Hornady Factory Visit - Ammo Land

I first visited the Hornady factory in Grand Island, Nebraska back in 2011 and it was an amazing experience to see raw materials converted into the bullets and ammunition we know and love from this world authority. At that time, Jason Hornady was showing me the recent site developments whereby they connected two original buildings to increase capacity, but that was the tip of the iceberg compared to 2023. Essentially, that factory is now just the bullet manufacturing plant, and over the last decade, they have bought two additional facilities and recruited production staff during COVID, where the ammunition world, as we know, enjoyed massive success.

Founding Father
The company was founded in 1949 by Joyce Hornady, father of Steve and grandfather of Jason, both of whom now steer the ship of this family-owned company. Joyce began with military surplus presses making 150-grain cup and core expanding bullets in .30 calibre because he believed there was demand in the market for accurate, well-made projectiles, and with plenty of surplus wartime machinery, why not give it a go? 75 years later, that very first press, ‘D3’, which Joyce bought, is still running in the factory, enjoying an overhaul every four years, in operation and visible to us like any of the hundreds of others we saw throughout the building.

The tour
After starting out in the meeting room, where we were shown a display of Ruger firearms that all share the same serial number (an unknown secret between Joyce and Bill Ruger), we saw countless trophies from around the world, demonstrating the Hornady family’s passion for hunting of all forms.
After checking in through reception and entering the oldest part of the factory, the first stage we saw was copper reels being punched to create the discs from which the bullet jackets were made. Essentially, most of the processes involve cold drawing, whereby these are forced by a steel punch into a die to form the initial cup, and after other similar stages, it is formed longer, deeper, and narrower before it starts to approach the desired calibre/jacket thickness required.

Lead on
The next stage was the extrusion of lead, where the ingots are formed into lead wires which are precisely cut to length to form the bullet cores of every imaginable calibre. These are mated together before further machines enclose the core, with whatever nose and tail are intended until finished bullets pour out in their thousands from each machine. It’s hard to describe and show the processes in detail because for every 1940s cast iron press stamping up and down every second, there are many more, modern pneumatic presses running at twice the speed, and all are mated with dies to suit the latest modern bullet architecture. A lot of these processes are proprietary and cannot be publicly displayed, but I can tell you that all these machines are rotating and stamping at a rate that allows up to 7 million bullets to be made in 24 hours.

Harder working
Hornady decided several decades ago that they wanted to make their own cartridge cases, and this was the next region of the factory. Cases are made of brass whose metallurgy, unlike copper, causes the material to work harden every time it is mechanically altered. The process is somewhat similar in terms of cold drawing to that of the bullet jackets, but the material returns to annealing machines for softening and washing between the drawing stages. These cases also have a much thicker base, which after multiple stages, is machined to offer a rim and have a headstamp embossed upon it as well as a primer pocket and flash hole integrated. It’s important to state that at every stage there are tens of machines doing identical tasks, but with different ingredients that will become different bullets or chamberings and designs - FMJ, BTHP, ballistic tips, controlled expansion etc. So, it is a logistical maze for a newcomer.
You often see small targets stuck to machines where operators are proudly displaying groups shot on the test range with the batches they oversaw. Test samples are loaded and shot to prove consistency on 100 or 200-yard underground ranges. Factors like jacket thickness, concentricity, and lead core positioning could all affect performance, so actually shooting the latest batch being made assures that everything is in order beyond external dimensional tolerances alone.

Further expansion
We went into the underground test range, which is still used for production bullet testing, but the attached lab, which was once also used for load testing and development, has now been superseded by a larger test range/lab at the third facility.
The next building was a short drive away and was vast. It looked like a car plant and essentially, it had been. The building is split 50:50 from warehousing and shipping, with additional manufacture, and although it was busy, perhaps 60% was still in the process of being developed and fitted out. This building showed pallets and pallets full of bullets, as well as reloading dies and presses that were boxed up and ready for shipping, as well as multiple milling machines programmed for their manufacture.
Although the ‘old’ factory is mostly mechanically driven to feed bullets and materials from stage to stage, that’s not to say it’s old fashioned, yet here in the new building, everything looks modern, with vast conveyors moving products and ammunition to individual electrical arms picking up loaded rounds to alternate them and load them into packing trays before slipping them into an external box.
We were also able to see different product lines and see how they vary from bulk production procedures to hand-inspected Match varieties. Watching a lady physically rolling 6 or 7 bullets at a time across her palm to check for any marks was bewildering. Jason himself was giving us the tour and picked a ‘rejected’ round from her discard pile before asking her to show us the fault. There was a scratch the width of a human hair on the cartridge wall that I had to put my magnified glasses on to see. It’s amazing that these ladies can maintain concentration for thousands of rounds a day to assure you that when Hornady advertise match quality, they can back it up. We saw additional packaging procedures and combinations of humans and machines continuing various tasks before the ammunition was dropped into pre-folded boxes. It was interesting to note that there was 7mm PRC ammunition in the boxes, which was what we had used a few days previously on a Pronghorn hunt.

Research and development
All the cameras had to go away when we entered the R&D facility. This ultra-modern laboratory is where everything transitions from engineers’ dreams to product reality, with load development, equipment testing, and bullet design. The building was calm, yet the amount of stuff we did see going on was just a small part of the overall picture. This lab is where new cartridges are born, and we were shown products that would be publicly launched just a few days after our visit. I was pleased to see that the .22 PRC was front and centre of the crowd. Similar facilities in the older factory’s 1960s test labs spawned icons like the .17 HMR, yet now we see Creedmoors, PRCs, and ARC chamberings coming to life.
As well as the test lab, loading rooms, and shooting ranges, this facility also shows an armoury containing some of the world’s most interesting firearms. These are in use daily to prove existing products as well as imagining new collaborations with manufacturers, just like Joyce did back in the 50s with Bill Ruger. Firearm manufacturers can be persuaded to take new chamberings on board if Hornady can show they work in their current receivers and magazines. Firearm manufacturers will chamber new barrels and that is where the ball begins to roll in the birth of new chamberings, from which ammunition manufacturers symbiotically grow and profit in the long term.

Enormous expansion with digital benefits
You simply cannot cover what goes on here in four pages. As someone fully immersed in our sport, with a particular interest in new products, I can see how a company like Hornady leads the crowd. As well as manufacturing, their research and development into cartridges associated with powder manufacturers is pushing the limits. It’s not just about speed and muzzle energy, they are pushing for efficiency and predictable bullet performance, which is critical in a market that is beginning to accept copper bullets. Hornady have themselves evolved through GMX and NTX to now show CX and ECX bullets, however, they will never lose sight of their roots with lead core projectiles. The new ELD-VT bullet will no doubt be popular with those seeking ultimate match performance with consistent, rapid expansion. The development of thicker jackets and concepts like ‘mass in the ass’, where the bullet will employ more copper in its base, with vigorous expansion provided by a temperature-stable polymer tip and larger internal void at the front. If the technicalities of bullet design and ballistics interest you, I can highly recommend Hornady’s podcast. It’s great for listening to on a long car journey and you will learn something valuable whether you buy the products or not.