In the shooting world the quirky city of Hull is famous and there’s one company which has never confused its customers with convoluted branding – the Hull Cartridge Company. This family run business sits in an industrial estate on Bontoft Avenue, named after Sydney Bontoft, the founder, and it continues to load millions and millions of shotgun shells each year.
Originally Sydney ran a business between the wars supplying farms and estates with calcium carbide to provide acetylene lighting. But when electricity killed that demand, he realised it was time to change direction.
Family fortunes
Sydney recognised all his customers also required shotgun cartridges so it was a simple step. Initially he used another supplier for the cartridges, but in 1947 cartridge production started on site. Sydney’s son Peter joined Hull Cartridge in 1948 as a 21-year-old fresh out of National Service, and the business grew rapidly throughout the 1950s and 1960s, when Peter’s brother Ken also joined the ranks.
Influential Sales Director Hugh Clark made a big splash when he took the Hull brand down south and sold it to the likes of Holland & Holland in the 1960s and the success story continued.
The 80s shooting boom
Today brother and sister David and Susan Bontoft (Sydney’s grandchildren) are both Directors of the business and I visited them in the heart of their empire to learn more about the family passion for producing consistently excellent ammunition.
They both joined in 1981 at the start of the decade which saw a surge in the popularity of clay shooting as the corporate world caught on to the benefits of a day at the clays. As Susan explained: “Unlike golf, on a corporate clay day people are not teamed up with just the same three other people for four hours. It’s a very sociable event which lends itself ideally to networking because there is lots of time to stand back and chat while others are shooting.”
A descriptive brand
During the same period competition clay shooting and game shooting also saw a big rise in interest, so lots of new shooting grounds opened and demand for ammunition grew as a result. The business initially built its success on the Three Crowns cartridge which, although still in production, has been superseded by such recognisable products as Imperial Game, High Pheasant, Driven Grouse and the Partridge Cartridge. Meanwhile in the clay range, brands such as Superfast, Sporting 100 and Comp X are well established and easily identifiable.
A faster 20 bore
Not ones to rest on their laurels the team are continually looking to plug holes in the market. They listen to customers, retailers, estates, gamekeepers and their own team of ambassadors, as well as using their own judgement to react to new demands from the shooting field. And David explained one such recent development: “Just as the season started we bought out the Ultimate 20 bore in 28gram 5 and a half. We’ve given the market a faster 20 bore for people who want a bit more oomph, taking it up to 1450fps.”
The future of shooting
Sometimes it seems as though the sport of shooting is under constant threat, but it’s heartening to hear the boss of one of the industry’s leading businesses speaking confidently about the impact of the likes of the British Game Alliance: “There’s always going to be shooting in some form. And I think the BGA are doing a fantastic job and we are supporting that. If you look at government, they love self regulation. The big thing is the BGA can demonstrate we are self regulating. If there are any issues then the government doesn’t necessarily want to wade in if there is that perceived self regulation.”
Whither plastic?
One of the hottest topics in shooting is the use of plastic wads for game shooting or in any areas outside established shooting grounds. At shooting grounds it’s relatively easy to collect the spent plastic wads, but out in the field it’s not an option so the use of bio-degradable fibre wads is more and more common, with many game shoots insisting guns use fibre wad only shells.
David told me about the HCC approach to this issue: “We are the specialist for fibre wads because we are the oldest business under continuous management and we have been making fibre wad cartridges from the year dot. We are confident in fibre wads. We hardly have anything in the game range with plastic wads. Unless you are at the extremes of range the difference between fibre and plastic wad performance is irrelevant.”
Lead shot position
When it comes to debating points in shooting during the last 20 years there can be none more hotly discussed than the use of lead shot and its alternatives since Westminster signed the African-Eurasian Water Bird Agreement in November 1999.
Not surprisingly David Bontoft and HCC have a robust view on this topic: “The issue we have is when you are coming to shoot live quarry it’s got to be despatched cleanly. I’m in total agreement with the law on shooting waterfowl with lead alternatives, but we’ve looked at those alternatives for our other game loads and lead is the only way. There’s a reason lead has been used since the 1400s. It's density and its malleability mean it can be used through any barrel without a plastic wad and ultimately there is nothing to touch it.”
The Royal Warrant
Not that this brand needed any further stamps of success or proof of its impact on UK shooting, but in 1992 The Royal Warrant was issued to Hull Company and to Peter Bontoft specifically. Today the Warrant is still held, but it’s David’s name on the certificate and it’s a clear source of satisfaction for this most British of British businesses.
A passion for shooting
Far from being saturated with the world of cartridges, clays and guns both David and Susan spend plenty of time out in the field either shooting in competitions, charity days or game days in their syndicates and further afield. Their sheer enthusiasm for the sport and the business is palpable, and my only issue in their boardroom was finding a way to bring the interview to a close in time to tour the factory and test the product.
Meanwhile the fourth generation of the family are fully involved, with David’s daughters Faye and Isabel both working in the business, and it would seem HCC is in safe hands for the foreseeable future.
To find out more about Hull Cartridge and to see their whole product range, visit their website here.
Written by Will Hetherington, GunsOnPegs Contributing Editor
Will was the editor of the Shooting Gazette, a leading international driven shooting magazine, for 13 years. Having been involved with country sports publishing for a total of 19 years, he is now our Contributing Editor at GunsOnPegs.
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