Handguns

Norma's name may not sound operatic. "It's from an opera by Bellini," chuckles Torbjorn Lindskog. "Really." Then again, I didn't know the Swedish ammo firm dates to 1902, when one employee tended two machines in a small shop in Amotfors.

In 1911 Norma built a new factory. During the following decades the firm prospered, its fortunes enhanced by the Second World War. By 1942 Norma's workforce had grown to 800. "Nils Kavle, a retired Norwegian military man, exploited to the fullest the swell in demand for munitions," recalls Torb, now the firm's CEO. "But it wasn't until 1950 that Norma began exporting hunting ammo."

By 1966, 530 people worked at the plant, rolling out 64 million rounds. In 1975 Hasselfors Burks AB bought Norma. Within four years the company became a subsidiary of FFV. In 1990 Dynamit Nobel AG assumed ownership. Production throttled back, and by the mid-1990s, payroll had shrunk to 175. But automation was also yielding more product per worker. By the end of the century, 135 Norma employees were turning out 25 million cartridges, plus the same number of bullets and cases.

Excluding Finland, Norma now controls 70 percent of the Scandinavian ammo market. It also owns 30 percent of the European market, mainly France, Germany and Spain. About a quarter of the annual production stays in Sweden; another 25 percent goes to the U.S. A little over half is hunting ammo, while about 17 percent goes to target shooters. Norma's catalog lists 275 loads for 70 centerfire cartridges, from .223 to .470 Nitro Express. Two percent of Norma production is rimfire.

"The 6.5x55 has long been our biggest seller," Torb says. "It's required for rifle competition in Scandinavia, and it's the most popular Swedish hunting cartridge."

While the current factory, built in 1967, is modern by most standards, some of Norma's 6.5x55 match ammo comes off a 1928 machine. It loads 210 rounds a minute. The plant is full of hardware that dates from between the world wars. It still produces top-notch ammunition. At the CISM World Championships in Ankara, Turkey, three years ago, Norma 6mm BR ammunition claimed 11 of the 12 top medals.

Each year Nosler, Swift, Speer, Barnes, Berger, Hornady, Sierra and Woodleigh supply millions of bullets for Norma's own ammunition and for cartridges marketed by companies like Weatherby. "One of our most important corporate relationships began in the 1940s with Roy Weatherby," says Torb. "A lot of our ammo goes in boxes with a California address." Currently, Norma produces 50 loads for Weatherby, in 20 cartridges.

A more recent partnership is between Norma and Nosler. Both the Partition and Ballistic Tip bullets appear in Norma's catalog, which includes the Swift Scirocco and Barnes Solid as well. Norma's own bullets have earned plaudits from hunters, too. The Vulkan, introduced in 1980, is a fast-opening deer bullet with an unusual nose. The jacket is inverted over a slight depression at the tip. Picture a softpoint spitzer with the lead tip cut off just below the leading edge of the jacket and the jacket crimped inward. The Alaska is more traditional and dates to the 1940s. Its broad nose with lots of lead showing reminds me of Remington Core-Lokts. Use it for medium-size game at modest ranges. Norma's Plastic Tip bullet has a polymer ball, not a pointed insert, up front. According to the firm, the plastic is mainly to protect the bullet from deformation. All three of these Norma bullets have tapered jackets with thick heels and cannelures.

For elk, moose and bear, Norma offers two bullets. The TXP is a dual-core bullet that looks in cross section like Nosler's Partition. The front core, however, is bonded for sustained cohesion in heavy bone and muscle. The Oryx is a bonded-core bullet similar in construction to our Trophy Bonded. While the TXP has a crimping groove, the Oryx is cannelured. Weight retention often exceeds 95 percent.

Paul Coil, Nosler's liaison with Norma, accompanied me to the Norma plant a couple of years ago for a tour. But we first met some of the Norma staff in the Norwegian highlands, where they'd traveled to hunt reindeer. These animals are as big as Barren Ground caribou in body and antler and are much more wary. Paul and I, and Alan Corzine, formerly a ballistician with Winchester, hunted with Torb and two long-time Norma employees, Karl-Erik Backman, in charge of quality assurance, and Kenneth Skoglund, area sales manager. Climbing through tree line just 100 miles from Norway's fjords, we hunted to 4,500 feet. Water from snowmelt and springs glistened in silver ropes over the smooth, gray rocks. The strands converged into thundering white falls that cascaded into rolling green pastures below. Shepherd cottages would be buried in winter.

The first day delivered freezing fog, then a bitter wind that, strangely, couldn't clear it. We couldn't glass. My hosts boiled coffee on a fire started with pitch pine they'd brought in their packs. They laughed at jokes told in a language I didn't know. It was a long day. But the next morning we awoke to cobalt skies and a bright sun that made the wet heather sparkle. Not long into our climb, we spied a group of reindeer with one fine bull. I scrambled to a rise and readied the Sako .30-06. But the wind betrayed us, and they fled before I could shoot. At 400 yards they stopped. I thought the range too long.

Luck was with us, though, because shortly we spotted another group high on a rim. At Kenneth's urging, I crossed a broad valley, then struggled up a headwall. The animals were on the move by the time I spotted them again, but I'd made the correct call, angling to windward. The front edge of the herd passed at about 80 yards, a fine bull protected by other bodies. Then, briefly, this river of reindeer parted. I swung and fired. The bull crumpled.

"A superb bullet, that Oryx," Kenneth observed. It had performed well. Norma promotes it as an all-around bullet in Scandinavia, where meat damage is frowned upon. "We want deep penetration and a clean wound channel." Kenneth also likes some of the bonded bullets from America, especially Swift and Trophy Bonded. The Nosler Partition, though, remains a favorite in ammunition for export.

Torb Lindskog sees the ammo business as more promising than the firearms business now. "Our fortunes depend on the international economy," he says, "and on who owns Norma. We're in the dream business. Our first task is to keep the dream alive."