Eley Edge

[Graham M]

We had the Eley rep visit and discovered that, contrary to some oppinion, Edge is made on a new dedicated production line - as opposed to producing one sort i.e. Tenex and then downgrade poorer batches to Match.

We also heard that the reason why Tenex dropped the other year or two ago, when they could not produce sufficient of the high enough standard, was discovered to be as a result of a change in the water supply. .

Yup, heard it all before only then we had an alternative view from the likes of the great Ernie Spiriti who helped develop Tenex back in the early days of Eley Tenex production (I shot with him at the City of Birmingham Rifle Club).

Back at the end of 2000 when the Eley rep was asked why it was so poor, his reply was "If you don't like it buy something else"......
Didn't go down well at Bisley and a lot of shooters did exactly that.

Burt Brooks tried to get thing right before he passed away but once he went Eley didn't seem to have a clue.
I have just bought 1000 Eley Match for indoor use and to be honest I find them astonishingly good and have had 4 poss's plus numerous 98s/ 99s over the 5 competitions that I have been shooting this winter (also had a few sh!te cards.......but I'm getting older now so they don't count ) and can see that there has been a vast improvement from the last load of trash that I shot with 2 years ago, since whence I shot Lapua.

Maybe they have set up a new line for these new "Edge" rounds, but please don't try and kid me that Eley have shelved out millions of £s setting up new tooling for a range of ammunition that is of poorer quality than Match.
If you were producing lower-than-expected ammunition, what would be easier than to put a "Spin" on things and to re-brand it as a "New range of lower quality ammo".


I'm old enough to remember when Tenex was made on its own line and came in cardboard boxes, and if you had a batch of Match that wasn't coated in black graphite you knew it was downgraded Tenex.
Now they are made on the same line and quality control sorts out their designation.


And for those of you who are wondering why the quality has improved......the Olympics are over and Eley aren't selling all the top-end stuff to China any more.


G.M.

[jimbo303]

Hi

I was just reporting what we had from the horses proverbial mouth.

A new production line to produce Edge was what were informed and when we do our batch testing on Edge - I am sure I will be able to advise further.

As regards to a new range of lower quality ammo - I understood that this was precisely what Team was - lower quality stuff from the Tenex/match production line, and woudl naturally only be available when poor batches were produced.

I will report here fully once we have done our visit and batch testing.

I am presently using a very good batch of Match that has consistently performed well - aisde form my ocassional blips. When practising with Edge - until I use all the Match I have - I foubnd it to be very good too. One has to remember that some batches and brands perform better and worse in each individual rifle.

My impression from the knowledgeable chap we had from Eley, is that since RWS have blanketed and courted nearly every club in the land - eley have at last realised they need to do something. They have a club scheme being launched, whereby if a club agrees for them to be the preferred supplier then they will rebate around 15% of the purchase price on an ongoing basis with aview to this being used for development of lubs and importantly for juniors. They have gone down this route because the ultimate owners of Eley felt this was the best way to move forward - as oppsoed to entering into a straight price war.

As in many clubs there are those who like one brand more than the other. Some people are more price sensitive than others. On the prone side in my club we have all tried others over the years but keep returning to Eley.

Ultimately it is a personal thing - whats suits your budget, rifle and shooting........ but so far Edge has performed well in our books.