So...what does Federal cost there??

Funny, when I spoke to the Hornady tech last week he told me about the pricing and was sort of apologetic about the price they were charging. He said the cost of tooling for total production {fairly small compared to, say, .30-06} and the actual cost of materials drive prices of these specialty products up and they are forced to sell them at much higher cost than the common calibers. Nevertheless, he said the management at Hornady realized they could sell a quality product at 1/2 the price of what Federal was/is charging and they saw no reason not to! He also pointed me to the fact that Hornady did not take a price increase late last year as did the other manufacturers. I've noticed this when comparing certain Hornady bullets even to Speer. He said the other companies anticipated large price increases in raw materials, and the Hornady management did not. He said the Hornady management turned out to be right, and at least so far, raw material prices have not increased much over the last 6 months.

He said the company wants business and wants to preserve their customer base.

Honestly, all of this appears quite true, and they do indeed seem to be very eager to make a little less on each product in exchange for keeping the relationship with their existing customers. I predict this philosophy will bring in new customers also, those who for wahtever reason never bought Hornady products in the past. I've always been a Hornady fan and have very much appreciated the frank and helpful assistance they have provided in the past.