Buying ammunition in Canada requires a firearms licence, but some people make their own ammunition, and gun and gang experts say that has led to a black market in the sale of bullets.

"It would be nice if people had to have a licence to buy the components; currently they don't," said Deputy Chief Tony Cooper of the Ontario Firearms Office. 

If you're over 18, it's legal to buy all the components needed to make bullets — primers, gunpowder, casings and bullet tips. For about $100, a person can buy enough supplies to make 1,000 "hand-load" homemade bullets.

"It's very common … for people to hand-load. I would say it's been something that's been done for a couple of hundred years," said Cooper. 

He says hand-load bullets are commonly used by hunters and target shooters.

The fear is the hand-load bullets will get into the hands of the wrong people.

Cooper said "it's the exception, certainly not the rule," but it is a concern.

No one knows how many hand-load bullets make it onto the streets because there has never been an audit of casings from crime scenes.