Inside a Bullet Factory - Norma Ammunition Factory Tour

welcome to [Music] Sweden home of Norma ammunition started over 120 years ago in the small town of Amit Force the company originally produced ammunition for the military but by the 1960s was exporting top quality hunting ammunition across the globe nowadays the factory boasts an output of 60 million projectiles 120 million cases and 75 million complete cartridges a year all in over 110 different calibers making nearly everything from scratch on site I've been shooting rifles for quite some time and buying ammunition to shoot with them never once have I given thought to how those bullets came into existence when somebody asked me how it was made I had absolutely no idea so here we are at Norma in Sweden to find out we were given access to learn about the processes that turned these raw materials into some of the world's finest rifle ammunition I was educated on what different projectiles are designed for and of course how could I come to an ammo Factory and not fire some inner appropriately big guns welcome to the Norma [Music] Factory let's get straight into the manufacturing process starting with the construction of the traditional copper jacketed Lead Core bullet up until a few hours ago I had no idea how this worked it's been a real education a bullet starts its life like this this is a copper cup they live in this Hopper it davels up this conveyor and it's processed one batch at a time into this little machine this Picks Them Up puts them the right way around and then feeds them into a press that press takes this cup and draws it out that turns this into this in one process it's now about the right width and the right sort of length from there they're taken on to the next machine all of these oversized copper cups travel up this conveyor down a pipe and into this machine where they're parted off at the correct [Music] length all of the waist get kicked out of the side and all of those cups that are now the right length travel up this [Music] pipe now this uneven piece has been cut into the perfect length however the cutter puts a taper at the end and so it goes through another process where it's flared out ready to accept the Lead [Music] Core now we have a copper cup it's time to make a Lead Core to go inside it every caliber has its own starting wire so that it minimizes weight that's dragged up into this machine and run through a czer the waist goes one way the lead has a slight free form and is dropped onto this conveyor belt that travels up a conveyor down into a grading system once it's made sure that each fat is correct up into another conveyor to meet the copper cup in this Hopper we have copper cups in this Hopper we have lead cores they come down two pipes and are joined together [Music] so this thing goes through six sizing dieses that turns this lead filled copper cylinder into the conical bullet shape we are so familiar with this is a soft point and as such it's pretty much done now if it was a ballistic tip it would go to another machine that would just press ballistic tips into these heads all of this may seem small scale to you because in reality it is there are a lot of small scale operations because Norma using so many different calibers and so many different types of bullet for each caliber for the more common stuff they're not doing it like this they use modern automated loading machines let's check one of them out right [Music] now so these types of machines manufacture the common calibers and weights that normal produce it starts with two Hoppers one filled with copper cups and one with lead cores these lead cores are cut for the exact caliber and bullet weight required these are fed into the loading machine and go through 15 different processes before a bullet comes out the other [Music] end this machine is actually no faster than that one we saw over there that's capable of doing 18 to 20,000 a shift an 8 hour shift this is two the ballistic tip is what slows that process down if this machine was making fmjs like the one behind it that would be doing 35,000 every 8 hours it's a serious operation next I was shown the process for manufacturing bonded bullets these types of projectile actually bonds the copper jacket and Lead Core to increase weight retention on impact like a normal bullet the process starts with a Lead Core and an extruded copper jacket after that both go and get washed and this is the just where it starts to get a little bit different this really starts to slow the process down which starts to explain to me why perhaps Bond Bulls are a bit more expensive after that they drop into the next machine through two conveyors the case is primed with a special liquid and then the core is put in place it's then dropped onto a conveyor where it is heated up and that Lead Core is actually melted into the case creating a bond pretty cool eh otherwise they're just pressure fitted in this case they're actually melted together or the Lead Core is melted into the case from there they go into another machine where it's shaped much like the others but it gives you as we're going to find out later hopefully a slightly different result when that bullet impacts an animal so that was bullets now it's time to look at the other side of the factory where they produce the [Music] cases welcome to case production where they turn 120 million of these into 120 million cases a year it's noisy let's roll voice over normal buying these brass cups and the first step is to anal them analing is the process of heating metal and allowing it to cool down slowly this removes internal stresses softens the metal and makes it easier to [Music] work after this the first drag is carried out and then the [Music] second after size to it's become very hard the more you work metal the harder it gets and so they have to anal