Anyone know where Remington and Winchester purchase their handgun powders? Alliant? Hodgdon? noncommercial sources?

Unless someone speaks up from the 'inside' I doubt you'll get much but personal speculation.
They probably get their various powders from major producers but most of the loads might use a 'non-canister' powder.

Commercial ammo manufacturers don't but powder from retail powder distributors, they buy it from the same powder manufacturers the retail distributors buy from.

They are mostly custom blended powders that we can't buy. In some cases small specialty ammo producers will use name brand powders but they will never tell.

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SWCA #3437

Check, yes, I understand that their powders are non-canister and not available to the public...was wondering if they purchase from the leading powder manufacturers as Alliant or Hodgdon.

When I was in the Military, our powders did not come with.......
funny little names.

Naturally we dealed in "Volume"..................

50 pound bags on a "Battle wagon" with 18" guns,was like your few turns on the "Trickler" to fill off a load.........

I see no reason for companies to not buy in bulk powders.
Therefore no "Trade mark" names.

PS;
Iawa class.......
maybe they were 16" ? My mind gets a little fuzzy at my age.
I felt a lot safer in a 5" turent, away from those silk bags of powder
when I got DE duty.

Remington used to have a close relationship with DuPont back when they were in the powder business. Winchester was part of the Olin Group who developed the ball powders used in Winchester and Western ammo. Now that Hodgdon manufactures the powders DuPont and Olin used to, who can say what goes into current loadings.
The ammo makers use powders similar to the canister types available to recorders but bulk lots that vary in burn rate and pressure and need testing of each lot to determine the proper loads.

Nevada Ed - "18 inch" guns? Didn't realize you service on the Yamato (only ship to have such large guns)...Iowa Class had 16 inch, so did Dakota but with shorter tubes I believe.

When are you coming down to shoot with us?

For years I tried to duplicate factory loads, Got the length right, got the primers right, the powder I never seemed to get it right. I hear ammo manufacturers use a blended powder to maximize case capacity, throw in the velocity aspect and the desired pressure curve, and the pretty much blend a lot of powder in a big batch and load up their ammo till they run out of powder for that recipe and then do it again. I did however find out in my 40 years of reloading that I could come pretty close to factory specs and sometimes I've exceeded their specs in terms of accuracy and velocity. I don't get hung up on what the big guys use any more. Remington and Winchester probably buy powder by the train load from the original chemical company.

Just a note, Hodgdon does not and never did manufacturer powders. They buy them from the powder factory and market them.

I think Olin used to own St Marks Powder but now it's owned by General Dynamics. I think Olin sold it when the diversified their powder business and sold Winchester Powder distribution rights to Hodgdon.

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SWCA #3437

The bulk powders that they buy are not as precisely selected as cannister powders are. Ammo manufacturers have the ability to test each batch and adjust accordingly. We can't do that, so the powders we buy are within a much tighter set of standards.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Back in the day when I worked for one of the "Big Three" we bought a lot (Semi loads coming in three times a week) of blended powders from DuPont.

While there were very similar powders available from retail, they we not the exact same powder we used.

I believe most comes from St. Marks in Florida (General Dynamics). I know that is where most of the propellant used at the Lake City AAP comes from. I believe the only other US source for the civilian market is Alliant in Radford VA. About everything else is imported.

Interesting read, thank you

Not quite true. The "Light Cruiser" HMS Furious was designed to carry two 18 inch guns, one aft, one forward in single gun turrets for use in a "Baltic Campaign" in WWi. It was finally completed as a partial aircraft carrier with a single 18" gun turret aft. Later it underwent full conversion to a CV and survived WWII. Its sisters, Glorious and Courageous were converted to CVs and both went down in WWII. Their twin 15" turrets were then used in the RN's last BB, HMS Vanguard. The single 18" turret from Furious was mounted on a monitor later in WWI. Actually the Yamato and Musashi (sp?) had guns that would be approx 18.1" when converted from their metric calibre. Ironically, their sister (IJN Shinano) also became a CV and ended up being sunk by a USN submarine. Dave_n

Dave...great info! Never knew the Brits had used an 18 incher - their WW2 norm was 15 inch right?

You ever see the Battle of the Denmark Straitbon on YouTube with actual footage of the Bismarck firing its 15 inchers at both the Hood and Price of Wales. The film was taken from the Prinz Eugen. You can even detect the huge smoke coming off the exploded Hood along with the Prince of Wales screening...

...Battle of Denmark Straight (spell check and my big digits conflict!)

Hodgdon is not a manufacturer - they are merely a marketing company like Browning. GD, as mentioned, is a major player located in St. Marks, Florida ( a nice drive through part of Florida). Most of Hodgdon's powder making recently shifted to Canada. There is also Maxam from Spain, a totally vertically integrated ammunition company that makes everything from hulls and cases to wads, shot, bullets, powder, etc.

This is the correct answer.

Yes, canister powders sold to reloaders are blended to produce consistent ballistic characteristics over very long periods of production. Today's can of Bullseye on the dealer's shelf is nearly identical to Bullseye sold in 1920. That's not necessary for the powders sold to the ammunition manufacturers as they can (and do) perform ballistic tests on every lot of powder they receive and adjust their charges accordingly to meet pressure and MV standards. But the basic powders used by Remington, Federal, etc. are otherwise much the same as those sold to reloaders.