sinclair being bought out
- Thread starter cmillard
- Start date
jerrold: Yes. I'm looking at my 2009-A catalog, ( received last February), and underneath "Sinclair International" on the cover page, is the notation " A Brownells Company". On the inside cover page Bill Gravatt's greeting includes the mention of Brownell, so with the lead time involved in printing (the catalogs), the "joining together" would have taken place almost a year ago. Continue to do business with them and have found no change: first class all the way. 
Maybe not the complete buyout but everything up to that had taken place a year ago. It's just a formality now. Much of Sinclair's operations are near Des Moines, Iowa already. I'm not so sure that the BR community will be as well served at Brownell as they were at Sinclair. For one thing, you could place an order at Sinclair and pick your stuff up at a match from Steve, Geoff, Larry, or the others. In the past Sinclair had a large presence at Super Shoot. Now they have a tent but the only things they carry are what was ordered for delivery to you at Kelbly's Range.
Didn't Midway USA buy Brownell's?
Sinclair's website actually looks like a predecessor/ancestor of Brownell's new one. The resemblance in terms of visual style is unmistakeable, when I first used Brownell's new site it was immediately apparent to me the it was the same people who designed it, though the functionality of the Brownell's site is more advanced. I bet they rolled out the new Sinclair website first as a "beta test" or "trial run" before building on it and evolving it into the new Brownell's site.
I got the Sinclair rep today when I called Berger's Tech support line. (Imagine that!)
Guy told me that over the Summer, Brownells would be integrating the computer systems. He didn't know if the dealer discounts so many enjoy would transfer over. Also said they were moving the SI warehouse to the new addition Brownells is making in Montezuma IA.
Makes sense though. Brownells is competitive on gear you can buy elsewhere. Mainly only their gunsmithing specialty tools that aren't discounted.
Sinclair would sell a helluva lot more bullets, brass and loading tools if their prices were as good as say Mid-South.
I asked them 15yrs ago why no bullets or dies?
Brownells has really come a long way in the past few years in handling the gear we want to buy and keeping it in stock. Used to buy a lot from Sinclair. Not much since Fred sold out. Maybe have a reason to do more with them soon...
Guy told me that over the Summer, Brownells would be integrating the computer systems. He didn't know if the dealer discounts so many enjoy would transfer over. Also said they were moving the SI warehouse to the new addition Brownells is making in Montezuma IA.
Makes sense though. Brownells is competitive on gear you can buy elsewhere. Mainly only their gunsmithing specialty tools that aren't discounted.
Sinclair would sell a helluva lot more bullets, brass and loading tools if their prices were as good as say Mid-South.
I asked them 15yrs ago why no bullets or dies?
Brownells has really come a long way in the past few years in handling the gear we want to buy and keeping it in stock. Used to buy a lot from Sinclair. Not much since Fred sold out. Maybe have a reason to do more with them soon...
kitsap said:
Hi Doug,
Yes. Surprised me too, but the guy at Sinclair Intl who answered the Berger 800 tech line said Berger chose them to provide tech support to callers for their handloading expertise etc. I did recognize the guy's voice and have spoken to him at Sinclair's before... He also mentioned the 300gr .338 Berger's would be introed at the SHOT show and the long awaited Berger Loading Manual would be out this Spring....
True Story: Had some issues with CCI/RCBS a couple years ago. The "tech guy" there had not one clue about who Sinclair Intl was when I mentioned I didn't think primer detonation failure was caused by poor primer seating because I reamed all my primer pockets with a Sinclair carbide primer pocket uniformer... Failure of his/CCI product to ignite had to lie with my new unfired Starline cases (which are about like Lapua for uniformity), just had to be "my faulty loading techniques".
It says volumes about CCI/RCBS/Speer etal (ATK?) when their "tech" guys don't even know who Sinclair International is....
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