Fiocchi Ammunition: The First Family of Ammo and Fast Cars

The city of Lecco lies at the southern edge of Italy’s Lake Como where the lake narrows into the Adda River. The Bergamo Alps surround the town, and not far to the north lies the border with Switzerland. Located just thirty miles north of the cosmopolitan city of Milan in Italy’s Lombardia state, Lecco’s culture and pace of life are far removed from the busy Milanese streets and fashion boutiques.

In the late afternoon, couples walk hand in hand past the imposing belltower of the Basilica di San Nicola and the restaurants along Piazza XX Settembre. As the sun drops below the peaks of the surrounding Alps, the city comes alive in the glow of street lamps which reflect on the mirror-smooth surface of the lake.

One could spend weeks walking Lecco’s cobblestone streets past palaces covered in ivy and along the winding path that leads along the southeast finger of Lake Como, which is known locally as Lago di Lecco, and only see a portion of what the city offers. Lecco attracts sightseers and honeymooners today just as it compelled the Celtic, Germanic, Roman and Austrian powers in succession to claim this Alpine paradise as their own in centuries past.

As much as I’d like to take in the sights of town and spend a few weeks or months here I cannot. I’ve got a schedule to keep.

The First Family of Ammo

I’m up early the next morning to keep my appointment across town. Tucked among the stone buildings on the outskirts of Lecco lies the Fiocchi factory, which is as modern and sophisticated as any ammunition manufacturing company in the world. Unlike many competing companies, though, you’ll still find members of the original family working in the Fiocchi building. Constantino Fiocchi, who strolls from his office in a tailored suit to meet me and share with me the latest developments of his family’s company, is the fifth generation of the Fiocchi family to work here. Founded in 1876 by Giulio Fiocchi, the brand has grown to become a worldwide supplier of ammunition products, and by the 1980s the company realized that to become a major ammo provider in the American market they would have to establish a headquarters in the United States. In 1983, Fiocchi broke ground on the U.S. facility in Ozark, Missouri. They’ve since expanded operations to Little Rock, Arkansas.

While about 80% of Fiocchi ammunition in the United States is loaded domestically, the company still relies on the impressive factory in Lecco to provide the components required to make that ammunition. And, aside from powder, every one of those components are made in Lecco. Fiocchi Italy employs around 800 people who operate the various machinery to produce hundreds of million of primers, cases, and bullets annually.

“To produce ammunition you have to be passionate,” said Constantino Fiocchi. “Every production step is very crucial. We’re always learning to improve our processes and products. That’s an exciting part of our job.”

Part of that passion comes from Constantino Fiocchi’s background as a hunter and shooter. As a boy he received his first air rifle, and his aunt gifted him a Beretta over/under shotgun at the age of 18. He still uses that shotgun in the field today, along with a Fausti .410 side-by side. Both guns were manufactured in nearby Brescia, known locally as the “Valley of the Gun.” The oldest of Constantino’s three daughters has obtained her hunting license, so the Fiocchi legacy will continue into the future.

Factory Efficiency

As I stroll through the vast factory space at Fiocchi I see machine lines where bullets, cartridge cases, wads, and shotshells are being made. But there’s a key component that isn’t made here in the Lecco factory: primers. Fiocchi is famous for their primers (the company introduced their first non-corrosive primers in 1946, which is even more impressive when you learn that’s the same year the company began rebuilding following World War II), and Fiocchi engineer Carlo Bilucaglia developed a novel technique in 1998 to remove heavy metals from their ZETAPI primers without making them sensitive to moisture. Leonardo tells me that Fiocchi produces millions of these lead-free primers annually. But where?

As you might imagine, making primers is a rather dangerous business. A single error can cause a chain reaction that might have devastating results, so Fiocchi does not produce their primer down here along the sleepy, narrow streets of Lecco. Primer production occurs in a special facility in the hills above town. 

Constantino Fiocchi beams with pride when he discusses his family’s business, which he does with characteristic Italian passion and energy. But it isn’t just Constantino that believes in Fiocchi’s products. The company’s 9mm, 5.56 and 7.62 ammunition has met NATO qualifications, and Fiocchi supplies ammunition to the Italian military and police. Fiocchi shotshells have been the choice of several Olympic champions. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century Fiocchi shotshells were a fixture at the Olympics, and athletes shooting Fiocchi ammo claimed gold medals in Tokyo in 1960, Moscow in 1980, London in 2012, and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Biathlon shooters have also won six Olympic medals using Fiocchi rimfire ammunition since 1960, and in 2020 Fiocchi team member Dorothea Wierer of the Italian National Shooting Team won the world biathlon championship.

