I apologize for taking so long to get back to this thread. There have been several ideas expressed. I will do my best to address them individually.
Not to start a war,.. Why not try to tie it into the IBS also.
As far as I am concerned there is no war or issues between IBS and NBRSA. They are two separate organizations that happen to engage in a similar activity. It is no different than the many boxing or other relatable sports associations that exist today. I've shot in one IBS Nationals at Dr. Palmisano's range trying to pick up some easier to obtain Hall of Fame points (didn't work out as hoped). To the best of my memory that is the only IBS match I've ever attended. My home range is Ben Avery in Phoenix, AZ. To my knowledge there has never been an IBS match held there. I haven't looked lately but I believe there are no IBS clubs or matches anywhere in the US except on the east coast. Taking all this into consideration, I am not going to champion a cause for two disconnected organizations. We will focus our efforts on the NBRSA. I encourage anyone or any company to initiate this same effort for the IBS.
Price gouge for years on end, with no competition.
I take offense to this statement. I am a student of Walt and he has been a champion for fair pricing his entire life. Our price changes over the years have been based on material costs and our cost of production with one exception I will get to shortly. The link below will show you the significant spike in copper prices that affected our prices over this period.
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/copper/all/
The following is something I've shared with anyone who asked so it is not new information. The one exception is when I was in a meeting where it was being discussed that from a purely business point of view, it did not make sense to sell jackets, at all. The math is clear on this point. However, I did manage to be persuasive enough to secure that we would still make jacket available but we were compelled to price them in accordance to what they were worth for our operation. This policy still holds true until another change, and it wasn't the fact that there is other jacket makers in the market.
On Oct 13th I was given the position of President of Berger. I can assure you that this position was hard earned. With this change came some expanded authorities. It took some convincing but I managed to secure a change to our jacket policy for 5 specific jackets. It is my opinion that short range BR is the core of Berger's existence. I believe strongly that we need to do everything we can to strengthen this core.
Changing the jacket prices is one of many efforts.
How many different action, stock, barrel, scope, trigger and other product makers are there in BR shooting? How many other bullet makers do we compete with every day? I can assure you that we are doing nothing to stop anyone from making jackets or bullets.
the Jackets I've been getting from Sta-Moly put the best J4's Ive ever had to shame.
Then our change in prices will have little to no effect on their sales. If this statement is true then the BR shooters will know it and pick the better performer as they always have.
Are the J4 jackets made in the California plant? If so, will they continue to be made there at the new 50% off price level? If so, will the gilding material quality and concentricity be compromised? Is the current zinc level above 5%? Would it go even higher?
Nothing about our production process has changed. They are still made in the same place, by the same people, using the same material to the same tolerances. Nothing has changed.
The prices had been going up, up, up..with little or no concern...more like disdain, for custom bullet makers.
Please see the comment above about why our prices changed. Just because someone doesn't like what happens doesn't mean that there is malicious intent behind it.
There was very poor availability at all, at any price.
Two things have changed that will affect availability. The most significant change is that the overall demand for everything in the firearms industry has decreased. This demand surge may not be remembered by everyone but it is a shame that we are being blamed for not making some products available during a time when gunshops were being picked clean. All products were affected to an extent and for a duration that has never been seen before. The other change is my deliberate intent to support and strengthen BR shooting. We will make sure to get and keep these 5 jackets available for that purpose.
If they are taking a large loss by cutting the price of short range benchrest jackets by 1/3 (approx), and this amounts to less than 2% of their business, it would appear they are attempting to put their new competition back out of business.
We are not selling these jackets at a loss. No smart business would do such a thing. If we can't keep the doors open we are no help to anyone. The difference is the difference between what these jackets are worth to us as bullets and an amount of resources we consider as a shooting support expense (we have several such projects). This change is something I've wanted to do for some time. It was proposed during the discussion about whether or not we would even continue to sell jackets. The fact that there are others making jackets is nothing new. Sierra jackets were and have been available before J4. Hornady came out with their AMP jackets. I believe Jim Ridings made jackets for a while. Is it my fault that no one else has done this until recently? Is it better for BR if I take this price change back because it is perceived as bad timing to a few? I don't think so on both counts.
I refuse to be gouged and I won't do business with someone who screws you when he has you over a barrel and as soon as the product is available they want to drop the price and act like they are doing you a favor, I won't buy anything from Berger because of it.They hurt a lot of bulletmakers and shooters with their crap and I hope it bites them in the butt.
I understand your frustration and I appreciate why you think we are doing this deliberately to hurt others. I can only hope that time gives us a chance to show you how much we will be doing to strengthen and build BR. If you look at my original post there are several things we are doing to support BR. I also hope that your fears about this damaging others are proven to be unfounded.
While I'm at it how come only the few jackets mentioned are discounted to a realistic price what about long range 6's, 6.5's,7mm and long 30's I guess they just continue to get gouged.
Please see the reason for the price increase above. The position on the other jackets is unchanged. The 5 jackets that have been reduced are purposefully meant to support short range BR shooting and will remain available. It is the only concession I could secure. Looking at it from a purely business point of view, we are lucky to have this situation.
You know he is Michael, and why he's not answering...
I hadn't answered only because I am in the process of running a multi-million dollar company. I've been accused of many things but in this thread it is surprising how many posts claim to know me and who I am. These assumptions are false. Just because someone says I'm the big bad wolf doesn't make me the big bad wolf.
I "THINK" the reason that Eric has put Short Range Bench Rest up front is because that is the proving ground for most firearm components.
This is all about staying connected to our roots. I believe strongly that a big part of Berger's success is because of who we are. We are BR shooters. This may seem a vague statement to some but in my world being a BR shooter means you care about the details. You put quality first. You do whatever it takes to achieve as close to perfection as can be achieved. You do sweat the small stuff. You care about others who do as well. I am a BR shooter. This is the reason. It just so happens that being a BR shooter in our approach to all types of shooting (where precision matters) has turned into a good way to feed my family and several other families.
I'll close with an observation. There are several things about BR that are either causal or symptomatic of its decline. We have our eyes on all of BR and it is my plan to start bringing cohesiveness and order to this great activity. I won't bore everyone with the details but some of the things I am talking about are evident within this thread.
Maybe I shouldn't care. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it. But I do and I will until they throw the dirt on my face or I just get tired of trying. I don't think the later will end my enthusiasm for this effort.
Regards,
Eric
