HORNADY NO BROTHERHOOD! NO LOYALTY!

Hi folks, Tim Sundles here. We're filming from our Africa office, as you can see if you look around.

I want to talk about a fairly recent development in the firearms industry… that actually isn't so recent at all.

Starting Buffalo Bore & That Call from Steve Hornady

When I started Buffalo Bore 32, 33, 34 years ago, I answered the phones. I made the ammunition, I packaged the ammunition, I shipped the ammunition.

We weren't doing sales on the internet. I wasn't that advanced, and those kinds of things 30 years ago were fairly new. So I did everything myself.

Well, I'm going to tell you a story about one day when I answered the phone—and the call was from Steve Hornady. At that point, I was in business less than a year.

On Field Ethos, Jason Vincent & Don Trump Jr.

Now, I'm going to leave that subject and go to the guys at Field Ethos and Jason Vincent, and I'll tie this all together as I go.

I only met Jason Vincent five or six years ago. He actually came to me over our ammo, and we became friends. I've asked for Jason's guidance and his opinion on numerous occasions, and he has always generously given me his best advice or guidance.

He knows a lot of people in the industry—people that I wasn’t connected with. And the industry’s gotten so big and diverse, you can’t know everybody. I mean, it’s just an impossibility.

Hornady Pulls Sponsorship from Field Ethos

In the last week, Field Ethos, Jason Vincent, and Don Trump Jr.—because he owns a big part of Field Ethos—have had a falling out with Hornady.

If you go on Field Ethos and look it up, it’s because Hornady was sponsoring Field Ethos. Hornady expected Field Ethos to basically do whatever Hornady told them to do.

One thing I can tell you about Jason is—after spending a lot of time with him—Jason is not for sale. Jason will promote products that work. Jason will promote products he believes in.

I’ve sponsored Jason and Field Ethos only on one event. I provided their .416 Rigby ammo for their hunt in Australia last year. And that’s been the only thing I’ve ever done with them on a sponsorship basis. I did that mostly because I just like Jason.

I like Don Trump Jr. too. These are solid people.

So Hornady dropped their sponsorship of Field Ethos because Jason would not endorse every Hornady project they wanted him to endorse.

Jason’s picky that way. He’ll do exactly what he tells you he’ll do. One of the things he’ll tell you is that he’s not for sale. If your product is good, he’ll endorse it. He’ll use it and find out how good it is.

Jason’s comment was specifically: “Field Ethos is not for sale. You can’t buy us.”

And that was in regards to Hornady dropping them because Field Ethos wouldn’t endorse the .338 ARC.

I didn’t even know there was a .338 ARC. That’s how far I’ve got my head up my own backside. I’m so busy I can’t keep track of every new product.

I was about to get derogatory because most of them are hype.

My Early Experience with Hornady

Anyway—I want to jump in here with Field Ethos. Nobody asked me to do this. This just harks back more than 30 years ago, to a problem I had with Steve Hornady being a bully—using money to get what he wanted. And he did.

He won. He won the battle. He had the money. I didn’t.

Back then, I started Buffalo Bore on borrowed money. I was 34, 35 years old. New to the firearms industry. I just didn’t have any money to back myself or stand up for myself. But Steve Hornady did.

There are a lot of people in the industry that know this story, so I’m surprised this hasn’t really come out. Of course, YouTube’s a thing now—the last 10 years it's gotten more popular.

I answered the phone one day in the very early days—I’d been in business less than a year. It was Steve Hornady. He introduced himself (I'll give him props for that).

He said, “I want to buy some of your .475 Linebaugh ammo, some of your .500 Linebaugh ammo,” and he listed the amounts he wanted.

He said, “I’m going to reverse engineer them and come out with the Hornady version of the .475 and the .500 Linebaugh.”

My Contract with Linebaugh

Here’s what I told Steve when he said that. I said:

“Well, Steve, there’s a problem with that. I’ve been friends with John Linebaugh for a long, long time. I have several of his very early guns. I have serial number two blue .500 Linebaugh. I’ve also got serial number two stainless .500 Linebaugh.

John asked me to make this ammo because there was no commercially available ammo. If I would make this ammo, then John would be able to sell a lot more guns.”

This was a collaboration between Linebaugh and I. I designed the ammo the way Linebaugh wanted it. We talked about it. I got test guns. I shot a bunch of it to learn what I was doing.

I met Linebaugh in 1986 when one of his .500s was on the cover—I think it was Guns & Ammo—an article written by Ross Seyfried. I called up John instantly and ordered. He told me I was his first order from that article. That’s how I got serial number two. Seyfried had serial number one.

Trademarks and Legal Threats

I said to Steve:

“Steve, I did all this with borrowed money. I’m small time. I can’t compete with a big maker like you. And I have a contract with John Linebaugh.”

Which I did. I had a contract for the exclusive use of the name Linebaugh or John Linebaugh in connection with manufacturing and marketing ammunition.

On top of that, I had gone to the patent and trademark board and applied for trademarks for the names .475 Linebaughand .500 Linebaugh. And I had been granted those trademarks.

So I told this to Steve Hornady. I said:

“I’ve got trademarks. I’ve got a contract with John Linebaugh that gives me exclusive rights.”

He goes:

“Well, I’ve already talked to John about this. I’m going to introduce these cartridges to SAAMI. John will get his name. He’ll be immortalized. John’s willing to do that. I thought I’d call you myself and order the ammo.”

Standing My Ground

I said:

“You’re going to put me in a bad situation. Just to protect all the money I’ve invested—which is all borrowed—I’m going to have to litigate you if you do this. I didn’t get trademarks just to have somebody big walk in and steal it.”

Steve said words to this effect:

“I’m Hornady Manufacturing. You can’t stop me. Your trademarks won’t hold up. Your licensing agreement with Linebaugh won’t hold up. I know the ammo industry and I will see to it that those things don’t hold up.

You’re an upstart. You’re getting written up in all the gun magazines.”

And folks—back then, gun magazines were the way everybody learned stuff. There wasn’t YouTube. There wasn’t all this internet traffic.

He said:

“You’re getting all this attention. I can’t have that. I’m going to develop my own versions—especially the .475 Linebaugh. I’m in on this.”

I said:

“Well, I wish you weren’t, because we’re going to end up in court.”

And we did.