For those interested in 125-grain 8mm bullets...

I just got off the phone with Hornady, and was told that they are no longer manufacturing their 125s. The fellow I spoke with expressed some dismay at that, when I asked him to check. He said he owned a few 8mms, liked the 125, and that as far as he had seen, "Sales were good." Nonetheless, "officially", Hornady isn't making any more, AND they have none in stock according to this fellow.

So...

1) Buy what you can (I got mine from Graf's) as they are "gone" from Hornady's inventory, and

2) Write Hornady at https://www.hornady.com/contact_us.php and let them know that there is still a legitimate (commercial) interest in 8mm 125s. Especially you folks in OZ.

In the mean time, I'm working on getting some 8mm sabots manufactured. :D

Paul

PS - I sent Hornady hte following message...

I spoke with a fellow (Hornady employee at this phone number) today that tells me that 'you' aren't manufacturing 125-grain 8mm (.323) bullets anymore. Your item number 3230. He and I both were disappointed to hear that. I have no idea how sales are going for that product, but he said sales were "good".

I'm sure you'll say quite the contrary, but regardless of your protestations to the contrary, there is considerable interest in those bullets - especially in Australia, (I am told) where they have many 8mm weapons, AND yet not as many of the large-sized critters we have here in North America. As a result, they like to shoot light-for-caliber bullets that have a greater probability of remaining inside a kangaroo, or goat, or feral pig, or...

Please reconsider making these bullets, at least on a once-a-year special run basis.

Thanks,
Paul

Bummer.

Buffalo Arms has some 125 grainers made from solid brass.  Kinda pricey.  Not sure the "why" for being solid brass.  The only other 125 (124g) bullets I've seen are FMJs by Prvi Partizan, but in 7.92 Kurz ammo, not loose.

Nels

Hi All,

    It's sad but I doubt you will even get a response :frown I e-mailed Hornady about the supply problems here and lack of Hornady bulelts which I do like and use when I can get them but never even got a reply .

 Their response seems to be a marked change for some years back when I got a faulty box of 155 grain A-Max bullets when they could not have been more helpful . Not sure if I have any 125 grain 8mm's but as I cnanot buy 8mm ammo right now due to the dumb plods not putting it on my ticket I cannot do much about this.

Quote from: Nelsdou;84141Bummer.

Buffalo Arms has some 125 grainers made from solid brass. Kinda pricey. Not sure the "why" for being solid brass. The only other 125 (124g) bullets I've seen are FMJs by Prvi Partizan, but in 7.92 Kurz ammo, not loose.

Nels

Interesting little solid, but I'm more interested in them "blowing up" instead of passing through. I wonder if this is a bullet made for reloading 8mm Kurz to the same "milsurp specs" as the original FMJs? The pulled PP FMJ bullets suffer the same 'fate' for my use.
 
I have toyed with the idea of drilling a HP into some milsurp FMJs to render them more effective hunting rounds. I have always hesitated though, because the milsurp FMJs I have pulled have 'open butts', meaning the jacket does not wrap around the base of the bullet. My concern is that in a 'rough' bore (like some old milsurps), the pressure from the burning powder on the lead core might push the core out of the jacket now that I've removed the front by drilling the HP, and leave the jacket in the bore. In truth, I think the probability of that happening is "small", but "small" is still too big for me when the outcome of firing the next round would likely be an exploded rifle.
 
One of the options I'm 'working' on is getting Corbin's bullet manufacturing equipment. A production model with all the dies and shipping will set me back somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 to $8 thousand. However, I could then make pretty much whatever my little heart desired, including sabots.
 
BH,
 
Here's a little 'food for thought'... Given that you can only buy bullets that are "on your ticket", imagine buying a variety of sabots to shoot bullets of the caliber that you want to. For example, let's say you wanna shoot light-for-caliber bullets in your rifles with 8mm bores, but can't buy bullets because they're not "on your ticket". You get some 8mm sabots and use 7mm bullets. Now I suppose the 'constables', once on to the plan AND screaming bloody murder, would classify the sabots as "bullets", but until they did, you could technically comply with the law.
 
