I've been to an ammo factory. It was an amazing trip. The factory I went to didn't make .22, but they did make 5.56mm, 7.62x51, .50BMG, and then 20x82mm, 20x110, 30mm (I forget the full designator) and the 20x42mm for the PAW cannon.
They also make a variety of handgun rounds. but I didn't visit that part of the factory.
Very very cool to see. The test range had a 25m function test range where they literally shot thousands of rounds through various guns simply to see if they worked. I got to shoot an M240 (a Mag 58/ GPMG) loaded 1:4 ball and tracer INDOORS at 25m. That was hella fun. The tracer only just ignited at ~20m. Next was their velocity range with a bank of test barrels set up. Also great fun but those were electronically fired test barrels. Not as much fun shooting. That was a 50m indoor range IIRC. The next was a 300m indoor dispersion test. Again with test barrels to see how the ammo deviated from a straight line. That was cool. Firing a .50 indoors? Hell yeah. Pretty much the ultimate right?
No. That was the fully automatic 30mm cannon at the 300m range next door. The backstop was a fantastic design. The cannon was set up for remote firing and we were in a different part of the building to press the big red button, but it was still a blast (scuse the pun). The only problem was the cannon was not working correctly so we only got the one shot.
The function, velocity and dispersion ranges were way bigger than the one in the video, able to have multiple weapons being tested. Because they were center fire weapons and literally thousands of rounds were being shot the weapons were able to be mounted on tables or in Ransom Rest -esque shooting aids.
The drawing an finishing of the brass was really interesting. I guess a .22 is mostly swaged though. The filling rooms were way interesting. I would not like to work in one. That much propellant?
One of the most interesting things I saw was a QC machine. Every round they produced went into this machine. It placed each round on a balance arm in a rotating machine. If the weight was within limits it passed through. Too light (not enough propellant, no primer, or some other issue) it raised up and was knocked off the machine into the reject bin. If it was too heavy (too much propellant or such) it weighed the arm down and likewise didn't pass through a cut out and was knocked off the arm.
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