Starting a Gun Powder Plant

[Rare Breed]

I know this seems humorous but I am serious. I wish I knew how to get all the permits with know how to start my own gun powder plant. Given the OOS across the board why would I not make a fortune?

 

[mikecatt13]

Barriers to entry. First would be capital. And given the current market, supply chain is probably even more important than the knowledge of how to make it.

If the big companies could produce more at these higher prices with similar costs, I guarantee they certainly would be. To an extent anyway since they would be dumb to completely flood the market so price drops too fast. But as far as economics, it's much easier for them to make more than a new player to enter the market. Even if they need more land and buildings, they have supply chain, permits, etc. Likely why no one has done it, the barriers are serious and the risk is high, they would get wind of it and could easily crush a new, smaller player in the market.

It's not like they cut production way back to raise the price. Sure, maybe covid is effecting output a bit but demand went up way more than supply went down. Every ammo company I know has added shifts and employees to capitalize on the market, not the opposite.

Not trying to rain on your parade, I have big dreams too and follow them and even make them happen when everyone says it's not possible, but you asked and that's my businessman answer lol

 

[sestoppelman]

LOL....

 

[Rare Breed]

Mikecat13 exactly what I thought. They are just doing a very poor job of keeping up. They also have not taised price significantly which is a mistake on their part

 

[Whacker]

I do believe part of the hang up is from the supply chain of raw materials due to shutdowns of mines and processing plants from Covid...but I would be more worried as far as coming up with your own formulas of chemistry and product testing than about permits. Once you have good functioning products it will require extensive testing in different environments and creating ways to ensure thermal stability of mixtures to prevent over pressures in the middle of summer of cartridges loaded in winter months. I have thought of this myself and would be a very good side business if there were a couple of people together to work with. I have made my own black powder for a while for my old hawken muzzle loader just because it’s worth the hunt having created the bullet and powder that put the meat in the freezer lol. As far as permits go I think they would be the easy part. I live in a very undeveloped county in a rural area so that skips out on all city code requirements, building inspections, fire marshal inspections, and licenses. The only requirement here would be the federal permits and licenses which would be easy to acquire and would only require a site visit and check off by a federal agent to ensure proper handling and storage of materials. The only permit I don’t know what would cost or how hard to get would be the haz-mat certifications for shipping of products. Of course being a hazardous materials response technician may help as well??

 

[Hogpatrol]

You'd probably have better luck with an oil refinery or a nuclear power plant.

 

[WAB]

I suspect that production capacity reasonably well matches demand in normal times. This means that a new entrant will be met with extreme competitive pressures. It is also a fairly small market with moderate margins from what I can see. Not a fight I would want to start.

 

[Jeffrey]

IF you are successful and manage to clone Varget, I'd like to pre order a 55gallon drum please...