When I find a powder that works etc.....I get all I can in same lotI'm going to vent. I'm probably gonna get kicked off the forum, but I think I'm speaking for most of us when I ask if the people running Hodgdon have their heads up their --- or something. Retumbo, H4350, H1000, Varget, are all STAPLES of the Hodgdon brand, and it's like trying to find pixie dust. Do they want to lose customers? Why is it that a company who makes gunpowder, and has been doing so forever, can't keep up with demand? Are they not investing enough of their profits into the company and their equipment? You would think that the demand for their products would be incentive for them to make more of it.
Am I missing something here? For all of the powder companies out there, now is a great time for them to get their engineers and marketing teams in order and produce powders that are temp stable with comparable burn rates. When I find something that will replace my Hodgdon powders, I'm jumping ship. Their management appears to be about as in touch with their customers as Remington's marketing.
I have a friend just like that: scary?As mentioned is as reloaders get the scraps left from military and other ammunition manufacturers. CCI was I believe the only company that started up geared towards John Q Public.
It is actually pretty simple to keep stuff on hand. What ever you use, say 1 pound per year of xyz powder. When you open a new one, you should be shopping for another to put on the shelf. Same with primers.
When I was shooting heavily on the competitive side, it was 8lb jugs and 5k of primers at a time. Hoarding? No not if you actually use it. Powder or primers on a killer sale,simple, stock up. Buddy and I ordered CCI primers years ago and folks said we were nuts. Maybe we were for ordering 500k. Ate ramen noodles and hotdogs for a while, but for half price at the time and they were available......it didn't hurt near as bad two years later when you couldn't find any, and when ya did they were 3x as high.
Kinda like my ex wife and here new car, never fill the tank and never fuel up till the light came on, yet she kept a small gas jug full in the trunk in case she ran out
No offense meant to anyone and not making excuses for anything.
I have Alcan 5, 7 Blue dot, some older ones stored properly for years and work fine....no red dust....no smells...it stores for longer than you think under right conditions. Of course for precision you will use fresh powders of same lot.No mystery whatsoever. I've been stockpiling for years. I still have Hercules Red Dot, Blue Dot, and Green Dot, in the cans/canisters. I'd have to dig for it but it's buried in there somewhere. Any person with a functioning brain knows what could happen. This country is one election away from a complete disaster. They won't get me!!
Try Bruno'sWell, they lost me. I've been searching for Retumbo & H1000 for about a year now in AZ. Our Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabelas/Bass Pro haven't seen any in the last 12 months. I get the temporary flux of supply and demand, but not being able to get your product to the market in over a year? I've switched over to Alliant. At least I can find some of their powders every now and then. Given the fact that Alliant s now harder to find suggests that more than a few shooters have switched over. The question is: once Hodgdon corrects the problem, will they be able to earn these customers back.
Well, they lost me. I've been searching for Retumbo & H1000 for about a year now in AZ. Our Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabelas/Bass Pro haven't seen any in the last 12 months. I get the temporary flux of supply and demand, but not being able to get your product to the market in over a year? I've switched over to Alliant. At least I can find some of their powders every now and then. Given the fact that Alliant s now harder to find suggests that more than a few shooters have switched over. The question is: once Hodgdon corrects the problem, will they be able to earn these customers back.
I just ordered 14 pounds of my back up powder because my preferred powder is out of stock everywhere. I too learned the same lesson back in 2008.I always have at least two powders and two bullets per gun to choose from. Right now I have enough powder to burn out the barrels of each rifle I load for. When the shortage happened in 2014-2016 I told myself I'll never be without again. Some of the powders I have as backups might not be what I want, but they will work.
Im always trying to be one step ahead.