Where is all the Alliant Powder?

[Kracken McGraw]

The current World military demand for ammo is a large part of it, yes, but it's not the ammo or the powder itself that's the issue, it's the nitrocellulose used to make the powder. Powder makers that make their own nitrocellulose "usually" don't have the supply problem that plagues other powder makers. Why? Because sourcing cotton, the raw material for nitrocellulose, is much less susceptible to supply chain demands than depending on the nitrocellulose itself.

I switched almost entirely to Vihtavuori for that reason. They make all of their own nitrocellulose and have steady cotton suppliers for the raw material. Be willing to reformulate for a different powder and you'll rarely have supply issues.

My local gun shop always has a plentiful and varying supply of Vihtavuori powders for both pistol and rifle. And, Vihtavuori is now cheaper than Hodgdon in the same use-case powders. For example, Hodgdon H4831SC is $70 bucks but Vihtvuori N565 and N568 is $54 bucks at my local shop.

I just checked, neither Alliant nor Hodgdon make their own nitrocellulose. That would explain their supply issues and and current higher price differential to Vihtavuori.

That’s very interesting, I never knew cotton was used for the nitrocellulose.

 

[jelenko]

Sitting in my underground bunkers......

I was just going to say that.

 

[64Rambler]

That’s very interesting, I never knew cotton was used for the nitrocellulose.

Yes, the old word is "gun cotton"

 

[rfd]

Be-86 has some promise amongst several people, but ...........also Alliant.

I found BE-86, it's definitely available, or at least was available a few weeks ago. Using it for .45 Colt and it works as well if not better than the unobtanium Unique.

 

[DrLogik]

That’s very interesting, I never knew cotton was used for the nitrocellulose.

Yep, and to make matters more complicated there's really only one major manufacturer of "energetic" nitrocellulose (NC) in the United States and it is a joint venture between the government (Army) and private industry - the Radford Army Ammunition Plants (2) in, get this, ...Virginia. The arrangement may be similar to the Lake City ammo plant where a bulk of the military ammo is made.

There used to be more NC plants but Radford is the major supplier for now. It is a very dirty production process that requires a ton of water. General Dynamics has reached an agreement with Canada to start production of energetic nitrocellulose but I'm not sure that plant has gone online yet.

This pretty much explains why the civilian supply of powders and ammunition fluctuates all over the place. If a bulk of the NC is made in one of two plants in the US and a few off-shore companies, and their production is aligned to the military, then we consumers are second or third in line.

Right now I'll bet all of the plants are maxed out in production for the military. My guess is the world militaries "may" also be leaning on Nammo, the parent company of Vihtavuori for NC also but so far the supply of Vihtavuori powder has been pretty steady from my observations.

I used to do safety consulting for a company (Hoechst-Celanese) that made Cellulose Acetate (CA) and it is a very similar production process as NC. I used to spend a lot of time on the production floors. Spooky-spooky environment to work in with heat, pressured pipes and anhydrous acetic acid all around.

CA goes into making cigarette butts (raw material is wood pulp) and also plastic (raw material is cotton). Many of those facilities have shut down because of EPA restrictions but more importantly the reduction of cigarette smoking in the US put a real squeeze on demand. I'm sure foreign competition in a bulk commodity market didn't help either.

It's bizarre that some certain plastics are made from CA - old screw driver handles being one. And, camera film a long time ago was made from lower energetic NC, that's why it was so flammable. Other lower energetic NC's are used to make lacquer and ping pong balls, that's why they burn so rapidly.

 

[saunaking]

I just did a dive into cotton production in Australia. ADI shouldn't have any problem sourcing gun cotton with the amount of cotton produced there.