New primer manufacturer coming

[D Coots]

@Don_Mildrum
Sure would be nice if your pricing came in somewhere around what it was pre-covid.

Isn't there a.saying about things like that? Cheap and good,....and...forgot...some things don't go together.

Quality products, availability, customer service, and competitive pricing usually is the winner.

Wish you the best on your venture.

Made in the USA

Later

Dave

 

[Walt Krafft]

Building a plant like that is very expensive. All the safety stuff and automation take lots of money and time. Then the product needs to be priced to recover the investment.

 

[Willow]

It is a bit early to be able to tell you what the retail pricing will be but I will do my best to get the cost down as much as possible. I think we will be one of the lower priced options if not the lowest. I think you will find our quality will beat what most consider match grade to be today. Our match grade will be on a new level of quality. We have the tech to do it.

I think if you can benchmark yourself against the likes of S&B primers, and the old Tula/Wolf primers which worked so well for many people then you will certainly be on the right path and sell everything you can make. Being in Australia, we sometimes struggle at times to get primers as we're a small drop in the ocean compared to the US market, but we still get the occasional shipment of S&B primers which for F-Class applications, often outperform the likes of CCI/White River/RWS/Remington/Winchester/Federal. Hopefully international exporting is on the cards for you!

 

[jelenko]

2032 for full production. It takes entirely too long to a build things. How much of that is red tape and inspections?

I saw their plan was first phase in 2028, second phase in 2032.
I was thinking/hoping first phase meant general availability and second phase was a ramp up in capacity.
It does seem that the OP is not wanting to comment further on when their primers would be generally available.

Ah. Found this article in a local newspaper https://www.ibjonline.com/2025/06/2...nce-127m-manufacturing-facility-160-new-jobs/

From that article:

• Phase I will break ground by the end of 2025. With a $57 million investment, this phase will create at least 85 jobs, and the facility is expected to be fully operational by summer of 2028.
• Phase II, an expansion of the plant or a complementary line of business, will add $70 million in additional investment and at least 75 more jobs, with operations beginning no later than summer of 2032.

=> It's all just beginning - ground breaking late this year.

 

[Don_Mildrum]

I think if you can benchmark yourself against the likes of S&B primers, and the old Tula/Wolf primers which worked so well for many people then you will certainly be on the right path and sell everything you can make. Being in Australia, we sometimes struggle at times to get primers as we're a small drop in the ocean compared to the US market, but we still get the occasional shipment of S&B primers which for F-Class applications, often outperform the likes of CCI/White River/RWS/Remington/Winchester/Federal. Hopefully international exporting is on the cards for you!

I have talked with a large distributor in Australia and they have already expressed their desire to have us ship them primers monthly. I can't tell you who they are, but I can tell you it is a large retailer that sells guns and ammo in your country. S&B is such an amazing company and they have an incredible history manufacturing ammunition. One of the oldest and best in the world. What we have in our favor is technology that has not been used in this industry before. We also have world class chemists.

 

[M-61]

As long as we're fantasizing I'd like to see prices from the 70's....

How about your salary going to what you made in the 70’s?

 

[Don_Mildrum]

I saw their plan was first phase in 2028, second phase in 2032.
I was thinking/hoping first phase meant general availability and second phase was a ramp up in capacity.
It does seem that the OP is not wanting to comment further on when their primers would be generally available.

Ah. Found this article in a local newspaper https://www.ibjonline.com/2025/06/2...nce-127m-manufacturing-facility-160-new-jobs/

From that article:

• Phase I will break ground by the end of 2025. With a $57 million investment, this phase will create at least 85 jobs, and the facility is expected to be fully operational by summer of 2028.
• Phase II, an expansion of the plant or a complementary line of business, will add $70 million in additional investment and at least 75 more jobs, with operations beginning no later than summer of 2032.

=> It's all just beginning - ground breaking late this year.

That was the plan. We had one investor that fell out at the last minute and we are currently working to replace them. At the same time the facility engineering it taking a little longer than we thought it would so we won't be starting construction until after January. Weather permitting. On a good note, we originally planned on a 24 month construction time frame and we have been able to reduce that to 18 months. Red tape, yes plenty of that. We walked from a few other locations due to the red tape. I think we are in good shape on that front with Litchfield. We lost about a year due to red tape and trying to find the right ground. It is harder than you would think because primers are a class one explosive. That is low risk really but, it is a risk. We have a consulting firm that has designed the safest fully robotic system in the world. You still have to get approvals and have the right land with enough safety distances regardless. The 57 million investment is now 62. These things happen.

 

[Don_Mildrum]

I saw their plan was first phase in 2028, second phase in 2032.
I was thinking/hoping first phase meant general availability and second phase was a ramp up in capacity.
It does seem that the OP is not wanting to comment further on when their primers would be generally available.

Ah. Found this article in a local newspaper https://www.ibjonline.com/2025/06/2...nce-127m-manufacturing-facility-160-new-jobs/

From that article:

• Phase I will break ground by the end of 2025. With a $57 million investment, this phase will create at least 85 jobs, and the facility is expected to be fully operational by summer of 2028.
• Phase II, an expansion of the plant or a complementary line of business, will add $70 million in additional investment and at least 75 more jobs, with operations beginning no later than summer of 2032.

=> It's all just beginning - ground breaking late this year.

Once we break ground, the current timeline is 18 months to be operational. Month 19 we will have primers for sale. We will start with one shift of workers, and over the following year we will add a second shift and so on until we reach full capacity. Phase two is a larger expansion of our R&D facility to help support defense companies needs and we plan to double our primer manufacturing capacity to 4.2 billion annually.

