Joyce W. Hornady began manufacturing bullets in the spring of 1949 with a .30 caliber 150 gr (9.7 g) spire point selling for $4.50 per hundred.

An early innovation was thinner copper jackets for varmint hunting bullets to cause rapid expansion and minimize size of ricochet particles.

[2] The Piper Aztec, with Hornady at the controls flying in heavy fog, crashed into Lake Pontchartrain while on final approach to New Orleans Lakefront Airport.

In 1990, the Hornady XTP (which stands for Extreme Terminal Performance) won the industry's Product Award of Merit 1990 from the National Association of Federal Licensed Dealers.

The company was the primary developer of the .17 HMR and .17 HM2 rimfire cartridges, which has become increasingly popular for small game and vermin hunting.

The .375 Ruger cartridge case was used by Hornady as the basis for a new extra long range cartridge since it had the capability to operate with high chamber pressures which, combined with a neck and barrel throat optimized for loading relatively long and heavy .308 diameter very-low-drag bullets without the need to seat the bullets deeply recessed into the case result in adequate muzzle velocities from magnum sized bolt-action rifles.

Hornady also produces a wide range handloading equipments such as presses, dies, powder measures, scales, case prepping tools, gauges, tumblers/ultrasonic cleaners and other accessories, as well as publishing a reloading data handbook that is currently in its 11th edition.