Reloading: What’s In a Name?

I’ve been gazing into my crystal ball and can confidently predict that most of you have been a customer of Thales, St. Marks or GD-OTS Valleyfield and more likely, all of them. Nope, I don’t think you’ve purchased a yellow dumper truck, branded boxer shorts from a well known high street chain or farm strength weed-killer; you just bought one or two tubs of propellant. So you only use Hodgdon, IMR, Alliant and Winchester? Good, you’ve proved me right!

The shape of the ‘energetic materials’ (smokeless powder) manufacturing world has changed beyond recognition over the last couple of decades. In common with the motorcycle, electrical and clothing industries (to name but a few. The economies of scale, nature of customer demand and legislative pressures have seen a rationalisation and relocation of the major centres of production. The days when a putative propellant maker could buy a small area of Cumbrian woodland, do a bit of landscaping and erect a few production sheds are long gone.

Reload swiss® from nitrochemie

The UK manufacture of small arms propellants ceased many years ago. The Royal Navy Propellant Factory Caerwent produced Cordite and other Nitroglycerine/ Nitrocellulose-based propellants but finally closed in 1967. One of the last manufacturers to close was the ROF (Royal Ordnance Factory) facility in Bishopton, Renfrewshire in 2002. (Yes, I know that Chemring Nobel still have a plant in Ardeer – but they don’t make small arms propellants). Bishoptons role as a munitions supplier to MOD being handed to Denel SOC Ltd in South Africa. More specifically, since 2008 Denel has become a division called Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) – actually majority owned (51%) by Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH of Germany. Another European division of Rheinmetall being the diverse energetic material manufacturer, Nitrochemie AG.

Nitrochemies’ Swiss plant in Wimmis now producing an interesting and comprehensive range of reloading propellants called Reload Swiss RS®. (We’ll take a look at them in a future edition).

 

Powder from ‘down under’

The current manufacturers of the ‘popular’ brands of propellant sold here in the UK often have little to do with the name on the tub. If the small print says ‘Made in Australia’ then it was almost certainly engineered by Thales Australia to a tech spec provided by the brand distributor, such as Hodgdon. Labels stating ‘Made in Canada’, such as IMR 4895, would indicate that the powder was a General Dynamics product, in this case General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) energetic materials division in Valleyfield, Canada. ‘Made in the USA’ would point to the massive St. Marks Powder plant in Florida…. but guess what? They’re another division of General Dynamics and the accepted kings of ball powder production. If it says Ball and/or Winchester on the tub or tin, then St. Marks Florida engineered it.

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) are still a manufacturing entity, but not for all of their products. However, if you wish to up-scale your hand loading then ATK are the boys and even produce Depleted Uranium (DU) warheads, brilliant for your large cal ordnance! But here again, ‘joint ventures’ are at work. ATK’s Radford Army Ammunition plant is actually run as a joint venture between BAE Systems and you’ve guessed it, General Dynamics. Oh yes, there’s also a joint venture between Nitrochemie Wimmis and ATK to improve and rationalise manufacturing techniques, an agreement forged in Miami in 2011.

 

Belgian spheroids

Also in Europe, we have Eurenco Energetic Materials. Until 2013 their brand inventory included SNPE, better known as the Vectan range, but they were then acquired by Nexter Group, a division of GIAT, the Italian military manufacturing conglomerate. Other named brands that emerge from the Eurenco plant include some or all of the Ramshot, Bofors, Norma and Vihtavuori branded powders. King of spheroids in Europe is the Belgian BP Clermont factory, another part of Eurenco. In common with Nitrochemie they now claim to be dinitrotoluene free, (a nasty carcinogen).

 

Nasty chemicals

And there’s the back story to much of this recent change. REACH, the EU acronym for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemicals. Propellant manufacturers across the World are not in the business of developing new materials just for domestic hand loading purposes. The current spate of ‘new’ powders has everything to do with the combined pressures of REACH conformance, the demands of military production and the requirements of the commercial ammunition manufacturers.

The REACH documentation includes a list of chemicals and compounds that are subject to a set time-scale for withdrawal from widespread use, due to the environmental and health issues associated with them. Many are carcinogens or produce carcinogenic residues when (in the case of energetic materials) they deflagrate. However, where there is an issue of National Security or other State need then the manufacturers and processors can apply for an extension of limited use. Whilst the REACH regulations apply to all chemicals, we are in one of the most vulnerable groups. Lead styphnate is a key priming compound that also appears on the REACH control list.

 

Your old fart could change!

So what does this have to do with our day to day reloading? Well, lots actually. If your favoured load from the 1990’s was 35-grains of Old Fart, don’t assume that this will continue to be the case. Legislative and manufacturing changes could see measurable differences in the properties of Old Fart. Your new tub of Old Fart may well have been produced on a different continent and the load data will probably be changed. Indeed, the loss of some popular propellants (such as SR4759) is more a result of the inability of the manufacturer to reproduce those properties in compliance with the new regulations than the ‘cost of production’.

By way of example, the new Enduron and Power Pro products are far more a result of these changes than the desire of the ‘sellers’ to keep us happy! As diligent handloaders we have always reworked our loads whenever there was a new batch number on the tub, something that is now more important than ever. Keep a careful eye on the ‘Country of Origin’ annotation on your new tubs and refer to any new data that is published.