How it's made - ammunition

[Chris]

I seem to have knackered my back so no work on the Cruiser today. I thought I'd set to and load some ammunition ready for a session at the range. Before anyone has a fit, no this is not giving away secrets to terrorists. Home loading of ammunition has been around as long as there have been firearms. You can buy ammunition of course but loading has its advantages. Not least that it's actually more accurate partly because it's more consistent and partly because you can tune it to your particular rifle. No two are the same and there are so many variables such as barrel harmonics etc. Even the weather can affect the ballistics. So, if you have ever wondered 'how it's made' here you go.

Firstly, the spent cases need some preparation.

The old primers (the bit that is struck by the firing pin) have to be removed

At the same time, this sizes the neck of the case so that the bullet will fit tightly in there. When you fire the round, the case expands in the chamber and shapes itself to the inside of the breech. If you are going to use the same rifle, then you only need to resize the next. Otherwise you waste energy expanding the the case each time you fire it. This also works the brass very hard and eventually the cases rupture. Not good.

Then we clean out the primer pocket so that the new primer fits snugly. These can swell and once the primer won't stay in there anymore, you have to bin the brass.

Next, we trim any excess brass from the neck. The case 'creeps' with use and gets thinner. All this brass has to go somewhere. So this trimmer is used to cut the neck and make it square again.

Next to allow the bullet to seat without scraping we chamfer the neck with this pencil sharpener tool.

New percussion primers are pushed in with this really neat tool.

So they look like this

Now we need to put the powder into the case using a vernier powder dropper. This has an adjustable chamber to allow for different loads and powders. This is a whole subject in itself. But it only gets you so close. Just tapping the table can affect the loose packed density in the chamber. Modern ammunition is loaded like this in factories, thousands of rounds per hour. This is as accurate as they get it.

We drop the powder into a pan to be weighed.....

And then topped up by hand to 1\10 of a grain. There are 7000 grains in a pound

Then into the case using a funnel

These are the bullets or heads. These are 100 grain, boat-tail soft points Copper casings filled with lead.

They drop into the neck of the case

And then we use a different press with a seating die to push the bullet in to a predetermined depth

In this case 2.64 inches

And here we are, 20 completed rounds. This is a basic reload but you can go nuts on accuracy including weighing all of your cases to batch them - the weight equating to wall thickness etc. You can tumble the cases in a vibro tumbler using crushed walnut shells to polish them. This ammunition here will easily group 3 shots into less than a pound coin at 100 meters.

Well, hope you found that interesting folks.

Chris

 

[ignat]

Nice one! Interesting.

From a cost perspective, how many rounds do you need to fire to break even?

Been given this ..

..and now need to start the licensing process. Guess I will be licensed in a few years if I'm lucky

 

[Chris]

Good question. I'll try to keep it short! Each round of home loaded used to be half the cost of a factory round. The equation really doesn't take into account the purchase cost of the main equipment. There is actually a lot of this stuff kicking around for virtually peanuts. The cost does take into account the powder, primers bullets and new cases every 10th firing.

But it's a pretty crude costing as many people get their cases for free from people who don't reload. But over recent years, the cost of powder has become prohibitive going from around £16 pounds per pound to £40 per pound. In relation, shop bought ammo has not gone up by the same percentage. When I buy a new rifle, I buy some factory ammo to shoot it in and if it's accurate, I buy 100 rounds and that's me done. Just not worth messing. But I have some much kit and so much ammo loaded for my other old rifles that I'm pretty sorted for years to come. I used to load pistol ammo - around 300 to 400 rounds per week, every week. That was a huge saving and the ammo was tuned to my needs. Factory does tend to be middle of the road. The greatest benefit is that it more accurate. Home loading has to be treated with the utmost care and attention though. I am almost ritualistic in the way I do it. It becomes like muscle memory. Turn, tap, pour, move funnel, turn, tap... I have come across people who have double charged and even missed the powder in a round altogether. I have loaded 10's of thousands of rounds over the years and only ever had one bad round.

Can't quite tell what that is, but look like a .32 or maybe a .380? Perhaps it's bigger than it appears in the pic and is a sub compact 9mm. Loading 9mm was a thankless task. Either way, I'd just buy factory unless you really mean to shoot thousands of rounds like me. Good job it RSA or you'd be in trouble here with the local plod.

Chris

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Very interesting Chris, thanks for sharing I did used to go to a gun club years ago but spent more time shooting pool than pistols it was so busy so I got bored with it and gave it up. Reminds me there's another hobby to revisit if I get bored with 4x4's and radios

 

[Graham]

Hi Chris, thats very informative,
if you don't mind, I have passed the link onto my nephew, who has just started to make his own ammo.

Graham

 

[TonyP]

Thanks Chris, that's brought back some memories of reloading 9mm ammo back in SA. Had a simlar press (if not the same as the one in your first pic).

You are right about being methodical and precise, those double loaded rounds are no fun at all

 

[Chris]

Neither are the ones with no powder either. There is enough woof from a primer to push the bullet into the end of the barrel, then along comes another round behind it and......

