Here's the end of my update...and some interesting information.
After posting about my problem with Hornady, I jumped on their website, hit the Customer Service link and sent them a very specific letter of complaint.
I kept it civilized, but I peeled some serious hide at the same time.
This morning I got a reply that was very interesting.
It was not well written. It read like the writer was under tremendous pressure. It rambled and was kind of hard to follow. But here's what I got out of it:
Hornady would ship my order if they could, but can't because they have no .30 bullets in production and no .30 bullets in their inventory. They intended to add machines for .30 production over a month ago, but it didn't happen. They couldn't start producing .30 just for me (and others like me) because they would have to stop a dedicated machine, tear it down and retool it for .30--and that would simply take too long.
My take on the above is that Hornady has every machine running 24/7 to make a different caliber: my guess being .223, or perhaps that and a small spectrum of other military rounds.
Their reply ended with the assurance that they would try to do something about my problem before the end of the day.
At about 6PM today I checked my email, and found a message saying that Hornady had shipped my order.
I think that if they actually have zero .30 inventory, as they claimed, they must have had someone break into their own personal stock and contribute 500 rounds to good customer relations. Or perhaps they sent someone out to buy some retail.
But in the final analysis, they shipped the same day they decided to solve the problem.
I think the squeaky wheel got greased because it got pretty squeaky, and some seriously bad press might have resulted if the squeaking had gone viral.
Meanwhile, MidwayUSA has some Hornady .224, and apparently not a single .30. of any brand.
