Perhaps the most newsworthy of all was the introduction of LeverEvolution cartridges, old favorites like the .30-30, .35 Remington and .45-70 featuring jacketed, pointed bullets with soft polymer tips safe to use in tubular magazines. The nose was spongy enough to deform when bounced hard against the primer of the cartridge in front of it but resilient so that it regained its original sleek form in the chamber and kept it in flight. Big increases in ballistic coefficient and higher speeds made possible by new propellants and loading techniques resulted in much-improved performance downrange: flatter arcs and more muscle at the target. I used a .30-30 with Hornady ammunition for a season, killing a deer, a bear, a pronghorn and two elk. The LeverEvolution line is expanding.

Keen to apply its loading technology to other rounds, Hornady fashioned a new cartridge for the Marlin 336. Ballistically, the .308 Marlin Express edges the .300 Savage and crowds the .308 Winchester. A sequel followed, the compact .30 TC with .30-06 performance from a short-action bolt gun.

Hornady gave black-rifle ranks their due with the .450 Bushmaster, a straight-walled cartridge designed expressly for the AR-15 platform. Indulging again in the historical, these talented Nebraskans revived the .450/400 Nitro Express and the 9.3x74R. Concurrently, they developed a new, rimless medium-bore, the .375 Ruger and pioneered fresh loads for the leggy .338 Lapua.

Next came a duo nobody thought would appear and, at first blush, seemed redundant. The .300 and .338 Ruger Compact Magnums announced this fall are not like other short magnums, insists Hornady's Mitch Mittelstaedt, who headed the project. "Yes, they're rimless and fit .308-length actions, but they also deliver magnum velocities from short barrels."

"We've used proprietary means to alter propellants in the Ruger Compact Magnums, tightening their pressure curves. The .300 RCM performs about like the .300 WSM in standard 24-inch barrels, but it beats the WSM in 20-inch tubes. Normally, velocity from a fast .30 drops 160 to 180 fps when you chop the barrel to 20 inches. We've managed to cut that loss in half," says Hornady ballistician Dave Emary.