Update from Hodgdon Powder Company - Jan 12th

[highbrow]

Today,January 19 at a local grocery store 1 dozen eggs were $5.99.
A few months ago I bought a dozen of eggs there on sale on a Sunday for $1.99 a dozen.
That chicken flu isn't over yet.We may see folks robbing others,not for drugs but for grocery items like eggs.

Now with the grizzly bears getting the bird flu, I imagine that the price of grizzly bear eggs will skyrocket.

 

[jshepherd61]

An update as of this afternoon.

POWDER UPDATE 2023

QUICK SUMMARY: In 2023, we anticipate powder availability to return to Pre-COVID conditions. Our powders will be readily available on dealer shelves and for purchase on our website. While demand has remained at a record high for now nearly 3 years, we look forward to closing the gap between demand and supply and thank you for your patience.

WILL ALL YOUR POWDERS BE READILY AVAILABLE?
While there are some exceptions such as our Enduron and Trail Boss powders, the majority of our powders will be easily located via various retailers.

WHY CAN'T HODGDON MAKE MORE POWDER?
We wish it were that simple - what we have experienced since 2020 is a demand issue and not a supply issue. The reality is we are doing everything possible to maximize shipments to our customers, including running overtime in production, packaging and shipping areas and working with our shipping partners to add new inbound and outbound shipping options. During the past 3 years, we broke record after record for powder shipments. We learned what worked best in terms of distribution and will continue to maximize all efforts to maintain this high level of shipping.

WILL HODGDON BUILD ANOTHER PLANT TO KEEP UP WITH FUTURE SPIKES IN DEMAND?
A new powder production facility would require an investment far beyond our finances and no financial institution would finance this type of building project. While the past 3 years of demand appears to be different from demand spikes in the last 20 years, the "normal" powder demand for the U.S. would not support an additional manufacturing plant.

WHY IS HODGDON SELLING POWDER TO AMMUNITION MANUFACTURERS?
Our focus is the handloading enthusiast. Yes, we sell some powder to strategic, mostly smaller ammunition manufacturers, but that is a small part of our business. The heart of our business is smokeless powder for the handloading enthusiast. Every day, we receive calls from potential OEM customers who are looking for powder to load in ammunition. Every day, we politely decline this new business so we can focus on our long-term customers and sales channels and most importantly, our costumers who have supported us for decades.

I'll beleive it when I see it! Check the shelves of Cabelas, Bass Pro. Sportsmans twice a week haven't seen H1000 or Retumbo in three years!

 

[C-130 Dude]

I've been able to get all I need. I just pray the price comes down.

It wont.

 

[MagnumManiac]

An update as of this afternoon.

POWDER UPDATE 2023

QUICK SUMMARY: In 2023, we anticipate powder availability to return to Pre-COVID conditions. Our powders will be readily available on dealer shelves and for purchase on our website. While demand has remained at a record high for now nearly 3 years, we look forward to closing the gap between demand and supply and thank you for your patience.

WILL ALL YOUR POWDERS BE READILY AVAILABLE?
While there are some exceptions such as our Enduron and Trail Boss powders, the majority of our powders will be easily located via various retailers.

WHY CAN'T HODGDON MAKE MORE POWDER?
We wish it were that simple - what we have experienced since 2020 is a demand issue and not a supply issue. The reality is we are doing everything possible to maximize shipments to our customers, including running overtime in production, packaging and shipping areas and working with our shipping partners to add new inbound and outbound shipping options. During the past 3 years, we broke record after record for powder shipments. We learned what worked best in terms of distribution and will continue to maximize all efforts to maintain this high level of shipping.

WILL HODGDON BUILD ANOTHER PLANT TO KEEP UP WITH FUTURE SPIKES IN DEMAND?
A new powder production facility would require an investment far beyond our finances and no financial institution would finance this type of building project. While the past 3 years of demand appears to be different from demand spikes in the last 20 years, the "normal" powder demand for the U.S. would not support an additional manufacturing plant.

WHY IS HODGDON SELLING POWDER TO AMMUNITION MANUFACTURERS?
Our focus is the handloading enthusiast. Yes, we sell some powder to strategic, mostly smaller ammunition manufacturers, but that is a small part of our business. The heart of our business is smokeless powder for the handloading enthusiast. Every day, we receive calls from potential OEM customers who are looking for powder to load in ammunition. Every day, we politely decline this new business so we can focus on our long-term customers and sales channels and most importantly, our costumers who have supported us for decades.

Funny how Hodgdon say they can't invest in another plant when, in fact, they don't make a single powder they sell!
They have never made powder.
The majority of the powder they sell is made right here in Australia.
I just don't understand a company that deceives its customers. The reason the powder is in short supply is due to a fire in 2020 at the Mulwala facility.

Cheers.

 

[LanceS4803]

WILL ALL YOUR POWDERS BE READILY AVAILABLE?
While there are some exceptions such as our Enduron and Trail Boss powders, the majority of our powders will be easily located via various retailers.