it again after second and kneeling the brass gets its final stretch is trimmed to size and now it's time to start forming it into a case [Music] shape now it's cut to size they put it in the bottom press that creates a flat bottom a primer pocket and puts the name and caliber on there the case is then annealed once more ready for a process that tapers the case to size forms the neck and creates the primer hole before it goes to the next machine and is trimmed to length once that's done the rim is turned into the [Music] case this machine is actually washing and degreasing the cases they come out of there into here up the elevator with one final analing at this point it's cut to length everything is solid it's got a rim cut into it it is a brass pce and to make sure it is Pleasant to look at polishing before quality [Music] control here every single case is checked for consistency and quality everything that doesn't meet that exacting standard is discarded right there is case manufacturer all of the completed cases are brought into this room and stacked up caliber by caliber Box by box behind me is bullet manufacturer there brought in from there and stored in the next rack when an order comes in or when these guys need to run a batch they take the right case the right head they bring them together stick them together in the room next [Music] door the first step of loading is priming the cases the primer is the part of the cartridge that when hit by the firing pin starts the ignition process usually by crushing a small amount of explosive compound between the primer cup and an internal piece of metal called an anvil this small explosion sets fire to the powder and sends the bullet flying from here depending on the batch size there's a few different loading sequences but generally speaking the process involves two major stages firstly adding the appropriate type and quantity of powder and secondly adding the correct projectile we fill this machine here that you can see with the bullet and then with prime cases and from the roof comes powder from heaven from heaven and then it goes all these three components into this machine we assemble it and out this come you just set it up to your recipe yeah drop done [Music] yeah after this the completed pieces of ammunition head over to be packed before being distributed all over the world ack we've been around the factory today and it is bigger than I thought it would be 75 million complete pieces of ammunition a year and we can do even more that's wild it's really something I I have to say the the factory well it's a big one and it's very capable it's amazing that we have everything like case manufacturing bullet manufacturing loading packaging everything under the same roof the fact that you've got your own tool shops you can make all of your own dieses make all of your own case stretchy tools whatever they're called it's pretty awesome it is really I have to say one of the strength is that our team it's very dedicated we we really have passion to do this is there a lot of hunters in there oh yeah I'm I'm Hunter myself and a lot of the stuff they are Hunter actually last week we had a bit of a problem because there's so many Hunters that that we we we really needed to find find a way to run certain machines to opening a moose season yes that's that's the thing I believe it's really positive when we develop the product when we run the production there's always kind of like good context behind when when you know how the product is used of course it's it's not requirement to be a hunter that's that's for sure but but sometimes it's it gives a bit help and perspective on on on doing things so this afternoon I think we're down in the testing tunnels kind of excited to see I've never shot copper and Lead next to each other you know it's something when when you get there and see how much work how much preparation it really requires you can think it as a very simple product but it's it's crazy how much you need to actually do we are dealing with rather uh I would say challenging physics there are a lot of things happening that are under high pressure high temperature high velocity consistency that it needs to be there it's it really needs to be there and even the smaller smallest changes they have huge impact to the end result that's that's really really the heart of the development if we if we think about the ballistic so so I'm really looking forward to [Music] it I don't know about you but when buying ammunition in my life I have just gone to a shop bought the right caliber checked zero and then gone out hunting I've been informed by these guys that that is not the right approach because all of these different projectiles are designed to do completely different things so we've come to the normal testing tunnel it's 100 m range up there we have a test action test Barrel in a vise so that we're not testing our own accuracy and down here we have a high-speed camera and we're going to put locks of ballistic gel we have four different bullet heads and we are going to try them it's going to be cool apparently we're going to see massively different results I say apparently we're going to see different results and I'm going to get an education as to what the appropriate bullet is for the appropriate species and why before we could shoot jail we checked point of impact so we could ensure a perfect Center strike on the gel block we've measured it we' raised the table up we've checked the Ser on the gun with all the bullets let's rock and roll a stringent safety procedure is followed before and after each [Music] shot one single round fired and we headed down range to see the results we headed down range to see the results really expanded bullet and the weight of 50 60% we start to see if we find it in the [Music] Trap that is a b strike yeah this is a