I'm beginning to regret some of my own purchases as these new and presumably improved powders come on the market.
I expect to find it hard to use up what I have and I'm already open to swapping off some of what I have locally as the shortage eases up. FREX I've got some BallC(2) and 748 I'll probably never open but use a newer cleaner burning less temperature sensitive powder instead
I didn't buy vast quantities but I did buy enough to spread the hazmat charges - typically an 8 pound jug and an additional 2 of the one pound bottles to make the vendor's limit for a given powder.
I bought some powders that very much overlap each other in their applications - first I stocked up on H4895 because it would work with many of my rifles then I bought some Reloader 15 because I could and it might or might not do better in a 9.3x62 and so it goes with Varget and Tac and the rest of the Ramshot line because it's there. I suspect Accurate 2700/H414/760 which I bought because Swifty said it was good for the Swift would do for most of the same applications. I suspect I'll notice differences between the powders in my use and equally that the differences I notice won't be real in the sense that on another day with a different rifle results would be different.
But I suspect a large part of the impact on me and my own binge buying is indeed the result of a flattening in the distribution system. Time was I bought powder in small quantities at my friendly local gun shop where the owner knew me and I knew the owner and instead of stocking up I could make do with what they had If no Bullseye I could wait a little while or make do with 230 later with 231 or use the 452 I had in bulk for AA shotgun hulls. When the crisis hit my local gun shop was mostly gone and certainly was at the end of the line for shipments - properly so if the supply was based on the size of last year's orders/sales - compared to the big boxes and online sources. So to buy anything at all I had to buy more to cover the HAZMAT and to be in line to buy anything at all. My LGS might once have put aside some .22 rim fire for regulars WalMart won't.
Bottom line I expect to be spreading some of my own current stocks around the neighborhood - increasing the local supply of traditional powders - to make room for some of the new and presumably improved powders - so I expect a more selective rush to buy and a shortage of the newish powders - and I will buy jugs instead of pounds - the more things change the more things can stay the same.