In the US, when the "Accelerators" first came out, the ATF and all of the law enforcement Equus assinus's screamed bloody murder because, when one uses a sabot, the bullet does not get engraved by the rifling. I don't know how we got around all the "cop-killer" hysteria, but in the end we currently have no restrictions on their use. What might happen in jolly ol' England is purely speculation - unles the issue has alread been 'resolved'.
 
Paul

Good luck with your email Paul. I hate it when a good product is discontinued. This happened with my powder AR2206. ADI stopped production and went with AR2206H. Not the same powder and I can't get the same results with it.:frown  
 
Nice of you to mention the Australian market but to put thing into perspective I have been told that 1 years worth of firearms sales in OZ is not even 1 months worth in the US.

I really have little hope that I will even get a response, let alone that it will make any difference. It's just that an email costs me nothing and I do know that customer comments get "added up" by the 'bean counters'. The bad news is; by the time a company stops production of a product, they've usually already been through some internal wrestling, and the politics are such that even if those that wanted to keep production going show a whole arm-load of customer requests, the powers-that-be would eat a bug before they'd admit they were 'wrong'.
 

QuoteI have been told that 1 years worth of firearms sales in OZ is not even 1 months worth in the US.

Given that that is true 22hornet, 10% increase in sales is usually enough to "make a difference" in most markets.
 
I'll probably have to 'show' Hornady and others that there is a market for LFC 8mm bullets by making my own and developing the LFC market myself. Actually, making what the big bullet-makers won't, is the foundation of Corbin's bullet-making machinery business.
 
Paul

Gitano,

Thanks for the "heads-up" on the 125's.  Ordered 3 boxes/100 from Grafs and they are on their way to sunny Castell.  The 125's are just about right for my "little" truck gun I plan to build.  300 "buddits" should last me for a long-long time.

Mucho appreciativo, amigo!!!!:hat:

Ol' John:Banghead:

My pleasure buddy. I'm always 'there' for a buddy when it means spending his money.
 
I wuz thinkin' about you last night... :D. I was loading up all the ammo to take to the range on Wednesday. (Closed Monday and Tuesday.) That'd be ammo for the .375x.284 Win, 8mm SLT, and of course the .338 MAI. The .375 and the MAI are going on the Colorado deer/elk hunt at the end of the month. The 8mm SLT may go if I get it field-worthy in time. It needs sights. I'd put a 'scope on it, but I don't have a bent-handled bolt for it. I might be able to use the .375 bolt, as it has a bolt face that could handle the Steyr's .500" rim.
 
Speaking of bent-handled bolts... The guy that did the one on the .375 - Jim Roberts - does excellent work. If you, (the editorial "you"), are needing to get a Mauser or Mosin Nagant bolt handle bent for 'scope use, this guy certainly did a great job on mine. $40 per handle, and that includes return shipping. He is a bit behind right now. He tells me he's about at 3-weeks turn-around time. He also told me that he should soon be at 1-week. I will say that I explained my situation regarding the upcoming hunt, and the time between when I dropped them in the mail and when I got them back was exactly 7 days. He told me to tell everyone not to expect that kind of response, so don't tell him I told you. The local yokels wanted between $100 and $150, 3-week turn-around minimum, and they HAD to have the whole action. Balderdash.
 
Anyway, hope everything is going well in Castell. Keep me posted on "The Drawing" :)
 
Paul

Got this response to my email:
 

Quote from: HornadyWell thanks for the request but... There's a certain minimum that we have to have in order to set up and run a bullet, any bullet.
Unfortunately we simply couldn't get to that number at a price that we felt was even remotely fair to our customers. We can do what you want but we would be charging about 10$ more per box and then you would write about us gouging and in a way you would be correct but that is about what we would have to charge. The 8mm is basically seen as a big game cartridge and the 125 was very thin and was basically a varmint bullet.
Demand dropped year after year until it simply could not sustain itself.
sorry

That's a 'fair' response, even if unsigned. However, it's presumptuous to assume "I" wouldn't be willing to pay $10 more for the bullets. Currently, at Graf's "dealer" price, I pay $17/100. You can bet your sweet bippy that I'd pay $27/100.
 
 
Paul

 
Here's what I sent back:

 
Thank you for your response. It was of course no surprise to find profitability the driving force behind the decision to discontinue manufacture of the 125-grain 8mm bullet. "Business is business" as 'they' say.

However, your assumption that "I" wouldn’t be willing to pay $10 more for the 125-grain 8mm bullet is wrong, and I believe it is wrong for a great many shooters/hunters. Currently, I pay $17/100 for these bullets. I would most definitely be willing to pay $10 more for them. I wouldn't particularly like it, but who does like to pay more for something just because it's not in vogue?

Also, I'm sure we'll continue to disagree, but the Hornady 125-grain 8mm spitzer is a fine deer bullet, and hardly 'just' a "varmint" bullet. Using that logic, please explain why an 85-grain .243 bullet is a "deer bullet" but a 125-grain .323 bullet is "just" a "varmint" bullet? No need for reply. It's a rhetorical question.

I appreciate that sales is a legitimate and compelling market indicator, however, it is not the "end-all" of market research. The internet is an amazing source of information. A little internet market research would likely have yielded a better view of the real interest in a light-for-caliber 8mm bullet than simply the sales of a bullet the manufacturer considers a "plain", "varmint" bullet.

Again, thanks for your response.

Paul

Excellent reply Paul. Let's hope they can convince the bean counters to change their minds.
 
Cheers
 
Jorge

Good on you, Paul.
Let's hope they do short runs of production on this bullet.

Thanks guys, but I'm not optimistic. What might happen I think is that Hornady may come out with a "Premium"  LFC in 8mm. Something with a little plastic and some tungsten carbide. That way they could feel 'justified' in charging an arm-and-a-leg for 'em.
 
Life is just simpler than these guys are makin' it. All they would have to do is hit about a dozen of the most popular hunting/shooting/milsurp websites and tell everyine that they are going to only make once-a-year production runs of 8mm 125s. Everybody could place their orders, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that they'd sell more than they currently do. This is hardly speculation on my part. Winchester does almost that exact thing with their "obsolete" brass production. Everybody knows it's a once-a-year proposition for 'oddball' brass, and when it comes out, they buy a year's supply. There's a world of difference in that and "We're not gonna make it any more."
 
Anyway, I'm working hard on getting some of Corbin's gear. If I do, 8mm will be one of the first calibers I start making bullets for. AND...I'll be makin' sabots too. :D
 
Paul

Sheesh! I got a response to my response.
 

Quote

we're well aware that sales per se are not the be all end all of making products but interest versus purchases is ultimately the decision. If you look at our line you will see many items that are there simply because we felt it important to have something even if it isn't much (348?)
Unfortunately you simply cannot do that everywhere every time.
Frankly, while you might be willing to pay that price we'd be embarrassed to offer it because we feel our customers would think less of us for charging such a high price.
the 85 grain 6mm we make is a bonded core design with the heaviest jacket we could put in it whereas the 8mm 125 is not.
Shoot the 150's, they're readily available, excellent for deer, CHEAPER, than the 125 would be, only weigh 25 grains more very little difference in recoil or trajectory and did I mention they're cheaper?

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If you look at our line you will see many items that are there simply because we felt it important to have something even if it isn't much (348?)

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Hello Paul. Hornady is a strange outfit. I called them with a broken pin on a set of dies and they shipped me 3 spares in 2 days....free. I called them about some defective SST's I reloaded and they said it was impossible.....they can be just that.....impossible. I don't like being called basically a liar and told them so....never got a response. Regards, Rick.

Actually, as a business, I kinda like Hornady. Taken as a whole, their bullets probably shoot better in my guns than any other single bullet manufacturer's do. I also like their reloading dies, and their willingness to make custom dies without arrogance or charging so much you have to take out a second mortgage. I aso appreciate an attitude the likes of "We would be embarrassed to charge that much". In this case, I think that was just a bit too convenient as justification for discontinuing a bullet.
 
What rankles me of course is the dumb "logic", AND especially the stupidity about the 125 being a "varmint" bullet. Good grief!
 
It's a business, and they made a business decision. I can live with that. I just wanted them to know that there are folks that don't like the idea of the 125 8mm bullet "going away".
 
Paul