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March 22nd, 2014
Ever wondered how Hornady bullets and ammunition are made? You’ll see every stage of production in this interesting video from the Outdoor Channel. Starting with raw materials (lead, copper, and brass), this 9-minute “factory tour” video shows how bullet cores are produced, how jackets are crafted, and how cartridge cases are formed, headstamped, and inspected. If you watch carefully you’ll also see the massive, multi-stage cartridge loading machines. Now one of the most successful manufacturers of ammunition and reloading components in the world, Hornady Manufacturing has come a long way from its early days. In 1949, Founder Joyce Hornady started the company “making bullets… in a garage down on 4th street” in Grand Island, Nebraska.
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Lead cylinders are pressed into lead wire used for bullet cores.
Spools of flat copper are fed into cupping machines. The punched cups become bullet jackets.
All cartridge cases and loaded rounds are hand-inspected.
Hornady Manufacturing — The Early Years
During World War II, Joyce Hornady served as a marksmanship instructor at the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. Following the War, Joyce and his family stayed in Grand Island, Nebraska and opened a small sporting goods retail store that sold everything from basketballs to shooting supplies.
After WWII, shooters and hunters used surplus military ammunition. This surplus ammo however, did not offer the accuracy or performance needed for target shooting, big game, or varmint hunting. Recognizing the need for better bullets, Hornady and his original partner Vernon Speer built a machine that converted spent 22 rimfire cases into bullet jackets, and then into bullets. The business relationship between Hornady and Speer later faltered, and Vernon Speer moved to Lewiston, Idaho. Using a surplus bullet assembly press in a rented garage on 4th Street in Grand Island, Nebraska, Joyce Hornady began to produce his own .30-caliber bullet.
The first year of business, Hornady Bullets had total sales of $10,000 – a figure that increased three-fold the next year. Hornady added equipment and workers, confident that more growth lay ahead. During the Korean War, Hornady earned contracts to produce a variety of products not associated with bullets — aluminum hearts for bracelets, and condenser cans for the government. After the war, the can material and the technology developed to produce them was utilized to make ultra-thin copper jackets for varmint bullets.
In 1958, the company moved to its present location on the west edge of Grand Island. The new, larger facility featured an 8,000-square-foot plant. In 1960, Hornady added a 200-yard underground testing facility.
January 31st, 2014
Looking to start a new enterprise? How about entering a field where consumer demand greatly exceeds supply right now — the ammunition business. If you have $38,000 or so you can get your own automated ammo-making machine from Ammo Load Worldwide, Inc., an American-run business located in Lewiston, Idaho. There’s also an 11-station, computer-controlled “Mark L” rifle ammo machine that’s a bit pricier — $77,000 with accessories. Sure that’s a tad more expensive than a Dillon XL650, but with a Mark L you can produce three thousand .223 Rem rounds per hour with the push of a button.
Watch Ammo-Loading Machines in Action:
Mark X Pistol Cartridge Loading Machine (about $38,000)
For over 30 years Ammo Load machines have served ammunition manufacturers, commercial loaders, private shooting ranges, and numerous law enforcement agencies. The Mark X Ammo Load machine (for pistol cartridges) has a maximum production rate of just over 5,000 cycles per hour. Many users produce between 3,000 and 5,000 rounds per hour. The primary factors governing the quality and quantity of ammunition produced are the components (particularly the cases), the caliber, and the capabilities of the operator.
The Mark X Ammo Load machine for pistol cartridges has nine (9) stations: Case Check, Size and Deprime, Primer and Primer Disk Check, Belling, Powder Feed, Powder Check, Bullet Seating, Bullet Crimp, Final Sizing. There are checks (with shut-offs) for case feed, primer feed, bullet feed, and powder load. The Mark X comes complete with shell case feeder, primer feed tube, powder flask, and bullet feed tube.
Mark L – Automatic Rifle Ammunition Loader (About $77,000)
In 2009 Ammo Load Worldwide introduced the Mark L automatic rifle ammunition loader in .223 and .308. Many proven features from the Mark X pistol machine have been incorporated into the Mark L to provide precise and consistent rifle cartridge loading at approximately 3,000 to 3,600 rounds per hour. All of the sensors and switches use fiber optic technology to increase precision and reduce maintenance. The Mark L utilizes a 3-station powder drop; the manufacturer claims this maintains charge weights to within 1/10th of a grain.
| Mark L Rifle Cartridge Loading Machine has 11 stations: |
1. Sizing/Checking*
2. Mouth Flare
3. Priming
4. Primer Check / 1st Powder Drop
5. 2nd Powder Drop
6. 3rd Powder Drop
| 7. Powder Check
8. Initial Bullet Seating
9. Final Bullet Seating
10. Crimp & Bullet-in-Case Check
11. Eject |
*Along with sizing, this first stage performs Flash-Hole Check, Ringer Check, and Case Check.