 

[jelenko]

Once we break ground, the current timeline is 18 months to be operational. Month 19 we will have primers for sale. We will start with one shift of workers, and over the following year we will add a second shift and so on until we reach full capacity. Phase two is a larger expansion of our R&D facility to help support defense companies needs and we plan to double our primer manufacturing capacity to 4.2 billion annually.

Thank you!
My only regret is I won't be able to buy all 4.2 billion.
I guess I'll have to get to the range more often!

 

[Don_Mildrum]

I should have looked at a map sooner. It looks like Litchfield is only about 40 miles from St. Louis. Zoned for commercial / industrial use now. Perfect for that. Lots of options for shipping. Hope it's a good thing for the people that live there. A little town off of old RT 66. Maybe they will be making non-toxic primers, otherwise there are a lot of heavy metals, toxic waste, involved in making primers. Litchfield looks like a idillic town with lots of recreation.

Hi Steve, we will be making lead free primers. We also have a waste water treatment plant, the water going out will be cleaner than the water going into the facility.

 

[ELR LVR]

Hi Steve, we will be making lead free primers. We also have a waste water treatment plant, the water going out will be cleaner than the water going into the facility.

Ya might Capitolize on your clean water
Might Recoup a lot of investment simply selling bottled water
---
Consistent quality primers are a must for us
I started weighing my primers recently and sort them that way down to the milligram
This revealed a lot of the reasons why I had been choosing the certain primers I had arrived at for my accuracy, ELR loads over the years. An empirical confirmation of sorts.
What made this worthwhile for me is that ---
...I notice the empty spent primer cup & anvil - have perfect consistent weights for a given primer
Such as BR-2's and F-210's for example
This allows a person weighing primers to know exactly down to the milligram the amount of priming compound in the primer
---
I also recently saw videos on how primers were made
looked like the workers were simply spreading icing over a cake
Due to this I see inconsistencies in primer weights by as much as 50% in just 1 box of 100 primers for some types/brands
The outliers can have as much as 20 milligrams difference in priming compound when the total priming compound itself may only weigh 40 Mg
---
So -what I am asking or offering for you to know and hopefully help make your goal to produce the best primers available
If you could make your priming compound in each primer to be as consistent as possible
BR primers should all weigh the same - have same amount of priming compound
----
Not to suggest how to do your job and I don't know what High Tech Mfg. equip you are going to employ above other companies.
but more informing you what most of this type of community is looking for with regards to consistency and how we check and sort and choose brands of primers.
Thanks much for your replies and information here, looking forward to your products!
John

 

[Buttstock-TX]

Hi Don
We appreciate your interest in addressing primer availability and our need for excellent competition primers.

You have probably looked at this article, but it contains a lot of truth: https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2017/04/ultimate-large-rifle-primer-shoot-out-16-types-tested/

I tested some F class loads on Tuesday of this week and hands down, the Sellier and Bellot LR primer beat the CCI 200 in group size. Now, the velocity in the CCI was marginally faster than the S&B but that is really not important when groups of the S&B are demonstrably smaller than the alternative.

I recently traded all my remaining Wolf LR primers for Federal LR match primers. Not because the Federals were better but, the person who wanted the Wolf primers is a successful national level shooter who needed them. The Wolf primers absolutely deserve their reputation for low SD's.

A number of serious accuracy shooters have pointed to what we have seen as the best primers in the thread. Please Sir, take note of this as you build your business!

 

[ELR LVR]

Hi Don
We appreciate your interest in addressing primer availability and our need for excellent competition primers.

You have probably looked at this article, but it contains a lot of truth: https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2017/04/ultimate-large-rifle-primer-shoot-out-16-types-tested/

I tested some F class loads on Tuesday of this week and hands down, the Sellier and Bellot LR primer beat the CCI 200 in group size. Now, the velocity in the CCI was marginally faster than the S&B but that is really not important when groups of the S&B are demonstrably smaller than the alternative.

I recently traded all my remaining Wolf LR primers for Federal LR match primers. Not because the Federals were better but, the person who wanted the Wolf primers is a successful national level shooter who needed them. The Wolf primers absolutely deserve their reputation for low SD's.

A number of serious accuracy shooters have pointed to what we have seen as the best primers in the thread. Please Sir, take note of this as you build your business!

I found Wolf SR Magnum primers to be every bit as good or even better than Rem 7-1/2's in SD numbers
Just echoing your experiene with Wolf

 

[JFrank]

Hi all. I am the CEO of National Primers. We have purchased 200 acres of land from the city of Litchfield. You all have it figured out. I spoke with many republican controlled states and what we found was that they are being flooded with new companies moving into their states weekly. They don't need to offer much in the way of incentives. Large tracks of land are insanely expensive in most of these states. Litchfield is near Winchester and other ammunition producers. We went there for the land at a fair price, reasonable incentives and the labor pool. It is a normal rural farming area much like the one I grew up in. They need jobs as much as anyone. I started all of this because I am a reloader the same as most of you. I was mad that primers and ammo just keeps going up in price. I could write a book on why this happens and why it isn't going to stop anytime soon. The only way to move prices down is to have more independent production. This project is very expensive, over 60 million. We, like everyone, must balance what we need versus what we want to have in terms of production. We expect to produce 2.1 billion primers at full capacity. We have plans to double that in a few years. That should make us the largest primer producer in the US. We are going to have an R&D lab onsite with the ability to mass produce the energetics materials and place them into nearly any kind of container. There is a real need for energetics for drones and drone defense. We also want to continuously improve our own energetics so we can make the best possible primers in the industry. Thanks all and feel free to reach out to me if you have questions. I am just a shooter, hunter, reloader guy like you. God Bless.

If you need a tester, I’m available.