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A new monopoly?

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Mk-211 said:
If Troy shows up with the torches...

Walkalong with the Tar and Mark_Mark with the feathers....

youtu.be

Three Days Grace- Lets Start a Riot

If you feel so emptySo used up, so let downIf you feel so angrySo ripped off so stepped onYou're not the only oneRefusing to back downYou're not the only one...
youtu.be youtu.be
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Who's bringing the stones and bricks, need a picket sign guy to lol.
 
LiveLife said:
I agree. USA company buying another USA company is least of my worries currently as foreign companies have been buying US brands and diversifying into US for manufacturing for commercial/military contracts over the decades.

As we now have Mercedes/BMW/Toyota/Honda/Hyundai plants in the US, Sig Sauer is manufacturing primers in the US and now Czech company CSG is manufacturing primers and powders under CCI/Federal/Remington/Alliant brands. (BTW, CSG also owns Fiocchi)


Things have gone wrong already.

Alliant Powders was not only bought by Czechoslovak Group but with the sale from Vista Outdoor also included primer producers of CCI, Federal and Remington - https://news.vistaoutdoor.com/newsr...choslovak-Group-for-1.91-Billion/default.aspx

This not only resulted in Hodgdon/Winchester/Olin as only remaining US powder producers/sellers but reduced Winchester and Expansion Industries as last remaining US owned manufacturers and sellers of primers - https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/a...w-tooling-up-for-production-in-texas-in-2022/


No. Vihtavuori was bought by Nammo in 2014 which also owns Lapua, SK and Berger Bullets - https://www.vihtavuori.com/about-vihtavuori/history/

And I did not anticipate Vihtavuori powders to be on par price wise with other brands in my retirement years.


On the contrary, Lee Precision outsells all of their reloading equipment competitors COMBINED on a global basis each year while still being a "family" business instead of a publicly traded corporation.

And Lee Precision manufactures all of their dies, presses, powder measures, etc. in the USA while many of competitors have moved manufacturing globally. In 2024, I prefer to support companies like C-H, Dillon and Hornady that produce reloading equipment in the USA. (I like S&W but Frankford Arsenal's X-10 press is made in China)

And concern for Hodgdon buying RCBS?

None for me, like @Walkalong.
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Very well put Live Life ,, it is why I have all Lee reloading equipment plus I used to live 40 miles from Lee Precision and met Richard Lee once at there facility.
 
PapaG said:
$325 or more for an 8 pound jug of powder is still obscene.
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I'm not old enough to tell these tales, but I paid $0.59/gal for gas most of my Senior year of high school. It was regularly $0.79/gal, but our small town station needed empty tanks every Thursday to accept a full tanker, so they cut the price by 20cents/gal on Thursday mornings to get the tanks dry in time.

When's the last time you saw a gas station sign which didn't even have a whole dollar digit included on the display? When's the last time you saw gas below $2, let alone below $1/gal?
 
Walkalong said:
lol, us old guys, be more like......
View attachment 1208627
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That's me........in the rocking chair/sled with spikes!:)

This is a quote from the Hodgden site concerning the new acquisition of RCBS:
“This acquisition of RCBS, the leading brand in metallic reloading tools, is a perfect complement to our portfolio of smokeless powder brands for our handloading customers,” said Steve Kehrwald, president and CEO of Hodgdon Powder Company. With our world-class ballistics labs, we look forward to providing even more load data to our new RCBS customers.”

Hodgdon is thrilled to add the RCBS facility in Oroville, CA to our company-owned facilities in Shawnee, KS, Herington, KS and Miles City, MT. The addition of the RCBS team will more than double the headcount at the Hodgdon Powder Company and greatly expands the company’s manufacturing capabilities.

“For years, our friends have referred to the Hodgdon family and company as ‘The Gunpowder People’ and this acquisition further demonstrates our dedication to the handloader,” said J.B. Hodgdon, co-owner with his late brother Bob, of the Hodgdon Powder Company. “Our dad Bruce partnered with Fred Huntington from RCBS to conduct Reloading Roadshow events in the 1950s and 1960s. I believe they both are looking down today, proud to have our two great brands together in 2024.”
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I'm stoked........with Vista in sell mode, I had visions of European Ownership, like many others here. Relief is what I feel. Now maybe RCBS will finally have the money to finish and accessorize the promising products they were pressured to introduce too early, but never allowed the funds to improve, perfect and finish. Not just Vista did that but the previous investment companies before them, too. That's the picture I get from the RCBS engineer I'm acquainted with. He's stoked too!
 
