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y Anderson Munitions for several<br />
years and realized an opportunity to<br />
start her own company, working<br />
closely with AMI to supply shooters<br />
and commercial loaders at large with<br />
this surplus brass.<br />
Since Vicki is truly a southern belle,<br />
it seemed only natural to call her company<br />
"Southern Belle Brass." By leveraging<br />
that massive surplus, it did not<br />
take long before Vicky was buried in<br />
brass customers. As her business grew,<br />
Southern Belle needed more brass than<br />
AM! could supply, so it began buying<br />
and selling used brass by the pound.<br />
Got a few thousand extra .45 cases?<br />
Vicky buys them, sorts them, and resells<br />
them where they're needed. Want<br />
to trade out that small mountain of<br />
9mm you have for .40's? Give Vicky a<br />
call.<br />
When she wasn't traveling to<br />
matches to swap brass or sell ammo for<br />
AMI, Harrison began using what little<br />
spare time she had to attend computer<br />
classes at the local college. She developed<br />
a web page using those skills, and<br />
soon had an active e-commerce site to<br />
support her sales.<br />
Customers began asking for things<br />
other than brass, and Vicky used that<br />
demand as an opportunity to expand<br />
her business into other areas, particularly<br />
on the internet.<br />
"My customers taught me what to<br />
do," she says.<br />
Customers would ask if she took<br />
various credit cards, if she had a web<br />
site, if she carried a particular product,<br />
had catalogs, etc. These questions led<br />
her to include these things in her business.<br />
Now as well as loading components,<br />
Vicky sells such specialized<br />
things as her 24-inch "Flip Up" brass<br />
mower. The brass collector keeps you<br />
off your hands and knees because you<br />
push it like a mower, picking up brass<br />
very quickly and depositing the brass<br />
into a hopper. It is a wonderful piece of<br />
equipment for any range to have for<br />
rapid clean up.<br />
"Everybody's calling it the Brass<br />
Buggy," she laughs.<br />
Once Vicky's business had grown<br />
to serve customers throughout the<br />
United States, it just seemed natural to<br />
Vicky to go abroad. When she heard of<br />
a Swedish company that needed casings<br />
Vicky sought help from the Tennessee<br />
Small Business Development<br />
Center in Memphis. Their International<br />
Trade Center was a tremendous<br />
help, she says, for doing business in<br />
other countries. Today Harrison sells<br />
brass to customers in Thailand, Germany,<br />
and Venezuela, and that Swedish<br />
customer is of great value to her today.<br />
While her trade in brass involves<br />
commercial loaders and large metropolitan<br />
police agencies, much of her<br />
business still revolves around buying<br />
and selling brass from shooters like you<br />
and me, a few pounds at a time. I have<br />
used brass that far exceeds my needs,<br />
and I would venture to say that a lot of<br />
you probably do too. If you would like<br />
to convert that old stuff into something<br />
you can use, I would suggest contacting<br />
Vicky. I have used A.MI's ammunition<br />
for competition and will use it this year<br />
at the PPC Nationals in Jackson, Miss.<br />
Among PPC shooters, their product<br />
has an excellent reputation for accuracy.<br />
It is so uniform and consistent<br />
that AMI ammunition has been used to<br />
set several national records. (The PPC<br />
course has accuracy challenges comparable<br />
to the Bianchi Cup. Champions<br />
must pierce the soup-can sized x-ring<br />
at CO yards.)<br />
Corrections, Omissions, Goofs<br />
By Romig TAYLOR,<br />
TY49724, USPSA STAll<br />
Photo courtesy of Vicky Hamson<br />
Expansion plans. Harrison has<br />
expanded her product line to include<br />
reloading components, and<br />
range accessories like Southern<br />
Belle's new "Brass Buggy."<br />
You can contact Vicky at Southern<br />
Belle Brass, P.O. Box 2165, Cordova,<br />
TN 38088. Phone (901) 774-9800, fax<br />
(901) 947-1924 and order line (800)<br />
478-3160. Her web site is www.southernbelle.com<br />
and her e-mail is<br />
Vicky@southernbellebrass.com . You<br />
will not be disappointed. For Anderson<br />
Munitions, contact Dennis Anderson<br />
at P.O. Box 2050, Cordova, TN 38088.<br />
Phone (901) 947-1520. His web site is<br />
www.andersonmunitions.com and his<br />
e-mail is email @ andersonmun<br />
itions.com .<br />
21101 Todd Rums<br />
"N<br />
Wrong Name<br />
In our last issue, the photo<br />
of Jennifer Reed shooting a<br />
Glock at the Tri-State Championships<br />
was mis-identified<br />
by the authors as being Teresa<br />
Kelley.<br />
The organizers of the Tri-<br />
State wish to apologize, and<br />
offer a "free pass" to any of<br />
their club shoots the next time<br />
either Ms. Kelly, or Ms. Reed<br />
are in the neighborhood. To<br />
claim it, contact Dave Fries at<br />
hammercj@stargate.net .<br />
<strong>Jul</strong>y/<strong>Aug</strong>ust 2002 • FRONT SIGHT 35
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