January 3rd, 2014
Texas is a haven for hunters and shooting enthusiasts, so we’re not surprised that the Lone Star State leads the nation in online ammo sales. However, you might be surprised that California, with its liberal, anti-gun politicians, is a close second. Yes, California was the second-most active source of online ammo purchases in 2013, according to statistics from LuckyGunner.com, one of the nation’s leading online ammo vendors. In fact, California was number one in 2012. For 2013, Texas edged California for the top spot, followed by Florida, Michigan, and (surprise) New York.
More Online Ammo Buyers are Using Mobile Devices (Tablets and Smart Phones)
More and more people are connecting to the internet via mobile devices. And, apparently, they are using those devices to shop for ammo. Luckygunner.com saw a significant increase in orders from mobile devices in 2013. Fully 22.7% of Luckygunner’s visits were made via mobile devices in 2013, compared to 18.8% in the preceding year. AccurateShooter.com has seen a similar rise in the number of visitors connecting to our site via mobile devices (particularly smartphones).
December 20th, 2013
 Here’s good news for target shooters and hunters — there’s a new supplier of quality, match-grade ammo. Creedmoor Sports will be manufacturing .30-06, .308 Win, and .223 Rem ammunition beginning in May of 2014. It will be sold as “Creedmoor Ammo”, with hunting and match versions.
Help Design the Box — Get a Free CASE of Ammunition
Creedmoor Sports is looking for help designing the packaging for its new ammo line. If you successfully come up with the best graphics to be printed on the box, you’ll receive a cases of ammunition. Dennis DeMille, Creedmoor’s General Manager explains: “The person whose artwork we use, or slight variation thereof, will receive their choice of the very first case of one of those three calibers of ammunition.” Dennis adds: “Look at these boxes as your blank canvas. The ammunition, all calibers, will be in boxes of 50, and in cases of 100 (two boxes of 50)”.
Creedmoor’s Box Design Goals (Things to Keep in Mind):
The packaging design needs to appeal to competitive shooters, recreational shooters, and hunters alike. While any one package might not appeal to all groups, we don’t want one group to look at the box and think “That’s not for me”.
The ammunition WILL be match quality (we don’t want to give away any more details just yet), but changing the projectile would make it a match quality hunting round. Ideally what we want is one box design that will be suited for all applications.
The name of the Ammo will be “CREEDMOOR AMMO”, however, we don’t want to use the Creedmoor bursting bomb logo. If you have ideas for a new logo, please share those concepts with us at Creedmoor.
Send your ideas directly to Dennis DeMille, at demille [at] creedmoorsports.com. Please put “NEW AMMO BOX DESIGN” in subject line so that it doesn’t get lost among the many emails.
November 4th, 2013
Need .22 LR rimfire ammo? As of noon on November 4, 2013, Creedmoor Sports has 1100 boxes of SK 40-grain High Velocity HP ammunition (item #SK-HVHP) in stock. This is available in 50-count boxes or 500-count bricks, at a sale price of $8.95 per 50-round box or $83.95 per 500-round case. This is good ammo, suitable for club-level match shooting or general plinking use. If you have been searching high and low for rimfire ammo, you may want to jump on this before it’s all gone.
Technical Information
Caliber: .22 Long Rifle | Bullet Weight: 40 Grains | Bullet: Lead Hollow Point | MV: 1265 FPS
October 19th, 2013
 In a world where too many companies have down-graded product quality and durability, we’re lucky there are some fanatical Finns who build great stuff for shooters. For serious handloaders, the cartridge brass of choice is made by Lapua in Finland. Lapua brass lasts longer than most other brands of cartridge brass, with industry-leading case-to-case uniformity. How do the Finns manage to make such good brass and loaded ammo? This informative video provides insights into Lapua’s “passion for precision”. This “must watch”, 12-minute video contains a surprising amount of “hard” info on Lapua products, with segments showing Lapua brass and rimfire ammo being produced. Watch carefully and you’ll see most of the processes used for forming and loading brass. Another short segment shows a Lapua technician inspecting a case for run-out.
The video spotlights some of the important American and international records set with Lapua ammo. You’ll see top 300m and Olympic rifle shooters in action, and there are also short comments from many champions, including American Benchrest legend Tony Boyer.
NOTE: This is long video — you may need to let it buffer (pre-load) for 10 seconds before playback. If that doesn’t work, let the entire video load, then hit the replay button.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this VideoPress video.
