Quote Originally Posted by Alex Zeller View Post
Others who are still reloading can better answer this but when I was doing it buying powder was kind of an issue. Not so much buying it but shipping it. If you can't guess it has special shipping requirements. I believe there is (or maybe it's changed) a flat Hazmat fee so you want to buy in bulk or buy it local if you have a gun shop that sells it. But there's limitations on how much you can ship in one package.
There is a max amount for the flat hazmat fee, but you've got to be ordering some serious quantities (as far as individual use for small arms cartridges) to come anywhere maxing that out. I don't recall the exact number, but I seem to recall it was somewhere north of 50 lbs. When I was shooting *seriously* I probably went through 20-30 lbs per year through a .308 Win.

Don't quote me on this (USE A PROPER CHART) but 1 pound of powder can do less than 150 rounds of 30-06.
One pound of powder (16 ounces) equals 7000 grains. If you figure an average .30-06 powder charge is around 50 grains, the math works out to 140 rounds, not counting any spillage, etc.

If you are just shooting occasionally that's a lot of ammo. But, if you want to go to the range once a week and shoot 100 rounds you're going to want to buy in larger quantities. Also, with COVID and other issues, you are going to want to have plenty on hand so you aren't struggling to find the same powder you were using.

To me once I decide on a powder I like I stick with it. As others have said each type of powder has it's own little quirks when it comes to reloading so once you know how the one you have chosen works with your reloader so changing powders just adds to the learning curve.
Just to make things more fun / interesting, when you find that special snowflake / unicorn load, using brand X powder Y... and you go back to the store to pick up another one pound bottle, or order an eight pound jug to keep you busy for a while... it's probably not going to be the same lot # as what you had before. How much that matters... kinda depends on what your expectations are