Luckily I have about 6 lbs of 4451 left, it goes quick though. Will need to develop other loads now with H4350 or RL16. So now I'll need to stock up on those.
Who produces our military propellant? And where?Hodgdon doesn't own or operate any smokeless powder factories. St. Marks, in FL, is the only one still in the US and last I knew they didn't make extruded powders. It also wouldn't be Hodgdon's decision for them to make it if they did.
Hodgdon is just a middle man. They buy powder in bulk, within certain specs, from powder manufacturers and package it with their labels and sell it as such.
DuPont used to make a ton of powder in the US, and operated like 40 some facilities at one time, but they were broken up after the government shut them down due to anti-trust laws to stop the monopoly they had. Hercules took over some of their factories, and IMR (previously owned and started by DuPont) operated stand alone for a bit before expanding into Canada. They later closed down production completely in the US. Hodgdon purchased the IMR name and label and General Dynamics now owns and operates the facility in Canada. A ton of the other IMR product lines moved to production in facilities in Scotland and other European facilities. Last I knew, IMR 4064 was being made in Scotland, as an example.
Hercules was bought by ATK and became Alliant, which is now owned by Vista. Most of their powders are made in Europe, but a few are made at the General Dynamics facility and St. Marks facility.
It's all a mess and hard to follow and keep up with lol.
I honestly don't know anymore. The Lake City Ammunition Plant produces the vast majority of all US military ammo. Last I knew, they made every part but the powder. It used to come from DuPont. After they broke apart I believe they sourced powder from their predecessors. Today that would most likely be General Dynamics. St Marks, in Florida, is another likely possibility.Who produces our military propellant? And where?
Yeah, H4350 comes fromI was using 4451 in my Creed but it is a near clone to H4350. Using the same charge, the 4350 was about 30 ft/sec faster. Accuracy was about the same. Fortunately for us, H4350 has been popping up all around lately. They had a ton of it on the shelf at Cabelas in PA when I was there 2 weeks ago.
They say that the current demand and lack of supply isn't sustainable enough to justify the HUGE expense and process of building the facility, the cost and process of being compliant with EPA and other regulations, hiring competent workers, etc, etc.Sounds like we need a U.S. based powder manufacturer or Hodgdon needs to actually make powder instead of being a middle man. It would be so convenient and nice to have a domestic manufacturer that didn't have to deal with and rely on imports from overseas and problems out of their control. There's obviously a huge market and demand for quality powder whether we're in normal times or the predicament we're in now. With the number of ammunition manufacturers, bullet makers, and even new primer companies opening up, I'm really surprised there's no domestic smokeless powder manufacturers.