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Guest

spr310

Kevin has it absolutely correct!!!

Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 74 Location: MO Ozarks

Gang -

I just got off the phone with Kevin at Down range. He tells me that they are working 24/7 producing the new 3/4 - 7/8 wad from Charles H. mold. He expects to actually have the wad to the wholesalers within 3 - 4 weeks. Hold-up now is getting the powder manufacturers to produce load data. He has sent them wads for testing and hopes to have results very quickly. His attorney's advise him that by selling the wad without this data he would be assuming a huge legal liability. He tells me he will start shipping when he has 4 - 5 tested loads from the powder manufacturers. I forgot to ask Kevin what they were going to designate the wad. Feels a little awkard just saying the DR 16 ga. wad!

As soon as I post this, I am sending emails to both Hogden's and Alliant requesting them to expedite their load testing. I suggest that if all of us do so, it might spur them to greater efforts.

Thanks to Charle and keven we are drawing closer to a real 7/8 oz. wad for the 16 ga. Way to go, guys!

Member Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 425 Location: Maine

Hear hear!

Folks here is the status :

The mold is hanging up on the runner on the B Side , when Kevin changed machines things changed , where it was hanging up before is coming loose , now it is hanging up on the #1-2 Cavity .

Kevin has a 3/8" air line blowing down 80PSI things were good till the machine change and the top cavity hang up which negates the use of gravity and the air blast .

The Gaylord box full of wads and runners will be reground and recycled , Kevin does not use start up for production run product .

Tomorrow The Mold makers up there are going to place an additional undercut with a pencile grinder in the A Side of the mold runner to pull it out , Kevin contacted me for it is my tooling and he didnt want to do anything with out my consent .

Untill all of the bugs are worked out and the thing is running with out a hitch , nothing is going to ship , once it is up and running like is should it will take very little time to get product out , the load data is being worked on by the powder companies and I cannot give out my data that I worked up for the dang liability reasons .

Folks your not half as wound up as I am , I am making in excess of $700 a month payments for the last year on this thing if it makes a part or not .

The mold is being processed out , it is making good parts and soon this will be taken care of , I know most of you folks just dont understand but this is how things work , most folks never see the proofing of a product only the end result , trust me things always take time , nothing is ever easy or everyone would be doing it .

Hope this helps .

Regards Charles

Guest

Charles, thanks for the update! I think it will be worth the wait.

Charles,

I completely understand the massive effort involved in the "proofing of product", as well as the financial risks involved. Over the years, I have developed many new products and started up new businesses. Things never happen as fast as we plan, and there are countless unexpected obstacles along the way.

I have the highest respect for the great investment in time and resources you are making in this project. I am 100% confident that all the glitches will be sorted out and the marketplace will benefit by having a great new product.

Thank you for your continued leadership and commitment in promoting the 16 gauge. You are accomplishing great things.

im hanging in there with you charles. all good things take time.
may as well get er done right. take care bluerock

Spoke with Kevin today and this evening as well , the mold guys came out and placed some undercuts in the A Plate and the Mold has run all day with out a hitch , Kevin has put a conveyor and a runner seperator on the thing and is currently running production stuff for sale , he is confident that all is well now .

Kevin already has the plastic made up and going to run .

So this first stuff WILL NOT BE THE BIODEGRADABLE MATERIAL FOR THE FIRST RUN , so if you want a wad with shelf life this will be the only opportunity to get it , the future wads out of this mold will be the Bio stuff with a 2 year shelf life .

NOW GO BUG KEVIN AND YOUR DEALERS WITH YOUR ORDERS , IT IS COMING UP .

Wheeeewww , boy now I can breath a sigh of relief and stop worring .

Regards Charles

Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 596 Location: 17603

Nick,
Great to hear they got the bugs worked out!
We eagerly await,,,,, wonder who's gonna' get 'em first. Grafs????
Cheers,
R*2

Hello
TONIGHT I placed a order for 5000 with my local Downrange Wad Distributor.

http://www.downrangemfg.com/sales_representative/

In Amarillo, Texas it is Gray's Shotgun Cache

Good luck
Mike

Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Posts: 118 Location: N.Y.

Just ordered 5K from Recob's.. Great folks!

I just hope I get non-biodegradeable... I might be dead before I use 'em up...
I even gave up buyin' green bananas..

Not sure I ever thought I would get excited about the production of a shot wad, but I am looking forward to this one.

Key questions I have are:

When will Down Range start shipping wads?

Is there a way to guarantee delivery of the non-biodegradable version?

Is Down Range accepting orders in advance?

When is reloading data going to be available?

For what hulls will data initially be available?

I am tired of stuffing cork spacers into hull and see a great advantage in a true 7/8 ounce hull. I shoot alot of 7/8 loads on clays and skeet.

Hello Colonel :

I cannot give an exact date for shippment , but it will be soon .

You can place your orders with your Dealers directly .

Data will accompany the wads when shipped .

Not sure on the hulls except Chedditte will certainly be one .

I know what you mean , I am as excited as a kid to get 5 cases sitting on the floor for me to start loading shells with .

The Bio wads will be clearly marked with an expiration date clearly placed on the shipping containers , none of these first run will be Bio all regular plastice for this run .

Regards Charles

Member Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 425 Location: Maine

Any chance of marketing bios and non-bios after the initial run? I know it took me more than 2 years to shoot up a case of R-16's, too many other toys to play with.