good one a lot of weight left in the bullet that was bonding keep the retained weight of the of the bullet on a really good way okay so it's a good controlled system yeah what are we looking at here if you look here you can see a penetration about 2 cm 3 then expansion starts and you get a quick fast aggressive expansion in the in the block uh lad fragments but uh it's not much because of the bonding of the bullet so this the whole point in gel is to replicate an animal yeah and this is your wound cavity yeah essentially so this would be maximum energy delivery in the in the center of the animals you get maximum effect of the of the shot that was Bond strike time for elx elx is a nonbonded bullet so we'll expand in a less predictable way on impact although this can be good for varmint applications predictable expansion is clearly desirable when pursuing large edible mammals and nothing here and that's just where it's hit the block and turned and turned up it's a little bit uh Lottery if it keeps together or goes there's no consistency the separation between the core and the lad this is the first time I'd seen the comparison of bonded and non-bonded bullets and the differences really intrigued me you see the bullet lose more uh of the weight inside the the animal or or the block most of the expansion seems to have happened earlier it's a less consistent chel and uh if you compare the blocks you can see you have much more fragment in this one so the Bullet goes in part but there is a place where non bonded bullets are better I guess for foxing coyote yeah of course uh where you want lots of damage this is great but if you're looking for just a good bleed out with less meat damage for meat you should eat I I prefer a bundled bullet so it's not so much scrap in the or lead in the in the animal do you get more consistent Exit Wounds yeah with a bond bu bu because say if we shot 10 of these they'd look similar if we shot 10 of these it's a Lottery yeah little bit of a lottery yes because that first bullet had turned on impact we fired another eldx into another block so we could see the result as you can see the copper and Lead had separated although as I was told this is a lottery anything can happen when a non-bonded bullet strikes its Target before running the same tests with the tip strike bullet in 22 three the guys showed me round the rest of the testing facilities here is our hand loading room so every new load you develop you start working it in by hand yeah yeah yeah we have a sample from the bullet department and that just comes straight from the package directly from the machine and this at uh from box 50 which machine a 30 caliber B strike so that's a good one I think so you're going to load that you'll load that here that's more or less exactly what we've just shot it's the same we unload them here I have prepared 306 bone strike so the cases are filled with powder and I had the [Music] tool how often are you running a test batch around uh every third box of bullets okay so at least one test for 15,000 manufactured bullets so this is for the purposes of testing accuracy of this batch of bullets yes so we start a system electronic range yeah all of the common calibers are just set up here ready to go the the normal we know what they are running in the production so okay we try to prepare it as M as we can [Music] we measure the center of the two worst and this is uh 11.8 mm that's that's within tolerance yeah this is in tolerance up to a inch okay is maximum on this one and that's just for your hunting amunition yes and uh you can see the velocity at the muscle and with the target 11 mm at 100 m is incredibly accurate it's good yeah but I I guess you could tune it in a little more if you hand loaded for your rifle precisely yeah if you make something with a cartridge length or something like that you maybe you can find another millimeter but uh I feel like that's not bad Center to Center no no is it under two calibers of the of the bullets I think most hunters probably aren't as good as that Vice no [Music] for years normally used the V-Max heads but because of supply chain issues over the last few years they developed their own it's called the tip strike it's a rapid expanding head and we're going to shoot another jail block and see what a bullet that's designed for Rapid expansion looks like that's different yeah it's something else here you have a war min bullet or close to a warming bullet you can see the really fast expansion of the of the bullet or fragmentation everything is done within 6 in yeah from a technical perspective how do you make a bullet do that it's a a thin jacket on the bullet and a big hole in the behind the tip that's that's it yeah so easy open and of course high speed theoretically a lightweight fast 223 with a bonded bullet would make it all the way through the block I feel like a bit of an idiot for just buying the coolest looking box yeah but you should buy the bullet of the purpose or what animal animal you should have I mean that really does just tear apart doesn't it and by the time it stops there's not much left so what you're looking at 30% retention 20% retention yeah something like that wow the difference between that and the 308 is pretty wild I mean they're different calibers but just the difference in bullet and how they perform in the gel is really interesting it's something that's very new to me it's something I've always understood but completely disregarded just cuz we're here and we've got M gel we're going to shoot a Vmax 50 grain 223 and compare the bullet channels so the only thing controlled about these bullets is the rate with which they expand there after the way they're going to expand and the way that those bullets are going to tear apart everyone's going to be unique right but it's interesting to see how different they