What happened to all the varget?

[LenH]

I was told by a bench rest guy that Varget was the bees knees of powder. I tried a pound of it and really didn't see what all the fuss was about.
A friend told me to try RL-15 it was easier to find and it shot just as good in a .308.

[Burnt Fingers]

The law changed on how much smokeless powder could be carried on one ship. That caused a problem as it severely cut how much could be shipped at one time.

It's also extremely popular. I was told by the reloading guy at the new Scheel's that he sold over 150 lbs of Varget in two days.

[Texas by God]

I have several lbs. of Varget that I will begin using when I run out of some other powders that I probably wont replace. It is a stellar powder IME.

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[David2011]

Just a guess. Are lots of reloaders staying at home and loading more than usual? Friends have also had problems finding primers and other powders.

[dverna]

Hazmat fees cause people to add in stuff they might not need right away.

That is almost impossible...LOL.

[Swamp Fox]

The bad part is I just got my 45/70 load where I want it with varget. I was going to try and use the same powder for a 300 savage I’m about to work up a load for. I like to share powders so I don’t have so many different ones to keep up with. Guess I’ll hold the varget for the 45/70 and see what else I can find for the savage.

[djryan13]

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/product/hodgdon-varget/

8lb’s in stock at PV right now... likely gone by the time some of you read this.

[megasupermagnum]

I was told by a bench rest guy that Varget was the bees knees of powder. I tried a pound of it and really didn't see what all the fuss was about.
A friend told me to try RL-15 it was easier to find and it shot just as good in a .308.

I never found it to be magic either. Varget is smack dab in the middle one of the most saturated types of smokeless powder there is. If you can't find Varget, there are 20 others that can work just as well. I believe it was IMR 4064 that Varget is based off of.

By the way, Varget is in stock at powder valley.

[Texas by God]

I’ve shot a lot of 4064 and RL15 but Varget has given me better accuracy in several cartridges.
Wasn’t it simple when we only had about 20 rifle powders across all makers????

[dragon813gt]

Wasn’t it simple when we only had about 20 rifle powders across all makers????

You can still make it simple. I regret stepping away from buying W231, W296 and W748 exclusively. Was always able to find an accurate load for any of the cartridges I loaded for. And it made stocking powder a lot easier. Anyone can choose to pick a powder and make it work. It’s just a matter of time and how much effort you want to put into it.

[Hickory]

A lot of reloaders across America got a $1200 check from the government, a prudent man would use some of that windfall to buy powder & primers.
This would cause a shortage.

[44Blam]

The bad part is I just got my 45/70 load where I want it with varget. I was going to try and use the same powder for a 300 savage I’m about to work up a load for. I like to share powders so I don’t have so many different ones to keep up with. Guess I’ll hold the varget for the 45/70 and see what else I can find for the savage.

I recently had some good sucess with H335 in the 45-70.

[Burnt Fingers]

A lot of reloaders across America got a $1200 check from the government, a prudent man would use some of that windfall to buy powder & primers.
This would cause a shortage.

The shortages happened before the checks.

[dragon813gt]

The shortages happened before the checks.

I received an email from Powder Valley about long shipping delays maybe a week after the lockdown began. I’m sure Varget was one of the first to disappear.

[sigep1764]

W748 has been available at the usual places and is my rifle powder for 223 and 270 cast loads. Give a pound a try.

[greenjoytj]

Pre election jitters worrying about the the commies winning in November causing another round of hoarding. Couple that to to the Covid19 isolation boredom reloaders are using up the their two life times supply of powder & primers they hoarded in stock 12 years ago to make room for more.
And now there’s a run on 50 cal ammo cans they need for storing their reloaded cartridges.

[blue32]

I dont know about other cartridges but IMR-4166 could easily replace Varget in 223. It's even cut shorter so meters slightly better. There are a lot of new powders out now that are slowly but surely replacing my old standbys because they are better, have a wider application, and are usually not sold out.

[lotech]

This is more from a jacketed bullet perspective, but some of it may apply to cast loads as well. Varget is a good choice at times and is certainly worth trying, but I think some (maybe many) use Varget based solely upon recommendation from others. They likely have not tried and experimented with other powders of similar burn rates. I've found H4895 more versatile and it almost always provides at least slightly better accuracy than Varget. One exception has been with a favorite .220 Swift load using a 50 grain Sierra jacketed bullet; accuracy with Varget has been slightly better than with H4895. There is often a bit of a velocity advantage with Varget in comparison with H4895, but seldom is it of any real significance.