Even worse than that though is the short charge, where only some of the powder goes in. This doesn't burn when you strike the primer, it explodes in the breech. I have seen a rifle bolt disintegrate on range when this happened.

Pistol shooting, ahh now those were the days.

These are all now a manhole cover in a shopping precinct in Wolverhampton

Chris

 

[ignat]

Nice. Got alot of ammo here. Will look into going DIY one of these days

Can't quite tell what that is, but look like a .32 or maybe a .380? Perhaps it's bigger than it appears in the pic and is a sub compact 9mm. Loading 9mm was a thankless task. Either way, I'd just buy factory unless you really mean to shoot thousands of rounds like me. Good job it RSA or you'd be in trouble here with the local plod.

Chris

Its a 9mm. Star P Series. It was this or a Colt .45 Unfortunately I lost out on the Colt. But this is better for carrying around. Its very light - fits in the pocket v nicely.

Soon I will be looking for a decent shotgun for the house.

 

[Chris]

Can't go wrong with a Mossberg pump.

Chris

 

[sae70]

This is bizarre T'was talking about you today & your fetish for arms with my m8 Giles, whom I popped in to see while out on one of many test drives in Fiery. I found him in his kitchen with his nose buried in his laptop booking flights to Scotland for a spot of goose shooting sometime in the next couple of weeks. I got to telling him about your shooting grounds, your weapons the bizarre sighting/experience we had in that quarry that Ben took us to (what happens in the quarry, stays in the quarry ). But more importantly that iphone armoury app That was great, I could have played with you all night

 

[Philip A]

Good to see that there are still people who actually own firearms in England...!

Here is a picture of a small mod to my LC:

Keeps important tools handy, but I'm quite sure that it would be frowned upon anywhere North of the Sahara!

 

[Chris]

What's that? A .375 perhaps. Just in case.

Yes, that was my pistol collection before it went into the furnace. I had to go to the trouble of replacing them all with rifles.

No handguns here any more unless you have a section 5. A few vets and slaughter-men have them plus the odd hunter if you can prove that you shoot an unbelievable about or have to attend road traffic collisions with deer. Other than that the other 40, 000 shooters had to surrender them. Shame really, it was one of the only Olympic gold medals that were were pretty certain to win.

Chris

 

[Philip A]

What's that? A .375 perhaps. Just in case.

Chris

That's a .450/.400 3". The .375 H&H is on the rear set of hooks.

 

[ignat]

The Colt .45 I missed out on:

 

[Chris]

Nice 1911 copy - but it's a Remington. probably miss the target and hit yourself in the back of the head Kev. Their shavers might be OK but their firearms and ammo are shocking.

The slogan for their ammo is "Anymore accurate and it would need a launch code" Hah, well accurate clearly has a different meaning to the Americans.

Presume it was in .45 ACP? Such a great round. Like the handgun equiv to .30-06. I loved my .45. I had a Para Ordnance wide bodied 1911 with double stack mag. 16 rounds of fun.


Was this for protection in the bush or plinking?

Chris

 

[Andrew Prince]

The Colt .45 I missed out on:

Missed out on how, Kev? Gun licence issues or an inheritance/gift/sale that passed you by? Hope it wasn't "redistributed"....

 

[Dave Docwra]

This ammunition here will easily group 3 shots into less than a pound coin at 100 meters.chris

Brilliant & Interesting write up, I do not believe the above line would apply if I was firing the rifle

 

[Chris]

It would after a few lessons - as long as you listened. There a good deal of faith needed in accurate shooting. You have to know that it WILL do it. We've all had bad groups in the past and have passed the rifle to someone else. If it shoots the same then we know it's the ammo. If it makes one hole we know it's us. However, there is the rarest of occasions where we have seen bad ammo with a not so good shooter form a superb group. We could only surmise that their shooting was so random that it countered the randomness of the ammo and it all hit the same spot! Truthfully. It probably has a theory named after it like the counter random correction theory.

Chris

 

[ignat]

probably miss the target and hit yourself in the back of the head Kev.

Thankfully that's never happened. Hollow point in the back of the head?

.45 ACP. Its been in use for self defense, no sport shooting so has been okay in that respect. At the firing range it hits its target I reckon it'll disable a human target no problem

@Andrew, inheritance issue due to the new licensing laws So I will take over that Star I posted earlier once my license comes through.

Hopefully never need to use these things in SD

I saw on Sky some politician saying they should be looking further at licensing laws in the UK after this recent shooting in Peterlee?

 

[Chris]

.45 ACP has the proud claim of having the highest ratio of one shot kills out of any handgun round. Not the heaviest, not the fastest, not the most accurate - but still the most reliably deadly. Put that into a classic frame like the 1911 and it's a combination that I would certainly carry if my life depended upon it.

Peterlee. Yes well there is always a reaction when someone is shot. Not when they OD on paracetamol or are hit by a car or jump in front of a train. Odd that. But let's not go there.


Chris