are and I've been told that if we shot 10 each bullet channel the shape will be similar but the way that they tear apart the way that the little pieces of bullet the lead and copper will be placed will just change what I really learned is don't shoot deer with varint designed bullets up until now I just knew from carcass damage and shot reaction that some bullets were not ideal for the task at hand but I'll definitely be more conscientious with my bullet selection from here on [Music] in next up for testing was eost strike a copper monolithic bullet something I now use for the majority of my [Music] hunting this is the jail block from the copper shot as you can see you have a real spiral cut that's because you get complete controlled expansion with copper the wings peel back in the way they're designed to no Lead Core so it's almost completely uniform no remnants left in there other than that green polymer tip and obviously it's gone all the way [Music] through following this test was an interesting discussion on the future of copper ammo and how it may eventually fall into long medium and short range loads to get Optimum expansion for each application education over it was time for some fun we spent a short while in Norma's Museum looking over some unique guns some deactivated guns and some Modern sporting [Music] rifles before heading into the range for some serious [Applause] recoil we've seen how they're made it's now time to have some fun so we've come to the testing range we bought three different guns of various sizes the smallest is a 306 an M1 grand Timeless classic from there we go significantly bigger we got a full 60 weather beam Magnum that's going to hurt quite a bit and if that wasn't enough a 505 Gibbs invented in 1911 for shooting big game this is going to be a lump let's [Music] go shoot the ground it's as cool as they come super smooth one of the best battle rifles ever made I'll I'll do I'll shoot one yeah well they they come in eight 460 Weatherby mag these are loaded here by Norma in Sweden that is a 450 Gra hollow point this is going to be painful through a relatively lightweight rifle the whole point in this caliber is is a lar game caliber that fits into a bolt action magazine rifle cuz it's rimless there it goes I need a moment to myself I mean I didn't really prepare myself I just kind of got in and pulled the trigger just had to get it out the way but I took my glass off just in case I punch myself in the face and that was that was quite a big boom and I hit the paper and it stands out like a sore thumb on that paper that's epic I don't think I'd want to like shoot one of those on the regular I don't think I could afford to shoot one of those on the regular now for fun we're going to watch a small Swedish man shoot it some big guns are quite a nice slow Progressive boom aren't they a 375 a really Pleasant the barrel just flies up in the air doesn't it you wouldn't be quick to reload would you do Stalin make a 460 [Music] moderator that's me and that's you you first okay I've never felt safer than I feel right now which is good cuz we got a CED 550 Magnum here in 505 Gibbs with a 540 grains is solid nothing about this is going to be fun until it's done here it goes nothing in some ways it's better than the weatherbe but not in many and the overall effect is way more brutal what's successfully created a Flinch learned a lot about bullets and ruined my rifle shooting for Life hey we're 4 in to the left at 20 yards will take that probably learn to shoot it with a lot of training and a bit of gun fitting kind of want to do that again that was awesome put this into perspective this 505 Gibbs takes an entire 306 he gobbles it up and there's plenty of room left for more apparently we got to shoot some more now there's some Skittles to shoot good old fashioned game of Norma five pin bowling apparently it's got to be done with a 55 got to go to a hit one apparently yeah yes he I think I need to sit down hey that is like being in a car crash I don't know much out of all the things we're going to get shot with and we have had that discussion a lot for the last couple of days is what's the worst Cal to get shot by I think this could be the one we were having a conversation about how hydrostatic shock actually does a huge amount of the damage when all of that pressure builds inside your body almost instantaneously when you saw that jelly do this you kind of understand and I'd like to shoot a jelly block with this providing I don't have to um yeah shoot it that was amazing I won't forget that experience in a hurry and neither will my body [Music] this was my first trip to a rifle amunition Factory and it opened my eyes to a whole world of information that I kind of know about but never truly appreciated from learning about how bullets were made to how each load is developed everything fascinated me and I can't wait to carry on down this round rabbit hole for years to come my thanks to Norma for showing us round and sharing their knowledge so freely and thanks to you for sharing this adventure with me take care guys and we'll see you next time thank you for watching guys this channel is made possible by our amazing sponsors you can find out more about them in the description down below and if you want to support the channel you can join as a member you get loads of extra content well some extra content and occasionally we hook up and go clay shooting together as a membership group if you don't feel like joining today we really appreciate you watching and subscribing have a wonderful [Music] day

Channel: TGS Outdoors

Views: 615,441

Keywords: the gun shop, gun, guns, shotgun, shotguns, rifle, rifles, shooting, shoot, botley, botley gun shop, ammo, ammunition, tgs

Id: V4m9pEksprk

Length: 30min 16sec (1816 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023