04.05.2024

Hey everybody welcome to my backyard a. while back we were invited to tour the. rimfire portion of the federal. ammunition plant in Anoka Minnesota. federal is kind enough to allow us to. view and film the process of 22. longrifle being made from start to. finish now I've actually been sitting on. this footage for about a year and a half. and I just haven't gotten around to. editing it until now I thought this. would be a good time to go ahead and. roll it out because let's face it we. could all use something a little more. lowkey so there are no action steps to. take here there are no new skills to. learn there is nothing controversial. it's just really satisfying to watch. ammo get made so grab yourself a. refreshing beverage we're gonna play. some chill how stuff gets made music and. enjoy. to make the bullets raw lead is melted.

And formed into cylindrical billets the. billets are extruded and drawn into wire. and wound into coils the wire is roughly. the same diameter as the finished bullet. another machine cuts the wire into. bullet sized pieces those pieces are. gradually swage into the final bullet. shape. some of the 22 bullets are also copper. plated the bullets are lowered into a. bath of metal salts with copper ingots. through the process of electroplating. atoms of copper are dissolved into the. solution and adhere to the lead bullets. in just a few minutes the bullets are. completely plated and pulled out of the. bath. the cartridge case starts out with a. roll of brass strip round pieces are. stamped out of the strip and gradually. drawn out into a brass Cup. the cups are heat treated and then. washed and dried. the cup becomes a case when a rim is.

Formed at the base with a uniform hollow. cavity all the way around the inside. then each case receives a head stamp. the cases are again heat treated and. washed. the completed cases are dropped into. plates each plate holds 300 cases the. plates roll into the charging room to be. primed the primer comes in the form of a. wet green clay like substance the. moisture helps prevent premature. combustion static electricity is another. hazard so electronic devices are not. allowed in the charging room small. pellets of the wet primer are dropped. into the bottom of each case back on the. main factory floor spinner bits are. lowered into the cases and spin the. primer so that it's evenly forced out. all the way around the inside of the rim. the cases are dried to remove all of the. moisture from the priming compound.

next every case gets some propellant or. gunpowder and then it's time to load the. bullets. the bullets are seated and then the. mouth of the case is crimped to keep the. bullet in place. the fully assembled cartridges are taken. to the packaging area just before being. boxed up the bullets are lubricated with. a thin coat of wax. there are several quality checks along. the way but the whole packaging process. is completely automated. you. you