Hornady Manufacturing announced a mid-year introduction of a new cartridge to the company’s American Whitetail line: the 6.5 Creedmoor. The new load joins five others that were added to the line earlier this year.

Hornady states the cartridge will use a 129 grain InterLock bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,820 fps. The MSRP will be $29.40 for a box of 20 rounds. In my experience, I’ve found Hornady’s suggested retail prices significantly higher than the actual prices I’ve found online. I would expect to see this closer to $20-22/box when it starts filling retailers’ inventory.

The American Whitetail ammunition was introduced by Hornady a few years back. As the name suggests, this is a hunting round that was developed for those chasing deer. It will be effective on other animals as well, but the marketing thrust is clearly toward people looking to put venison in the freezer.

I do find the announcement of this round to be out of character for the company, however. In recent memory, Hornady announces the next year’s slate of new products at the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers expo that is held in the fall. The company then begins shipping early in the new year. Rarely has the company introduced new products between the NASGW shows – at least in recent years.

I don’t know what the mid-year announcement may mean – if anything. It could suggest the company has a surplus of manufacturing capacity, and the addition of a new round allows them to get more product to market. If true, that may mean the industry has found its new normal after the repeated buying panics of the last 7-8 years.