Steve Hornady and the perfect all round UK calibre.
Based in Nebraska, Steve has worked in the Hornady business his entire life. This means he has now been involved in ammunition development and design for over 60 years. He also has an enviable trophy room, having hunted in most huntable countries the world over for just about every species you can think of. It was apparent from Steve’s excitable rendition of the morning’s stalk that hunting is a big part of his life.
“The hunting industry is the best business for me to work in for the recreational use of the products my company creates. I get to see first hand how our products perform in the field and how people around me use what we create,” he explained. During Steve’s illustrious career, he has been involved in the development of some of the most popular hunting calibres used today. Together with his team of engineers, Hornady has developed the .17 HMR, .204 Ruger, 6.5 Creedmoor and the .220 Swift. Hornady has also reintroduced a number of the larger Nitro Express big game calibres that had fallen into obscurity such as the 450/400, .450 and the hugely popular .470, making them more affordable and readily available. Hornady employs more than 300 staff at their headquarters in Nebraska and make millions of rounds for hunting every month, in nearly every commercially available hunting calibre. In short, there is little Steve doesn't know about ammunition design or its application in the field.
With this encyclopedic knowledge, I was keen to garner Steve’s first hand thoughts on a suitable all-round calibre for UK hunting. “We all know that the perfect all-rounder is a neat concept but does not actually exist,” he shrugged, adding: “A heat-seeking bullet that holds together at point blank, expands on the other side of the planet, breaks bones cleanly and opens on lungs is the holy grail but sadly impossible.” After a swig of a strong black coffee he continued: “Allowances have to be made depending on the task in hand. It is possible to have a perfect bullet for one job, but not all of them. Interestingly, the UK has the same set of circumstances I have found in Africa. Leaving aside the really big stuff, there is large game like blue wildebeest but also small game like duiker and springbok. It is likely you may want to hunt both with the same rifle. The same applies in the UK, there are huge red stags but also miniature muntjac.”
Steve explained the basic physics: “If a muntjac walks out at close range, a heavier bullet at a slower velocity will expand less violently. However to take a fallow buck at 300m in a stubble field a faster flatter harder hitting round is what is needed.” So therein lies the problem, not just in the UK but the world over.
Given that Hornady is one of the best selling brands of ammunition in the UK, Steve knows which calibres ship to our shores and in what quantity. To that end, he knows which are the most popular hunting rounds used in Blighty. He is fascinated that British hunters are still in love with the old stalwart calibres, some of which were chambered more than 100 years ago. “I am not saying that there is anything wrong with a .243, .308 .270, 6.5x55 or a .30-06 but newer cartridge designs have improved how we ignite and burn modern powders making cartridges way more efficient. The core technology is fundamentally the same but to use an automotive analogy, we are using an old chassis with a new engine and better wheels. Theoretically this makes it a better car.” Steve explained that old cartridges will be popular forever but it does not mean that there have not been modern improvements to take cartridges forward improving accuracy, efficiency and uniformity.
Steve was interested why Brits still pick the classics and are less interested in super efficient, modern, designer calibres. Without sending him to sleep, I tried to explain how awkward UK firearms licensing legislation can be. We discussed how difficult it is to change a calibre, own more than one gun in the same calibre or own multiple calibres that, in the eyes of the police, do the same job. As a direct result, the ability for most British hunters to legally try before they buy is materially affected. We therefore, myself included, tend to stick with what is safe and understood by our peers because it is, frankly, a damn site less hassle. Our laws and logic perplexed the man who comes from the ‘land of the free’ with the right to bare as many arms as takes his fancy.
Once overcoming our local idiosyncrasies, I urged Steve to pick a calibre as the most suitable for hunting in the UK chosen from the most popular cartridges sold here. As an interesting aside, had he been able to pick any round for the UK, he would have opted for the 6.5 Creedmoor. This is due to its incredible ballistic co-efficient (flies flatter with less drag), fast powder ignition, short action and low recoil. This devastatingly accurate round that Steve himself helped to develop in 2007, runs bullets from 120 to 140 grains making it nearly perfect for all UK species. His caveat for the calibre was that if tackling enormous red stags, it would be worth considering something less frangible like a harder copper alloy Hornady GMX to guarantee penetration to the vitals and an exit wound.
