I have been asked by a few people where I got them. I lucked out.
I stopped by my FAVORITE gun shop Jo-Brooks in Brandon and got talking with Travis and found out he had just placed his Berger order. He said he would call his rep and see if he could get any and advise me. Later that day he e-mailed me and said yep they are on the order and will make it on the current shipment.
Needless to say it was a quick thing and I lucked out.
I have enough to give them a good test and shoot a match with them.
Now, if anyone wants any to try some this is what I will do. Send an e-mail to me at cyanchyc@mymts.net with your name saying how many you want. I will gather the names and numbers and pass the quantity on to Travis. I will leave this open until Sunday April 8, 2012. He will then be able to decide how soon the order can go in. If you say you want them then I TRUST you will be like most BR shooters I know. Standup and true to your word that you will take them.
I will say again that Travis was going to stock them but I advised against that. He allready has lots of 68gr Bergers that are not moving so I do not want to see him take a chance with these.
In regards to pricing I paid 30.00/100 +taxes (12%). I cannot guarantee the price will be exactly the same. That all depends what the bank rate is the day his CC is charged. So you need to ba aware of that.
Now I can tell you a little about what I have seen with my own eyes. I compared them to the Opel 64.5 Gr bullet as you will read why below. As time permits I can compare them to the small amount of Mitchell 68's, Barts Ultras, and Opel 66's that I have.
The Berger Column appears to be on a .790 jacket in comparing it to the Opel 64.5gr bullet which is built on a .790 jacket.
In regards to weight the Opel is more consistent than the Column bullet. I just weighed 1% of the Column bullets I recieved and a equivalent amount of Opel. 80% of the Opels were the exact same weight while only 50% of Column were the exact same weight. Now according to Lou Murdica and Bryan Litz it is not the weight that appears to matter but where the lead line falls inside of the jacket.
I then measured Base to Ogive with my Stoney Point .243 comparator. The Berger Column bullet was bang on at .356" while the Opel was 80% at .376". So in other word's if I understand this correctly the bearing surface is longer on the Opel by .020".
I then seated a Column bullet and an Opel into cases to give 5 thou jam. The initial measurement when I find jam is done with my barrel stub. Then I measure and use my Stoney point comparator as I find it a bit more user friendly. A loaded round with the Column bullet measures .012" longer than with an Opel bullet. As you will see in the pictures the Column bullet does stick out further does stick out further than the Opel.
The pressure ring according to my cheap micrometer is slightly larger on the Column bullet versus Opel 64.5. I was meauring the Column at .2435 and the Opel at .2432.
All measurements were done numerous times to see if I could get repeatability.
So this is what I can tell you for now.
L to R: 68gr Mitchell, 68gr Bart's Ultra, 68 Berger, Berger Column, 64.5gr Opel, 66gr Opel
L to R: 64.5gr Opel, Berger Column
I do not know how soon he would be able to get another shipment but maybe if there is enough people wanting to try them they could get here in short order.