From England to Texas, come see Eley's new rimfire test facility

Eley opens a rimfire testing facility in the heart of texas

This month's Shooting Sports USA has a great article on Eley's new test range in the heart of Texas. Its the first in a series of articles on the facility that you can read in future issues. Come find out what they're doing and why they chose the location.

New Eley Test Range - Part I
By Chip Lohman, Managing Editor

When invited to the grand opening of Eley’s newest test range, my ﬁrst thought was: “Where is Winters, TX, and why there?” As it turns out, Winters is the home of Killough Shooting Sports— headquarters for the American Rimﬁre Association and one of the largest U.S. retailers of Eley ammunition. Andrew Lane, Eley’s Managing Director, explained: “We have had a test range in the U.K. at Eley for more than 20 years. But in the last two to three years, the demand for testing has outstripped our capacity to deliver.

Premium .22 LR ammunition is expensive and the most favorable ﬁrearm-ammunition combination varies depending on the make, age, round count and maintenance of the riﬂe or pistol. It is imperative to test premium ammunition to ﬁnd the optimal combination for a customer’s ﬁrearm. As a response to this demand, we have opened additional testing facilities in Stuttgart, Germany, which is close to Anschütz, Walther and Feinwerkbau, and now in Winters, TX.”

When Dan Killough approached Lane with the idea of a U.S. test range, it set the wheels in motion for the grand opening on December 5, 2012. If you’re a benchrest or smallbore competitor, such a facility allows you to select the best lot number for your ﬁrearm in a three-hour session, saving money and countless trips to the range for trial-and-error experimentation. Furthermore, the desired ammunition lot is available on-site for your purchase.

According to Lane, the Eley manufacturing process selects from 14 different cases, four heading cells, ﬁve bullet molds, six assembly machines with eight different cannelures, which yield an estimated 13,000 unique recipes of TENEX ammunition. The process is continuously monitored, collecting over two million pieces of process data each day. The fact that 14 out of 18 of the 2012 London Olympic medals were won with Eley ammunition, including ﬁve of six golds, validates Eley’s success.