A friend and I have been discussing this a lot lately. I have read the atf site about the licensing needed, having insurance, and looking into finding a building to rent or own that would be in the correct zoning for building ammo on a commercial scale.
It would be a small operation at first. Most likely start out with a Dillon 650 and only make common cartridges at first like the 9mm and .223. I see them shot around here all the time. I would imagine it would be very hard to compete against the big dogs selling the 500-1000 round ammo value packs on the Internet and we would have to try keep business local at first and sell 250 round packs at the most and more than likely stick with 100 round packs at first. I'm sure some of you have thought of this, tried doing this, and might still be doing this.
If you wouldn't mind shedding some light on the subject I would greatly appreciate it. I'm curious as to what quantity of reloading supplies I will need to buy in bulk to even turn a profit and how much ammo per year am I going to need to sell and will I have to market more than just locally? Instead of sticking with making cheap range ammo should I be targeting specific ammo markets such as for competitions and hunting cartridges? One thing I didn't really see on the ATF site and I'm not clear on is are their different laws for making re-manufactured ammo compared to using all new components? Also is anything different for making cast bullet ammo compared to jacketed bullet ammo?
SO after all your taxes are paid, land/building payment is paid, and your marketing/packaging is paid can you even turn a profit going small time?
Any info appreciated. thanks for your time