Penn Bullets

Does anyone know what is going on with this company?  

I have successfully   ordered from them twice in the past.  Third order was placed the end of November I believe.   The box arrived empty with one of those postal stickers on it saying that it had reached my local post office empty.  I was in Japan at the time, so I had my daughter take a picture which I forwarded to Bob.  

Since then I  have received two emails saying that they are having problems with replacing lost shipments.   


My last email enquiry several weeks ago, went totally unanswered.  


At this point, I would really like my bullets,  but would settle for my money back.  

anyone else in this jam?

I had a minor problem with them once, I am sure he will make it right. 

Now if you want to try a second source for 185gn and 200SWC CJN Casting in NJ Karl is the best and his bullets are at par if not better than Penn.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the bullets I buy from Penn I have not found anywhere else.    They are 9mm 115g semi wadcutters.  They look like a miniature version of the HG68?   I use them at the short line.

Schaumannk wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, but the bullets I buy from Penn I have not found anywhere else.    They are 9mm 115g semi wadcutters.  They look like a miniature version of the HG68?   I use them at the short line.

If you don't mind me asking what is your load for the Penns and the OAL.

Thanks,
- Dave

dronning wrote:

Schaumannk wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, but the bullets I buy from Penn I have not found anywhere else.    They are 9mm 115g semi wadcutters.  They look like a miniature version of the HG68?   I use them at the short line.

If you don't mind me asking what is your load for the Penns and the OAL.

Thanks,
- Dave

I use 4.2 of VVN340.  Pretty short OAL  I have a shoulder seating die, and leave no more than a 1/16th of an inch of shoulder above the case mouth.

I have been buying my 200 gr LSWC bullets from Penn Bullets for years without any shipping problems.  Just a few weeks ago I received two shipments, both in those bulk boxes from the Post Office. Two thousand of the 200 gr LSWC's is near the upper limit on the maximum weight that can be shipped in one of those PO boxes and probably weighs near 70 lbs.  The bullets are always packaged in separate, tightly taped boxes with packing material inside the PO box.  If the box arrived empty I would suspect someone at the PO is either a shooter (no pun) that reloads or a PO worker who didn't want to lug around 70 lbs.  

Contact Bob Palermo by phone at Penn and I'm sure he will work with you to correct the order.

Customer service with bob is hit and miss almost like he is bi-polar I had a bad experience with him too but some others have good. Nothing he has is better than magnus so I went to terry where the customer really counts and never looked back.

DavidR wrote:Customer service with bob is hit and miss almost like he is bi-polar I had a bad experience with him too but some others have good. Nothing he has is better than magnus so I went to terry where the customer really counts and never looked back.

I talked to Terry about making my bullet.   It  would require quite an investment in custom molds, since Terry said none of his suppliers carry it.  Believe me, if he had it, Terry would be my choice.

Schaumannk,
  Terry makes a great bullet to do the same thing as the Penn bullet. I also used to use Penn's 115gr SWC but I found that Magnus #509 their 130gr L-SWC work better. Terry will size them down to .356 and (or .355). They are listed as a 38/357 round when you check them out.

Len

OldMaster66 wrote:Schaumannk,
  Terry makes a great bullet to do the same thing as the Penn bullet. I also used to use Penn's 115gr SWC but I found that Magnus #509 their 130gr L-SWC work better. Terry will size them down to .356 and (or .355). They are listed as a 38/357 round when you check them out.

Len

Thank you, I will probably end up doing that.  What load are you using with it?

Loading 3.5gr BE with a COL of .987. It has a bit more then the fingernail sticking up that you like. The bullet shape takes up a lot of case space. I am thinking about upping load to 3.8gr but if I do I will not seat as deep.

Len

OldMaster66 wrote:Loading 3.5gr BE with a COL of .987. It has a bit more then the fingernail sticking up that you like. The bullet shape takes up a lot of case space. I am thinking about upping load to 3.8gr but if I do I will not seat as deep.

Len

What you can get away with in terms of shoulder varies with the gun.   I have one gun that I can get away with more shoulder, and the other one, with a shorter chamber I can't.  I get malfunctions.  So I necessarily make my shoulder so the ammo will function in both guns.  

At the 25 yard line I tend to load for functioning.  


I had never considered using Bullseye, but suspect it would work well.