Yes, this video is first and foremost a marketing tool, but that doesn’t lessen that fact that it is fascinating to watch. Lapua’s video also does a great job making our sport seem important and exciting — NRA take note! We suspect many of you will want to save the video to your computer for future viewing. That’s easy to do. Just click on the link below. (Note: After downloading, we suggest that PC users play it back through Windows Media Player. You can then drag the Media Player corners to expand the video viewing size.)
CLICK HERE to download Lapua Video (Lo-Res, 24 megs).
CLICK HERE to download Lapua Video (Hi-Res, 258 megs, fast connection recommended).
August 28th, 2013
We all know that precision factory ammo, and all types of reloading components, are in short supply, with demand often out-stripping supply. Now RUAG Ammotec (RUAG), Europe’s leading producer of ammunition, will be stepping up production with the goal of expanding sales in the USA and worldwide. RUAG produces the elite RWS ammo/components and also markets RWS Sport, Geco, Swiss P, MFS, and Rottweil brand products. See the full product line at Ruag-usa.com.
 
RUAG is significantly extending its production capacities and investing in new systems. Ruag states “This step has become necessary because of the [high demand] in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary and the USA.”
To bring more ammo to market, RUAG Ammotec is hiring new workers and investing over 15 million Euros to enhance production facilities. Increased capacity will be achieved via a “major investment program in the upper double-digit million range” over the coming three years. The production expansion “is the biggest project of its kind in the history of RUAG”, according to Cyril Kubelka, CEO of RUAG Ammotec. “Expanding our production network across all our locations will ideally increase our current capacities. This is the only way for us to be able to meet the high international demand even better in future and reinforce our market position.”
RUAG is a Swiss technology company, with its headquarters in Bern. It has production sites in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Austria and USA, and sales companies in UK, France, Belgium, Brasil and Malaysia.
July 18th, 2013
 This article by Corey Swantz originally appeared in The Reloading Press, the Sinclair Int’l Blog.
Much less precision is required to get good scores in 3-gun competition than in strictly accuracy-oriented disciplines like F-Class or Benchrest. In 3-gun, [the game is] about hitting targets in the shortest amount of time, not how close to the center of the target you can get or how small the group can be. Ammunition that’s accurate to 1-2 MOA is more than sufficient for 3-gun competition, as the targets tend to be 4-6 MOA in size.
For my personal 3-gun load testing, I used three powders: Varget, IMR 8208 XBR, and Accurate 2230. All three powders gave me good results, but the 8208 XBR was the leader of the pack. I settled on a moderate charge that pushes a 73gr Berger BTHP at about 2,500 fps through my 16″-barreled AR15. While I’m sure I could obtain a higher velocity with these bullets, this speed yielded the best accuracy results in my initial testing with fully prepped brass.
With the high volume of ammunition that I need for 3-gun matches and practice, I wanted to eliminate as many case prep steps as possible and still end up with ammunition that was accurate enough for 3-gun. I fully prepped some once-fired brass from primer pocket to case mouth and everything in between. I also took some once-fired cases that had simply been trimmed to length, and loaded them without doing any other prep work. With these loads in hand, I headed out to the range to shoot some groups. Below are the results from my 200 yard group tests:
Prepped Brass Delivered Higher Score on Bullseye Target
As you can see from the photos, the groups yielded results along the lines of what I expected. The fully-prepped brass produced five 10s , whereas the un-prepped brass produced only two 10s, and both of those just touched the outer edge of the 10-ring.
However, the un-prepped brass kept all the shots inside the 8-ring, which is plenty precise for shooting the large targets used in 3-gun matches.
National Defense Match at Camp Perry
I decided to further test my un-prepped brass loads by shooting them in the National Defense Match (NDM) at Camp Perry and the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship. At the NDM, the target used in the longer-range stages was a standard-size NRA Tombstone target, similar to the targets used in most 3-gun matches. Using the un-prepped brass loads, I was able to keep all my shots on the tombstone targets from 100-300 yards, and had only one miss from the 400-yard line. That one miss was my fault, as I jerked the trigger on the last shot, pulling it off to the left. Un-prepped brass held up quite well under Camp Perry NDM conditions.
Un-Prepped Good Enough for Class Win at Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship
Two weeks after the NDM, I traveled to Kentucky for the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship. There were seven stages in this match, two of which required long-range rifle shots with my AR15. The longest stage of the match had eight steel targets sized from 4″ to 10″ in diameter, placed from 75 to 265 yards. My ammunition proved accurate enough at these distances to neutralize all the steel targets with single shots, something few other shooters were able to do. I finished over two seconds ahead of the nearest competitor on this stage and ended up winning the event. Clearly un-prepped brass was plenty good for the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro Am, too!
