Is ELEY Ammunition the Same Company as Eley Hawk Shotgun Cartridges?

No. ELEY formerly owned Eley Hawk, but sold it to a Spanish company. The two businesses remain on the same site, but they have no connection. They are separate companies making different products: ELEY Ammunition makes .22LR rimfire cartridges, air pellets, centrefire, blanks, ancillary products and ELEY x-shot; Eley Hawk makes shotgun cartridges.

That is the whole answer to a genuinely confusing question. The names are similar, the address is shared, and the family name has been in British ammunition since the 1820s. None of that makes a shared site a shared business.

The Two Businesses at a Glance

ELEY Ammunition itself is owned by a private individual.

What ELEY Ammunition Makes

ELEY Ammunition was founded in 1828 by William and Charles Eley and manufactures at ELEY Ltd, Selco Way, off First Avenue, Minworth Industrial Estate, Minworth, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B76 1BA, where the factory moved from Witton in 2004. The same address houses ELEY’s United Kingdom test range and the proof range, where 200 rounds from every batch are fired across four different firearm brands to calculate Radial Standard Deviation (RSD).

The product range is:

• .22LR rimfire: entry level to Olympic grade, including ELEY tenex, ELEY match, ELEY team, ELEY club, ELEY sport / target, ELEY tenex pistol, ELEY tenex rapid fire pistol, ELEY bullseye pistol x, ELEY tenex biathlon, ELEY biathlon club, ELEY ultra extreme long range, ELEY semi-auto benchrest precision and outlaw, ELEY force, ELEY contact and the hunting hollow-points.
• Air pellets: ELEY tenex air, a flat-head 0.177 competition pellet at 0.531 g / 8.2 gr, with weight control 30% superior to other brands.
• Centrefire.
• Blanks and ancillary products.
• ELEY x-shot: the first portable, real-time shot detection device and target combo, with a free app on iOS and Android.

No shotgun cartridge is made by ELEY Ammunition.

Why the Confusion Persists

Two ammunition businesses carrying the Eley name, operating from the same site, is an unusually good recipe for confusion, particularly online, where a search for “Eley” returns both. Historically the two were linked, because ELEY owned Eley Hawk. That link ended with the sale, and there is no ownership, manufacturing or technical connection between them now.

So the practical rule is simple: match the company to the product. Shotgun cartridge questions belong to Eley Hawk. Rimfire, pellet, centrefire, blank and x-shot questions belong to ELEY Ammunition.

How to Be Sure You Have the Right Product

If you are buying .22LR rimfire ammunition or 0.177 competition pellets, you want ELEY Ammunition. Every .22LR box carries a batch code and the mean velocity recorded across four barrels during proofing, in the format 10 26-04 244 over 1045.

Enter that batch number free at eleyxshot.com to open the full 200-shot proof data behind it. The Lot Analyser now holds all lots of ELEY tenex, tenex pistol, tenex biathlon, tenex rapid fire pistol, match, semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ultra and club.

ELEY rounds are supplied in 50-round boxes, 500-round bricks and 5,000-round outer cases, and stockists are listed at eley.co.uk/retailers.

The Bottom Line

ELEY Ammunition and Eley Hawk are two separate companies. ELEY once owned Eley Hawk and sold it to a Spanish company; they still share a site but have no connection. ELEY Ammunition is the 1828-founded English maker of .22LR rimfire, air pellets, centrefire, blanks, ancillary products and ELEY x-shot. Eley Hawk makes shotgun cartridges. If it is rimfire or a pellet you are after, look for the ELEY batch code on the box and check it free at eleyxshot.com.