Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is Hodgdon now a powder monopoly

Considering
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/15489179#Post15489179

and inflation, I suspect that powder prices isn't much worse then when I bought this H322.

Thanks for the info on your use of their powders A_S.

I believe you just made the case that Hodgdon does in fact now largely have monopolistic control of the market. While they may not have a true lock on distribution, the high barriers to entry that you point out create the defacto monopoly. Additionally, I suspect Hodgdon likely has an exclusive agreement for marketing some of their powders.

If Hodgdon takes the lead on some modest price increases, I suspect Alliant and Shooters World will not object to participating.

405wcf

This will interest the Canadians. With Hodgdon's acquisition of Accurate, Higginson Powders will be the CDN distributor.

I contacted Andrew Higginson a few weeks ago, and received this, dated 30 Nov 20.

...with regards to Accurate & Ramshot powders, we just received information from Hodgdon this morning. We expect to see some arrive late winter early spring, some types are not yet approved for Canada and our import permits will have to be updated. As soon as we receive any of these types, our price list will be updated.

For Canadians, this is good news. Higginson is a long time distributor of Hodgdon powder up here. From their website,

FROM 1898 GEORGE OWEN HIGGINSON MANUFACTURED BUILDERS LIME AND DISTRIBUTED EXPLOSIVES TO 1952. FROM 1952 THOMAS TWEED HIGGINSON DISTRIBUTED 2.2 MILLION POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVES PER YEAR. AS WELL AS THE FIRST CANADIAN DISTRIBUTOR OF NOBEL POWDERS AND OVER 40 YEARS DISTRIBUTING HODGDON POWDERS AND HORNADY BULLETS ACROSS CANADA.

Another comment, with some more details on how Western Powders became a pretty sizeable player in the powder biz:

The company was originally formed as a family company distributor of blasting powders/dynamite for mining. The family eventually got into distributing reloading powders. and was already distributing Hodgdon and IMR powders (which were then separate companies) in 2000 when they decided to distribute "Ramshot" powders, which they bought from Belgium and St. Marks in Florida.

For a relaively small company, they were pretty sharp about promotiion. They invited a few gun writers to try some (especially the Belgian powders) on a prairie dog shoot/factory tour, but unlike bigger companies couldn't pay travel expenses. But they would provide all expenses once the writers got to Miles City, and provide handloaded ammo for the PD shoot. As a result, all the writers who attended lived pretty close to Miles City--including me, as it's about a 6-hour drive.

The handloaded ammo worked very well, and I picked up samples of the powder while there. After testing it thoroughly over the next year (including shooting various handloads at both "normal" temperatures and at zero Fahrenheit), I started writing about it. The three Belgian powders then available were TAC, Big Game and Magnum (oigiinally called Big Boy, a mistake since it was too close to Big Game). They changed the name that year, and all three powders turned out to be very clean-burning (not exactly normal for spherical powders at the time) but pretty temperature-stable (VERY unusual for spherical powders at the time). So I started using them for more hunting, which eventually included animals from prairie dogs to moose, and reported on my results.

Several other writers did as well, and soon they started selling pretty well--enough that Western could pay ALL expenses for more writers to attend the annual PD shoot. They also started expanding their pressure-testing lab, to the point where they did testing for some other companies, including a major bullet manufacturer. They also acquired the rights to the Accurate Arms name, and started having those powders made to their specs.

But it took 20 years (and a major financial investment) to build the business up to the point where Hodgdon became interested enough to acquire Western Powders--which evidently includes not just the powder distribution facility but the pressure lab.

as to whether reloaders will try new powders.... when i started reloading, there was hercules for pistol and shotgun powders; and dupont , with imr. that's what was on the shelf. there was alcan but i never saw any. there also was a little company called hodgdon, who repackaged surplus powder. it was in cans then.

if you open a new reloading manual and compare it to the lyman 44 manual i started with, you will see that there are quite a few 'new' powders which have developed a following.

not saying it's easy, but it can be done.

John,

Have you done any testing on the Shooters World powders? Burn rate comparison, temperature stability, etc? Would love to read your results.

John

I got a supply in maybe 6 months ago, and per my usual practice try them when their data indicates they might be a top choice for a certain cartridge/bullet combination. Consequently have only tried a few--and haven't had the opportunity to do any serious temperature testing.

Thanks John.

Thanks from me, as well. Just in case I were to ever come across any Shooters World powders it would be nice to have some info or load data concerning that.

Google it.
They have good data on their website.