From:   SADW, [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I assume Royal Ordnance will simply have to find an
offshore supplier of NC paste to feed Muiden's smokeless
powder line after Bishopton bites the dust.

Muiden essentially performs the role for RO that Nobels
filled before.....Nobels used to operate a powder plant
on an agency basis solely for Royal Ordnance.

Since parting was not, as I recall, very amicable, I
very much doubt if that relationship would ever be
rekindled in quite the same way.

It was the dumping of the agency agreement that
finally persuaded Nobels to get out of the smokeless
powder business altogether........it simply wasn't 
worth their while anymore without the underpinning RO
work.

Separately, the cessation, after HSE intervention, of
the old distribution system whereby Nobel powders &
Eley ammunition used to be transported on the same
vehicles also contributed to making Nobel's products
uneconomic to make.

In any event, the UK handloading market is tiny by
comparison with that in the USA, where Nobels also used
to sell, in the old days under the Herters name and more
recently as Scot Powders. I believe Semtin (Czech) and
Chinese reloading powders have now filled the gap in
America.

Nick Steadman


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