Hey guys, I just wanted to say that I am a newbie to this and to tell everyone hello. I've been handgun hunting for a number of years now and enjoy it very much. I have read this forum for the last few years and am a subscriber to the magazine so i figured I might as well register and be a member.

For my very first post this might get a little long winded and I need some help from as many of you as I can get. So here goes and I will explain what I am doing.

I am taking a college marketing research class (hope i haven't scared anyone away already) and for a project we need to research and find trends in an industry and report on it. Well being an active hunter, re-loader, and shooter both for fun and competition it was only natural (for me at least) to pick the bullet industry.

So fellas, and ladies, I would like to know your opinions on a few things. First of all what I would like to find out in your opinion is what you think the trend has been in the bullet manufacturing industry over the last several years. What are the things that you have noticed are the norm now that weren't 10 or 25 years ago. Also, are there any holes that you think could be filled? What would you like to see in a bullet that is not currently on the market. This can be about anything, hunting bullets, target bullets, rifle, handgun etc.

I would greatly appreciate any information at all that you could give to me for my project. This might be a good topic to discuss (maybe its boring who knows).



Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated...Thanks

ADDITION TO ABOVE:

If you have read this and not posted I would appreciate it if you please did. If you feel someone else has voiced an opinion that you already feel, it doesn't matter post it anyways because I need as many people that I can to respond. Thanks A LOT to all of you that have already posted as you have made me think on a few areas that I did not think of before.

Welcome aboard, good topic to me.

Seems to me that shooting magazines are always pushing the premium bullets and bullet makers are making more and more premium bullets of different, specialized, configurations. Bonded bullets, tipped bullets, all copper bullets, controlled axpansion, total expansion, etc. Bullet makers are attempting to market to every imaginable niche in the market. This may be because the market is shrinking, at least from what I read, there are fewer hunters than there were 20 years ago. Advertising seems to be more previlant and it seems that every manufactorer is pushing hard gain market share. It seems that every bullet maker is pressed to come up with the latest and greatest bullet for hunting each and every year, nevermind the fact that the Rem. CoreLokt and Win PowerPoint have been putting animals dead in their tracks for several decades and still do for most of our hunting situations. The bullet makers, along with everybody else want us to believe that we must have their newest creation or we won't get our game. Must be that many consumers, hunters included, have short memories. They forget the scores of deer and other game taken with the old technology bullets and stuff.

For the record, handgun hunters are the most level-headed of hunters out there. It's hard to get most of use to jump on the bandwagon of newer is always better, IMO.

Good luck on the college report.

As I said earlier you guys have been giving me good information. But I find that its interesting how some of you feel about the bullet industry. How do you feel about it? Do you think that they keep offering better choices, or do you feel like they are pushing things on you that you don't need, are the new bullets too expensive? Has quality, accuracy, killing ability really improved or do you feel that it hasn't? Let me know.

yes...that was a good post.

only thing that popped into my mind right off was the seemingly continuing trend of making plastic tipped bullets. they have a history going back a few years....but seem to keep doing well over time. the newer introduced bonded core plastic tipped bullets such as the interbond and accubond are continuing to evolve from the originals.

sure was a great inovation that nosler started, with sierra and hornady jumping right in as well.

can't think of anything at the moment in particular that NEEDS introduced bulletwise...........but there are some that i would like to see kept being produced. the sierra and hornady single shot pistol bullets come to mind there.

About bullets - The trend, and I guess it's for the better, is that the technology is improving rapidly with regard to bullet technology. There are coatings, such as molybdenum disulfide (moly) and teflon that change the performance characteristics of bullet ballistics and barrel wear. There is also a trend toward bonded bullets for use in ever increasing velocities (the new breed of magnums). There are also a number of advances in bullet design (e.g. barnes triple shock that overcome shortcomings of the original X bullet). I had a discussion about bullets with some African PH's recently and they were of the opinion that with the bullets available today there is no need to use solids anymore on dangerous game. In fact, they recommend that you don't use a solid but a new-design bonded bullet or pure copper bullet like the Barnes.

The downside of all this in my opinion has been the crazy cost of bullets. Today I got an order from Midway and I had 100 .451 Nosler Partition HG bullets for my 454 and 100 Nosler 6mm bullets for my son's rifle and the invoice was $100. The bullet industry is nearly pricing themselves out of the market for the serious shooter. The 454 bullets were slightly over $30 for 50 bullets and that was a pretty good deal. I've seen them priced at nearly $40 per 50 at retail stores. For the guy on a thin budget shooting getting just too expensive unless you really like the .22 rimfire.

With respect to plastic tipped bullets - I have a hard time complaining about them because they do so well in a single shot pistol. I've been hearing some rumors that someone is coming out with a plastic tipped .22 L.R. bullet. It only makes sense since the .17 HMR & MACH II are polymer tipped.

Gary

well............i did think of a bullet er two that could serve handgunners out there.

a 35caliber plastic tipped spitzer in 180-200gr would be nice.........along with more emphasis on making spitzer style regular pistol bullets for 44 magnum, 45 colt etc etc.