Dedicated To Every Round.™

What does Dedicated to Every Round™ mean?

Steinel Ammunition Co. is a premium manufacturer of self-defense, hunting, and target ammunition. While other manufacturers may have a specific product line designated as “match” or “premium,” at Steinel—premium ammunition is all we do.

When you use Steinel pistol or rifle ammo, you can be sure that countless hours of research and testing have gone into every round. Each recipe, component, and assembly is designed to provide you with optimal performance.

Our passion for precision, repeatability, accuracy, and reliability drives our pursuit of perfection. Let our attention to every technical detail provide you with the ammunition you and your gun deserve.

We stand by our products 100% with a Satisfaction Guarantee return policy.

Reliability

Our network of partners provides access to hundreds of firearms ranging from 25 ACP to 50 BMG. Testing through a wide variety of test guns, helps us ensure that our ammunition will function flawlessly in the vast majority of makes and models.

During production, we perform a battery of tests to ensure that only the highest quality product reaches your firearm. The frequency with which we halt production to perform this battery of tests would put most manufacturers to shame. This battery includes primer seating depth, overall cartridge length (or ogive to rim base where applicable), powder charge, crimp diameter, shoulder bump (where applicable), and the always-critical case gauge. Depending on the caliber, we may check as frequently as every 20 rounds! Lastly, our tolerances are incredibly tight. This allows us to make any necessary press adjustments while rounds are still within SAAMI spec.

Accuracy

Pistol cartridges intended for self-defense are tested at 21 feet. Rifle cartridges intended for hunting, tactical applications and target shooting are tested at a minimum of 100 yards. Pistol cartridges used primarily for hunting are tested at 50 yards.

Penetration and Expansion

At Steinel, we do not test penetration by shooting through water jugs, newspaper, or phone books. We take the time and expense to prepare proper ballistics gel with Type A Ordnance Gelatin. We also take the time to calibrate each batch to ensure that the standard FBI density is achieved. When loading our ammunition into your self-defense or hunting firearm, rest assured that the product you are touching has passed OBJECTIVE, STANDARDIZED, and MEANINGFUL tests on both penetration and expansion. After all, either someone’s life (self-defense) or a humane kill (hunting) depends on this performance.

Velocity and Pressure

Any old combination of powder, bullet, case, and primer will not suffice. Consistent, clean powders with optimal burn rates make up each load, along with tried and trusted bullet weights for each caliber. When it comes to very heavy-for-caliber or light-for-caliber bullet weights, we would rather follow the guidelines established originally by those who designed each caliber.

For any of our new caliber introductions, we leverage available reference material by trusted sources—primarily Hornady, Speer, Lyman, Nosler, Alliant, and Hodgdon. SAAMI specs are treated as gospel, and our chronographs are used extensively. Average, standard deviation, extreme spread, and minimum and maximum velocities are closely monitored throughout testing. Our team has the experience with both statistics and Six Sigma techniques to draw meaningful conclusions on test data.  We continue to build upon our inventory of pressure barrels to improve our load development and testing processes.

Our Story

Steinel Ammunition began in 2015 as XCaliber Ammunition, founded by Andy Steinel in his basement in Hudson, Ohio. What started as a passion project — developing small-batch, hard-to-find ammunition for vintage and modern firearms — quickly grew into something more serious. Those early batches were inspected by Andy’s late father, then loaded into the car and carted off to local gun shows across the region.

By 2018, XCaliber had built a loyal following of over 1,000 customers seeking the kind of specialty, big-bore, and military surplus ammunition that major manufacturers simply don’t make. The product was earning a reputation. The name was not — “XCaliber,” “Excalibur,” and “Excaliber” were everywhere, and the brand was getting lost in the noise.

On the advice of our marketing team, we rebranded to Steinel Ammunition Co. — Andy’s family name, and a name nobody else owns. Same company. Same ownership. Same obsessive attention to every round. Just a name that’s actually ours.

Within four years of founding, we outgrew the basement and moved into our first commercial facility in Twinsburg, Ohio. Two years later we moved to our current facility — also in Twinsburg — where we develop, test, and manufacture premium ammunition for discerning shooters. Everything is produced in small batches, quality-checked to tight tolerances, and backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.

We are proudly made in America, and we answer our own phone.

The Team

Andy Steinel — Founder Andy leads new product development, customer service, and talent acquisition. He built this company from a basement reloading bench into a federally licensed manufacturer serving customers across the country.

Stephen S — Sales & Business Development Stephen handles sales, dealer satisfaction, and serves as our gun shop liaison. He has been with Steinel since 2017 and knows our product lines inside and out.

Alex D — Production Manager Alex oversees press set-ups, quality control, and overseas pressure testing. He has been with Steinel since 2019 and is the backbone of our manufacturing operation.

Pat G — Partner Pat manages IT, MRP/ERP, and supply chain. He is the newest senior addition to the team and keeps our operations running smoothly behind the scenes.

Anton C — Shipping & Inventory Anton handles shipping, inventory, and inspection. He joined Steinel in 2025.

Ian R — Production Ian is responsible for testing, loading, and inspection. He joined Steinel in 2026.