The husband and wife business in Murrabit is a specialist manufacturer of traditional and rare calibre projectiles for classic hunting and double rifles.
Geoff McDonald established Woodleigh Bullets in the mid-1970s after gaining a passion for water buffalo hunting in the Northern Territory.
After nearly 40 years perfecting his craft, on November 27 a fire started in the workshop.
NSW Rural Fire Service has ruled the cause of the fire as ‘undetermined’ because the intensity of the blaze was so strong it incinerated any clear cause.
Stock Lock Antique Arms owner Roger Mowbray runs Northern Shooters Supplies out of his Katandra West store and is one of Woodleigh Bullets’ biggest distributors.
“The fire will have a dramatic effect because Geoff was manufacturing all the projectiles for big game rifles both locally and internationally,” Mr Mowbray said.
“There is now a vacuum in the projectile market. As soon as the news broke out, the buyers hit me really hard and I sold out of nearly everything and that’s happening with all Woodleigh distributors.”
Woodleigh Bullets manufactures the projectiles that go inside rifle ammunition.
They are incredibly popular in Australia among pig, buffalo and deer shooters and are stocked by gun stores across Africa, Scandinavia, Germany, the United Kingdom, North America and New Zealand.
“Not everyone can make these projectiles, it’s a precise craft,” Mr Mowbray said.
“I’ve known Geoff a long time and he along with several others brought life back into classic hunting and double rifles. Before that these magnificent rifles were basically wall hangers.”
Double rifles are considered the pinnacle of sporting rifle design and were handmade in the 1800s.
Double rifles can sell for $20,000 to $30,000 — in the UK those numbers jump to between $50,000 and $60,000.
Trelly's Outdoor Shepparton owner Steven Threlfall — better known as Trelly — said he could only hope none of Mr McDonald’s specialised equipment was damaged beyond repair in the fire.
“We mainly sell his medium range projectiles for deer hunting,” Mr Threlfall said.
“The fire will have wide-ranging implications; some bullet manufacturers are sold out to 2025 because of pandemic closures and I know Woodleigh was behind on orders too.”
He said one American manufacturer was behind on $3 billion worth of orders.
“And that’s just one of them.
“I’m treasurer of the Firearms Traders Association of Victoria and we’ve been watching the situation. Australia is looking at a massive shortage in ammunition over the next few years and losing an Australian-owned, Australian-made factory will only tighten the bottleneck and stress import demands more.”
The factory fire damaged most of the working production machinery and all packed stock was burnt.
“We do have some unwashed and unpolished stock stored in bulk drums, but we have no way of dealing with it at the moment,” Woodleigh Bullets said in a message to customers.
“It will take some time to assess the machinery damage and make a plan for the future.”
The factory fire was attended by four NSW Rural Fire Service brigades and two Victorian Country Fire Authority brigades, which were alerted to the fire at 8.35am and spent more than an hour bringing the blaze under control.
The fire was officially extinguished 24 hours later.
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