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Varminterror said:
I'm not old enough to tell these tales, but I paid $0.59/gal for gas most of my Senior year of high school. It was regularly $0.79/gal, but our small town station needed empty tanks every Thursday to accept a full tanker, so they cut the price by 20cents/gal on Thursday mornings to get the tanks dry in time.

When's the last time you saw a gas station sign which didn't even have a whole dollar digit included on the display? When's the last time you saw gas below $2, let alone below $1/gal?
Click to expand...
I was in Vicksburg, Miss. in 1972 during a gas war....... 25 cents/gallon..........for a whole week!!!! :)
Two years later, I bought a Ruger 10-22 with a real Walnut stock for $59 at........a grocery store???? Maybe it was the Viet Nam War that changed the world.
 
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Varminterror said:
I'm not old enough to tell these tales, but I paid $0.59/gal for gas most of my Senior year of high school. It was regularly $0.79/gal, but our small town station needed empty tanks every Thursday to accept a full tanker, so they cut the price by 20cents/gal on Thursday mornings to get the tanks dry in time.

When's the last time you saw a gas station sign which didn't even have a whole dollar digit included on the display? When's the last time you saw gas below $2, let alone below $1/gal?
Click to expand...
Early '80s, was .75/gal when I started driving.
 
Walkalong said:
I remember gas under 20 cents a gallon, no I wasn't buying it. Not much goes down over time.
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Wages? Savings?
🤣🤔😔

I guess I was just way too young when I read Heinlein but doggonit, TAANSTAFL!

I’m not anywhere near as concerned about price as I am with availability. As long as I can still go to a store and have some choices about what I can and can’t afford, life is good.
 
Walkalong said:
I remember gas under 20 cents a gallon, no I wasn't buying it. Not much goes down over time.
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Yes, I do remember 19.9 cents but I only had a Honda 50 motorcycle at 13 years old! But at my construction site cleanup job I made 25 cents an hour to pay for it.
And you're right about nothing much going down over time, with one more exception......quality. :)

Walkalong! I Love that picture....stealing it, will put it above my desk in my office. Thanks!

BYW, I collect food more than ammo these days. Something the old guys in the picture needs more than swords. LOl!
 
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Varminterror said:
I'm not old enough to tell these tales, but I paid $0.59/gal for gas most of my Senior year of high school. It was regularly $0.79/gal, but our small town station needed empty tanks every Thursday to accept a full tanker, so they cut the price by 20cents/gal on Thursday mornings to get the tanks dry in time.

When's the last time you saw a gas station sign which didn't even have a whole dollar digit included on the display? When's the last time you saw gas below $2, let alone below $1/gal?
Click to expand...
.28/gal, .23 for lucky strikes my senior year and .17 gas and ..16 butts in St Louis where I went to work.
 
Varminterror said:
I'm not old enough to tell these tales, but I paid $0.59/gal for gas most of my Senior year of high school. It was regularly $0.79/gal, but our small town station needed empty tanks every Thursday to accept a full tanker, so they cut the price by 20cents/gal on Thursday mornings to get the tanks dry in time.

When's the last time you saw a gas station sign which didn't even have a whole dollar digit included on the display? When's the last time you saw gas below $2, let alone below $1/gal?
Click to expand...
I'm old enough. I was paying $0.15/gal for reg and 0.19 for SuperShell 104 octane in high school. Early 70's, late 60's. At one time there was a gas war going on between a few stations where reg dropped down to $0.12-0.13/gal. Will never see those prices again. Thought there was a station (radio promotion) that was giving gas away, 10 gal limit till they went through 10000 gal. Was no where near me and the line was reported to be several miles long on the news.
 
Boy oh boy, the selective memory...low gas prices for sure but our wages were low too and most everything else. I started adjusting these things for inflation, but quit--my brain hurt.