Dang it!
I am set for all my other reloading needs, except for Trail Boss to work up a .308 subsonic load.

 

[Veteran]

Today,January 19 at a local grocery store 1 dozen eggs were $5.99.
A few months ago I bought a dozen of eggs there on sale on a Sunday for $1.99 a dozen.
That chicken flu isn't over yet.We may see folks robbing others,not for drugs but for grocery items like eggs.

Have you noticed how bteakfast diners are now offering stuffed hash browns now instead of omlets stuffed w potatoes and veggies and meat? 1 egg inside stuffed hasbrowns......3 eggs in an omelot.
They are getting creative out there.

 

[Don Titus]

People will stop buying powder and buy other things. The Fed will probably still push a 50 basis point bump through again after the numbers that dropped this week, and more pain is still coming. At $45/lb for powder versus the rising cost of gas, groceries, housing, taxes, etx - it'll all shake out in the end.

SRP primers are in stock at half the places I checked today. Even that pinch is ending.

Like to weigh in here.
Lots of panic buying went on when Obummer got elected. Then more when re -elected. Then even more when it looked like that crazy b#:!%€ from Arkansas might win. Then DT got elected, and things calmed down a bit. More shooters got involved in reloading, during all this. And DT seemed to smooth all lot of people's feathers, things calmed down, and shelves were magically restocked, although at somewhat higher prices. Personally, the prices are what kept ME from stocking up. Anyway, then the Great Pandemic hit. Yup...more panic buying. So, in a nut shell, I think we did it to ourselves.
Wish to heck I had bought more back when EVERYBODY had an inventory. Now I gotta watch the net like a hawk, and pounce when I can.

I'm

Ask them why Blackhorn 209 went from $34 for 10 oz to $82 for 8 oz. $164 per pound.

Yep, more precious than gold and more scarce too it seems. Total BS!

 

[Don Titus]

It really is that simple (under free market conditions).

"free market conditions" used to be a valid economic concept…there is no such thing now, with government regulations, "vulture capitalists" and huge companies spending billions to by influence in Washington , thanks to the Supreme Court ruling which essentially said corporations have the same rights as individual citizens. Total nonsense!

 

[Calvin45]

If what they say is true, setting records for production and shipping, then the only answer is the distributors are selling out the back door to their friends, you have a online seller that calls themselves "powder valley " and for more then two years only till just recently, they have had no powder except for the stuff no one uses, there is something we're not being told by someone.

You also have greedy individuals buying up the entirety of what's available at a given location only to immediately put it up for auction. Exacerbated by the idiots who choose to enable this behaviour with what they're willing to pay (and I may have paid something idiotic a while back for some rl25).

I see lots of powder on auction and there's no way in hell it's all just people who were hanging on to it and just decided to sell it now. They're buying it all and flipping it.

Getting truly stupid here in Canada and I hear not much better down the states. I thought I'd read wrong…on a local auction there's been multiple instances now of 200 count federal 215m primers getting over 200 dollars Canadian bid on them. A dollar per freaking primer. I'd be tempted to sell mine at that but then…well I'd have no primers . Routinely seeing h1000 going for up to 170 Canadian per pound.

 

[Gregg C]

Just bought a 1 lb can at the local bass pro. Got the same in Varget. I'm walking around BP looking for a basket with four 1 lb cans tucked under my arms. The stares I got were priceless. Like I literally read one woman's face..."look at that nut job"
Yes, one could say I'm hoarding but it'll go fast once primers are more readily available.

4 lbs is NOT hoarding! My opinion is over 24lbs at one time of the same powder is.

 

[Gregg C]

As an addition to that, if I saw someone doing that, I personally would say nothing. How do I know what they are up against ? Further more, I can see a conversation like that quickly escalating into a confrontation that is completely un-winnable .... By either side.

 

[Calvin45]

4 lbs is NOT hoarding! My opinion is over 24lbs at one time of the same powder is.

If people are actually buying stuff to use it I couldn't care less. And absolutely…if 4 Pounds was hoarding why would they sell it in 8 pound jugs.

What I can't stand is the ugly kind of capitalist impulse that purchases everything and leaves none for anyone else with no need for it or even intent on actually ever using it but only to resell it all for far more than they paid. "Just take what you need" is about as alien a concept to modern folks as any.

 

[Kimber7man]

tag

 

[Raingull]

If people are actually buying stuff to use it I couldn't care less. And absolutely…if 4 Pounds was hoarding why would they sell it in 8 pound jugs.

What I can't stand is the ugly kind of capitalist impulse that purchases everything and leaves none for anyone else with no need for it or even intent on actually ever using it but only to resell it all for far more than they paid. "Just take what you need" is about as alien a concept to modern folks as any.

It used to be extortion was frowned upon. Today it is the primary business model.