Barnes TSX or Northfork

[PHOENIX PHIL]

OK. A general shortage of raw materials could be plausible, but I’m not getting the sense that it’s happening. Perhaps I’m way out of touch. Are car showrooms empty, or houses being being left incomplete, due to shortages of common materials?

It could be that bullet manufacturers have been driven to shop around more than usual to get materials at reasonable prices, to keep prices for consumers as low as possible. Multiple supply-side disruptions can turn into major production problems.

By the way, my searching has led me to several US based sites. You guys there don’t realise how good the prices in your neck of the woods are. Enjoy!

I know this much, you can’t sell what you don’t have. I believe it’s both a bit of what @Firebird said and shortage of materials. Having spoke to the folks at Swift directly at the conventions, they most definitely want to sell more bullets, but see first comment.

And yes, it’s quite difficult to find a new car, the showroom floors are sparse. I do hear it’s easing a bit, but we’re nowhere close to normal. Housing on the other hand is naturally slowing down with mortgage rates spiking. If we’re not in a housing recession yet, I believe we soon will be. This will ease up the demand for copper.

 

[Ridgewalker]

As I understand it…Just wanted to say most bullet manufacturing is done in batches of a specific caliber, design, and weight. Tooling has to be set-up for all the specifics. They once the production starts, they run until the quantity is complete. Then take everything apart and set-up for the next bullet. It would cost a fortune to have equipment for every caliber, weight, design of bullet, plus the space for the equipment.
Just my understanding of how they are made having been in design and manufacturing for my career.
”Patience grasshopper”…your caliber is coming.

 

[jbgarbo]

I’m my opinion, take what you can get your hands on. If you can get both, shoot the more accurate of the two in your rifle.

I am a total 100% fan of the North Fork bonded cores. Between me and my family and at least 5 rifles in various calibers, I’ve never seen a recovered bullet that didn’t look like you’d expect. Perfect mushrooms and found under the skin of the offside of the animal.

That said the TSX enjoys a good reputation that has been earned. I’m not as big a fan of the bullet as some as they tend to deposit a lot of copper in my barrels. This leads to a reduction in accuracy and severely so. Remedied by a cleaning of the barrel however. Others have not seen this from what I’ve read.

And occasionally you will read of failures to open in the medium to small bores. I don’t think this is too common, but I’ve had PHs also tell me they’ve seen it. But we aren’t talking about a small caliber here, so I would shoot it confidently.

are you using the North Fork SS or the PP?

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

are you using the North Fork SS or the PP?

I’ve used both, but would use the SS only on buffalo.

 

[1dirthawker]

are you using the North Fork SS or the PP?

i have used both as well, the SS is the tougher bullet. the PP was made for cats and opens up more quickly. that said, because of the solid shank, the bullet does a pretty good job regardless, but the softer PP would be a better choice on a leopard/lion and the SS a better choice on buffalo or eland. the PP has a distinctive ring around the top/point of the bullet.

reloading international had a good stock of north fork bullets last week.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Bonded bullet reloading, Huntingbullet design

North Fork bullet design

www.northforkbullets.com

Strangely, Northfork no longer appears to list any calibers under their Flat Point Solid and Cup Nosed Solid options anymore.

 

[1dirthawker]

i JUST looked at reloading international and they are selling North Fork flat point solids, cup nosed solids, SS AND PP in a bunch of calibers.

 

[jbgarbo]

i have used both as well, the SS is the tougher bullet. the PP was made for cats and opens up more quickly. that said, because of the solid shank, the bullet does a pretty good job regardless, but the softer PP would be a better choice on a leopard/lion and the SS a better choice on buffalo or eland. the PP has a distinctive ring around the top/point of the bullet.

reloading international had a good stock of north fork bullets last week.

Thank you, trying to figure out which way to go for a brown bear bullet in .375 H&H

 

[1dirthawker]

I use the 300 gr SS in my 375 ruger 20" bbl. I shoot it at 2450 fps. (yeah, could shoot it faster) the PP would also work, but i have had good luck with the SS. I guide brown bear hunters part time and this is one of my back up rifles. hope that helps