1967 Spud Reloading Supplies Visit

Mark Ellis, the founder of 1967 Spud reloading Supplies Ltd. has built his significant knowledge on shooting and reloading as a gamekeeper and competitive shooter; using calibres such as .243 Ackley improved for pest control and .284 Shehane, 6mm PPC or 6mm Dasher to compete in F-Class and Benchrest. Back in 2012, as a consumer of reloading components, he decided to do a YouTube video review of a stainless media tumbler (STM) that he had purchased from the USA. To his surprise, the response was extremely positive, and things started to snowball. People were soon asking where they could get one, so a relationship with the manufacturer was formed and he started to import and sell the tumblers from his dining room! Slowly but surely, Mark went on to increase the number of products that he stocked. Fast forward to 2018 and the operation has increased from stocking not just one product but 8,500 products, so I went to have a look!

The business

While being a full-time gamekeeper, Mark managed to continue making videos for YouTube, reviewing new products and also doing ‘how to’ videos to help get more people into reloading. With the creation of his website; www.1967spud.com, the aim was always to create a one-stop-shop for potential customers. With this, came the requirement to continue to increase stock levels of an incredibly large and diverse range of products, catering for as many calibres and therefore customers as possible. To add to this, there is a wide variety of non-reloading items available too.

I found items such as borescopes from Lyman, clothes from Jack Pyke, rests and rear bags from the likes of Sinclair, Seb and Edgewood. There were also drag bags and hard cases form Aim and Flambeau. Cleaning products from Boretech, Hopps, Tipton, Tetra etc. There were even rifle upgrade products, such as bedding kits, Timney triggers, GRS stocks and scopes from a lot of the major brands, such as Schmidt & Bender, March, Steiner and Nightforce! Customer service is very important to Mark and he offers free advice over the phone to his customers, talking them through all the available options. If he does not have the item a customer needs, then he tries his best to track it down!

The visit

I arrived at the new premises, which are located on an industrial estate near Aylsham, Norfolk and met Mark, and Nathan, who joined the company early last year. I was allowed to have a wander around, which gave me the opportunity to explore the various product lines. As a reloader, I know just how hard it can be to find the kit I need and then to find it in stock in the UK. Well, I can tell you for sure that 1967 Spud is a good place to start your search! The sheer quantity of bullets from all the major manufactures in so many calibres and weights was impressive, and this was replicated with die sets and other equipment, such as loading manuals, measuring tools, neck turning tools, presses and powder measures from all the big brands.

I found kit from Hornady, Berger, Sierra, Lyman, Lee, Nosler, PPU, Speer, Lapua, Barts, ADI, Forster, the list goes on and on! Mark is a main stockist of Redding and a distributor of RCBS equipment, which is notoriously hard to get hold of. He even told me that it has been known to send the American made RCBS products to customers back in the USA! There are also a few unique brands on offer as well, such as K&M, Wilson, Trimit, STS and Little Crow, there is simply too much to list in this article! The good news, is that I was told that he plans on expanding from 2000 sq./ft to a 3000 sq./ft warehouse in the future, so there should be even more gear.

Retail

Not content with just online sales, and seeing as the warehouse is manned all the time anyway, the decision was made to add a retail counter as well. As we are all too aware, there are a few products that cannot be purchased online. 1967 Spud holds primers from CCI, Murom, Remington and Federal and powders in great quantity from Ramshot, Hodgson, Vihtavuori, Reload Swiss, IMR and Alliant! Recently, they have also started stocking factory ammunition in a wide selection of calibres from Hornady, Norma, Federal and Remington. Visiting the store gave me the opportunity to have a look in person at certain products that I have been interested in, as well as to discover a few that I did not know about in the first place. Some can be quite pricey, so it is nice to be able to actually go and have a look at them and get some advice.

To sum it up

From humble beginnings in Mark’s dining room, I think the best way to describe his new premises is ‘the Screwfix for shooters’. I think that the fact this company has grown at the speed it has in the very challenging firearms industry is a great achievement that deserves recognition. And also bear in mind, all the while building his business he was full time gamekeeper! A nice simple recipe for success that benefits all reloaders. Free advice, lots in stock, well-priced, easy to buy and with good customer service. Well worth a visit! To top it off Mark takes calls between 8am-10pm seven days a week and the warehouse can be visited 8am to 4.30pm or by appointment.

Contact Visit; www.1967spud.com – 01263 739923 [email protected]