In Range

Globalization and its economic confrères, free trade and capitalism can be thanked for many of the benefits of modern life. A new washing machine today is vastly cheaper in relative terms than it would have been for our parents 60 years ago. Same with a power mower.

Telephone service?  In the 1990s, when my sporadic freelance income required careful management, the monthly phone bill was a major concern. Today, it hardly figures. It’s a fraction of what it was, not just in relative terms but in actual dollars. As for computers, when I bought my first one, a Sanyo, in 1985, it cost me $2,000 plus; my last iMac, seven years ago, set me back about $1800, and the difference in power and capability is the same as between a lame donkey and a Lamborghini.

All of this convenience comes at a price, however. Often the price is hidden and dismissed as purely theoretical. Hey, it’ll never happen!  But happen it does, and happen it is, right now, and handloaders, especially, are coming face to face with it.

Globalization means everything is intertwined, and what disturbs one end of the twine inevitably reaches the other.

Let’s start with war and gunpowder, inseparable since forever.

Gunpowder is the most basic requirement of any military, and every modern country wants to have at least one facility, public or private, with the capacity to produce it. But wars come and go, military contracts do the same, and these companies need to make a profit in the meantime. So, they sell some gunpowder to ammunition companies, or mining companies, or whomever. Even space programs, believe it or not, have uses for powders that have been around for eons; the Space Shuttle, for example, used copious amounts of IMR-4227.

If there is any leftover, they may look for export markets, and when those mass purchases are exhausted, any surplus can be sold to be made up into canister lots and sold to us.

Compared to the requirements of governments, armies and munitions companies, the handloading market is minuscule. We’re not just low priority; we are no priority.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, the fighting has eaten up vast quantities of gunpowder and forced a global repositioning of defense industries as companies scramble to supply Ukraine. Not only that, with Russia once again posing a real military threat, countries not at war have suddenly discovered the need to rebuild their military, rearm their troops and replenish the arsenals. All of this swallows gunpowder in huge gulps.

With globalization and the general loosening of trade restrictions over the past 40 years, domestic powder suppliers like Hodgdon have ventured far afield to find supplies, importing powders from Canada, Australia and Europe, among others. Suddenly, finding these sources diverted to other purposes than the needs of the American handloader, certain powders are suddenly no longer available – and, presumably, won’t be again in the foreseeable future.

One such casualty is the sterling trio of Hodgdon Clays, Universal Clays and International Clays, three propellants that, among them, can meet just about every shotgun need. They have been mainstays for decades but are now gone. Since they were sourced in other countries, who knows when, if ever, they might return?

Lest you think such a dire outcome awaits only imported powders, consider the case of Unique.

If ever a powder had an appropriate name, it’s Unique. It can be used in rifles, handguns and shotguns, and while it might not be ideal for every purpose, it can make most guns go bang at the appropriate time. Produced since 1899 (second only to Bullseye, a year older), it’s a powder that should be on everyone’s shelf and one of three powders I hope never to be without, the other two being IMR-3031 and any of the 4350s.

Unique is a double-based powder, originally a product of E.I. du Pont de Nemours, the giant chemical concern. In 1912, du Pont was forced to divest part of its gunpowder production under anti-trust legislation. The double-based powders – Unique, Bullseye, Herco and so on – became part of a new company, Hercules, while the single-based powders were retained and given the IMR (Improved Military Rifle) prefix.

Since then, both outfits have led adventurous and sometimes wayward lives. Over the course of a century, Hercules expanded, split, amalgamated and changed hands in a tangle almost impossible to unravel. Throughout it all, it managed to produce such stalwarts as Bullseye, Unique, Herco and Red Dot.

In 1992 or thereabouts, the powder division was spun off to become part of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) of Minnesota, which in turn was part of a conglomerate, military and civilian, that included Federal Cartridge, CCI, Speer, RCBS and Blackhawk, among others. The line of powders was renamed Alliant, and the distinctive profile of Hercules disappeared from canister labels.

Subsequently, ATK was broken up into two companies (2015), and in 2018, the former Hercules powder operation was acquired by Northrop Grumman – one of America’s oldest, largest, and most successful aerospace and armaments conglomerates.

If you want your head to spin and your eyes to cross, try tracing your way through the Gordian knot of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and so on, involving Hercules, just since 1990, never mind the 90 years previous. In Complete Guide to Handloading (1st. Ed., 1937), Philip B. Sharpe wrote “The powder industry of the United States is so thoroughly interwoven that it is difficult for a historian to state definitely ‘which firm was which and when’.” One might logically have assumed Alliant had its own powder mill, producing the precious stuff with only handloaders in mind, but such is far from the case. In fact, its mills now belong to Northrop Grumman, which supplies the military and munitions makers and releases its surplus to Alliant to be repackaged and sold to us. Suddenly, there is no surplus, and just as suddenly – or so it seems – almost every Alliant powder is out of stock everywhere you look.

We are now seeing the downside of globalization and, unlike washing machines, power mowers, and telephones, without the overall lower prices and greater selection.

Just last night, I received an email from a correspondent, owner of many rifles and a handloader of long-standing, taking the decidedly pessimistic view that the days of going to the range a week or two ahead of hunting season to sight in your rifle are gone – that shortages of ammunition and loading components have made it impossible for many people to do even such basic – and essential – shooting.

That, I believe, is going overboard. You may not be able to find exactly what you want, but with a little effort,you should be able to find something usable, at least in both ammunition and components. I cannot imagine anyone today going deer hunting with a rifle that isn’t sighted in. But then, maybe I lead a sheltered life.

Meanwhile, my correspondent certainly seems to be correct when it comes to Bullseye and Unique, and although the current owners of the Alliant name in consumer powders insist, they will be available again as soon as possible. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

It just leaves us, once again, urging that when components do come back on the market, we should stock up. Is that inciting people to hoard?  Maybe. But tell me, what’s the alternative?