With Hazmat fees, it only makes sense to try to buy powder like 20-40 lbs at a time via online retailers. Hogdon has killed all online retailers on the pretense this solves access at traditional retailers, but this allows online scalpers to hawk the powder at the retailers and control access, and it seems online scalpers auction all the ammo in small qtys with one hazmat fee per qty, making reloading cost as much as factory ammo. There isn’t really an outlet to do the 20-40 lb orders that minimize the hazmat fee amortization. Local stores have had empty shelves for two years now. People shouldn’t be loading based on what powder is available, they should be choosing ideal powder for a load. It is somewhat amazing that ammo is produced at all with powder and primer availability. It is also kind of amazing it doesn’t throttle firearms purchasing at a point. It seems most of the available affordable ammo is foreign. There must by import laws keeping those companies from importing powder and primers. This seems like probably the most serious issue for long term health of the firearms industry. I read about hogdon being a distributor of general dynamics. It seems politics could really play into all this. On the military side an Abrams on a firing range is using 30lbs of powder maybe in one round. There cannot be a production shortage and the ability to sustain that. Im sure that is sustained, so there is probably some heavy political force involved in this shortage. Look at my personal demand, probably 40lbs total. There is no market ability to supply it at a normal market price from any one seller though and it makes less sense to reload if you can’t compete with a factory price because your labor is part of your hidden cost. The only rifles I have that are more picky about ammo are m1 garands where people recommend lighter loads. Ppu is the only company that has a product for that.