I would like to spend more time in Lecco, but I must keep moving. I head south from town the morning after my tour of the Fiocchi factory, bound for Bologna and the headquarters of B&P ammunition, which Fiocchi acquired in 2020. But first I make a pit stop.

A Love for Lamborghini

No trip to Bologna is complete without a stop at the storied Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. It was there that Ferruccio Lamborghini began building his supercars in 1963, and there are almost as many legends about the man himself as the vehicles that still bear his name.

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in 1916 to a farming family in Sant’Agata Bolognese and proved to be an adept mechanic at a young age. After serving during World War II Ferruccio founded Lamborghini Trattori and began selling tractors and machine parts to farmers in Italy and around the world. Business was good, and by 1960 Ferruccio Lamborghini started a heating and air conditioning business. The farm kid from Sant’Agata Bolognese was suddenly a very prosperous man. But Lamborghini liked to spend money as well, and by the late 1950s he owned a stable of supercars.

The mechanic-turned-millionaire wasn’t pleased with the cars he was purchasing. He was disappointed with his Ferrari and traveled to nearby Modena to say as much to the notoriously competitive Enzo Ferrari. Only Ferrari and Lamborghini will ever know how the exchange in Modena went, but Ferruccio Lamborghini told everyone that would listen that he complained to Enzo about the Ferrari’s poor clutch design to which Ferrari replied that it took more skill to drive a Ferrari GT than a tractor.

Whatever actually happened that day clearly had a substantial impact on Ferruccio Lamborghini. He felt insulted and went back home to Bologna committed not only to designing cars, but to designing cars that were better than Ferraris.

Vroom Vroom!

Lamborghini’s first GT arrived at the 1963 Turin Auto Show. Dubbed the 350 GTV, this V-12 powered supercar turned heads, but the car that is most responsible for Lamborghini’s rise to fame in the automotive world is the sensuous mid-engine Miura that was in production from 1966 to 1973. Like many of Lamborghini’s cars its name was derived from the sport of bullfighting. In the case of the Miura it pays homage to a famous family of fighting bull breeders (the Islero, a later model, was named for one of the Miura bulls that was particularly cunning and vicious). The Miura was the fastest road car of its time, and it placed Lamborghini directly—ahem­—in the driver’s seat of the supercar market.

Later cars like the Countach—which adorned school folders and appeared in posters that hung in the bedrooms of many 80s kids—came to symbolize the sleek styling and racy looks of Lamborghini. Oddly, though, Lamborghini himself never planned to design any racing cars. Another rumor states that after an inglorious racing attempt that culminated into Ferruccio crashing headlong into a café (where, after pulling himself from the wreckage of his car, he reportedly ordered a drink) he swore off automobile racing forever. Perhaps Enzo Ferrari wasn’t so off base when he criticized Lamborghini’s driving skills.

By the 1970s apparently Ferruccio Lamborghini had had enough of the automobile making industry, too. In 1971, he sold majority ownership of the brand, and a year later he sold his remaining shares. A succession of owners led Lamborghini through the 1970s, 80s and 90s with varying degrees of success. The Countach and Diablo, which was named after another famous fighting bull, were both best-sellers. Volkswagen Group has owned Lamborghini since 1998, and it’s under the VW flag that Lamborghini released such successful models as the Huracan, Murcielago, Aventador and Gallardo.

Summer in Bologna can be brutal, and by the time I reach the Lamborghini factory it’s midmorning and the mercury is already pushing triple figures. The sky is a cloudless blue as I sit at a café across the street from the Lamborghini factory. That’s where I heard that throaty, raging engine note that’s in a range only achievable by an Italian sports car. Somewhere nearby a Lamborghini was screaming through its gears. Lunch ends and I cross the street carefully. This stretch of road lies just outside the doors of the Lamborghini factory. I tilt my head left and right, glancing down a stretch of blacktop bristling with heat mirage, then bolt across the street.

Lamborghini’s factory and showroom are separate, and I don’t have access to the factory. But I’m told the company rolls out an average of two-dozen complete vehicles per day. The show floor is lined with classic GTs, modern mid-engine racers, and concept cars that hint at the company’s future design concepts. Every line is speed distilled; it’s as if each of these cars was born in a wind tunnel (except the LM002, a broad-shouldered progenitor of the modern mega SUVS that Hummer and other brands would later offer). A striking yellow Miura catches my eye, and there’s a row of current offerings including the Huracan and Murcielago. The new hybrid Revuelto is on display, and there’s even a brilliant red Countach, the same one that hung on a poster in the wall of my room as a kid. I realize that I’ve outgrown that car, in part because it’s a bit bombastic for a daily driver and kid hauler, but mostly because I’m certain I couldn’t fit in the car these days. The roofline of the low-slung Lamborghini barely rises to my belt. My financial standing certainly plays a role in my decision as well.

