Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles best Varget Alternative?

The most accurate loads I've put together for the AR all featured milsurplus WC846. It's really good stuff, just work up your loads in the summer.

Same for the .338 Win Mag, but with WC852. I've shot some really good groups with it behind 200gr NBT's, but I'm not comfortable with just how hot those loads are, so I stick to the non-canister H4831-sc I have for the rifle.

Agree. I could not get CFE to shoot accurately in .223. I have a lb of BLC2 I'm going to try. If I can't get it to shoot I will go back to AA2520 and 748.

kwg

The most accurate load I've ever shot in any 223 that I've had, and that's been a bunch, has been with WC846 and a 50 grain VMax bullet, Winchester cases and Remington 7 1/2 primers. I have an 8 pound jug left, and I'm probably hoarding too much.

I believe that.
Substitute 50gr Nosler Varmagedons, and CCI 450's for me.

Same.

I've had better luck with TAC.

Shooters World Precision Rifle

Curious if anyone has tried IMR-4166 as a replacement for Varget

I lucked out with the last two 8 lb ers of varget from Recobs just a couple weeks ago. So I’m setting good for a while.

How was your experience with it?

Shooters World "match". Is a nice flowing ball powder in that burn rate. I get mine from Midway when they have the free shipping
so i pay only 12.50 haz-mat.I wish i would have found this powder before burning up a couple of pounds of CFE 223, which i
like in my 17Rem but nowhere else.

RL 15 or Win 748

I find that AR-Comp meters pretty darned well. Not as nicely as TAC or H335, but not bad at all. I use a baffle in my UniFlow, so maybe that helps.

Tac or CFE 223 as has been discussed.
Tac has a ton of other options in other calibers (not unlike varget but for faster burning applications). Not sure if CFE 223 has quite the amount of load data.

I guess I'm the odd man out. I absolutely love CFE-223. It returns excellent accuracy in my couple .223's, meters beautifully, and for me at least in my barrels, lives up to its copper fouling reduction claims. The folks I know in "real life" report the same - it's only on the internet that I hear CFE-223 bashing. (Kind of like with Leupold scopes - no "real life" bashing but plenty of it on the 'Fire.)

As for metering issues with stick powders, I use an ancient Belding&Mull and a newer Harrell's and get very very acceptable results, such that I don't bother weight checking each load on a scale. I found that I can't tell a difference on paper between loads of Varget, 4895,4064,4350, etc. that are individually weighed versus simply measured. My suggestion to someone frustrated with his measure: get a different measure. Just because it is painted a shade of green doesn't necessarily mean it's the best.

Agreed that for any given application there is a ball/spherical powder that will do as well as Varget.

Disagree that there is any single ball/spherical powder to use for Varget in every application..

Tac certainly in a .223/5.56 and similar but not in a .376 Steyr..

I suspect but I've never tested it that stick powders may shift less in the case and so have a more consistent burn than ball powders that may be closer to case head/primer or just under the bullet when fired. This as the flip side benefit of not metering well. Hence I will pay the price in nuisance and use say IMR 4064 for some accuracy loads especially in gas guns.. I am often reminded of Mr. Oehler's pistol load that was supersonic with powder back and subsonic with powder forward and the fun he had with it.

That said I use measures from a Little Dandy through a Harrell's to a Quickmeasure for large stick powder loads. It doesn't get the attention it deserves but a search on this board will find a number of people who like Quickmeasure very much..

A good manual measure is approaching the electric powder thrower price range and the only drawback to those is maybe a little slower. I won't replace the Little Dandy but IF I were still competing or loading prairie dog/ground squirrel for the next day I might use two electric alternately on a progressive.

I use 15 and Varget in my .308, both shoot tiny little groups. Both outstanding powders.

Just picked up an 8lb jug of Shooters World Precision to try out.

You may need to start a thread on AR comp with 22-250. I've never tried it. Always run H4895, H380 and the like. I love AR Comp in the .223 rem (bolt guns and AR's) and 308w (ar10 and bolt guns). It is extremely consistent and I dont see weird anomalies in group pattern/dispersion when using it in all kinds of temperatures. I've ran that powder through the ringer and it's always been like a loyal dog..

It meters extremely well in my unifow as well. No baffles. Never needed them. To answer the ops question, I believe RL15 is about as close to an alternative as he's going to get to varget. They are like 2 peas in a pot, but RL15 meters much better... IMHO

I Love H-335 for .223, meters like a dream and superb accuracy. I tried Varget but got less than desireable results. I use H-335 in AR,s and bolt guns with Vmax bullets.