I work at an ammunition factory.
Ask me anything
>>30304147
take a bullet and shove it down your urethra
>>30304147
Send me some 7.62x51 Neato
>>30304169
Good question
>>30304147
What do you make?
As a nurse I can say that a 9mm is too big, maybe try a .223 or a 5x56. Nice and skinny.
>>30304147
What percentage of the price in you average cartridge is taxes?
>>30304195
Honestly, I don't make much of anything, at work anyways. I'm their technician and do a lot of other things!
>>30304217
Okay well what do you do?
>>30304147
do you ever get to take home ammo.
is this >>30304145
guy your boss and are you going to get fired or promoted for shitposting on the job?
>>30304192
Hey its metal disk man, hey. What do those normally belong too? If you tell me missile silo 70's computer tech I will shit my pants.
>>30304217
>and do a lot of other things!
Well then tell us zippersniffer.
how do you control the quality of bullets produced? what kind of AQL do you guys have?
Do you guys take certant actions after mass shooting in antisipation for things like panic buys and increased demand?
>>30304215
Zero. We sell online primarily and avoid all of that.
We get charged an excise tax for this reason though.
>>30304208
Good point, how about 5.7? .22WMR?
>>30304208
>5x56
lurk moar
>>30304257
>Zero. We sell online primarily and avoid all of that.
>We get charged an excise tax for this reason though.
Seriously? I have a hard time believing that. Including all the taxes on individual components?
What country is your company based in?
>>30304217
>Technician.
So they pay you to sit on your ass and dick around to look busy?
>>30304225
Chronograph, function test, shoot a bunch, then I also tray, box, sticker stuff and polish anything that needs polished
>>30304226
I buy a lot of our blemishes, and I get to take home ammo when I purchase it, discounted of course as an employee.
>>30304238
They till up the fields behind tractors
>>30304243
The machines have loads of sensors and so does one traying machine we'll try out soon
QC is something that can only happen, truly, by thorough testing and actually shooting it for every lot ran
>>30304252
No. We're swamped right now with orders out of no-where
>>30304147
hey man i was trying to make the shells on my home, i will set the lathe to make the dye and make one dye shorter than the other to make the bullets acomodate the size of the standar case, (thats becouse in argentina bullets cost for example 85 dollars a box of 20 308. NATO ) So my question is. Am i retarded? is it ok or im just dreaming ? also i will buy a mechanical press so i can push the material through the dye by force untill it reaches the propper size
>>30304323
>Out of nowhere
Ok
>>30304147
hey i want to make 4 dyes that will be for pushing the metal through with a press and in the 4th it will acomodate the propper size for the shell (its not like im a rat but a shitty box of 9mm cost 50 freaking dollars and a box of 20 308 cost 85 dollars here in argie) my question is.... am i retarded? can i make shells like this?
>>30304234
No to either lol
>>30304289
If you mean labor cost, we don't make much off of our own product, enough to be comfortable and keep buying more components. We're based in the USA and excise tax kills us because we don't literally tax. That's why big companies sell to distributors, to avoid excise.
>>30304290 See >>30304323
>>30304336
There are more crude ways of doing it.
Do as much research as possible and use your noodle. Research loading components night and day, we use a lathe to modify a lot of dies
>>30304352
We don't work weekends, we were not prepared Monday for all of the orders. I don't know what answer you were looking for
>>30304449
>We don't work weekends
Okay that makes more sense
>>30304323
>No. We're swamped right now with orders out of no-where
yeah i wonder why. >>30304419
>If you mean labor cost, we don't make much off of our own product, enough to be comfortable and keep buying more components. We're based in the USA and excise tax kills us because we don't literally tax. That's why big companies sell to distributors, to avoid excise.
Well, then I have a follow-up question:
How come ammo is one of the few things that you can buy in bulk and is easily manufactured automatically, yet handloading is somehow cheaper?
Is it purely due to the high cost of the brass?
Is it due to this excise tax?
I mean do they take action by increasing production or giving you guys more hours after major shootings? Are there any offical policies or unspoken rules in place after such events?
>>30304537
Well, we do have over-head charges and excise tax is part of that, so there's some cost. Brass is expensive by nature, even cymbals for drum sets are expensive, which they are typically copper and/or brass.
What drives our cost up is the component cost, initially, and the fact that we test everything rigorously to meet a standard we feel is better than our competition. Also, automated machinery for ammo needs to be ran by someone who knows machinery, and ammunition to a degree.
There are hundreds of factors that play in, but those are some bigger ones.
>>30304590
For us, no, not pulling your leg either.
We've been steadily getting busier all year so we have been gearing up all year. We still don't work weekends, we don't do much over-time unless it's absolutely necessary, which is rare.
