People manufacturing ammunition in the basement just put together gun powder, primers, bullets and cases. It would be really hard to manufacture any of those 4 individual pieces as a hobby.
As a whole, you're right. Primers, in particular, are probably beyond all but the most dedicated hobbyist's ability to produce at home. Still, lots of people cast their own bullets. People reuse shell casings, although there's a limit to how many times they can be reused. Smokeless powder is probably marginally easier to make than primers.
People have cast bullets and formed simple cases since the 1800s if not earlier. Primers are a bit more complex but not much so. Black powder has been produced by hand for several hundred years, and smokeless gun powder is not terribly more complicated.
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People manufacturing ammunition in the basement just put together gun powder, primers, bullets and cases. It would be really hard to manufacture any of those 4 individual pieces as a hobby.
As a whole, you're right. Primers, in particular, are probably beyond all but the most dedicated hobbyist's ability to produce at home. Still, lots of people cast their own bullets. People reuse shell casings, although there's a limit to how many times they can be reused. Smokeless powder is probably marginally easier to make than primers.
Manufacturing nitrocellulose, that is, smokeless powder, amounts to soaking cotton balls in concentrated nitric acid.
Not quite, you also need hydrochloric or sulphuric acid as a catalyst.
People have cast bullets and formed simple cases since the 1800s if not earlier. Primers are a bit more complex but not much so. Black powder has been produced by hand for several hundred years, and smokeless gun powder is not terribly more complicated.