Did we lose Hornady, too?

[handyrandyrc]

I noticed the Hornady logo ad was missing from the top. I only noticed because Chrome caches an old copy of the page and uses it as a 'button' for my most visited sites. The cached copy had Lee, Rotometals, the Team Boolits logo, and Hornady.

They gone now?

[Bret4207]

Yeah, it appears so.

[PatMarlin]

How's the saying go-

Better be good to those you meet on the way up, cause they are the same good folks you meet on your way back down?

Then again I can't help but think maybe CB don't follow the same direction the political wind blows. ..:roll:

[waksupi]

They no pay, they no play.

[The Double D]

With all the recent aquisitions Hornady made right before the economy tanked perhaps they my be having financial problems...of course The Obama Panic has brought them a wind fall.

I know in the past they have always been very generous with donations for shooting Matches. They declined giving a donation to our club this year.

Sign of the times,maybe.

[danski26]

When i called two weeks ago to get 45acp for work they told me they had none in stock. They were having trouble getting brass. She told me possibly in 8 weeks?????

[Ole]

Wow if you can't make money in the gun business now a days.......

I wonder how much Lyman would charge for gas checks if Hornady went belly up?

(Shudders at the thought)

[oldhickory]

You would think these guys would be fighting for a place here, (and other like forums) for the free feed-back and customer relations.

[Recluse]

You would think these guys would be fighting for a place here, (and other like forums) for the free feed-back and customer relations.

Honestly, not really.

As a retired marketing and agency exec, I strongly preferred being able to control the message regarding our clients. On a forum or discussion group, you have zero control over what anyone says about you. Got to have REAL thick, tough as wang-leather skin to handle that, and most companies don't.

And, that is not a fault, just a reality.

The other consideration is look at the sheer number of gun-related forums. It's STAGGERING. No way you can support them all. No way. And if you "snub" some and support others, then the snubbed forums start griping and then people start talking and then negative opinions are formed. . . . and nothing good ever comes from it.

Best thing a company could is what Lee has done. Pay a small fee, put your link/banner up and be done with it. But Lee makes a LOT of casting equipment--Hornady only makes gas checks. Lee has a lot more to gain than Hornady. What surprises me is that RCBS is not here and that Lyman weaseled out. The former is suprising, the latter is disappointing. Both companies are strong into the boolit casting trade.

When it comes to casting, I am a bit surprised that RCBS and Lyman, and perhaps Star/Magma, et al don't at least have a link here. This IS the pre-eminent forum for boolit casting, bar none.

:coffee:

[jim4065]

Wow if you can't make money in the gun business now a days.......

I wonder how much Lyman would charge for gas checks if Hornady went belly up?

(Shudders at the thought)



Very interesting point. It may be time to stock up - especially since I believe Hornady is making the checks for Lyman.

[GabbyM]

Wow if you can't make money in the gun business now a days.......

I wonder how much Lyman would charge for gas checks if Hornady went belly up?

(Shudders at the thought)

Hornady makes the lyman gas checks now.

I'm just guessing but the management at Hornady probably has to get the advertising budget approved by the fiscal quarter right down to the little dime we would take. I cringe to think of all the BS that would be involved.

[45nut]

Bottom line is the rep for Hornady said they could not keep up with demand and advertising here just put more pressure on them to produce, subsequently ticking people off when they could not provide product in a timely fashion.

They have been through a few of these panic/huge demand market cycles and the manufacturer's are running at max capacity and are unwilling to invest in more machinery just to idle it when the market slumps.
Hornady is interested in keeping a open line of communications with us and the door is open for them.

[Dale53]

>>>Hornady is interested in keeping a open line of communications with us and the door is open for them.<<<


'Nuff said...

Dale53

[ddeaton]

I keep thinking about this shortage. If all the manufacturers are at capacity then they all should be showing record profits now. If they are making $$, then they should be tooling up for more production. The tooling up process is a tax write off to a certain extent as capitol, and is not as much a risk as everyone thinks. Something is still not right with all this. I work in manufacturing and deal with a lot of plants all over the US and abroad. Even in slow times companies are spending money modifying equipment for different tasks and products to stay afloat. I have put new packaging lines in a brewery in less time than this shortage has been going on so far. Even if they think its a risk, it would be a good thing to upgrade and spend $$ while it is coming in now. If it slows down after the big scare, they are still ahead with new or updated hardware. Rant over, sorry.
After it is all over I plan to retire and sell teeshirts. I survived the guns and ammo famine.

[Firebird]

With all the pent-up demand, why advertise to create more? Pretty much a waste of money for anyone in the EBG firearms or ammunition business to advertise right now. Instead of racking your brain to come up with marketing plans etc. they are racking their brains on how to increase production without having to buy more equipment that will just sit there in a year or two when all the hoarders have their gun safes and ammo lockers full and demand drops.

[SciFiJim]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ole View Post
Wow if you can't make money in the gun business now a days.......

