I think a large part of the problem is the distributors. I spent more than 30 min on the phone with a guy at Hodgdon Powder a week or so ago. He said they are turning out more powder than ever and said in late Dec/Early Jan they sent 190,000 lbs of Varget out the door and in less than 2 days there wasn't any on the shelves anywhere. Said they have NO control over the powder once it goes to the distributors. I know here in Amarillo TX not one of the stores that carry reloading components has seen a powder delivery in more than 6 months. I'm betting the same thing is happening with loaded ammo, it leaves the factory by way of distributors but gets routed to others before most of hit hits the store shelves.

Pretty hard to "hoard" it if you can't buy it anywhere. For my money the distributors are selling to some select high volume buyers who are then reselling at huge markups.

You get out of life what you are willing to accept. If you ain't happy, do something about it!