Berger .264 6.5 Bullets Availability & jackets

[chromatica]

I have avoided Berger becase their availability is so spotty. I like to buy bullets in 500 or 1,000 ct boxes so that I can pull from the same lot all season. I rarely see Burgers for sale in those quantities. I have had good luck with Scenar 6.5mm 136s in my 260 and I use them for F-open.

 

[XTR]

Oh Come On !! Really !!

I've handloaded for 40 years and used Lapua bullets for most of that time, and Bergers for over 20 going back to Walt Berger's day and Bergers being either flat-base match models or VLDs. Lapua match bullets, although popular in my part of the world (UK), have always been readily available, whilst Bergers have been more often than not harder to find as well as much more expensive. In fact 'harder to find' is way understating the position as 'unobtainable' is more accurate in recent years.

The shooter demand for Bergers has grown exponentially, long long before Nammo Oy bought the company. Why? Because 1) it is a 'local' manufacturer and product range in the world's largest - by far - shooting and handloading market; 2) its design and development work has been head and shoulders above everybody else's so it makes low drag / high BC bullets that are easier to 'tune' in most barrels. They're also very well made and most of Berger's competitors have had to implement major QC programmes to catch up.

At one time around 90% of UK 308 Win sling shooters who handload used a single combination of Lapua brass, 155gn Scenar and Viht N140. The Scenar still sees some use but very much less despite its being always available and competitively priced here. Why? Because it's the exact same bullet as twenty odd years ago, albeit even better made than before under the 'L' programme. It's still high-BC, but at the cost of being an aggressive secant ogive / VLD design with all its downsides. Lapua only has a handful of Scenar models in each calibre, and if you look at them, they're a pretty ballistically unexciting bunch with usually a single exception only in each calibre. (The exception that proves the rule is 6.5mm which isn't too surprising for a Scandi supplier with this being the main traditional calibre in the region.) The 155 apart, none of its 308s are better than Sierra MKs of a generation ago, and some are as long in the tooth as Sierras of a generation ago too. Lapua rarely introduces new models and its ranges are very small.

https://www.lapua.com/products/bullets/?product-page=5

Look at the 175gn Scenar and click on it to get its specs. This is one of only two 308 Scenars introduced in the last decade or more and it has the same G7 BC as the antediluvian 175gn SMK. Very well made, shoots well, but how many F/TR competitors use it in 1,000 yard matches?

Look at the size of the range and compare it to Berger's. The 123gn and 200gn FMJs are primarily for 7.62X39 military applications, so that leaves the (ancient) 155, (ancient) 167, 175, (ancient and low-BC) 185, and (recent but very low-BC and long shank) 220gn Scenars as the entire match line-up. There's a bunch of D-series rebated BT FMJBTs that see little demand in the UK but must sell somewhere as they've been in production in one form or other since the 1920s (for sustained-fire machine gun use).

In contrast how many 30-cal bullets has Berger introduced in the last 20 years? No other company has come close to its innovation rate and the company has seen a complete shift of emphasis from VLDs (other than 'Hunting' models) to LRBTs, Hybrids, and now LR-Hybrids. How many winners have there been? The 155.5gn and 185gn LRBTs and 200.20X models are the outstanding 30-cal match designs of a generation, and there is now a large number of Hybrids supplementing them. I'm not going to bother counting them but there must be 20 plus models spread over five product-types.

So, you're telling me that Nammo is reducing supply of Berger's large, very efficient, and modern range of 30s to sell more of these Scenars is the USA - all five models of them. Come on!! Nammo bought Berger because its (Berger's) products are market leaders and make a lot of money. It has wisely left a winning team in place and supplied finance to move to new production facilities out of California to a low-tax, gun owner friendly state and to set up a new national US warehousing and distribution facility elsewhere. (Also, if not more so, to improve imports and US distribution of Lapua, Vihtavuori, and SK ranges which were poor beforehand.)

Lapua doesn't design and introduce the large numbers of new and superb match type bullets that Berger does because it specialises in brass and factory ammunition, including heavy military commitments. With a weak presence in the US in bullets, it could have invested much time, resources, and money in trying to compete head-on with companies like Berger, where it would almost certainly have failed, or even if ultimately successful would have taken 25 years minimum to get a return. Or ... it could buy the clear winning outfit in the market, and help it grow and develop. A much more sensible choice. Without Nammo, I'm pretty sure that complaints about Berger availability would be much, much worse!

https://imgur.com/3db8wHn

 

[6BRA]

your question show just how little you KNOW vs what you say.
usa companies get government contracts, you see why lapua/namo might want a foot in the door locally.
say a company that makes quality ammo
do some research
yes i would like some custom 6.5 bullets, but i am not a conspiracy monger

conspiracy monger...LOL....there hasnt been 1 box of 6.5 target bullets produced this year. Ask me how I know..although they are coming...bottom line....its too late for people shooting shoots this year.

 

[CJ6]

conspiracy monger...LOL....there hasnt been 1 box of 6.5 target bullets produced this year. Ask me how I know..although they are coming...bottom line....its too late for people shooting shoots this year.

So .....How do you know ?

 

[6BRA]

I am not sure I can post the email from Capstone, nor am I sure it would be right to do.
lets just say I have an email stating that.

 

[Laurie]

Another good one is "the government is buying it all up" -- recently I had a man tell me that the reason he could not find .32 S&W long ammo was the Army was buying it all. I didn't realize the Army was using .32 cal. revolvers these days, but guess I'm not in the loop.

Ha! Ha! I do like that. (He probably believes Elvis Presley is till alive and living on the moon too.)

 

[338 Mollett]

WHAT !!! ELVIS IS DEAD ? OH CHIT !!!

 

[Lefty Trigger]

Find another bullet brand that your gun likes and go with it, or several. I used to load a lot of Berger's until I was made aware of Bart's. Oh, shit I've got my "A" game now. They are really making me; an average shooter look like I know what I'm doing... LOL

 

[Bill Norris]

Find another bullet brand that your gun likes and go with it, or several. I used to load a lot of Berger's until I was made aware of Bart's. Oh, shit I've got my "A" game now. They are really making me; an average shooter look like I know what I'm doing... LOL

Bart's will make the shooter look good no doubt about it.

 

[JFrank]

Ha! Ha! I do like that. (He probably believes Elvis Presley is till alive and living on the moon too.)

Can’t be on the moon, heck I just saw him at the casino down town.

 

[LoanHarvey]

Howdy boys, I could not help but noticing you'll would not mind being able to get some 6.5mm bullets. I suppose its time to open this up to you fellas. Let me know if there is anything you would like, but please don't expect the prices to be on the low side, it took a while to gather these up... I probably can't shoot all these up anytime soon, so I'd share some of my personal items with the brotherhood!!

 

[moondog]

140 VLDs?
215 hybrids?