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Posts: 670
Location: mercer wi | Has bucher bucher Crack baits gotten any better. Use to love them then had a horrible rash of them falling apart. Just want to know if quality has returned. |
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Posts: 532
Location: NW WI | 2017(a guess) 7" shallow raider just fine
2019 7"Prism shallow raider just fine
2021 5" Prism Red eye shallow raider the first chamber at the head takes on water very slowly. |
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Posts: 1418
Location: Brighton CO. | I bought a custom from Team Rhino and the lip was crooked no tuning it. Jeff got me a new one. |
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Posts: 353
Location: Western U.P. | The last 3 8" Depth Raiders I've bought within the last 2 years have all ran fine, and no issues. When fish hit these "crack" baits, they do act a little squirrely though. |
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Posts: 1270
Location: E. Tenn | Had the paint start coming off a depthraider, and a shallowraider right out of the box. JBO eventually sent replacements. I also found out they're not through wire, as one might expect.
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Posts: 789
Location: Delavan, WI | I don't know of any plastic injection molded crankbaits that are wire through for example grandma's Jake's believers all use the same type of hook hangers as bucher lures, because of they way they are designed I would think it's nearly impossible to manufacture them with a wire through as they are chambered and not entirely hollow as you may have thought, it's wood baits that can be wire through, and not all of them are either, many use screw eyes to keep cost down, so not sure why you would expect a $20 plastic lure to be wire through, for what they are the bucher lures catch many fish year after year, also the paint issues maybe in part due to EPA banning certain paints & primers that were available prior, other things such as supply issues may also be to blame where they may substitute a certain color or brand paint to be able to fulfill production, Overall I think they do the best they can - you your self said they did replace the ones that were peeling, all in all a Great company and customer service!
BTW you can turn that broken baby shallowraider into a squirrly custom just hacksaw smooth where you have at least a 1/2" of the rear chamber opening, find a grub tail like a calins 4 or 5 inch and cut front part partially till it looks like a nice fit take some crazy glue and put a generous amount in cavity swishing it around so it's coated nice shove the grub in there facing up and voila you got a custom lure the muskies likely haven't seen before, I guess the 6" squirrly Jake is similar but yet it's slightly different |
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Posts: 1418
Location: Brighton CO. | I'm a big fan of the Bucher plug family and all my big fish have been caught on Depth Raiders and Baby Depth Raiders with that said I have a lot of the old Original's. |
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Posts: 490
Location: Northern Illinois | "also the paint issues maybe in part due to EPA banning certain paints & primers that were available prior, other things such as supply issues may also be to blame where they may substitute a certain color or brand paint to be able to fulfill production"
Usually bad paint right out of the box is process related, such as contamination, cleanliness, etc. |
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Posts: 670
Location: mercer wi | Not worried about paint to much. I've had lips break off, split down the seems, leak, and sink like a rock right out of the package. Again this is over the last 5-10 years. Would like to buy 1 but hesitant about it. |
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Posts: 1270
Location: E. Tenn | muskymartin67 - 10/13/2022 12:40 PM
I don't know of any plastic injection molded crankbaits that are wire through for example grandma's Jake's believers all use the same type of hook hangers as bucher lures, because of they way they are designed I would think it's nearly impossible to manufacture them with a wire through as they are chambered and not entirely hollow as you may have thought, it's wood baits that can be wire through, and not all of them are either, many use screw eyes to keep cost down, so not sure why you would expect a $20 plastic lure to be wire through, for what they are the bucher lures catch many fish year after year, also the paint issues maybe in part due to EPA banning certain paints & primers that were available prior, other things such as supply issues may also be to blame where they may substitute a certain color or brand paint to be able to fulfill production, Overall I think they do the best they can - you your self said they did replace the ones that were peeling, all in all a Great company and customer service!
BTW you can turn that broken baby shallowraider into a squirrly custom just hacksaw smooth where you have at least a 1/2" of the rear chamber opening, find a grub tail like a calins 4 or 5 inch and cut front part partially till it looks like a nice fit take some crazy glue and put a generous amount in cavity swishing it around so it's coated nice shove the grub in there facing up and voila you got a custom lure the muskies likely haven't seen before, I guess the 6" squirrly Jake is similar but yet it's slightly different
I use the similarly priced Jakes, Grandmas, (the believers not so much), plus lures from all the usual manufacturers, and have never experienced any breakage or finish peeling issues. The latter has been a bit of a plague with the depthraider/shallowraider line for a lot longer than the "supply chain issue", and "EPA regulations" excuses have been around. Furthermore it seems as if most if not all the other manufacturers have overcome the obstacles you mentioned, and maintained the quality of their products.
As far as "Customer Service" goes, it was a real pain in the butt convincing the folks in Genoa City to let me return the peeling raiders to them.., They were adamant I return them to the point of purchase, even though I made it clear I was unsure which store I bought them at, (who seriously keeps every receipt?) and that I was several hundred miles from any likely point of purchase.. They reluctantly provided return information, after a month of emailing back and forth. The defective lures were delivered to JBO in three days, and it was another month before the replacements arrived.