I wonder how much Lyman would charge for gas checks if Hornady went belly up?

(Shudders at the thought)


Very interesting point. It may be time to stock up - especially since I believe Hornady is making the checks for Lyman.

It looks like its time to do some business with Pat Marlin.
I had better start scrounging all the spare change I can find.


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[Maximilian225]

It looks like its time to do some business with Pat Marlin.
I had better start scrounging all the spare change I can find.


Pat's got salesman everywhere!:kidding:

[Heavy lead]

I keep thinking about this shortage. If all the manufacturers are at capacity then they all should be showing record profits now. If they are making $$, then they should be tooling up for more production. The tooling up process is a tax write off to a certain extent as capitol, and is not as much a risk as everyone thinks. Something is still not right with all this. I work in manufacturing and deal with a lot of plants all over the US and abroad. Even in slow times companies are spending money modifying equipment for different tasks and products to stay afloat. I have put new packaging lines in a brewery in less time than this shortage has been going on so far. Even if they think its a risk, it would be a good thing to upgrade and spend $$ while it is coming in now. If it slows down after the big scare, they are still ahead with new or updated hardware. Rant over, sorry.
After it is all over I plan to retire and sell teeshirts. I survived the guns and ammo famine.

You are 100%correct sir. Same with advertising. Advertising is more important when you are busy than when you are slow. By the time you are slow it is a reactionary effort rather than a sustaining one. Now is when they need to build customer loyalty, however they can, when things slow down, they will go head to head for every dollar against blue, two greens, another red and orange.

[Frank]

Could it be that Hornady found it counterproductive to promote Casting Bullets because that might dig into their sales of jacketed hunting projectiles? Prices for ammo and components are high, which would increase those to do it themselves. What would Hornady do if nobody bought ammo or jacketed bullets?

[NSP64]

Prices for ammo and components are high, which would increase those to do it themselves. What would Hornady do if nobody bought ammo or jacketed bullets?

Same thing the oil co's did......... lower prices.

[Recluse]

Could it be that Hornady found it counterproductive to promote Casting Bullets because that might dig into their sales of jacketed hunting projectiles? Prices for ammo and components are high, which would increase those to do it themselves. What would Hornady do if nobody bought ammo or jacketed bullets?

Frank,

I honestly doubt that and for a number of reasons.

Chief among them is that reloaders still make up probably less than ten percent of total gun owners/shooters. And of those reloaders, I'd venture that those of us who cast our own boolits make up less than five percent of total reloaders.

Hornady makes both components for and finished ammunition, with the exception of primers. For the 80 million gun owners out there, Hornady offers some outstanding ammunition. For the reloaders, Hornady bullets (jacketed) have always been a top contender. And even though I cast boolits, I still keep a healthy supply of jacketed-bullets in my bullet (jacketed) cabinet underneath the reloading bench.

Secondly, because every one of us here at Cast Boolits not only casts, but (obviously) reloads, this is a HUGE opportunity for Hornady because, as I put it to Steven Hornady in my Eating-My-Crow letter to him, we are the "purist" of shooters and as such, a LOT of novices value our opinions.

Hornady makes good presses and good dies and good accessories--plus components.

Think about that for a moment. RCBS doesn't make bullets or loaded ammo. Neither does Lee. Or Dillon. Or Lyman. Or MEC. In fact, RCBS doesn't even offer bullets or brass. Nor does Lee. or Dillon, etc.

Hornady has a great cross-over market already established.

So, I would seriously doubt that Hornady would want to pull away their banner here at Cast Boolits for fear of cannibalizing their own brand and products.

(Ken (45Nut), please correct me if I'm wrong on that assumption.)

:coffee:

[PatMarlin]

Pat's got salesman everywhere!:kidding:

Ken- trip that ban button PLEASE ... :groner:

..:mrgreen:


...

[Frank]

Recluse says,

So, I would seriously doubt that Hornady would want to pull away their banner here at Cast Boolits for fear of cannibalizing their own brand and products.


OK, but you bring up an interesting point. The "market" is pretty small for bullet casters when you are Hornady deciding how to spend it's funds. If they are getting 60% of their revenue from say the Military, 20% from Sportsmen, 18$ from policeand 2% from bullet casters, then how do they spend their money? 60% goes to getting the military contracts, 20% goes to promoting Joe Blow Sportsmen, 18% from police, etc. But what is the trend? If they lose 20% of Sportsmen who stop buying ammo or jacketed projectiles, that's a significant hit. Right? I think you are correct, they do care about reloaders. But cast bullet promoting is a "no gain" for them. Casters are misers. They use reduced loads and the same components over and over. So what do you feed? The biggest market, followed by the next biggest. And what's left for casters? Their gas checks, which we have to use no matter what. We can use plain based bullets, but what does Hornady care? It's probably one little machine that punches them and it's mostly material cost which is out of their control. But the rest of their line appeals to the other 98% as you suggested.