Of course the tragedy over the weekend has been discussed, but for us where I work, it was just another conversation throughout the week, not to sound heartless, but none of us were directly affected
>>30304590
I did work at a distributor for a year, and they went fucking nuts after things happened. Locked down the buildings and all, and no one could carry there ever anyway. Policies.
Distributors flip shit basically, manufacturers should play it cool because there's no need to freak out.
i want a gif of a rifle round being created, caliber doesn't matter.
>>30304806
That would be cool, but I have never made a gif and don't have any videos of our machines running
>>30304855
When you go back to work, you should do it man, post here
>>30304855
What's the largest cartridge you make?
>>30304876
Like, we use Dillon progressive presses for rifle cartridges. You might find one of the pistol machines more exciting though.
I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise a time frame
I shot some Buffalo Bore one time, here's what happened
>>30304885
Hmm, in what aspect?
Projectile diameter wise; 500SW, 50 Beowulf, and 50AE
Overall case length wise; 300RUM, 338 Win Mag are close
No 50BMG yet lol
>>30304946
I guess that's respectable, but could you push for production of 14.5mm Soviet?
>>30304957
Does anyone even make brass for it?
That's our most limiting factor
That would be bad ass though, the test gun would be awesome
>>30304147
How does one get a job at an ammunition factory? I'd love to work in QA for them or some shit.
>>30304993
I honestly don't know.
I know supplies of rooskie surp is drying up somehow.
>>30304993
>Should do some domestically made 5.45
>>30305036
Put in an application, fill out a good resume with decent job history, and explain how you would be well-suited for the job. I was hired to tray ammo part-time and proved my worth in a few days to my boss and he bumped me up to the position I'm at now. If you have a good role, tell them about it, or prove it to them somehow.
>>30305046
Surplus is bound to dry up by it's very nature, its surplus after-all! Now that I'm thinking of it, we would need a different FFL to make that anyways, because that would be considered a destructive device. When we start production on .50BMG in the far future we will need to change our FFL then as well
What's it smell like there?
What's it sound like there?
What's it taste like there?
>>30304993
Do you think the guy who supposedly owns one of the largest ammo companies in the world and posts here is legit?
>>30305070
That would be cool, but brass is almost non-existent. Everything is steel cased FMJ or dirt cheap hollow points that don't work very well and it's hard to compete with the price of Bear.
Unless there was a niche, like a Nosler Accubond in 5.45 or a match solid brass or copper projectile
>>30305104
There isn't really a smell, I guess it smells like the concrete floor. The polishing room smells like corncobb and mints from the polishing compound lol
Cha-chink cha-chink cha-chink from the presses
Tastes like metallic shit if your tongue touches anything laying around
>>30305105
I don't know honestly, I post here so..
Of course, nearly anything posted here by anyone is going to be false 70% of the time I'd say
>>30305127
I would buy match grade 5.45 if that's helps lol
Is the company lehigh decense? Because it looks and sounds like lehigh defense.
If so do the extreme penetrator rounds actually hydraulicly cut flesh or does that only work in ballistics gel?
>>30305098
But isn't the ammunition just general ammunition?
Only the firearm is the controlled item?
>>30304147
How much 8x56r do you make? If None.
THEN GET ON THAT.
>>30304537
handloading would be more expensive except that you dont have to pay yourself wages. if you owned all the machinery and could run it yourself, and bought in their quantity and from their suppliers, you could load your own rounds even cheaper. Because again, youre not paying any employees.
>>30305215
Alright lol, let's start pushing the brass manufacturers again!
>>30305218
No we're not Lehigh, but I am very familiar with their product.
The Penetrator does work, but, it's not supposed to be a magic bullet. It is more consistent than anything else, even hard cast flat noses. It does work on live critters too, I've taken them hunting a couple times. FMJ doesn't work well on critters, just puts holes in them and they keep running around.
People take the gel blocks literally, but it is only a way to measure repeatable results and kind of see how they really work. To know, you really just need to take one hunting sometime.
>>30305224
It applies to manufacturers ammo as well, there's general manufacturing of other than destructive deceives, and then the destructive license. I believe it's the same license for ammo and firearms in both tiers though
>>30305251
I'm trying! I'm trying for x57 IS as well!
Brass kills us, and limits us bad
>>30305339
Neat.
you need to do cheap 8mm and 7mm mauser.
tons of demand for those considering the mauser is the nugget of pre-clinton years.
specifically 8mm and 7mm soft point, everyone seems sold out.
>>30305399
That's what I'm trying for. My Turk Mauser can handle 150gr handloads pushed out to 2900fps no problem. Brass is a killer though, I sound like a broken record lol. No one is making affordable brass, to make a finished box under $50 for us
for the guy that asked, that's what a 9mm Penetrator did from Lehigh
>>30305476
Defender, sorry
>>30305339
Do you have any plans for buying a brass former?
Unrelated but is there a word for the quilting pattern? Looks great, they used rollers to impress it on, right?
