When did Hirtenberger stop producing sporting ammunition?

Hi 9,3 rifleman,

Hirtenberger has sold the brand and production rights for hunting ammunition to RUAG (Switzerland) in 2003, production in Hirtenberg was ceased and transfered. The product catalog was also reduced heavily.
BTW - RUAG also owns the RWS, Geco, Blaser and Norma ammo companies.

Cheers
Roman

quote:

Originally posted by EuroHunter:
BTW - RUAG also owns the RWS, Geco, Blaser and Norma ammo companies.

Cheers
Roman

Minor nit here: there is strictly no "Blaser ammo company", rather Blaser has ammo made and sold under the Blaser brand by several manufacturers. RUAG's Swiss Thun factory manufactures all Blaser ammo with CDP bullets. Norma (also owned by RUAG) manufactures at least the WSM ammo for Blaser. But Blaser does not only source from RUAG - although it is getting hard to find a European ammo manufacturer not owned by RUAG these days. In fact, the planned takeover of MEN by RUAG was just stopped by some authority (German or European, I forget), due to too much concentration in the ammunition production area. I believe the newspaper article cited the area of ammo for police forces. Way too much concentration in this business in Europe, bad for competition, bad for customers.
- mike

Thank you both for responding. Do you know if RUAG will be selling ammo under the Hirtenberger brand again? I really did like their ammo.

I think the Hirtenberger ABC bullet was one of the best ever made and do hope RUAG resumes production.

I have hoarded some in my favorite calibers, but alas, my supplies won't last forever.

Hi,

>Do you know if RUAG will be selling ammo under >the Hirtenberger brand again?

I think they already do:
http://www.genschow.com/pdf/Hirtenberger-Flyer-engl.pdf

Funny that you like their hunting ammunition. Hirtenberger is/was much a hate or love affair here in Europe with the majority on the hating side.

Being austrian i hate to confess but they really had troubles with their quality control.
I still remember pulling out that 7mm Rem Mag round of their ammo box....
Primers are always terribly flattened, looks like they always preferred the fastest burning powders to save on the amount need for loading.

Trying to reload their 7x64 brass was also fun as 50% of the cases out of the same box would not fit the requested RCBS #3 shell holder, as they were largely oversized!

Cheers Roman

I agree with Roman, Hirtenberger ammo was not generally highly thought of over here. Too many accuracy issues. Hirtenberger used to be the only manufacturer loading .222 Rem legal (minimum energy requirement) for roe in Switzerland. But I can't ever remember anybody being happy with that ammo. In the same time, I have seen zillions of rounds of RWS bought and shot with nothing but general satisfaction - at least as far as accuracy was concerned.
- mike

Roman, thanks for that link. On this board, Saeed has also reported bad results with Hirtenberger ammunition--very high pressures, IIRC.

My experience has been different. I have had great accuracy and no high pressure signs.

Inconsistency of experience with a product is a clear sign of quality control problems. Perhaps RUAG can rectify that.

I notice, however, that RUAG is not loading the ABC bullet, but only the Nosler and Sierra brands. RUAG is also offering only a relatively limited selection of calibers, as compared with the range of cartridges that Hirtenberger itself offered.

Hi,

the reason why RUAG is no longer loading the Hirtenberger ABC bullet might be quite obvious.
First this bullet was produced by Hirtenberger itself (=read high manufacturing costs) and second RUAG already has a "premium bullet" in their portfolio, the CDP bullet.

It looks to me that RUAG wants to position Hirtenberger in the low cost market segment, since they already have Blaser and RWS brands in the high price market segment. Also the limited selection of calibers is an indication for this.

Cheers Roman

I purchased several boxes each of .243 and 7x57 and they were extremely accurate with no signs of pressure. In fact, the 7x57 shot better than anything I had ever tried in my rifle, including my own handloads. I have not used the brand much because it is extremely difficult to obtain and it is very expensive. I also have not tried to reload the cases. I too have read different opinions on the ammo but the ones I used were very good (but my experience is limited with Hirtenberger). I reload for everything but I still like to try different loads and brands to see how they shoot. I had purchased the ammunition from the Kettner store in Innsbruck in the early 1990's when I was living there, and I haven't tried any Hirtenberger ammo since then. I have a fondness for all things from the alpine regions of Europe (especially in Austria) and I was simply wondering what had happened to the company. Thank you Eurohunter and mho for clearing the matter up for me.

Gentlemen

The machines from Hirtenberger factory is now in Ã…motsfors

Blaser is private brand ammo and they have NO production.

Cheers
/JOHAN

Hi Johan,

>The machines from Hirtenberger factory is now in >Ã…motsfors

..for producing the Hirtenberger branded ammo. But Norma is not going to produce the Hirtenberger ABC bullet, or?

Cheers
Roman

EuroHunter

Just got the Hirtenberger catalogue from Ruag in Fürth. There is not a single piece of information about ABC bullet. I think the bullet is history and will not be brought up again. Ruag said Hirtenberger ammo is manufactured in their facilities. A very accurate reply

Personally I think DeGol Starkmantel-Geschoß or Rhino is just as good, or even better.

Cheers
/JOHAN

Hi guys - BTT since I have got my hands on 2 boxes of old Hirtenberger's 9,3x74R loaded with 270 gr. TMRK. Does anybody have any info on those bullets, are they just ordinary TM's or is there any particular bullet there (went through old catalogs and in some those bullets were marked as Sierra)?
My first intention was to give them a fly at the range for practice unless there is a good reason to use them for hunting - anybody used them on game? How did they performed?

Interesting thread and I'll add my $0.02 to the fray.....

As Mike & Roman have already said - in my expreience you'll see alot of wrinkled up noses when the topic of Hirtenberger ammo gets tossed in the conversation but at the same time others (although in the minority) swore by their stuff. I tried their .223 Remington ammunition one time with disappointing accuracy results. On top of that the brass had huge inconsistancies when I attempted to relaod it with various (mostly undersized) flash holes and lengths - it got disposed of in the brass bin at the range.

They listed some Sierra bullets in their loadings prior to discontinuing the sporting loads IIRC.

On the otgher hand the ABC bullet was excellent; and IIRC MEN also has a similar; if not the exact same bullet in their offerings?

Mouse.....

Don't know exactly what Hirtenberger ammo you've got but normally when you see TMRK on a package it is simply a Cup & Draw bullet. TMRK means Teil Mantel Rund Kopf or a litteral translation: Partial (Teil) Jacket (Mantel, actually Mantel means Coat) Rund (Round) Kopf (Head); so a Partially-Jacketed Round Nose.

Tho my "Deutsch" is a bit "schlecht" I understand the TRMK initials and what they stand for , so I will stay with my first intention and "mit diese kugeln und meine kanone nur auf Spatzen schiessen" hehe - thanks anyway .

P.S. I have shot a fair share of game with ABC bullet mainly in 7x64 and 8x68S - and have nothing but good things to report - it might be the first monolithic X type bullet. BTW did you know that it was constructed by a nutty Slovenian professor back in 1970?