Those Midway Factory Seconds

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FairChase93

Active member
Midway has a bunch of Factory Seconds Bullets from Hornady at the moment so I ordered 6 boxes of the 143 gr ELDX. No reason to switch from the 123 A max but at those prices I couldn't resist. Anyways I got them In the mail and I've been sorting through them, can't find a single thing wrong with them, no deformed tips, tarnished jackets, no weight inconsistencies to speak of, nothing. But after peeling all those labels off the boxes I did find something interesting.
This label is what came on the box.


After peeling all those Midway labels off I found this Hornady label.



I found it comical that apparently Midway slapped all of those labels claiming to be repackaged right over the top of the obvious Hornady Box and Labels. Also interesting Midway was charging $25.00 and apparently Hornady was asking 14.00.

I'm working on a theory that the only reason these were "seconds" Is because they still have the translucent red tips instead of the solid red tips that Hornady went back too.
 
That is interesting.. Usually they come in the blue plastic boxes, which is what the label was talking about.

I've gotten some good deals, but the last couple of times the price isn't that much lower than Powder valley or Midsouth want for firsts. I have been burned a couple of times with the seconds, getting some pretty odd bullets.
 
Originally Posted By: 204 ARThat is interesting.. Usually they come in the blue plastic boxes, which is what the label was talking about.

I've gotten some good deals, but the last couple of times the price isn't that much lower than Powder valley or Midsouth want for firsts. I have been burned a couple of times with the seconds, getting some pretty odd bullets.

I've seen a few wonky bullets from seconds before but I have found literally nothing wrong here. Around here a box of 143s will run about 37 So I figured 25 bucks was pretty fair
 
I'm done with seconds. They can work great. However, when they don't you usually figure out pretty quick. Once you factor in the slight lower cost, they aren't worth it to me.
 
I would un happy if I found tags from the factory at 1/2 the price that midway just retagged over and doubled the cost.
 
Originally Posted By: 5spdI would un happy if I found tags from the factory at 1/2 the price that midway just retagged over and doubled the cost.

Sending an email, more than anything I'm curious what they have to say about it.
 
Originally Posted By: Brad PhillipsOriginally Posted By: Mark204Larry Potterfield thanks you for your business.

I see the humor in that....

so does mr. potterfield.
tongue_smilie.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Smokin BarrelI would be curious how to get them from Hornady at the labeled price.

Go by their factory & take a free tour. Over to the left of the front counter there is drawers & drawers of seconds you can buy. Give them your NRA card & they will take a % off of top of that....
 
Originally Posted By: FairChase93Originally Posted By: 5spdI would un happy if I found tags from the factory at 1/2 the price that midway just retagged over and doubled the cost.

Sending an email, more than anything I'm curious what they have to say about it.

Not sure what kind of answer you will get, but the real answer is they are in busness to make money. Just like when they buy premium firsts from Hornaday at a lower price than what they sell to you. That's kind of how the whole retail thing works... What do you expect?
 
Originally Posted By: coleridgeOriginally Posted By: FairChase93Originally Posted By: 5spdI would un happy if I found tags from the factory at 1/2 the price that midway just retagged over and doubled the cost.

Sending an email, more than anything I'm curious what they have to say about it.

Not sure what kind of answer you will get, but the real answer is they are in busness to make money. Just like when they buy premium firsts from Hornaday at a lower price than what they sell to you. That's kind of how the whole retail thing works... What do you expect?

I'm in business myself I'm not even ragging on them, trust me I get it, bad business though claiming to be repackaged when it's not and leaving the price tag from Hornady right there for everyone to see. I know what my customers expect and what they would say in my business. I still feel like I got a deal, but there are somethings I feel like you just don't do.
 
Originally Posted By: FairChase93Originally Posted By: coleridgeOriginally Posted By: FairChase93Originally Posted By: 5spdI would un happy if I found tags from the factory at 1/2 the price that midway just retagged over and doubled the cost.

Sending an email, more than anything I'm curious what they have to say about it.

Not sure what kind of answer you will get, but the real answer is they are in busness to make money. Just like when they buy premium firsts from Hornaday at a lower price than what they sell to you. That's kind of how the whole retail thing works... What do you expect?

I'm in business myself I'm not even ragging on them, trust me I get it, bad business though claiming to be repackaged when it's not and leaving the price tag from Hornady right there for everyone to see. I know what my customers expect and what they would say in my business. I still feel like I got a deal, but there are somethings I feel like you just don't do.

Understand... It does seam they could hide their tracks a little better but it still is what it is. I have no doubt they midway stickers are just the standards they didn't change. I believe they usually get bulk quantities and repackage their selves in the blue boxes. Also, read back through my post & sounded brash. Wasn't trying to be but you get the point.
 
The red boxes are exactly what Hornady sells them in at the factory, I buy a few thousand bullets a year (ok, maybe more than a few thousand...) from the Grand Island plant. They're dirt cheap, and most of the time, they shoot just as good if you buy the right boxes. The hornady stickers the guys found under the midway labels are exactly as they would be labeled from Hornady, and the price listed is the price you would pay if you went to the plant to pick them up.

If you look close at the Midway "manufacturers part numbers" on the listing pages, it gives away which bullets they are - for the Hornady's here, they use the same model numbers as the standard bullets, except with an "S" in front of the model number - i.e. "Seconds." Same model number is listed on the hornady tag as on the midway page, and without the S, it's the same model in the reloading manual or hornady website.

I ordered some of the 200grn ELD-X 30cal and 162 ELD-X 7mm, and I'll admit, I'm a little sad. I've been selective for all of these years at the Hornady plant to only buy "Set-Up" or "Appearance" flaws. The 600 bullets I ordered are listed as "bad noses" - which have slight imperfections in the polymer tips at the junction line between the tip and the jacket - or as "won't group/won't shoot." I've never bought bullets with these particular listings from Hornady, so I guess I'm about to learn how bad "won't group/won't shoot" really is.

Appearance and Set-Up factory seconds (set-up = first few hundred/thousand bullets off of a new production set up getting the machines warmed up, appearance usually = fingerprints on the jacket) have always shot just as well as I've ever gotten the factory 1st's to shoot. I'm betting the "bad noses" will be fine, but nervous on the "won't group/won't shoot" listed batches.

To be honest, I wouldn't buy them if I didn't recognize the bullet as a model I shoot regularly, so I'm glad Midway doesn't try to hide the bullet's origin any better than they do.
 
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Funny you bring up going to Hornady. I was in the area about a week ago and stopped by to see what they had. I ended up with a bunch of 120 and 123 Amax in 6.5 cal. They were all listed as the "won't group/won't shoot". I was a little nervous but asked and they informed me that instead of shooting dime size 10 shot groups these may go as big as a nickle, worst case scenario. Well I haven't tried them yet and probably won't for a while as I've got a bunch of the same bullets bought from Midway as blems for twice the price. And they have all shot perfectly fine for me, for the informal shooting that I do.
 
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