How Is Ammunition Made? A Tour of Sellier & Bellot's Factory

Forgotten Weapons ^ | 12/30/2024 | Ian McCollum

[buwaya]

One of those factory videos, but this one shows the process of very large scale manufacture of small arms ammunition.

Sellier&Bellot is the largest Euro small arms ammo manufacturer. I believe this is the factory at Vlašim, Czech Republic. This is a tour of the production line. Ian describes and comments on every step.

[buwaya]

Sellier & Bellot is the largest ammo manufacturer in Europe, and by rep and various leadership statements it is one of (if not THE) major small arms ammo suppliers to Ukraine, as well as assisting Ukraine set up domestic facilities for modern ammo manufacturing.

[BenLurkin]

[buwaya]

When I was in 8th grade I made nitrocellulose. It worked.
Just as well I was never inclined to a career in terrorism.

[sasquatch]

A bit faster than my chucker.

[tumblindice]

I use S&B in my hammer-fire CZs, FMJ. Good stuff. Cheap too.

[Myrddin]

My musings as a teen included making black powder, contact explosive (ammonium nitrogen tri-iodide) and nitroglycerin. I made some good bottle rockets to loft my firecrackers. One of the more fun builds was a large hydrogen balloon carrying a seal bomb with a slow fuse made from cotton string soaked in a solution of potassium nitrate. The balloon approached 1000 ft above ground before the slow fuse ignited the actual fuse of the seal bomb.

A friend had some off the shelf FF black powder. If you roll that inside aluminum foil and toss it into a fire, it functions nicely as a firecracker.

I put the ad hoc musing away as I headed off to college. Plenty of lab work focused on meeting classroom requirements.

Speaking of S&B, I have a couple boxes of their 9mm on the table. It's good quality ammo.

[Paal Gulli]

Ian McCollum has one of the best jobs in the universe. He and Joe Rogan have to be in the top five.

[buwaya]

I did gunpowder too, besides making lots, including experiments in corning it. By far the most dangerous things I did in this line!

Nitroglycerin is ... ambitious!

[MV=PY]

I taped a cigarette to large hydrogen balloons for a time fuse.

I feel lucky to be around today. ;)

[Myrddin]

Nitroglycerin is ... ambitious!

It was and my dad wasn't pleased. I walked it to a nearby canyon and detonated it from a safe distance with my BB rifle.

My dad confessed to sifting flour in front of an electric fan and lighting it off in his own garage. His punishment for blowing all the windows out was replacing them AT HIS EXPENSE. Hours of cleaning up broken glass, chipping out the putty from the 8"x 8" square panes, cutting replacements and place fresh putty in, then repainting. The lesson was learned. The mistake was not repeated.