AllAces wrote:I have been buying my 200 gr LSWC bullets from Penn Bullets for years without any shipping problems.  Just a few weeks ago I received two shipments, both in those bulk boxes from the Post Office. Two thousand of the 200 gr LSWC's is near the upper limit on the maximum weight that can be shipped in one of those PO boxes and probably weighs near 70 lbs.  The bullets are always packaged in separate, tightly taped boxes with packing material inside the PO box.  If the box arrived empty I would suspect someone at the PO is either a shooter (no pun) that reloads or a PO worker who didn't want to lug around 70 lbs.  

Contact Bob Palermo by phone at Penn and I'm sure he will work with you to correct the order.

Most of my mail carriers are dainty little women..  My phone # and E - mail stays posted in their office.. When I get heavy packages, they call,  and I go pick them up.. I am happy, and they are happier..

AllAces wrote:I have been buying my 200 gr LSWC bullets from Penn Bullets for years without any shipping problems.  Just a few weeks ago I received two shipments, both in those bulk boxes from the Post Office. Two thousand of the 200 gr LSWC's is near the upper limit on the maximum weight that can be shipped in one of those PO boxes and probably weighs near 70 lbs.  The bullets are always packaged in separate, tightly taped boxes with packing material inside the PO box.  If the box arrived empty I would suspect someone at the PO is either a shooter (no pun) that reloads or a PO worker who didn't want to lug around 70 lbs.  

Contact Bob Palermo by phone at Penn and I'm sure he will work with you to correct the order.

This isn't my problem.   It is the shippers problem.  It wasn't a large or heavy order,  2000 115g SWC.  

Box was ripped open.  

He has been contacted three times now.  I can try and call Monday.  I suspect it is a bit late today.

There is another choice if your looking for lead bullets for the short line. Magnus Bullets also sells a 147gr FP that runs flawlessly in both my 9s. They also group pretty good. I load them with 3.5gr BE with a COL of 1.104. Shot this today playing at the range. 25 yds.

Bob Palermo read a post I had on another forum and offered to send me 100 bullets for free for me to try, I tried them and have bought more with no problems what so ever. He is a good guy, I am sure if you call him directly he will take care of your problem.

Schaumannk,
Are you shooting these Penn 115's in a 9mm or 38Super?  If you're using a 9 as a wadgun for CF I'd like to know more.  I'm still playing around with my experimental 12-twist 9mm and have gone to a Sams style frame mount. Without the dot on the slide it functions well with softball loads (700fps) and is quite accurate with very little recoil.  But it takes good bullets to do it.

Dr.Don,
  I also played with some other loads yesterday. I was shooting the Penn 115gr bullets with Unique to give them a test and also with the Magnus 130gr. I load the 115 with a COL of 1.031. The 130s kept landing on top of each other (in 3 different spots) but nothing wrong with the 115s for the short line. 9mm barrel has 1:18.75 twist

Penn 115gr 25yd


Magnus 130gr LSWC 25yd

OldMaster66:  I do not see the 9mm 130 gr. LSWC on the Magnus site.  Please give me the bullet number so I can order some.  Thanks.
Tom

left7hand wrote:OldMaster66:  I do not see the 9mm 130 gr. LSWC on the Magnus site.  Please give me the bullet number so I can order some.  Thanks.
Tom

38/357-130-SWC-NO.509 

As mentioned above you will need to ask Terry to size them .356 or .355 for you.

- Dave

dronning wrote:

left7hand wrote:OldMaster66:  I do not see the 9mm 130 gr. LSWC on the Magnus site.  Please give me the bullet number so I can order some.  Thanks.
Tom

38/357-130-SWC-NO.509 

As mentioned above you will need to ask Terry to size them .356 or .355 for you.

- Dave

Terry sized mine to .356

Len

Thank you OldMasters66.  I ordered 500 today.
Tom

I think Penn Bullets is having a some quality control problems right now, I ordered from them the 22.5 pound option 152gr, 180gr, 200gr match grade, all in .452 diameter
the 152gr look good only a few that weren't good, 180gr out of 875 bullets 150 were 180gr and the rest were 185gr and different length about .030 shorter and lot of them were wrinkled or had voids, 200gr they were the worst cast bullets I have ever seen to get 50 good ones I have to look at about 200 bullets some were out of round up to .005 75 of them were wrinkled weight varied 5gr. 
I e-mailed Bob and he is shipping me a new box of the 200gr and said to just blow the bad one of for practice think I will just put them in the fishing sinker pot. I don't want to waste powder and primers on them!

CJN Casting Karl is the Best 
Magnus Terry is great!
Zero those HPSWC don't miss

All make a great HG 68 185, 200.

Those bullets will still group at 25 yds....50 is another story
Jon