Brenneke should not be confused with Brennecke.
| Wilhelm Brenneke GmbH & Co. KG. | |
| Type: | GmbH & Co. KG (Companies register: Hannover local court, no.: HRB 9000) |
| Foundation: | 1895 |
| Founder: | Wilhelm Brenneke |
| Location City: | Langenhagen, Lower Saxony |
| Location Country: | Germany |
| Key People: | Dr. Peter Mank, Managing Director and owner; Agnes Mank († 25 october 2010), managing director[1] |
| Products: | Ammunition for hunting, marksmanship and law enforcement; Bullets for Handloading |
| Subsid: | Brenneke of America, L.P. in Clinton, Iowa, United States[2] |
| Homepage: | brenneke.com (International) brennekeusa.com (Brenneke of America) |
Brenneke GmbH is a German manufacturer of ammunition and bullets, based in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony.
The company was founded by Wilhelm Brenneke in 1895 and is currently owned and run by his great-grandson,[3] Dr. Peter Mank.
Brenneke makes shotgun shells for target shooting and hunting, special slugs for law enforcement,[4] and hunting rounds as well as projectiles for handloading. Its best-known products are the Brenneke slug for shotguns and a line of rifle bullets.
In 1990[5] under the sponsorship of Brenneke, the Langenhagen standard (German: Langenhagener Norm) was created. Essentially it means that for hunting, the deviation of the shotgun slug must not on a distance of 50m (160feet) exceed a circle with 10cm (00inches) diameter. On a drilling, the total deviation of all three barrels must not exceed a circle of 15cm (06inches) diameter.[6]
All Brenneke rifle bullets have a so-called torpedo-tail (German: Torpedo-Heck), a special form of boat-tail.
The best-known are
From 1935 to 2003, Brenneke concentrated on improving the Brenneke slug.[9] since 2003, the firm developed the
Lead-free versions of TIG and TUG are built as "TIG nature"[12] and "TUG nature".[13]
From 1972 until 2006, those were manufactured and developed in license by RWS; in 2006, the license was not renewed, and RWS began marketing the bullets as ID-Classic resp. UNI-Classic from 1 July 2006 onward.[14] In February 2009, Brenneke declared it saw ID-Classic and UNI-classic as counterfeit consumer goods and launched a lawsuit against RUAG Amotec.[15]
Brenneke markets the bullets, as well as ammunition, from a different manufacturer under its own name now.
Wilhelm Brenneke developed some rifle cartridges. Normally, those have a brass length of 64mm rimless resp. 65mm flanged for combination guns and other break-action-rifles that are still popular with European hunters. Those calibers are in exclusive civil use; thus, they are tremendously popular in countries that ban military calibers like France. Those are: