Ummmm. They are the ones actively trying to disarm us. What makes you think they would return anything that has any connection to firearms back to us little pleebs. That said, in a perfect world, I agree with you 100%
The gov/military has been doing this for years. On my way home from the Mediterranean we had to throw ammo overboard so that the next group got the same amount for their deployment. It’s stupid but it was military. That was in 91.
Yeah, we dumped huge amounts of materiel in the Pacific after WWII and Vietnam. All the stuff we had in Europe we just left there to rearm friendly nations, otherwise I'm sure all of it would have been dumped as well.
The military and the Federal government are entirely separate. Don't conflate the two. The Army existed before there was a Declaration of Independence and before there was any Constitution. Separate systems of laws, codes, and ceremony.
@@paulsouth4794yes, a lot of powders had (and some still have) a shelf life, and could literally expire due to moisture or chemical decomposition over time. Making them either dud or worse.
@@skydivingcomrade1648 Do you understand that WW I was a long time ago? Public sentiment and mores were vastly different then than now, and I don’t take it to be my proper place to criticize them. It was their world and their time. Unless, of course, we presume ourselves to be perfect, which I do not.
@johncox2865 Our Government has a LONG history of wasting American peoples money. Biden's abandonment of Afghanistan 🇦🇫 is just one recent example of criminal waste. My government gets ZERO room for grace, (they don't give it to others). I don't care what excuse or mental illness they used to waste American citizens money.
Great interview, Thank you. Looks like Hodgdon has a monopoly buying up everybody. You didn't ask the hard questions: Why are so many powders not available ? Are they being controlled by the Government? Who is buying all the powder? And the list goes on and on.
Have always liked and even preferred Hogdon powders. Certainly still among my favorites. Great interview. Too bad powder costs about three times what it did when I started loading, and sometimes more.
This video was very interesting. I understand a lot more about the powders I use now. Unfortunately, regardless of all of the powders and other components I have on my bench, nothing goes boom without primers. Currently I can only load for about half of the cartridges I use due to the severe shortage of large rifle primers. It would be great if you could do a show about that.
Lacking any one component, a cartridge cannot be loaded. The Sniffy- Cackles communist regime known this and no doubt are causing the component shortage on purpose. These tyrant, czar, despot, dictator oppressors will do whatever they can to restrict availability of these products.
Been moulding my own bullets because of ridiculous projectiles cost. Anti lead laws? Started testing pure bismuth and pure zinc in 45 cal including double patched in my 50 FLINTlock. No primers? Percussion caps are primers. No black powder? Substitutes suck in flintlocks but work. Eventually. Pure bismuth isnt bad in handgun. I waterquench straight from the mould. Pure zinc great for rifle. Bismuth expands when it cools. Have to run it through a few sizers starting at 457. Do that with zinc too. Blazer makes 10mm in small pistol primers. 308 match uses small primers. Shortened 454 casull for 45 colt small primer brass. Blazer 45 acp small primers. Hornady ak small primers. Good luck with finding those. All this bull💩left me with trying to figure out work arounds. Saeco 945 is a gas check mould and 45acp still get 850fps plus velocity😊. Slight gun mods. Barrel and spring
I have been Reloading since I was 12 in 1968 for my 30-30 Marlin, I molded my own bullets which had gas checks 173 grain flat nose bullets and I used IMR 4227 19 Grains. I could hit pop cans at 200 yards without a scope. I am so glad that HODGDON puts the Reloader first as now I am loading for myself and a friend, we use 7 different powders between the 2 of us, Loading pistol and rifle ammo.
I was chatting with a gentleman who is a gun smith for Shiloh Sharps Rifle in Big Timber, Mt. He was describing to me the importance of gas checks in molded bullets and I was fascinated by it. Any advice you could share on the casting process? I have been considering casting .303
@@aaronschocke2147i drop bullets straight from the mould into a pan of water. Water quenching. Make sure to size em. Pure bismuth expands when it cools so 452 i start with a 457 and work my way down. Same with pure zinc which is softer than copper solids but a bitch to mould. I use whatever powder exhibits the least pressure. Theres a lead load book which has been awesome. A black powder load book helped too. Closer to pure lead expands more but less penetration on wood. Expands nice on steel. I test rounds on different materials too. Different alloys and different speeds
I met grandpa Bruce Hodgdon in his small booth at the NRA convention in Kansas City in 1981 or 82. He was a very down to earth, straight forward guy who answered all my questions without hesitation. I also got to talk to Elmer Keith at that show. I live only about 35 miles from Hodgdon’s operations at Herington Kansas. I used to occasionally see one of the Hodgdon family members calling on a local gun store. As far as I know, except for Bob and Bruce on the board of directors there are no family members in active daily management of the company.
Great video Ron and very informative. I will say that I no longer hunt anything anymore, ah but I do have glorious memories. And I will say that I have been reloading for fifty years now and all the critters I have bagged in the past were all shot with one of my loads. And yes I agree with you that it is a special feeling to bag a critter with a load that you made yourself. Now a days I just like to plink, and I plink often as there is a nice gravel pit that I ride my quad the 4.5 miles to do just that. One real nice thing about reloading is you can load and shoot a lot of the calibers that are too hard to get or are way, way too expensive to acquire such as .357 and .44 mag, two of my favorite calibers. Though I have some .243 Win, 30-06, 30-30 Win and .300 Win Mag loaded up that I do enjoy plinking with. Anyway, a BIG thanks to the Hodgdon family and to you Ron !!!
I used to buy pulled powder in 2.5 gallon jugs for 35.00 shipped to my door. Same guy would sell casings and the pulled bullets. I used to get the ap and apit in 500 count bags for 20.00 each and a box of 2k count casings for 50.00. F!! I miss those deals.
Not only great products, but an absolutely wonderful family. Hodgdon has a powder for just about any need, and they back them up with the best reloading manuals in the business, which really matters, especially for newbies. I learned to handload when I was just a kid, and proudly sported a big brass Hodgdon belt buckle all through high school. Can't say enough good things about them and their products. Thanks for the great interview Ron.
It is never good when one company buys out all the other companies. Then their is no competition and they can charge what they want. Like we are seeing now. Man....there are a lot of questions iI wish you would of asked him. The upfront truth from this guy would of been nice.
Ron, there must’ve been some questions you wanted to ask, but you didn’t want to put Mr. Hodgdon on the spot; for instance, the supply chain status, how the delivery venders were knee-capped by the Brandon regime to elevate powders and primers to expensive Hazmat level, increasing the cost of business (all by design,) leading to this shortage through production capacity reductions because merchants don’t want to pay the hazmat fees. The manufacturers could say they were at capacity, but like the hospitals removing 50% or more of their beds, they removed production machinery positions, thus reducing to a lesser capacity. If you think the shortages are C_V_D driven, I have a bridge to sell you in Tucson.
Finally someone telling it like it is,hodgdon. Is just a greedy corporation,like all government suppliers.. Fiixing prices,buying up their competitors,and screwing their customers.
Why do we pay so much tax? So the government can waste it! It's not only stupid, and wrong, but wasteful, and goes against the very thing this government was supposed to be opposed to. When is enough enough? When more of us stand up and say "I no longer consent to be governed!"
Wars are wasteful business. But just as important, the companies thr government contracts for things like arms often insist on very expensive penalties for early termination being built into the contract, so it can actually be cheaper for the government to accept then throw away the product rather than cancel the order when it isn't needed anymore. Another example from WW2 is that they were still building B-24 bombers even after the war ended. Those planes would roll off the production line and go straight to the scrapyard. Too costly to stop building them. Also, the government had lots of demobilised soldiers coming home and needing work, cancelling production would have meant the B-24 factory workers would be put of a job and competing with all the returning GIs.
@@nerd1000ify Neither of these points absolve the government of wasting our money, because both wars WW1 and WW2 weren't our business to begin with. If our politicians had bothered to study up on the writings of the Founding Fathers, and the wisdom gleaned from 1000+ years of history they discussed, we would have avoided the traps of foreign entanglements. It's Our money, not theirs, our military is for defending this country, not everyone else's countries thousands of miles away. Look at the trillions of dollars we have wasted just since 2000 on pointless wars, and LOST on every front, and we haven't even dipped into how much the NATO alliance has cost us. Where would we be if we had remained neutral through all of those wars? A hell of a lot better off as a Nation and a much richer Nation, which would be admired and respected around the world, rather than joke we've become.
@wod5203 In case you were unaware, the US only became a combatant in WW2 when the Japanese attacked first. So I think it very much was the USA's business, self defense being a fundamental principle of the constitution and all that...
@@nerd1000ify Why did they attack us? It wasn't because our 'diplomats' were doing everything in their capacity to disregard or dishonor the Japanese diplomats? It certainly wasn't because we offered aid to the Chinese who were actively engaged with the Japanese was it? It wasn't because Hitler allied with Japan and directed them to provoke us because we were also dirty-dealing with European partners actively engaged with Germany. So yeah, if we had had minded our own business and avoided foreign entanglements, we wouldn't have wasted our resources, lives, and wouldn't be the worlds police force now.
I bought some H335 surplus that came in a Hodgdon"s marked box. The powder was in a plastic bag with a hand printed tag marked H335. $3.50 per pound to the door.
Ron, Now that is how an interview is done. Great job. A lot of useful information and some history. Thanks for spending the time to give this to us. Great Video.
I sure would like to believe that the consumer, or the handloader is where your heart lies, but it sure is hard when all these manufacturers are pumping out loaded ammunition, and there’s no powder available to the hand loader
As a young fella starting an ammo company I was fortunate enough to get Chris on the phone and for some reason he gave me a commercial account with credit terms. It’s been almost 20 years and I owe a great deal of my success to that relationship. Hats off Chris, God speed.
IMR 4895 was the first powder I ever loaded my own ammo with. I still use it on rare occasions for moderately heavy 45-90 loads for my Japanese Winchester 1886's and Marlin 1895's. Not the best powder for 45-70 especially with light bullets, but it will work in a pinch. I have tons of it. More modern powders are so expensive and hard to find right now, but availability is slowly getting better here in Michigan
After blowing a primer in the summer with winter loads, I was all over Varget when it came out. It's still the go-to for my accuracy loads. Thanks for the video, Ron. And thank-you, Hodgedon!
@@MrOlgrumpynot correct, AR2208 (varget) was developed for the Australian military for international,all weather use. Your Hogdon man found out about it and got US distribution rights.
Hodgdon fanatic here! Means a lot to me when a man talks about his Granddaddy! In the world we live in today, so many companies go under because the original founder passes and the family either ruins the biz or sell it for cash! I love the lineage and they have a customer for life. Great video RS
I live up in Canada and if it wasn't for you guys we would have no powder Alliant it's absolutely nowhere to be found. So I want to thank you guys for keeping us going up here.
Okay, your title hooked me in, and you didn't lie: right up front you discussed how our government throws perfectly good stuff in the sea. I probably wouldn't have watched if the title were "interview with Hodgdon CEO," but I stuck with it and enjoyed the full interview. Thanks.
What an informative & interesting episode Ron! Made me think of learning reloading with my Great Uncle, a founding member of Missouri Dept. of Conservation & after his death in 84’, my Dad got his stuff & continued my “reloading education”. From Shot-shell loading to Rimmed .303 British & Rimless .30-06’ Springfield and even pouring our own “Cast Lead”, wadcutter’s .38Spc./.357Mag. Memories I’ll treasure the rest of my life & pass on to my 3 sons & my grandson and granddaughter. Great stuff Ron!! I absolutely love your videos Ron! Thank You good Sir!! Just to show you how good, interesting & informative you are my oldest son was telling me about a specific cartridge he was thinking about at the time & he’s telling me “Dad, I can remember the guys name but he’s on RU-vid & he really knows his stuff”. I asked him who it was & he responded “Well, I can’t remember how to pronounce his last name but he’s smart Dad!” I asked him if it was a guy named “Ron Spomer”, & he said “I can’t remember but his last name is kind of different but all I know is he knows what he’s talking about!”. Of course I told him “Look up a guy by the name of “Ron Spomer”, and you’ll really enjoy his content”. Well a bit of time passed & he came to me and says “Dad, that’s the guy I’ve been watching!” I knew I’d taught my boy the right way & he’d found you on his own just as I had & we both as “Father & Son”, get to enjoy & re-hash your latest content/video’s all the time & we really enjoy that. Thanks so much for ALL you do Ron!! Your friend from south-central “Booger County”, Missouri! Take care my friend!!
Fantastic video! I’m a handloader, life long at that. I use lots of your various powders from these brands. Thank you for your commitment to the handloaders!
Thank you Ron, I really enjoyed this video. I Am I have a loader of only three or four years, but I really enjoy it. Very glad for the questions about the H4831SC, and H4831, that is the of the very best powder for the 270 Winchester, 130 grain.
