Fiocchi Ammo: A Behind-The-Scenes Tour of Fiocchi’s Italian Ammunition Plant
NOTE: This post is part of the tour of Europe the Guns For Sale team did earlier this year in conjunction with the IWA 2011 show. More behind-the-scenes footage from the Fiocchi plant is available here: Fiocchi.
Fiocchi has been producing ammunition since 1876, and is still owned and run by members of the Fiocchi family. Their Lecco factory has since been joined by an American plant in Springfield, Missouri, but the company’s roots are in Lecco, Italy, just south of the border with Switzerland. We were given a tour of the factory by none other than Pietro Fiocchi, President of Fiocchi USA.
There, we saw just how much is required to produce the staggering amounts of ammunition and components that Fiocchi puts out every year:
- 2 billion primers
- 800 million shotshell hulls
- 320 million centerfire cartridges
- 70 million rimfire cartridges
Fiocchi 12 Gauge Shotgun Hulls
Spools of lead at the Fiocchi plant
Today, there are approximately 420 employees at the Fiocchi plant. Compare this with the 3,500 employees at the plant during World War II, when it was under the control of the German Army – and yet it only produced 50 million rounds per year! Clearly, technology and improvements in manufacturing have benefited this industry.
Fiocchi .380 Auto Brass
Partially Formed Fiocchi .357 Sig Brass
The Lecco plant is set between a lake and a mountain range, the latter of which is used for storing explosives. This mountain range also served to protect the factory from Allied bombing during World War II, as there were 88mm anti-aircraft guns on the lake shore, requiring bomb runs to come over the mountain range – but the geometry involved meant that most bombs fell far beyond the factory.
Fiocchi Plant
Today, the plant is essentially inside the city of Lecco, and many environmental restrictions have been placed on the facility. It’s achieved ISO 14001 (environmental) certification, as well as ISO 9001, and various NATO certifications – it supplies various NATO military and police forces with quite a lot of ammunition.
We were impressed with the efficiency of the plant, as well as the work ethic of the employees we met. This video shows a small part of what goes on every day at Fiocchi.
Keep up the good work.
how wud a thunk it i allwas figgured the italien,s were stilll bumming ammo from NATO nice to know thay make a good product too bad thire army can bearly deffend thire border,s and the few thay send over sea,s are pineing for home and pasta p*&^%
So wait a minute, just so we are clear… The ammunition “testers” work in a factory surrounded by women with “high manual dexterity” and their job is to fire Fiocchi ammunition through MP-7s, belt-fed full autos, and as many different handguns as possible to make certain that the ammunition is widely compatible?
Are there any job openings at Fiocchi by chance?
Just gave you a bunch of social links and linked this article on my forum! Great article! http://www.texasguntalk.com/forums/general-firearms-ammo-sponsored-eastex-guns/26020-fiocchi-ammunition-plant-article.html#post304018
Greetings from Texas,
Foicchi has been my sorce for .455 Webley Ammo since about a year after I got my Mk. VI. It took me a year to find out anyone still made ammunation for it.
These days I mainly shoot reloads from the excellent Foicchi .455 brass. They have been an excellent source for lots of obsolete caliburs. There are probably half a dozen handguns in my collection I would never have shot had it not been for foicchi.
This is quite off-topic, but can anyone tell me what ISO 9001 is? The reason I ask is that no one I’ve ever asked has been able to tell me.
But Federal makes better 5.56mm ammo.
I like there 7.62×39 ammo it reloads quite well.
Very interesting video. Modern manufacturing is ALMOST as fascinating as firearms.
Keep up the good work.
Heads up, the video states production of 800,000,000 shotshell hulls / year while text shows 800,000…
The manual inspection while packaging looks suspicious.
Look, packager (women) removed two shells from case just by inspecting visually. One – two from each? case does not pass inspection?
What kind of quality are these products?
Dmitry, she may have been collecting samples for testing.
those numbers are mind boggling. That’s 5 million primers a DAY!
I quite like Fiocchi’s stuff, too. Very good consistency and VERY HOT (Everything is loaded to CIP, not SAAMI spec) even though they have pretty low prices. I always thought they were a cheapo brand until I tested some and ran it over a chronograph. They make good stuff.
They make great shotshells. They are my preferred ammo for shotgun when I can find it. Great for pheasants. Just the plain ones, not the golden pheasant.