1970 in college there was a gas war on Mercury Blvd in Hampton, VA. Super Shell was .22/gallon. But my car only got about 12 miles/gallon when it ran. I had a part time job just off campus making about minimum wage=$1.35/hr. 1970 tuition, room & board was $2500/year (thanks Mom & Dad).

1972 FBI gross pay $7000. 1972 law school tuition/fees $2000/semester (thanks Uncle Sam). Condo 25 miles from DC $29K.

I'd say quality/dependability for mass produced products overall is up. Way up. Today cars' computers intentionally shut them down at stop lights and they start right back. Back in '70ish they'd overheat at stop lights, get vapor lock, and take a hour to cool down enough to restart. Parts & body panels didn't fit.

Now as for scratch built/hand made things like houses, we'll have to wait a few hundred years to see if how long they last. But the high cost is most places largely the land.
 
The lowest I recall was .18/gal during a price war circa 1970 in SE Texas. Of course at that time I made all of $10K a year, so it wasn’t really as cheap as it sounds now, but it sure beat paying the regular price of .30/gal. The price of regular in my neighborhood dropped to $2.99 this week.
 
Paid $1.41 a gallon before the child sniffer got in, got most weeks groceries for $50 now we spend that at the nothing is a dollar anymore store in one bag you can't even use the handles on. Seriously how can they forget how to make paper bags, I used to use the same lunch bag for a week when I was a kid in the 90s.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Boy oh boy, the selective memory...low gas prices for sure but our wages were low too and most everything else. I started adjusting these things for inflation, but quit--my brain hurt.

1970 in college there was a gas war on Mercury Blvd in Hampton, VA. Super Shell was .22/gallon. But my car only got about 12 miles/gallon when it ran. I had a part time job just off campus making about minimum wage=$1.35/hr. 1970 tuition, room & board was $2500/year (thanks Mom & Dad).

1972 FBI gross pay $7000. 1972 law school tuition/fees $2000/semester (thanks Uncle Sam). Condo 25 miles from DC $29K.

I'd say quality/dependability for mass produced products overall is up. Way up. Today cars' computers intentionally shut them down at stop lights and they start right back. Back in '70ish they'd overheat at stop lights, get vapor lock, and take a hour to cool down enough to restart. Parts & body panels didn't fit.

Now as for scratch built/hand made things like houses, we'll have to wait a few hundred years to see if how long they last. But the high cost is most places largely the land.
Click to expand...

Your post just described inflation...

Which was my point....

Everything costs more now - it's not just Hodgdon gouging out of greed. They pay more for their inputs, pay more for opex, pay more for capex, and pay more in labor than they used to pay... Their workers have higher cost of living, and they earn a higher wage than before. We pay more for gunpowder, gas, lodging, food, paperclips than before... That's inflation.

But American consumers have covered their eyes and shoved their fingers in their ears and keep on spending. Unsecured consumer debt continues to rise, despite inflation rates stomping on the brakes trying to slow it down. Inflation is an indicator of a hollow economy, spending without earning, meant to curb imbalances before it becomes too late. We've seen US Consumer debt more than double in the last decade - despite the warning of the housing market collapse in 2008. The childish response to that warning by American consumers was to SPEND MORE because they felt that loss of control, rather than CONTROL MORE of their own spending. Unfortunately, housing markets right now are not trending with inflation - the purpose of inflation is to slow down hollow spending, but we've accelerated... Generations raised by generations who adopted debt have now embraced it as table stakes, and we have folks living the "we'll just refinance later" lifestyle, which has also spilled out into their unsecured debt paradigm... The US remains the largest consumer market in the world, so international markets are happy to continue taking money from the US - our dollar is worth less and less, so instead of spending less and less, we buy more and more with unsecured debt. Sure, we're still grossly imbalanced and housing debt outweighs unsecured debts by double, but that gap is narrowing, and when that tips over and unsecured debts grow too large, the US will no longer be "too big to fail," but rather will be "too heavy to carry." That's not a Government failing, that's the consequence of unchecked national consumerism in a global economy.

So yeah, everything costs more. It's not just Hodgdon powders.
 
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