Kimball Company Finds Its Target

At the heart of any good business is a focus on quality and a belief in the product. There’s certainly no lack of that at American Bullet.

American Bullet is exclusively a Kimball business that located at 4360 E. Highway 30 here in town. According to American Bullet Director of Sales Kim Baliman, quality is the primary focus in the manufacturing of their product.

“We hand check every bullet which we’re really proud of. We’re not the cheapest bullet out there, and we don’t try to be,” Baliman said.

The process of making the bullets consists of a series of machines which are currently manned by one employee at a station in the work room.

The primers for the bullets are put in a machine that vibrates and sets them the right way into a tube which is then inserted into another machine which compiles the different components of the bullet together. The first mechanism of the machine feeds the brass into a belling station which opens the brass in order to take the bullet. The primer is then fed into the bullet through a tube. Gun powder is then added to the bullet and checked by a mechanism on the machine. The actual bullet is then fed into the brass and crimped. The finished product is then placed into a bucket at the end of the process and ready to be checked.

“We usually run it at 50-55 which is probably 3,000 bullets an hour. You can go faster, but that’s when you get more chance for error on the line,” Baliman said.

The finished product is not only hand checked by employees after going through the manufacturing process, but local gun savvy residents are also consulted by the company to test them.

“Mike Winstrom, Brandon Loy, Dusty Schutz, Kevin Moeser, and Shaun Evertson have been very good at helping us. They’re really into hunting and exact detail. They love it when I call them saying I have a new batch of bullets and want to know if they want to fire them for me and test them,” Baliman said.

At this time, the company only makes handgun ammunition offering 45mm, 9mm, 40 caliber, and 45 caliber ammunition. However, the company is looking to offer more diverse kinds of ammunition in the future.

“We would like to expand to .223s. I could sell from this little plant easily 100,000 rounds of .223s a month. I just don’t have them. The .38s are another one we’d like to get in to,” Baliman said.

The company focuses on using American made, all new parts.

“I typically purchase the brass from Mexico, Missouri. We only use all new parts. Our brass is reloadable, but we don’t do that,” Baliman said.

American Bullet supplies ammunition to law enforcement agencies, gun clubs, and companies throughout the nation such as Cheaper Than Dirt.

“Our number one customer right now is Cheaper Than Dirt. They’re a distributor out of Dallas- Fort Worth, and they order lots and lots of ammunition,” Baliman said.

Orders are currently being accepted by American Bullet. However, there is a six to eight week waiting period presently, because of a shortage of components in the industry.

“It’s out of our control. Nobody in the nation can get powder. The powder factories don’t even have a baggie of powder,” Baliman said.

However, this shouldn’t discourage potential customers from putting in orders.

“Put your order in now and order heavy. Give me your order, tell me what you want, and when the order is ready I will call and ask for credit card information,” Baliman said.

Though there is currently a lack of components, Baliman shows no signs of trepidation over the future of the company.

“This thing is going to shake out. We’re ready for business. We have the best of the best here. The future is very bright for American Bullet,” Baliman said.

American Bullet is owned by Mary Abramson with her husband Dick Abramson serving as CEO and currently has seven employees.

Anyone interested in placing an order or looking up more information on the company can find it on the American bullet website at http://www.americanbullet.com.