Production of ammunition for modern sporting firearms is ramping up at Freedom Munitions following the completion of a 10,000-square-foot facility in downtown Lewiston.

The company had been making its own pistol cases for ammunition, but it was purchasing the cases for .223 Remington ammunition commonly used in modern sporting semi-automatic rifles as well as other calibers for rifles like the 5.56 NATO and .308 Winchester, said Toby Thill, president of Freedom Munitions.

Freedom Munitions was buying the components from third parties that sold high-quality products, but the approach had some downsides, Thill said.

Sometimes shortages made it difficult to obtain the components and inflated prices, he said.

Now those issues and others have been resolved because Freedom Munitions is making the cases on its own line in a proprietary process, he said.

“It’s a state-of-the-art case manufacturing facility,” Thill said. “It’s not a process that’s out there in the industry that anybody else is using. We’ve developed the equipment and tooling all internally with our own engineering department. It basically gives us an edge over the rest of our competition.”

Thill talked with me about the addition at Freedom Munitions and its innovative approach to selling ammunition at its headquarters, located at 815 D St. in downtown Lewiston.

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

Elaine Williams: What more can you share about how the manufacturing line for cases for rifle ammunition gives you an edge in your industry?

Toby Thill: There’s time and material savings on casings, one of the four parts in an ammunition round. The others are the bullet, primer and powder. The addition allows us to build the case faster and more efficiently with almost no scrap. We can control the cost better. We’ll see anywhere from a 40% to 50% savings on the price of that component.

EW: How much do you anticipate growing with the expansion?

TT: We sell approximately 2 million .223 cartridges a month. That could grow to as much as 4 million rounds per month. We have 290 employees, including 205 employees in the Lewiston area. We expect to add as many as 30 jobs in Lewiston.

EW: How is the performance of the new cases?

TT: Like all of our products, the cases were tested in our on-site ballistics lab. They went through rigorous quality control measures. Our new cases beat or exceed the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute specifications. (The institute is an independent organization responsible for setting the specifications for firearms and ammunition.)

EW: Prior to the expansion, what facilities did Freedom Munitions have?

TT: Freedom Munitions manufactures ammunition rounds. Our corporate headquarters are in Lewiston, with customer service, engineering and accounting. We manufacture components under the X-treme brand and have a bullet-making operation in Lewiston as well as another bullet-making operation in Carson City, Nev. Ammo Load Worldwide is the part of the business that produces equipment for ammunition making in Lewiston. We have three retail stores in Inglewood, San Diego and San Marcos, Calif., under the name LAX Ammo.

EW: What types of ammunition do you make?

TT: We have four brands of ammunition. We have our standard “black box” Freedom and LAX ammo, which is range-quality ammunition. People go out and use these products to hone their shooting skills at the range. (They) are basically just punching holes in paper targets. Then we have our self-defense line of ammunition called X-Def. It is truly for somebody who’s looking to protect themselves in their home or wherever they may be. We have our ProMatch line of ammunition, which is for competitive shooters, that has to meet extremely strict standards. We offer a line that’s called Hush for suppressed shooting that is specifically designed to be shot with suppressors for noise reduction.

EW: Many ammunition producers sell much of what they make at stores such as North 40 Outfitters,Tri-State Outfitters, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Cabela’s. How is Freedom Munitions’ approach different?

TT: We are most likely the largest consumer-direct manufacturer of ammunition. We sell online on e-commerce platforms such as freedommunitions.com and laxammo.com. We ship directly to our consumer’s doorstep. That allows us to sell a quality product at a fair price and cut out the middleman.

EW: There’s a lot of discussion about safety in the firearms industry. What checks and balances are on your websites?

TT: Everybody has to verify their age on the website. All purchases have to follow all federal and state rules, including showing identification and requirements for background checks. All orders are tracked by zip code. We ship across the entire United States so there’s been a lot of company investment in making sure all of the policies and procedures are in place to make sure that we are following the regulations and collecting the right taxes.

EW: How does Freedom Munitions fit into what you anticipate happening in the future in your industry?

TT: In 2020 and 2021 with the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a very inflated market. Demand on ammunition was extremely high and the availability was low. As we went into 2022, we saw what I would call the normalizing of the market where the demand came down and the availability of ammunition came back. We’ve had to really focus on the quality and efficiencies of our ammunition to be able to stay competitive in the market.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.

Toby Thill

Title: President of Freedom Munitions

Age: 44

Education: Project Management Professional certification. Degrees in automated manufacturing and industrial mechanics from Lewis-Clark State College.

Career history: Served as general manager of Kash CA, which was at the time the parent company of Freedom Munitions, Ammo Load Worldwide, X-Treme Bullets and LAX Ammunition from 2020 to 2022 before being promoted to his present position. Also served as transportation supervisor for Lewiston School District No. 1 for two years. Prior to that, held a number of positions at Howell Munitions & Technology, the then-parent company of Freedom Munitions, Ammo Load Worldwide, X-Treme Bullets. He started as a draftsman and was promoted into positions such as drafting supervisor/program logic controller, supervisor/project manager, engineering project manager, and director of Ammo Load Worldwide and Howell Machine.

Family: Two sons, Reuben Thill, 21, and Brenden Thill, 19.

Hobbies: Fishing, camping, shooting, hunting and spending time with family.