Custom and Group Buy Flops

[MT Gianni]

JB, My reply was to the OP as he would not have the time on the board to remember how truly horrific were the group buys of the early 00's. Long waits, reshipping to individuals from the honcho, less than accurate specs make the whole question of group buys that haven't worked out redundant from those of us who lived them. They were the result of not just a few, harsh words, bans and accusations that caused a few members to leave. It had nothing to do with the length of time on board relating directly to the ability to contribute, more along the line of asking those of us who grew up with carburetors and points/condensers what was the longest we had ever owned a car with out tuning it up.

[JBinMN]

JB, My reply was to the OP as he would not have the time on the board to remember how truly horrific were the group buys of the early 00's. Long waits, reshipping to individuals from the honcho, less than accurate specs make the whole question of group buys that haven't worked out redundant from those of us who lived them. They were the result of not just a few, harsh words, bans and accusations that caused a few members to leave. It had nothing to do with the length of time on board relating directly to the ability to contribute, more along the line of asking those of us who grew up with carburetors and points/condensers what was the longest we had ever owned a car with out tuning it up.

Thanks for the reply! I was leaning towards thinking that, but wanted to know for sure from you, in case there was something I had posted, rather than the OP, that you were addressing in particular.


For me... I was not offended in any way regarding the time on here as a member, but figured there was "a bit more to the story", than what you posted at the time. That was my main reason for asking, anyway.


Before I posted asking you about it, I kind of reckoned that your answer had something to do with a sort of timeline, and being that I have been poring thru the Archives quite extensively over the last 2 +/- years, (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/arch...x.php/f-8.html ) and even though my research had been focused on other things, I read the titles of every topic on each page looking for what I am after, & usually remember them as I go, so since I had not noticed a lot of topics that signaled any regret with the members regarding group buys much in the past, ( I have not/did not go looking in to anything in regard to past group buys, but just looked at titles until I found something I wanted to look in to.)and since I am up to page 55( 13,750 topics & unknown amount of posts/approx. June 2010) out of 139 pages( 34,683 topics/ Mar. 2019), I figured after your use of the year like you did, I began to wonder if there was more to look in to regarding group buys than before.

So, I asked for more info regarding who you were addressing to know more.


I have been tempted since I joined to get involved in any group buy that might be in my interests, but I have not yet seen anything yet that did so. So, if there had been some rule change, or something that happened prior to 2017, due to bad situations for those involved, I would certainly want to be aware of that before I ever considered joining in on a group buy.

Anyway that is why I asked & now that you have replied, I have more research to do.


So, once again, Thanks for filling me/us in & it is greatly appreciated!


P.S. - & now, for those who may have been interested in knowing. Now some folks know the "rest of the story", and "Why does it matter?", to me.

[Lloyd Smale]

you got that right!!!

jmort no offense taken. I know how lucky I am to have missed some of the old days on here. We've enjoyed an exponential growth in the number of GB runs, made by high quality manufacturers to boot.

Lloyd, I I'd call that a recurrence of "Lyman Syndrome" with the profile drift problem. The road to hell is paved with Thompson and Keith design copies.

[pmer]

My first post on this board was for getting in on a Mihec H&G 503 clone. It was towards the end of the run and there were many tens of people signed up, maybe a 100 or more.

Boolits from that mold have worked great in everything I tried them in.

[Sig556r]

Exposing a failed "hyped" GB may not work well for those who wanna get rid of them here...

[rintinglen]

I have one out of maybe score of group buy molds that is a real clunker. That was an NOE 311-407 clone. I have 6 or seven Louverin designs, and thought that the 311-407 would be perfect for my 30-30's. Not so. The fault lays in the design. Rather than tapering the sides of the grooves, the Honcho specified square lube grooves. Well, that may work on the larger, Keith type boolits, but it is the kiss of death on a Louverin design. The boolits cling to the mold like hundred year old Ivy to an ancient wall. Which in turn means that you can't keep the mold up to temperature, because you are constantly having to pound on the handle nut to get the boolits to fall out. After a disaster in attempting to leement the mold, which turned my 4 cavity into a 3 cavity, I gave up on the darned thing and it sits in my mould box waiting for me to return to it.

However, do not be dissuaded from buying NOE--Al Nelson makes great stuff. I have a dozen or more molds bearing the NOE name, and saving the afore-mentioned misfire all have been first-rate. With manufacturers like NOE, Accurate, MP, and Mountain Moulds, these ARE the good old days. Just remember if you are designing a mold, think long and hard about what you want it to do, and realize the devil is in the details.

[Gohon]

The first thing that comes to mind for “hype” is the non-lube groove bullets for powder coating. You can PC any bullet!

True...one can PC any bullet but by eliminating the lube grooves there is additional weight added without affecting the length which means OAL will remain the same, where as added weight with lube grooves usually results in a longer bullet.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have bought a lot of molds in these ten years that I have been casting my own. A few were custom ordered to my specs, but many were GB molds...and a good share of the GB molds I bought, were bought second hand.

I could make a long list of failures, but many of those failures are due to how I choose to apply them, so that's on me...I've learned a lot in the last decade. A few GB's were failures due to poor manufacture. I believe the majority of failures are operator error...at least that's the case for me.

With all that said, I believe I am aware of a couple failures due to design...but reporting that on the open forum, is a recipe for an argument with someone that may have had success with it.

I'll mention one case of poor design, but I won't identify the mold or manufacturer, but there was a GB for a RN boolit where there was a choice in weights...this design had a long heavy nose. The lighter weights in that design had very little bore contact and with the same long heavy nose that the heavier ones had. I never got the lighter ones to shoot good groups, I'm sure it was they wouldn't launch squarely in the barrel.