Manufacturing Ammunition

[QuantuMechaniC]

Hi, I do a lot of reloading on my own and was interested in manufacturing and selling ammunition in san diego county out of my house. I was wondering if its legal and what is required. I know I need a 06 FFL from ATF and I also read ITARS from state department. Then I need to deal with the new registration in california for 2018. I was wondering if anyone knew of anything else. Specifically with running it out of my own garage I called fire department they had no idea and same with Fire marshal. Seemed like they have not handled this before.

[Marauder2003]

Are you ready for the s**tstorm you will be in if one of your rounds blows up a gun and/or a hand?

To me the only way this makes sense to pursue is if you will be shipping pallets of Ammo.

[Jimmy's]

Seek information elsewhere.

[edgerly779]

Commercial storage of powder/primers. Liability insurance might be expensive.

[Dano3467]

See how your home owners Ins. react to this first.

[JackEllis]

Depending on where you live, your neighbors might not be thrilled about having an ammunition manufacturing operation next door.

However I think your bigger problem is, how are you going to make money? You can't compete with cheap commodity factory ammo or military surplus because the big boys enjoy economies of scale you can't match in a garage or even a couple of garages. They get powder and components cheaper than you ever could and they can amortize overheads over thousands of times as many rounds as you can produce.

You *might* be able to make money producing stuff that;s more specialized, like lead-free varmint rounds. By snagging some really good deals on powder, bullets and primers I figure my cost for a 35 grain, lead-free .223 varmint round is about 25 cents, whereas Hornady's heavier leaded varmint rounds go for around $1.10. However I have no overheads, I value the opportunity cost of my time at zero for this particular activity, and I can tune the load to my rifle. Varmint rounds need to be accurate in a variety of rifles and that R&D costs money. Up front money, plus your time.

What might make better economic sense is to offer a service whereby you rent out a volume manufacturing setup to folks who have developed recipes of their own and can bring their own components. They pay you by the hour or by the round for the use of your equipment. You may still need the same licenses as a manufacturer but your liability and your financial risk are a lot more limited.

It's certainly your choice and your money, but you need deep pockets in order to make a business of ammo manufacturing, legalities aside.

[Dvrjon]

I doubt your property is zoned for industrial work.

It would probably be cheaper to get business licenses and an ammo vendor license, then offer services to receive/transfer out of state ammo orders or local transactions.

I still think you'll go broke.

[Spyder]

There is a very in depth thread on this from many years ago, where a guy did it and lost his rear. I forget his screenname, but it's a good read.

[Spyder]

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=314780

[flatbedtruckin]

Hazmat requirements ...are you able to obtain all permets,insurance , storage requirements, and saftey requirments...?

[kcheung2]

There's a guy with Advanced Degrees who's read a few chapters on Process, Workflow, and Checklists, he should be able to design a push-button ammo factory setup for you. Turn it on, walk away, come back to piles of perfect ammo, no oversight required. He's never loaded a single round in his life, heck he hasn't even read a reloading manual. But he doesn't need to, he's an Engineering Expert. Hire him.

Or read the link from post #9, it's eye opening.

[Spaceghost]

Pipe dream starting an ammo business in your garage.

If you are serious, I would suggest you start manufacturing your own projectiles and selling those. You still probably won't be able to do that at home, but way less permitting, over sight, and liability than ammo.

If that takes off, then look at making ammo. I would suggest making brass, but that's a multimillion dollar investment for the machines. I looked into brass manufacturing years ago. 5 million cash or more to start, or forget about it.

[Tehjosheh]

There's a guy with Advanced Degrees who's read a few chapters on Process, Workflow, and Checklists, he should be able to design a push-button ammo factory setup for you. Turn it on, walk away, come back to piles of perfect ammo, no oversight required. He's never loaded a single round in his life, heck he hasn't even read a reloading manual. But he doesn't need to, he's an Engineering Expert. Hire him.

Or read the link from post #9, it's eye opening.

bahaha, i couldn't help but think of that thread myself; actually wondered if it might be the same OP

[1snowridr]

Trolling.

[tonyxcom]

One of my dads friends many years ago (80s) used to reload out of his garage and sell ammo at one of the local flea markets (Napa).

Anyway, one of his neighbors used to steal his firewood so he filled one with a little powder and corked it. Later that week his next door neighbors windows were blown out.