The US Customs and Border patrol seized bullets headed for Mexico, along with some primers. Not loaded ammunition, actual bullets. Looks like Sierra Game Kings to me. I’ve said, restricting ammo is pointless, because it’s not hard to make your own, and it’s certainly no harder to smuggle components, or even ammunition, than it is to smuggle drugs.
5 thoughts on “Cartels Manufacturing Their Own Ammunition?”
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Those are some mighty big primers…
And powder in 1-lb cans? Sheesh …
Yes, some serious manufacturing going on … !!!
PS: Yep, those are GameKings. Great bullets. I can’t tell, but are those Federal primers for shotshells?
It’s not safe to assume those components were cartel-bound.
How hard is it to manufacture primers, actually? Bullets are dead easy to make from lead, and I can’t imagine brass is all that hard to make. The hard parts would be powder and primer, I would guess.
“How hard is it to manufacture primers, actually? Bullets are dead easy to make from lead, and I can’t imagine brass is all that hard to make. The hard parts would be powder and primer, I would guess.”
The primer compound doesn’t seem too difficult for people whose primary living comes from chemical manufacturing and smuggling. From Wikipedia: Mercury(II) fulminate is prepared by dissolving mercury in nitric acid and adding ethanol to the solution. It was first prepared by Edward Charles Howard in 1800.[1]
The hardest part would probably be manufacturing the primer “cup” itself, because it would require specialized equipment. But it’s probably not really that difficult, and the cartels have plenty of resources to throw at it.
Really, it boils down to the fact that the cartels are already in the business of manufacturing and distributing things they aren’t supposed to manufacture and distribute. Adding ammunition to that list is probably a lot easier than the guns they keep getting, not to mention their main product.