As I told the cashier at the store where I purchased the replacement for the broken baby shallowraider, "the only reason I keep buying these #*^@ed things is they do catch fish" and when offered an exchange, I did say I'll keep it and see if I can't turn it into a squirrely tail something or other, so yeah... |
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Posts: 1418
Location: Brighton CO. | Over the years change of ownership, I would guess different manufacturers and painters. I have some new ones, I also have a lot of 1989-99 that I will not fish these from shore or fish in places that have marginal Muskie/big Pike populations and have lure retrievers at my disposal. |
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Posts: 1141
Location: NorthCentral WI | C'mon man, that broken shallow raider must have been cast into a rock, they don't just break like that. Top Raider is no doubt my go-to tail bait compared to anything else on the market. I've caught fish on virtually every lure in his lineup so I have no complaints. Never had one break or leak personally. |
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| MartinTD - 10/17/2022 10:10 AM
C'mon man, that broken shallow raider must have been cast into a rock, they don't just break like that. Top Raider is no doubt my go-to tail bait compared to anything else on the market. I've caught fish on virtually every lure in his lineup so I have no complaints. Never had one break or leak personally.
Well, bought his glider and leaked right off the shelf. Tried to seal but no luck. |
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Posts: 1418
Location: Brighton CO. | I've bounced many a lure off many a rock and they are still ticking to coin a praise. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | Quality of bucher lures has definitely went down. I use a lot of the older PRE ROI depth raiders and they last for quite awhile without issue. I've trolled a lot of newer baby depth raiders and they don't even last a week and they star taking on water or develop holes in the jointed models.. Probably went through a dozen this year trolling. |
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Posts: 1270
Location: E. Tenn | MartinTD - 10/17/2022 11:10 AM
C'mon man, that broken shallow raider must have been cast into a rock, they don't just break like that.
It didn't, and yes, it broke like that. |
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Posts: 61
| I have a fair share of great bucher baits. And most are older. I have a lot of newer ones that are now lipless crank baits with little to no contact on the bottom. Also got a few prism baits and you can actually watch it rust from the inside out cause the leaked immediately. Sucks to pay 26$ for 3 hooks and split rings but live and learn. I have almost completely switched over to slammer baits. Much higher quality. If you really want to get a laugh. Buy a pair of bucher hook cutters with red handle. And then try and cut a hook. Lol. I can get further with the scissors on my gerber. Lol. And yes. I have tried more than one pair. They are all the same. But hey. Slammer baits are money. Half the price and great action and customer service. |
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Posts: 1418
Location: Brighton CO. | That was a key move by Slammer to go from wood to plastic. |
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Posts: 504
Location: Ludington, MI | My problem is the Depth Raider is the size, shape and dive curve I want. I'm 1-for-2 on the Livingston Striker 173's leaking on me, too. I sucked at model building as a kid, but you'd think the people paid to assemble plastic lures could glue two halves together better than I could? |
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Posts: 61
| The one thing with Livingston is. The take care of you. I have had a few issues with the titan. Which after new ones I still think by a suick instead. Lol. And I had a couple other issues with stuff. They pretty much say show me the bait so we can send you a new one. Bucher I reached out to and they are a lot more of blame the consumer. But if you got issues with your Livingston hit them up. They take care of their customers. Unfortunately there will always be flukes. But some companies got more than others. And how they handle it is key. |
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Posts: 1270
Location: E. Tenn | miket55 - 10/16/2022 9:39 PM
muskymartin67 - 10/13/2022 12:40 PM
I don't know of any plastic injection molded crankbaits that are wire through for example grandma's Jake's believers all use the same type of hook hangers as bucher lures, because of they way they are designed I would think it's nearly impossible to manufacture them with a wire through as they are chambered and not entirely hollow as you may have thought, it's wood baits that can be wire through, and not all of them are either, many use screw eyes to keep cost down, so not sure why you would expect a $20 plastic lure to be wire through, for what they are the bucher lures catch many fish year after year, also the paint issues maybe in part due to EPA banning certain paints & primers that were available prior, other things such as supply issues may also be to blame where they may substitute a certain color or brand paint to be able to fulfill production, Overall I think they do the best they can - you your self said they did replace the ones that were peeling, all in all a Great company and customer service!
BTW you can turn that broken baby shallowraider into a squirrly custom just hacksaw smooth where you have at least a 1/2" of the rear chamber opening, find a grub tail like a calins 4 or 5 inch and cut front part partially till it looks like a nice fit take some crazy glue and put a generous amount in cavity swishing it around so it's coated nice shove the grub in there facing up and voila you got a custom lure the muskies likely haven't seen before, I guess the 6" squirrly Jake is similar but yet it's slightly different
I use the similarly priced Jakes, Grandmas, (the believers not so much ), plus lures from all the usual manufacturers, and have never experienced any breakage or finish peeling issues. The latter has been a bit of a plague with the depthraider/shallowraider line for a lot longer than the "supply chain issue", and "EPA regulations" excuses have been around. Furthermore it seems as if most if not all the other manufacturers have overcome the obstacles you mentioned, and maintained the quality of their products.
As far as "Customer Service" goes, it was a real pain in the butt convincing the folks in Genoa City to let me return the peeling raiders to them.., They were adamant I return them to the point of purchase, even though I made it clear I was unsure which store I bought them at, (who seriously keeps every receipt? ) and that I was several hundred miles from any likely point of purchase.. They reluctantly provided return information, after a month of emailing back and forth. The defective lures were delivered to JBO in three days, and it was another month before the replacements arrived.
As I told the cashier at the store where I purchased the replacement for the broken baby shallowraider, "the only reason I keep buying these #*^@ed things is they do catch fish" and when offered an exchange, I did say I'll keep it and see if I can't turn it into a squirrely tail something or other, so yeah...
Finally got around to it..
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Posts: 1722
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | Short answer to the OP, no, significantly worse. |
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