I was going to Gunsmithing School in Susanville in 1951 and started in reloading. One of my buddies a WW2 Marine vet, also a reloader, he arranged to order 400 pounds of 4895 from Hodgeon, it came in a RR car all strapped down in the middle of the car. We all splurged and I got 15 pounds which cost me $10... what a deal!
would of been interesting had you touched on the subject of short supplies of most gun powders these last few years and get hodgdons point of view on what they are doing to change the situation
I was born in 1946 and when I started reloading in my teens I bought a lot of 4859 in what I believe was ice cream tubs they were round heavy cardboard. I think it was 1.98a pound. I still use a lot of hodgdon. H380 works great in 22-250s
I have been handloading ammo for almost 50 years now and I have used many pounds of Hodgdon Powders and IMR Powders over the years loading about 40+ calibers now , since I am after accuracy and performance. I have cut back loading due to cost and availability of Primers and some shortages of the Powders I prefer for my pet loads. This was a great interview ! Thanks , I still have some of the old Cans as shown too .
Hay Ron, Chris mentioned ADI powders are one of his suppliers. Here in Australia there is a shortage of shotgun and pistol powders and the best delivery info we have from ADI is next year. We handloaders are really struggling.
Just wanted to say love your products Mr Hodgdon. I wish the prices weren’t so high for a pound. And I wish we could see some more 8 pound containers. But otherwise thanks for keeping us loading.
When my son and i went to the Philmont Boy Scout camp in New Mexico, there was a shotgun reloading camp sponsored by Hodgdon. The boys LOVED it. They each loaded 2 hulls and got to fire them.
Back in the 80's I was part of a group who tested the M249 S.A.W. and near the end of testing there was sill 100,000 rounds left , there was 15 weapons with 2 spare barrels and we were told we had to fire all that ammo before leaving . Yee -Haw ! Someone asked why waste the ammo , they replied , if we don" use it , all future tests on any weapons would be effected by our bad decision not to use the ammo.
Was it green tip M855 or M193? I had some of my best days in my first Recon Platoon because it was Regimental Recon, where we had A, B, C, D, E, H, and HHC Companies' allotments of ammo, demo, pyro, and AT4s to blow through that they didn't even know about. We spent all our time in the field while they spent most of the year in garrison. Our 8-day Immediate Action Drill training, week-long zero, qual, and live-fires, or 8-day demo range weeks were awesome. We had M16A1s still in 1994-1995, got the heavier M16A2s in fall of 1995.
Ron! You should have asked about prices! If what we’re seeing is just do to high demand/low supply and should settle down some, or if today’s prices are is as low as they’re ever going to be from here on out. Obviously worded in a non offensive way, as your vocabulary is much much bigger than most of ours.
When I started reloading in the 60s, I used Hodgdon surplus powders and IMR 4895, 3031, 4350, 4831, but the Hodgdon powders were cheaper. Today we have 100s of types of powders, these are the good ole days.
When you work up the right load for your rifle it feels great going into the field with complete confidence that you can make the perfect shot that makes the perfect hunt a reality.
H4895! Rats it would be nice to get some. Metering? Heck I've been weighing each and every load, including competition pistol. Just a side effect from batch loading and wanting consistency in my power factor or impact point.
I remember when varget came out. I was living in northern Alaska and hunting caribou in -30 so I got some right away and it was amazing how well it worked. There was no click boom, just boom and dead on every time.
Next time please ask why the powder all disappeared during covid (understandable) but when they started filling the shelves, the powder is marked 4 times higher in price than it was before the shelves emptied. Many people in my area have quit shooting sports because of the price hike.
This company is working with the government and making a shortage of powder. This company should be broke up for having a monopoly. He is not for the hand loader. He’s scared of getting broken up. This guy should be ashamed of himself ,bragging that he bought up all the competition.😂
Well back in 1919 environmental protection wasn't something many people were concerned with. Especially the oceans, people thought they were just too big for anything humans did to have any impact.
@@nerd1000ify Which frankly is true. Dumping in oceans is a big bad today, but it actually doesn't harm it as many microbes actually metabolize these chemicals. People forget these chemicals come from the ground to begin with, so a lot of these chemicals are being emitted from the ocean floor regularly. I remember when tons of "marine biologists" were going crazy about oil spills and then while they were trying to figure out the next money making "solution", deep sea algae swam up ate all the oil and sunk back down taking away their payday opportunity.
