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I hear a lot of good things about Woodleigh, but they are a bit difficult to get here in the USA, and when you do the price is quite high. I have to assume the pricing is a reflection of high importation taxes at least in part.

I am looking at "Midway USA" which is one place I can order them from (if they are in stock) and I see that they cost more then Nosler partitions or Barnes X here in the USA. As of today they are asking 78 cents each for them.

So that may be a big problem for Woodleigh in trying to cultivate a market in the USA. I doubt they are going to out preform either the Nosler or the Barnes, and to try to take that market away from them with a product that costs more is an up-hill battle to say the least. Swift has it's following here, but it's limited because of the same fat. Swift bullets are as good as they come for deep penetrating expanding bullets, but as an example, their 150 gr 270 bullets cost $1.10 each. Nosler partitions cost 72 cents each and Barnes X bullets cost 71 cents each.

Now in the .277 diameter (just as an example) there are LOTS of bullets available here in the USA running form "poor" to "outstanding" in their performance on game.

Most hunters in the USA hunt deer and that means animals from 100 pounds to about 300. So even if you use a poor hunting bullet on deer you get quick kills from a 270 as a rule, just because the 270 is a bit more than you need, and deer just aren't that tough to kill.

"Ordinary plain Vanilla bullets" in the 270 cal are still mostly quite good for deer hunting. I have seen a few real bummers, but overall most .277 bullets of 130 140 and 150 grains are good.

The ones I really don't like I can count on one hand. I have seem very poor results, poor penetration and violent fragmentation, with every Burger I have shot, and every one I have seen shot (in every caliber.)
I also have seen many Sierra bullets come apart on game from small deer, a few bears and also about 12 elk. In my experience Sierra's fail in most instances but only about 1/2 as bad as Burgers.

Also the old non bonded Nosler Balistic tips have had a 100% failure rate in both 270 and 30 caliber in my experience. I have never seen a single one hold together on any animal at any range.

But the 130 grain Winchesters, Remingtons, most of the Speers, and about 50% of the Hornadys I have shot or seen shot (I guided for many years, so I kept track of these things out of my own interest)were all quite good.

All the bonded bullets I have ever seen used were excellent in every weight.
All the Barnes X bullets I have seen used at any range out to 500 yards have been excellent regardless of weight.
All the Nosler Partitions have been outstanding regardless of weight or range of the hit.

In the 140 grain weight I have seen jacket separation with the Hornady 140 grain boat tails in most instances, but those bullets will usually go at least 12" deep before the jacket comes off, so on deer they still killed quite well. I would advise against them for use on elk however.

In the 150 grain range in the 270 caliber the only 2 bullets I have disrespect for are the Burger and the Sierra Game King. I believe the original Nosler Ballistic Tip, non bonded version, are no longer made. I hope not anyway.

In the 160 grain there is only one. The Nosler partition which has been outstanding.

Anyway............. Woodleigh would be interesting to me, and to many American hunters I am sure, but if they wish to make inroads into the American market they are going to have to compete against bullets that are as close to perfect as they can be. They will have to match that level of accuracy and expansion, with 60% or more for weight retention , and they will have to give an incentive to make hunters try them and step away from that level of perfection they already have with the American made Bonded, X and partition bullets.

The only incentive that could be offered is price, because you just can't really get better than what we have here already in performance. That incentive will not happen at a higher price and in fact, it won't happen at the same price very often. What reason would a man have to try another bullet with he can buy a 71 cent premium bullet that is outstanding? Well, I'll tell you! The same preformance with a 65 cent bullet, that's how.

If you can't make a bullet work better (and I can't see how you could) the only thing left is to make one just as good and sell it for less. Probably quite a lot less at first.

If Woodleigh could sell its bullets for 70% of the price of Noslers or Barnes, they may have a good chance to develop an American following that would become loyal. Over a 10 year period the price could then match the Nosler and the Barnes, but trying to go head to head with those 2 companies and also with the new Hornady GMX bullets, and do it at a higher price is just not realistic.

Woodleigh may not have any choice however. As I said, some and maybe much of the price may be the US governments imposing taxes against them. The price may be as low as it can be. This I don't know.

I only know how the American market is, and what will sell, for what reasons.

Edited by szihn (14/10/16 02:22 AM)

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