Because of the results I’ve gotten on the practice range, and two very solid performances in competition last year, I feel confident that my loading process for the upcoming 3-Gun Nation Semi-Pro Series will consist of simply sizing and trimming brass, then loading it with my preferred recipe. While the fully prepped brass was indeed more accurate, the un-prepped brass loads were accurate enough to allow me to hit 3-gun targets . Now, I can take the time I save in the reloading room and spend it out on the practice range.
Corey Schwanz, Sinclair Reloading Technician
July 9th, 2013
We reported yesterday that Hornady, in an effort to increase overall production, will suspend production of 150 bullet types and 150 ammunition types for the balance of 2013. Upon reading this story, many readers grew concerned, perhaps because they did not realize that Hornady is actually stepping up production of its most popular bullets and ammo types. By temporarily suspending production of less-popular products, Hornady can reduce assembly line change-overs and thereby increase production. Hornady explains that this strategy allows it to: “focus our efforts on the most popular and highest-demand products and ship more total product.” In the months ahead, Hornady will continue to produce over 270 different projectiles and over 140 types of loaded ammo. As Steve Hornady says: “There is something in there for everyone….”
 Upon seeing ten-page-long list of suspended products, readers may have become overly concerned because they did not realize that Hornady will continue to churn out hundreds of bullet types and ammo types — and, in fact, the most popular products will now be manufactured in greater-than-ever quantities. Readers asked “So what products will Hornady continue to produce?” On its website, Hornady now lists all the high-demand bullets and ammo types that remain in production for the balance of 2013.
CLICK HERE to View Updated Bullet and Ammunition Production List
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD Updated Bullet and Ammunition Production List PDF File
Steve Hornady Talks to Customers
In this video, Hornady President Steve Hornady explains the decision to suspend production of some items in order to increase production of Hornady’s high-demand bullet types and ammunition types.
Steve Hornady Explains New Production Strategies (July 8, 2013):
On its website, Hornady has posted a Product Availability Update, which explains why Hornady is suspending production of some products:
One area that we have identified that will enable us to increase production, is the minimization of machinery downtime. The largest period of downtime our machines experience is during change over and retooling to convert a machine from manufacturing one bullet or cartridge to another. Under normal market conditions, we can keep the supply chain full by making popular items on a regular basis and keeping specialty or less-used products on a seasonal basis. However, with demand at record levels, it has become difficult to justify shutting down a machine to change it over to produce a product of less demand. Therefore, we are temporarily suspending some items in order to focus our efforts on the most popular and highest demand products and ship more total product.
We realize that many of the suspended items are going to disappoint some of our customers. We have painstakingly reviewed our order status and order history and unfortunately had to make some tough decisions. It wasn’t easy, but we know that we will do a better job of servicing the industry as a whole by focusing on the items of highest demand.
We are not alone; this is effectively already happening throughout our industry, but is accomplished through selective manufacture with no notification to the industry. We are simply making every effort to be up-front about our plans to maximize production.
Again, this is only temporary. This is not a permanent suspension. We will continue to push as hard as we can to meet the demand of our industry and will produce our full catalog of items as soon as we can. Please know that nobody wants to produce more and get our product to into your hands more than we do.
June 24th, 2013
Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC (Colt) is introducing a line of ammunition for Colt tactical and competition rifles. This new Colt-branded “Hunting and Defence Match” ammo will be manufactured by Black Hills Ammunition. The initial offerings are designed for rifles chambered for 5.56×45 NATO and will feature 55gr and 77gr Sierra match bullets. According to the Guns.com Blog: “The 77-grain cartridge may strike a few people as somewhat familiar. It is for most purposes Black Hills MK 262 77-grain ammo… considered by many to be the best factory-loaded 5.56 NATO ammunition on the market.”
Colt Claims Ammo Will Shoot 1-MOA Groups at 500 Yards
Colt says its ammunition will deliver long-range accuracy. During the development process, this line of Colt ammo was ballistically tested in Colt rifles with a requirement of consistent five-shot, one-MOA (5″) groups at 500 yards. Colt calls this the “triple-nickel” standard (5 shots, 5″, 500 yards). Colt claims that the “Triple Nickel” capability of its ammo “assures the experienced shooter incredible performance right out of the box, with no need for load development or experimentation.”
Holding 1-MOA at 100 yards is not that exceptional. But maintaining 1-MOA groups at 500 yards would be impressive indeed. This would require consistent powder charges and tight bullet-seating length tolerances to keep vertical dispersion to a minimum. It will be interesting to test the Colt-branded ammo when it hits the market and see if it works as well as claimed.
“We’re very proud of the ‘Triple Nickel’ requirement of this ammunition,” said said Joyce Rubino, Vice President of Marketing for Colt’s Manufacturing: “Our goal with Black Hills was to bring to market a superior line of ammunition for sport shooters to use in Colt rifles, and we feel we have achieved this through the partnership with Black Hills.”
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