@DaveSmith-cp5kj there are numerous materials that are environmentally damaging even at infinitesimal concentrations. One example that immediately comes to mind is tributyltin, which caused local population collapses in marine invertebrates simply by leaching out of the anti-fouling paint on ship hulls. Another emerging example is PFOA which is causing many concerns for human health due to tiny amounts contaminating groundwater.
@@nerd1000ify That is what was claimed, but it never was scientifically established. It has been decades later and that decline has continued in other parts of the world as well. We now know it had nothing to do with the chemical, but had to do with the basicity of the water itself. And this is a huge problem with environmental "sciences". Lots of claims are thrown out and repeated, but there is little (or often none) evidence to isolate something as the cause, only broad conclusions based on correlation.
Have been using hodgdon over 25 year's.... few years ago I found stabil 6.5 to be very accurate and temp stable... he is right clays burns perfectly clean.... love hodgdon powder
In Kuwait, the Army would take tons of ammunition into the desert and detonate it all because they said it was expired and didn't want to pay to ship it back to the US
Used H4831 In My .270 Winchester For Ever 40 Years A Jack O'Conner Favorite Handload . Excellent Powder. Would Buy It By The 8 Lbs Keg On Last Keg Now.
Can't get Retumbo and can't get LRM primers going on 3+ years now. Seems to me the military-government contracts priority must be soaking up all the production.
Nothing new with that. The UK dumped millions of tons of ordnance after WW1 & 2 in the waters around the UK. I know, coz fishermen kept finding some and I had to dispose of it - the fun part of being an RN Diving and Bomb Disposal Officer.
That filled in a lot of detail about the company. I use a fair bit of Tite Group in pistols and it works well, and my favourite for the old 303 British is BLC-2 that gives near 308 ballistics with 150gr bullets with low pressures suitable for those old No1 Lee Enfield rifles that are so common here in New Zealand. The same powder does well in .308 as well which simplifies things a lot. Back in the day I used a lot of AR2208 from ADI (it was called "Mulwex" back then) and I believe that Hodgdon markets it as Varget. Good stuff. We use the Aussie powders a fair bit here as they are more available. 777 is good stuff for those occasions when the BP supply dries up, although we do have a local maker here now and that is usually available, but when money is tight I can make my own. It's time consuming up the cost is minimal. Hodgdon has become the major producer in this part of the world (outside of Europe) and there are good reasons for that. Long may they continue to produce and innovate...
😜 Thanks for the Question on H4831/H4831SC powder Ron, even though I had already been told that answer! But, if the H4831SC powder can fit more powder into the case, is it really "the same powder"? NOT if you're already pushing maximum charges with H4831, IT'S NOT (Yes, it has the same chemical composition, but different shape/size)! Part of the problem is that the Reloading Manuals don't have the charges listed for every powder in every cartridge - so, that additional powder being put into the case, from a size/packing prospective, could cause pressure problems! H4831SC, along with H1000, are my two favorite powders (though H4350 is good too)! 👍🤠 I only like to use temperature stable powders, for hunting, in my rifles now! 🤑
Doesnt surprise me. One time I was manning the range toward the end of the fiscal year, mid 90's. A truck pulled up with 10,000 rounds of 5.56 ammo that we had to shoot up, because if we didnt, we wouldnt get as much the following year. We had 7 guys and 5 M16's, and we started just firing it up. No targets, no aiming, just blasting away. We got through it all, but overheating redered 2 of the weapons inoperable. It was NOT FUN. Hand loading all that ammo, pulled off stripper clips with no magazine loader. Sucked.
I got to do that with a pallet of 7.62x39. My roommate and I were range safety officers (lcpl usmc) back in 1989-90time frame, and after familiarization shoots with the various infantry and artillery units personnel getting to fire 10 rounds through AKMs captured on Grenada, there was still a pallet of ammunition needing to be fired. The last unit left a couple of Marines behind to load magazines for us and we rattled off ammo as fast as we could until rifle was too hot then we’d grab another model and repeat. Don’t remember how long we were shooting but it was a fair bit of time. Fired all of it. Then hauled the brass by the wheelbarrow full over to the bins empty brass was held in.
