RockyMtnMT
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Last week after Independence Day Brian and I made a mad dash south to Sheridan WY to spend the day on Wed with the folks at Weatherby. I must say it was well worth the 9hr drive each way, very glad we made the trip. For those of you who do not know, we have been working with Weatherby for the last couple of years to iron out what Hammer Bullets to run in Weatherby ammunition. As of a few months ago the official launch of Weatherby Hammer Ammo has happened. A little back story. In 2019 Brian and I headed to Shot Show with the intention of getting Hammer Bullets into a line of ammunition. Long story short we left after the show ended a bit disheartened. Seemed like every ammunition manufacture was on the race to the bottom. Quality was secondary to price. If we couldn't offer a bullet that was less expensive than the rest there seemed to be little interest. We wanted to find a company that wants to make the best ammunition possible. We felt like if there was going to be a commercial line of ammunition with Hammers, we would have to produce it our selves. Last thing we wanted was to be involved with an ammunition manufacture that only cares about being the cheapest in order to gain market share. This would undoubtedly lead to people using sub quality ammunition and thinking that Hammer Bullets don't really shoot that well. Last thing we wanted was a business relationship where we would have to say it's not the Hammers fault, the ammo stinks. Fast track to where we are today. Getting to tour the Weatherby production facility was fantastic. Their attention to detail was well beyond what we anticipated. Not just in the ammunition manufacturing, but the entire facility from stock painting to action manufacturing and final product out the door. They have made a huge move to manufacture everything in house since they made their move from California to Wyoming. A great move on their part. Streamlines their business and ensures that they are getting the quality that they demand. Much better in house than hoping that the guy down the road will care as much as they do when farming out production. Then when it comes to the ammunition side. Frankly I was taken aback by the amount of continuous testing that they do. Not just load development using best of equipment, but the continuous testing of each lot of ammo during the production run of a lot of ammo. Making sure that the pressures and accuracy are holding up to expectation and adjusting if needed. The meticulous data collection on powder, primer, brass and bullets for years. They are after consistency and they control as much as possible. It was very refreshing to hear from the ballistician crew that the most consistent bullet day in and day out that they have worked with is the Hammers. That the Hammer Bullets have a higher probability of being highly accurate in every rifle they put it in, really just felt good to hear. Our worlds all revolve around making ammunition for a rifle. Their world revolves around making ammunition for all of their rifles.
We did a podcast with Adam Weatherby and Luke Thorkildsen. It was fun, even though I get nervous for that kind of stuff. Luke is the head of marketing at Weatherby. Both he and Adam were great guys. Both have used Hammers to take game. In fact Adam was fresh back from a trip to South Africa where he use Hammers to take a couple animals. It was great to do the podcast with guys that have used Hammers in the field along with the feedback that they received from a bunch of other Weatherby associates that used Hammers last year on game. These guys are into hunting and understand terminal performance, why it happens, and seeing great results in the field with Hammers.
After lunch we got to go and geek out with John Baumgartner the head ballistician for a bit before a meeting with the sales team, customer service and some of the various engineers and such. There was like 20 or 30 people in the meeting room! That was more nervy than the podcast! Haha! It tuned out to be a great meeting and was great to get to meet the team and talk about the future with Weatherby and Hammer. Thinking we may push Roy's dream of speed to levels he couldn't go in his day due to limitations of bullets. We'll leave it at that for now...
I want to throw in here, that any of you that are looking at getting high quality production rifles, don't look past the Weatherby rifles. Things are looking very good there. They are aggressively running that race to the top and not riding on past reputation or laurels. The two rifles that Brian and I have got to play with have both shot very well, and in a very light weight platform to boot.
@FEENIX you might want to contact the folks at Weatherby and make sure they know their options.
We did a podcast with Adam Weatherby and Luke Thorkildsen. It was fun, even though I get nervous for that kind of stuff. Luke is the head of marketing at Weatherby. Both he and Adam were great guys. Both have used Hammers to take game. In fact Adam was fresh back from a trip to South Africa where he use Hammers to take a couple animals. It was great to do the podcast with guys that have used Hammers in the field along with the feedback that they received from a bunch of other Weatherby associates that used Hammers last year on game. These guys are into hunting and understand terminal performance, why it happens, and seeing great results in the field with Hammers.
After lunch we got to go and geek out with John Baumgartner the head ballistician for a bit before a meeting with the sales team, customer service and some of the various engineers and such. There was like 20 or 30 people in the meeting room! That was more nervy than the podcast! Haha! It tuned out to be a great meeting and was great to get to meet the team and talk about the future with Weatherby and Hammer. Thinking we may push Roy's dream of speed to levels he couldn't go in his day due to limitations of bullets. We'll leave it at that for now...
I want to throw in here, that any of you that are looking at getting high quality production rifles, don't look past the Weatherby rifles. Things are looking very good there. They are aggressively running that race to the top and not riding on past reputation or laurels. The two rifles that Brian and I have got to play with have both shot very well, and in a very light weight platform to boot.
@FEENIX you might want to contact the folks at Weatherby and make sure they know their options.
