vmax until a promising 40-50 VLD shows up.

A fast twist 20 caliber rifle is not a one bullet rifle but probably not necessary if Berger drops the 55 Long Range BT Varmint bullet. It is too bad if they do discontinue it as my rifle does very well with it to 500 Meters with 21.6-22.2 grains Varget and it has a 25" Kreiger with 1"-9" Twist.
32 Sierra Bk:

39 BK Gopher Load:
Sierra 39 BK full case: