Giving up on Berger Hybrids

[TeaRex]

Sorry in advance for the rant...

I guess I had pretty bad timing when I had my first custom rifle built at the beginning of last year with the .264"/6.5mm Berger 140 gr Hybrid bullet in mind for cartridge as well as throat and barrel length. I have only put ~400 rounds through the rifle the entire year because supply of bullets was so hard to come by, and I am now down to my last 100. I have had the bullets on backorder for ~6 months from several websites, I check ~6 online retailers several times a day, and now I just give up. If Berger cannot keep up with demand to keep their customers supplied, then I am going to go with a different bullet manufacturer. Their product is great it terms of BC, consistency, and accuracy (which is reflected in the cost), but I'm tired of passing on going to the range because I don't want to run out of bullets. I would rather add a mil to my holdover, keep a bit more $ in my pocket, and shoot 3x as much this year.

 

[Macmathews]

Yup

 

[dieselgeek]

I have 500 still sitting in plastic. I switched over to the 136g Lapua Scenars. Bought 2,000 of them.

 

[calshipbuilder]

amen TeaRex - Berger whats going on? where are the 140 and 230 Hybrids?

 

[Big Dog Steel]

About the time you switch your hybrids will be back in stock. ;-) I had an awful time finding 105 hybrids for a while...now have about 3K of them. Just have to ask around or post a WTB add here. When you can find them buy at least 500-1K of them.

 

[Kirkd]

Ive seen 140gr Amax's quite a bit.

 

[Skyking]

Talked with Berger on Friday. They are making the 500 round packs now. Said once they are done with them they will start on the 100 rounds boxes the end of the month. We should start seeing them shortly.

 

[40xs]

I heard they signed a contract with the military to supply their .30 cal. needs. this no doubt put an extra burden on their production.

 

[ZiaHunter]

I feel your pain. Have about 400 of the 140 gr. VLD's on hand and decided to hold on to them and switched over to the 139 gr. Scenars in the meantime. BTW they shoot very well.

 

[leadbullet]

I tried a lot of dif bullets brands and weights in the 6.5's, haven't found any that didn't shoot with very little work. Don't worry bout accuracy in the 6.5, it is there.

 

[gasdoc09]

Weird.

Midway put the .338 250 gr Berger hybrids on "clearance" a couple months ago, from $79 per 100 down to $53 per 100. I bought a shitload for my 12-twist TRG-42. They're still in stock but back at $79.

It's my total inability to find Retumbo anywhere at any price that makes me worry about being able to shoot that gun.

 

[TeaRex]

I keep hearing that Hybrids should be arriving soon, but I've yet to see any.

I'm thinking Nosler 6.5 140gr Accubond might be the way to go...


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[thrusty]

Berger is due for a large release of product....I wouldn't throw in the towel just yet. February will be a good month.
We're all going through the same thing - I'm down to 200 projectiles myself and am waiting on Berger as well.

 

[idaho1]

I have 500 still sitting in plastic. I switched over to the 136g Lapua Scenars. Bought 2,000 of them.

136 Scenar L out of my GAP 10 are amazing...... I get way more first round hits at 500-900 yards with this combo than I ever did shooting my AIAX with 142 SMK's.... Their is something about that bullet that defies its BC.

 

[haroldwilson]

Amax. Can't imagine how the hybrids or any other bullet could shoot any better than the Amax's in my 6.5 CM.

 

[dieselgeek]

.618 BC vs .580 would be a start.

 

[Skyking]

Berger Bullets Production Report with Bryan Litz - YouTube

 

[Garyc]

Unfortunately you'll be in the same boat with most other bullet manufacturers, it's not just Berger. I finally found a couple of boxes of 107 sierra matchkings for my 6mm BR the other day, haven't seen them anywhere in months. I lucked up and got 500 105 Amaxs for the same rifle about six months ago through midway, haven't seen them in stock anywhere else since either. I am starting to see powder come back in stock in the local gun shops now, that's a good sign. I know a place that has plenty of Retumbo on the shelf, unfortunately for the poster looking for it it's in Mississippi and I see he's in Virginia. Long way to go for gunpowder.

 

[TeaRex]

I've finally seen several websites showing the Berger 140gr BTHP match (different from VLD or hybrid) is stock, so hopefully that means they are doing a run of 6.5mm bullets and are about to ship some hybrids.

Thanks for posting that video above from Brian Litz. Just to speculate some, if berger now has 8 machines running, and they make~85 different bullets (!), I guess that means each bullet type gets a 4-5 week run per year (assuming each bullet is made only once per year, which is a total guess). So maybe that means they are shipping new stock of a single bullet type 1-2x per week.

That gives me a glimmer of hope that I'll see the hybrids soon...


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[oinco]

Berger told me probably early March for 140hybrids....maybe late February?

 

[clmayfield]

I waited a very long time for 308 185 gr hybrids to come back in stock. When they finally did, I ordered a bunch. From the video, it sounds like they might be able to keep up in another 4 months or so plus a few months to catch up on backlog. I switched to Hybrids because they work well at both short distance and long distance. I might have to go back to shooting 175 gr SMK's for short distance and hybrids for long distance.

 

[gunsnjeeps]

Buy at least a years worth at a time. I've had a couple shooters advise to buy enough to burn out the barrel then when you replace the barrel buy components again too. I shoot a little Berger but all the manufactureres are in the same boat, production can't keep up with hoarding.

PS. Those 175 SMK's may be hard to find for a while too.

 

[blackfoot]

I ordered the 6.5 140 Hybrids from bullets.com about 4 weeks ago and they arrived last week, box of 500.

 

[TeaRex]

Berger 6.5 140 Hybrids in stock at PowderValley, 500 packs.

Looks like y'all were right!


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