The .300 and .338 Ruger Compact Magnum cartridges wring high speed from short barrels. The .300 180-grain load speeds from a 20-inch barrel at 2,850 fps.

It began small, this assault, with a pipsqueak round called the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire. The dainty rimfire drove 17-grain, .172-diameter, polymer-tipped bullets at 2,550 fps. That's 600 fps faster than the parent .22 WMR can push its 40-grain hollowpoint. Shooters liked the .17 bullet's sleek profile--and the fact that it stayed supersonic to 250 yards, while the .22 Magnum dropped to subsonic velocity before reaching 200.

Within weeks of announcing its new round, Hornady (and Speer/CCI, which loads Hornady's bullet atop Hodgdon Li'l Gun powder) took orders totaling 12 million rounds beyond its current stock. The supply was so tenuous, some dealers would sell ammo only if you bought a rifle too.

My first shooting sessions with the .17 came by way of background work for an article in Guns & Ammo. My chronograph confirmed what Hornady claimed: 10 shots from the 21-inch barrel of a Savage rifle averaged 2,545 fps. Accuracy was outstanding. Three of 10 test rifles delivered sub-MOA averages for five 5-shot strings at 100 yards. Eight of the 10 delivered averages of less than 1.75 inches.

HMR rifle and ammo sales exceeded expectations. Then, on its heels came the .17 Mach 2. The tiny bottleneck case measured .694, about .1-inch longer than that of a .22 Long Rifle and the same as a CCI Stinger. So it fit the mechanisms of ordinary .22s, functioned in self-loaders and shot flatter than any .22 rimfire ammunition, even the hyper-velocity rounds. Even the .22 WMR. The post-introduction market shortfall of 12 million rounds was almost welcome news.

Hornady also made news with bigger cartridges such as the .480 Ruger for revolvers and the .450 Marlin for lever-action rifles. Hornady's ballistics lab worked with the gun companies to develop rounds for specific firearms that could be sold profitably in modest quantities. Hornady reached into history to revive the .405 Winchester, a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt. It tested demand for the popular wildcat .458 Lott with factory loads, and collaborated with Ruger again to produce the .204 Ruger--the cartridge that nobody with a .22-250 needed but everyone who wants to see bullet impact has embraced.

The dawn of a new century seemed to inspire the trolls in Hornady's hometown, Grand Island, Nebraska. They produced not only .460 and .500 S&W ammunition for that company's Herculean X-Frame revolvers, but the .475 Linebaugh, chambered in the Freedom Arms 83 revolver. They produced ammo for the .416 Rigby and the 6.8 SPC. They developed tactical (TAP) and Cowboy Action loads, buckshot and slug ammo, sabot projectiles for muzzleloaders.