>>30304147
What's the biggest fuck up you witnessed while working there?
>>30305493
Actually that's from a super old German Drilling with a Hubertus stamp on it that I'm trying to ID for a customer. No luck yet.
I can date it around 1870, so likely the work was hand done, but I don't know for sure without knowing exactly what it is
Beautiful example of a firearm, though I don't even know the caliber because my measurements aren't adding up. 12mm at the muzzle though
How are primers made? how are the projectiles that get loaded into the cases made?
Wait what company/brand do you make/work for? Federal?
>>30305493
Oh and almost forgot, it's more of a reoccurring
joke that we are going to just start making brass one day, but we looked into it and they are million dollar machines. Maybe some day!
>>30305530
Good question, one of our engineers put the wrong powder in a 45ACP one time when we were running a new lot, I had to chronograph test it. First trigger pull blew the magazine out the bottom, blasted me with a little powder, and made my palm a little black from the powder burning. Luckily it was with a Colt 1911 5" so the slide stayed closed, those guns are good for directing a blown casing's gases down the magazine well.
Worst one for a customer was he stuck a +P .380 in his Mannhurin Walther PPK and he blew his extractor off lol. I offered to fix it for him, that gun has seen some use when I got it back.
My biggest headache is the 1 in a million dead primer
>>30305538
I don't know about primers, we buy those, we buy projectiles too and they are made in a number of ways from swaging to plating to CNC to casting
>>30305577
No, and I'm being cautious not to mention where I work, it is 4chan afterall, I apologize
>>30305530
I should mention,
There's a lot of old men who order .357SIG and say IT WON'T FIT IN MY SMITH 686, and get pissed when you tell them it is for semi-automatic handguns, not revolvers. SIG not MAGNUM
>>30305655
What information can we possibly get by the brand you work for? If i worked at a Ford Motorcars Factory big woof if i told 4chan, its a huge ass company with hundreds of employees.
>>30305692
Ours isn't a huge factory, 1 building, 1 team, 1 shift
>>30305621
People have had success making cases but from what I've seen it's a lengthy and time consuming process, is there a specific caliber that might make it worth it?
>>30304147
where is all the .22LR ?
>>30305703
Ahh so you don't work for a major brand then? Thats cool then. I might sound like a shill but i really wished you worked at Federal, federal is fucking awesome ammo.
> Shitty low budget ammo for shooting at shit
> Really high quality shit for the serious operator
>>30305768
The obscure stuff, and dead mil surp is worth it to me. Stuff that would be economical to load that won't be undercut by Bear or Tula and etc. in my opinion anyways.
>>30305793
We don't make any :(
>>30305803
Agreed, Federal is good stuff, I like their Fusion series and they make decent FMJ for all of my firearms that I enjoy shooting, only had a problem with a box of Gold Match 22, no powder in a case lol. My only gripe with them is their primers are on the soft side so they don't work well in my higher pressure handloads
This was a good thread, thanks /k/
I'm off to bed for the night, maybe I'll pop back in, I'll be sure to tripfag when I do
>>30305852
If you have access to a lathe and a press you could see what you can do http://www.mediafire.com/download/54toq9yn468uzmb/cartridgemanufa00hamigoog.pdf
Would be the odd position of needing to make just enough cases where the lathe time wouldn't be better put to use just turning the cases from brass stock but not common enough so other manufacturers don't already make it or a parent case.. And how it'll be like 50 cases an hour
>>30304336
Are you going to try extruding brass cases from brass slugs?
how do you sleep at night, you cop-killing, queer-culling, baby-bulleting psychopath
>>30305933
This is not the ISIS board, that's /b/, go check it out.
>>30305933
>ThePerezHilton
>that's right, THE Perez Hilton
What is it about twitter that gives so many literally whos such massive fucking egos?
What ammo does this take?
>>30305943
I thought that was /tumblr/.
>>30305966
Perez has a massive ego WAY before Twitter came to be.
>>30304147
Holy shit is that cupro-nickel? MUH DICK
also does your company make cheap M2 Ball 30-06
>>30304147
What are the different brand names of the machines you're using ?
>>30305972
Heinz
>>30304238
>>30304192
>>30304323
>They till up the fields behind tractors
Opener discs for a planter actually, the ones that actually till the fields are at least twice as thick and a lot bigger.
I mean, unless there's some very light-use equipment that actually uses them. Nobody with a serious digger would be using planter openers to do it or you'd be breaking them on rocks and/or wearing them out super quick.
They make amazing targets and most farmers have a million and a half used ones you can take.
>>30305972
.57 heinz
>>30304147
do you guys reuse the mg3 belts? i remember we used to curl them up and put then back into the ammo crates
>>30307694
Its most likely done but not by them, he seems to work at a civilian oriented factory rather than a military oriented one.
>>30305933
>from paradise, nevada
he's gonna have a bad time
