Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 8 0 I n the midst of the company's growing success, tragedy struck. In 1981 Joyce Hornady, along with engineer Edward Heers and customer service manager Jim Garber, were killed when the company plane crashed en route to the SHOT Show in New Orleans. Joyce's son, Steve, took the helm and continues today as the company's president. When I visited with Steve, I asked him what he considered his most important accomplishment over the past 30 years. I expected he might point to the company's tremendous growth or to a particular Hornady cartridge. "If anything," he said, "I fostered a culture in our company that I believe has been the key to our success. We appreciate our employees, and they like coming to work at our factory. That makes a big difference in the effort and the thinking they put into their jobs. We're all about making great products not just hitting a number at the end of a quarter. "If we don't hit our numbers," Steve smiled, "well, I won't fire me." Being a family-owned company does have its advantages, which aren't just limited to how the company operates. "One big reason hunters and shooters like buying from us is because they know we've long supported them. We aren't just shoving it out the door. We give back to the hunting community." The Hornady's have given generously to a wide range of hunting and shooting sports organizations, and Steve has long been an industry leader, serving on the boards of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, and the National Rifle Association. Like his father, Steve grew up hunting and shooting, and for years has pursued wild sheep throughout the world. "Experience in the field teaches you what works," Steve noted. "For many years, I hunted sheep with a rifle in .280 Rem. I've killed sheep out to 500 yards with that caliber. Over the years, you learn as much about what you need as what you don't." I asked Steve what advice he'd give fellow hunters to help improve their shooting skills. "Easy," he replied. "Shoot all the ammo you can possibly afford! We're like the Frito guys, we'll make more. "Seriously, it's really about learning the fundamentals of good marksmanship and then, practice, practice, practice. Proficiency with a rifle is all about spending time at the range." C hange in the ammunition business tends to be incremental, typically with revisions and additions to traditional fodder than anything truly out of the box. Not so at Hornady. The introduction of its LeverRevolution line, for example, represented a major breakthrough in ammunition designed for lever- action rifles. Safe for use in tubular magazines, these bullets deliver dramatically flatter trajectory, increased velocity, and up to 40 percent more energy than the traditional flat-point loads that lever-action users were historically limited to. It's ammunition that doesn't just add to but transforms the capability of a rifle. Hornady's Superformance ammunition is another a game- changer. Using specialized powders at normal charge weights, Superformance ammo is 100 to 200 feet per second faster than conventional ammunition. Yet it achieves this added zip without increases in felt recoil, muzzle blast, temperature sensitivity, or loss of accuracy. In essence, it's getting more, from the same. "The powders we use in Superformance ammunition burn at peak pressure longer," Steve explained. "It's like keeping your foot on the accelerator longer. You can pick up speed without going over the red line." Whether it's LeverRevolution, Superformance ammunition, or new products such as the 17 HMR or 204 Ruger, I asked Steve where these innovative ideas come from. "Well," he replied, "we don't really have a formal process. It really gets back to the company culture I spoke about earlier. Our people are enthusiastic about what they're doing, and often we create something new when one of them asks, 'Gee, wouldn't that be neat?'" Today, Hornady Manufacturing has more than 300 employees and 100,000 square feet of production space. In a single day, and on just one press, they can produce more bullets than the company's entire first-year production. Joyce Hornady famously said that, "Accuracy doesn't come easy." Nor, I might add, does success. Fortunately for all of us who like to shoot tight groups, the Hornadys have figured out the formula for both. A n avid big game hunter, Joyce Hornady ran the company that carries his name for nearly three decades.