Centerfire Rifle Rebate
Get Up To $50 Back!
Buy at least 2 boxes of Federal® centerfire rifle ammunition* and receive 20% back. *Exclusions Apply
30 Super Carry
Hits like a 9mm Luger. Carries like a 380 Auto. Designed exclusively for defense.
Shotshell Rebates
We're offering rebates on select Federal shotshell products. Claim yours while there's still time.
BLACK PACK BUCK$
Buy a minimum of two (2) qualifying boxes of Federal® 1,100-round Black Pack®* rimfire ammunition and get $20 back ($10/box).
FireStick
There’s never been a muzzleloading system like this. See all the benefits that set FireStick apart to provide the most convenient, safe and consistent performance ever.
Hydra-Shok® Component Bullets
The bullet that’s defined self-defense for a generation is now available as a component.
Federal X Duluth Pack
Check out the all-new lineup of Federal-branded Duluth Pack apparel and gear.
Model 2020 Waypoint Special Edition
We worked with engineers from Springfield Armory to create Custom Shop loads specifically designed for the utmost performance from the new Model 2020 Waypoint rifle.
Federal’s founding President Charles Horn cheers on softball players from the dugout at a local game.
The April 1972 issue of The Monark, Federal’s employee newsletter, was a tribute to the company’s founder and president Charles Lilley Horn. Born March 5, 1888, in a log cabin in Mount Vernon, Iowa, Horn went on to become the president of the American Ball Company. That job led him to purchase the remains of the shuttered Federal Cartridge Company in Anoka, Minnesota, and it was Horn’s vision and business acumen that turned it around.
The Monark went on to tell about Horn’s many passions and projects. He was an automobile enthusiast and owned a red 1921 Buick Sportster that was housed in the neighboring Hoffman plant even after his death. Though Horn enjoyed being on the open road, his son Charles Horn, Jr. said his father was “not a very good automobile driver,” and said, “a ride with my father in the automobile was not the kind of experience that I particularly enjoyed, although we never had a serious accident.”
Horn was also very fashionable and wore custom suits created for him by German tailor Otto Will with a fresh carnation in his lapel each day.
Federal was Horn’s primary passion, though, and he demonstrated his concern not only about his customers but also his employees. In his earliest days, he wrote withering memos to his managers when he felt the factory floor was unclean and unsafe and demanded that employee lounges and dining facilities be kept clean and sanitary. Horn was shrewd in business, but he cared for his people.
Unveiling a portrait of Charles Horn at the Anoka City Hall in 1955. Horn and Federal helped finance the building, which cost over $600,000. That’s approximately $6 million in current dollars.
Some say Horn arranged for the city hall to be built in the shape of a pistol.
In addition to the city hall building, Charles Horn constructed a swimming pool for Anoka families. He also provided funding to light the recreational fields in town.
Horn was also a benevolent contributor to Anoka, the city that supported his efforts to expand operations at Federal. He provided a check to Anoka Recreation, Inc., in 1955, to light the town’s athletic fields, and he helped finance construction and furnishing of Anoka’s new city hall, a project that cost more than $600,000 (approximately $6 million in today’s dollars).
Under Horn’s direction, Federal donated $50,000 to Anoka’s Mercy Hospital in 1963. He served as chairman of the Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority starting in 1960, and this was in addition to Horn’s many contributions to conservation efforts that included supporting 4-H shooting sports programs and promoting responsible hunting practices. For his efforts in conservation, Horn won the United States Department of Agriculture’s Citation Medal in 1956.
In the same issue of The Monark that celebrates Horn’s achievements during the company’s first 50 years, the company recognized employees with more than 40 years of service. Unbelievably, there were 29 of them. That level of commitment from so many of his employees shows that Horn’s altruism wasn’t simply for effect.
“He wasn’t just at the helm of Federal Cartridge Corporation,” an employee said. “In a very real way, Charles L. Horn was Federal.”
In 1974, Charles Horn stepped down as company president. His son William replaced him. The elder Horn spent the next three years serving as chairman of the board before he officially retired in late 1977. Longtime Federal executive and former Anoka mayor R.B. Ehlen filled his board vacancy. On June 29, 1978, Charles Horn died at the age of 90.
The Federal sign has meant good jobs for generations of Anoka residents, through depression, war, and good times, too. The company remains a pillar of the community.
Current company president Jason Vanderbrink outside the Federal factory. Under Vanderbrink’s leadership, Federal launched a record 130 new products in 2020.
The machinery used in ammo production has changed, but the philosophy of hard work and dedication upon which Charles Horn built the brand still remains at Federal.
In the ensuing decades, Federal went through several changes in ownership and leadership, until rising to become the flagship brand of The Kinetic Group in 2024. Federal’s current president, Jason Vanderbrink, has been following in Horn’s footsteps since taking the reins at the company in 2018.
“To build and market better ammunition, we need to stay obsessed with accuracy and our dedication to high standards of performance,” Vanderbrink says. “We must always be striving to maintain the most efficient manufacturing processes, cost-effective business strategies, and use of the best raw materials and components.”
Under Vanderbrink’s leadership, Federal has flourished. In 2020, the company released a record 130 new products, which included such diverse products as HammerDown lever-action rifle ammunition, Punch defensive ammo, and the revolutionary FireStick that simplifies muzzleloading hunting and reduces the risks of accidents.
Federal launched this extensive new product line just as the COVID-19 pandemic made obtaining raw materials difficult. Because of its police and military production, the state declared Federal an essential industry, allowing the company to avoid production-killing shutdowns during 2020. Federal has managed to weather the storm and remains the top ammunition manufacturer in the country.
Much has changed in the five decades since Horn stepped down from the company, but some things haven’t: Good leadership and dedicated employees are required for any company to succeed. Federal still sponsors a wide range of conservation efforts that help preserve wildlife populations and protect valuable habitat. The company also sponsors 4-H shooting sports and NRA events that safely introduce newcomers to firearms.
And with leadership like that, another 100 years of success lay ahead.