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Ammunition Making

Bellifortis

Well-Known Member
Some time ago I downloaded an incredibly good book : "Ammunition Making"by Frost ,which was published already many years ago by the National Rifle Association. Here I found all the info I had always been looking for, about cartridge manufacturing, especially info about primer manufacture. Mr. Frost writes, that in 1988 the british company ELEY came on the market with a new primimg system technology in which the components could be dry loaded because no primary was used, instead to this so called dry "Premix" a drop of water was added, which made the components react and form the friction-sensitive priming composition after drying. This is a technology especially applicable to rimfire ammunition. Eley was trying to sell this new technology to potential other cartridge manufacturers. I had a look at the patent literature, but did not find any Eley patent for this technolgy. The only patents I found, all after 1990, were for the use of KDNBF and DDNP as primaries together with boron or glass. The socalled "Eley Premix" is supposed to not contain any primary. Does anybody here know anything about this now more than 30 years old technology ? I would like to understand the system used. Which components make up the Premix and what is the result of the reaction after adding water ?
regards,
Bellifortis.
 
I am very much surprised, that there has been absolutely no feedback on my above post. I assumed, that everybody who has anything to do with ammunition, using or collecting it, would be naturally interested in how it is made. Since long I'm looking for an opportunity to visit a manufacturing facility for rimfire ammunition and see the mashine that loads the prime, in action. Up till now I never found this chance. But, this book "Ammunition Making" is even better than a live visit, because loading prime is always done behind barricades, for safety and so you can't see very much. In the book there are fotos of the mashine, an exact description, pictures and drawings of the tools used, things one can not see in a live working factory. Up till reading this book, I never understood why Match-Ammunition is a few times as expensive as standard rounds. This book gives the answer. The ELEY Match .22 lR round cost about 6 times the price than for instance Sellior & Belot standard .22 lR I have read many books about ammunition, but here for the first time the development history of modern prime compounding is told. I read a lots about the shape-development of large caliber rounds and how shape influences the ballistics of a round, but very little about small caliber bullet development. In this book often 8 different measurements are given in a drawing and precise explanations in how certain shapes influence bullet-flight and precision. So, I can only very highly reccomend this book. It's the absolute Best I read up till now about small arms ammunition. And, it can be downloaded for Free.
Regards,
Bellifortis
 
I always wondered about Rimfire, so I pulled a few to see what was inside. These are .22 short caps that have no powder, they have what looks like a felt in the bottom ( headcase ). I use them to take care of squirrels in my yard. Interesting stuff, but not much interest as long as they do the job....my .177 RWS pellet rifle is more accurate.Thanks for taking the time to post info.
 

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