I leave the showroom and make my way across the street to where my ride (not a Lamborghini, but its step-relative: a VW bus) is waiting, and off in the distance I hear the roar of the engine once more. Lamborghinis might not make sensible daily drivers, but there’s no doubt that the staccato whine of that engine stirs something in every car enthusiast’s soul.

A Shotshell Revolution

I leave Lamborghini and my childhood ambitions behind and get back to business. The next stop is the Baschieri & Pellagri ammunition plant outside of Bologna. Known today simply as B&P, Baschieri & Pellagri was founded in 1885, about a decade after its new owner Fiocchi. For years B&P has been a major shotshell provider in Europe, loading shells under other brand names for companies like Remington. But B&P’s history centers around the smokeless powder movement of the 1880s, and it was here that the company developed and produced their original Acapnia smokeless powder in the nineteenth century. In the 1920s, B&P was the first private company in Italy to have a test bench for powder and shotshells outside of Brescia where Beretta is located.

In the 1950s, as plastic wads were coming into fashion, B&P began extensive research and development on wads, creating new designs and fine-tuning their products to provide the most consistent patterns. But perhaps the company’s most noteworthy development was the introduction of the Gordon Hull in the 1980s. Since the first smokeless shotshells were developed, ammunition manufacturers have used one-piece metal heads at the base of the shell. B&P’s Gordon adds a color-matched polymer insert into the brass head that acts as a shock absorber. When the shell is fired, rearward recoil energy pushes back against the gun and, consequently, the shooter. The Gordon’s polymer insert acts as a cushion that absorbs a significant amount of recoil during the shot, allowing shooters to recover more quickly and delaying recoil fatigue. I remember seeing my first Gordon hull at a collegiate clay target competition over 20 years ago, and I thought it was simply a clever marketing gimmick. In truth, the top shooters were using Gordon hulls because they helped cut back on recoil fatigue. In competitions where it’s not uncommon to shoot 100 or more shells per day and where dropping a single target may knock the shooter out of contention for a spot on the podium the advantage of a built-in recoil reduction system makes sense.

The downside of the Gordon hull design, of course, is that it’s more complex and time-consuming to manufacture than traditional shells with all-metal heads. For the average upland hunter who fires less than a box of shells per year, the Gordon hull and its added cost may not be attractive. Many competition shooters, however, rely almost exclusively on B&P shells, and an afternoon spent shooting doves is noticeably more enjoyable when firing softer-shooting B&P Gordon ammo. Recoil sensitive shooters will particularly appreciate the loads, as does anyone with a light upland gun. I’ve used B&P Gordon shells in my own ultralight Beretta Ultraleggero shotgun when shooting sporting clays, and it makes the experience more enjoyable.

Experience developing, manufacturing and selling the Gordon has given B&P a leg-up in the production of polymers for shotshells, and this has benefitted the brand. In the 1990s, B&P focused their attention on development of advanced polymer wads, offering options that were designed to work well with non-toxic loads which were shortly thereafter made mandatory for waterfowl hunting in the United States. These days B&P is moving on from polymers and has developed the revolutionary green core wad. There are a number of companies offering “biodegradable” wads, but B&P’s Green Core doesn’t leave any microplastics behind, and since it is denser than water it doesn’t float. B&P’s Green Core are engineered to function with different non-toxic loads, so the geometry of the wad used for steel shot may look very different from the Green Core bismuth or TSS wads.

Performance and Confidence

“We help people improve shooting performance and self-confidence,” says B&P’s research & development manager Marco Manfredi. As we sit together in the office at B&P headquarters overlooking the 120-acre ammunition and powder manufacturing facility which sits in the Bolognese countryside. Manfredi says that B&P’s strengths including research and development and quality control, particularly regarding components such as hulls, wads, and propellants.

There’s a large white building in one corner of the tree-lined grounds which Manfredi explains to me is the warehouse where the company stores finished shotshells ready for shipment. On any given day there are as many as 60 million loaded shotshells in storage at B&P’s facility in Bologna.

When Fiocchi purchased B&P in 2020 the pairing made sense. B&P’s R&D and manufacturing expertise and component production capabilities aided Fiocchi’s overall advancement goals. To Marco Manfredi, the B&P’s relationships are also an important selling point. “We have several employees that have been here over 40 years, and we have a strong relationship with our end users who believe in our products.”

After the B&P tour ended so did my time in Italy. My experiences at the Fiocchi, Lamborghini, and B&P factories were quite different, but all three brands share a common thread—the Italian desire to produce the very best products in the market. Whether it’s designing a wad for non-toxic shot or sculpting the bodywork of an exotic supercar, Italians have a passion for their work that translates into any language.

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