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Winchester/hodgdon..?


Merlin Orr

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This is actually good news for us. It should mean more copious load data on some powders, like WST, WSF and 231, as well as consistency of data for 231/HP38 and 540/HS6. My FLD doesn't stock Winchester products, but gets Hodgdon, so it'll be easier to get 231 and 296 for me.

I'm also looking forward to the new load data Hodgdon generates for IMR powders, since most IMR handgun data hasn't changed since I started loading in the 80s.

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The agreement does not mean that all Winchester Powders will disappear, what Winchester currently make will be available through Hodgdon.

Winchester over the last ? years have ditched a whole pile of powders from their inventory.

Hodgdon have added powders. Titegroup, Longshot, Titewad, Lilgun come to mind immediately

All these powders are made by St Marks Powders in the USA, who also make for Winchester. Hodgdon will be distributing Winchester Powders alongside Hodgdon Branded Powders.

Yes there is a lot of same burn rate powders.

But you can't buy an equivalent in Winchester of H335, H380, Titegroup, Longshot, Titewad, Lilgun. You may even see the reintroduction of some of the deleted Winchester Powders, it would be nice. But with Hodgdon now owning IMR as well you would expect to see and or get all three Powders from many of the shops that would previously only carry one of the brands, Hazmat fees are a real pain to retailers, too many small suppliers and you loose track, now you will be spoiled for choice.

This will give Hodgdon three sources of supply for their powders.

IMR, St Marks and Australian Defense Industries. Means if there is a problem with one supplier you can count on another to help out.

revchuck is right about the load data, Hodgdon have one of the best ballistic labs in the world.

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I'd love to see that, but I'm a little skeptical by nature...

I've seen a lot of companies say "when we merge, we'll keep all the product lines and it'll be great for our customers".. then a year later "to improve efficiencies, we'll be dropping half the product line.."

Pricing usually doesn't improve when there's less competition either..

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All I know is that the price of components is going up at a faster rate than my income. 4 years ago, I used to pay $11/lb for Titegroup and $60/5K for primers. Now I can't touch Titegroup for $15/lb and primers are $90/5K. That's what, a 40 to 50% increase in 4 years?

Somebody's making more money, and it sure ain't me.

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As I recall, Winchester has not made powder for a number of years. They spun off the powder making portion of the business. They then continued to market the powders made by the new entity. Hodgdon also acquired powder from the powder company, as well as others marketing powders.

Thus, the new agreement sounds more of a licensing agreement (and I've not read it at this time, so I likely should not make such an assumption) where Hodgdon is taking care of the distribution, and, perhaps, packaging as well since they are announcing new containers.

My recollection is that Alliant and the Winchester spin-off company are the only two powder manufacturers in the US, unless Hodgdon moved the IMR production back to the US - and I've not heard that has happened.

Guy

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I'm not really sweating powder prices yet. Heck, $11 to $15 adds about $2 per 1000 rounds of reloaded 9mm. The brass I lose when I'm lazy costs a lot more. Bullet prices however ....

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The price of all reloading componentry has incresed by at least 10% per annum ove the last 10 years. Except projectiles which up to recently were only going up about 2 or 3% per annum. This is based on US manufacturer costings. I get the price list to keep an eye on what the shop I work at needs to buy.

Projectiles have incresed by at least 15% in the last 12 months, all down to material costs. This is really where it hurts us down here. With the cost of the materials going up, costs of freight (fuel) are getting out of sight, Government Compliance costs (export permits and surcharges by the freight companies for handling Licenceable product). I expect even more price increases in all projectiles again this year.

So buy what you can afford before you can't.

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  • 2 years later...
This is actually good news for us. It should mean more copious load data on some powders, like WST, WSF and 231, as well as consistency of data for 231/HP38 and 540/HS6. My FLD doesn't stock Winchester products, but gets Hodgdon, so it'll be easier to get 231 and 296 for me.

I'm also looking forward to the new load data Hodgdon generates for IMR powders, since most IMR handgun data hasn't changed since I started loading in the 80s.

So, the characteristics of HP38 = 231? Almost like the same powder in a different can?

thanks

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This is actually good news for us. It should mean more copious load data on some powders, like WST, WSF and 231, as well as consistency of data for 231/HP38 and 540/HS6. My FLD doesn't stock Winchester products, but gets Hodgdon, so it'll be easier to get 231 and 296 for me.

I'm also looking forward to the new load data Hodgdon generates for IMR powders, since most IMR handgun data hasn't changed since I started loading in the 80s.

So, the characteristics of HP38 = 231? Almost like the same powder in a different can?

thanks

Yup. If you look in the current Hodgdon data online or in their "Annual Manual", the start and max loads, as well as the velocities, are identical.

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