So, back to the big question, which round would Mr Hornady pick from the gene pool of classic calibres we favour in the UK? Well it came as no major surprise that the seasoned hunter and expert cartridge designer picked the trusty .308 Winchester as the calibre that would be able to comfortably deal with any task put before it. To Steve, this old faithful represents a versatile and great option for all UK species. The cartridge was developed in 1952 and has seen extensive service in both the commercial hunting and military world with its doppelganger designation of 7.62mm NATO. A short, relatively fat case helps efficient and uniform powder ignition. The squarer shoulders help to use headspace in the chamber more effectively. All of these factors help the .308 deliver sniper-type accuracy shooting bullet weights from 150 to 180 grains with many loads between. Even when tackling light skinned smaller UK species, Steve felt a less frangible bullet head such as Interlock or Interbond would, with a well placed shot, not unreasonably damage the carcass. One of the other advantages of this dependable round is availability. Factory loaded cartridges are guaranteed in a hoard of variants in every gun shop across the land.
Steve had some interesting words to say about the trusty .243 calibre which, according to a recent survey of British Deer Societies members, accounts for 70% of all deer stalking rifles in the UK. This incredible calibre, launched in 1955 uses the .308 case simply necked down to accommodate the .243 cartridge. The calibre was designed as a ‘varmint’ or to use UK vernacular, ‘vermin’ calibre. The optimal bullet weights for this calibre are relatively lightweight from 70 to 85 grains that are optimised for fast flying long-range vermin shooting. It is possible to load heavier bullets into the cartridge from 100 to 105 grains making them more suitable for deer. In fact, it is only legal to shoot deer (apart from roe) in Scotland with bullets of 100 grains or heavier at over 2,450 feet par secound. Steve concurred that this is a highly versatile round but needs to be used by a competent shooter. “There is little margin of error on larger species supposed to the heavier higher energy bullets from the .308 calibre. For foxes, roe, muntjac and Chinese water deer, you couldn’t get a better cartridge than a .243 as it is flat flying and accurate, but for larger species, a slight miscalculation on the shot may lead to issues”.
I was interested in Steve’s thoughts on the .270 calibre as this used to be a very popular calibre in the UK and was widely used as the issued calibre by the Forestry Commission in the UK and Scotland. He felt although an effective and relatively accurate round, this long action calibre is very aggressive. He has witnessed some major carcass and meat damage created from how fast the bullet flies. The calibre designed in 1924 is a necked down version of the 30-06 Springfield and launches 130 grain bullets at over the 3,000 feet per second threshold. This means anything shot at closer ranges (out to 150 yards) is likely to suffer from an explosive bullet trauma. There is also a significant amount of recoil from this cartridge which newer calibres have been designed to overcome. It is a great long range plains game calibre but there are simply better choices out there now.
The .270’s bigger brother, 30-06 Spingfield, designed way back in 1906, is an old favourite of Steve’s
although it is too much gun for the UK. It will handle red stags with ease with its 150 – 180 grain optimal bullet weight but what you gain in extra speed and energy for these same bullet weights that the .308 spits out, you are losing with smaller species as again you will be smashing walnuts with sledgehammers. If you take a muntjac with a .30-06 there is a significant chance of meat damage so the .308 wins hands down.
Steve’s final comment was characteristically brash and to the point: “Why don’t you Brits just do what we do and buy more guns? Most American hunters have a different rifle and a specific load for each species they are hunting. That way, you can play to the best characteristics of each calibre and not ask too much of every load. It might also be worth your while dabbling in some of the new, more efficient 21st century calibres. Lobby the police and educate them about these new designations as they should be accepted as part of the normal hunting scenery”.
After meeting Steve, the next job on my list was to request a variation on my Firearms Certificate for the virtually unheard of in the UK, 6.5 Creedmoor. Let’s hope my Firearms Enquiry Officer thinks ‘because Steve Hornady told me to get it’ is a good enough justification for an extra rifle.
