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It's no secret that the .308 and Varget are a well thought of combination. This being said I'm starting to load for an AR (DPMS AP-4) and have run across a handful of posts here and there that say that Varget is actually a bit too slow for gas guns. Apparently it's about the pressure curve and such voodoo. (I'm not that advanced a loader) Does this make sense to anyone? I'd consider just not worrying about it and going with IMR 4895 but then there's the oft mentioned temperature sensitivity. The latter may be overblown but it's there.
Comments/suggestions?
If there's one thing I've become certain of it's that there's too much certainty in the world.
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use Varget, 25.2-25.5 gr w/ 69SMK @ 2.25 oal. You will be pleased.
GOA
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Since my rifle is a .308 that particular load won't do me too much good but clearly Varget working in your AR hasn't been a problem so that does apply. Besides, someone else with a .223 might give that load a try.
If there's one thing I've become certain of it's that there's too much certainty in the world.
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GOA
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The majority of the Service Rifle competitors use Varget in their AR-15's. It's like the "go to" powder for the AR-15 from what I understand.
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AR10 is not a metered system and has no op rod etc.... it can force the bolt to open too early, but not having owned one I can't comment, but I know it works good in the AR15 platform in 223, so would think with the CORRECT sized gas port it should be fine in the 10..
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Campfire 'Bwana
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My AR shoots about any powder I've tried- limited to powders listed as OK for .223, of course. In fact I used it to burn up at least a half-dozen pounds of powders I wasn't using, both to use 'em up, and to test reliability. It cycled fine with all of them.
To your point- my Bushmaster M4gery loves Varget...
The CENTER will hold.
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Jeff
List powders you've used in your AR10.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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rost495, that sounds like the kind of thing I've heard talked about. Being no expert on such matters does the DPMS AP-4 fall into the same category as the AR10 for the factors you speak of?
If there's one thing I've become certain of it's that there's too much certainty in the world.
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Campfire Kahuna
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I'm not familiar with the AP4, but if its a 308 based large AR system, it will be the same as the AR10 and SR25 and whatever other versions are out there.
When you get to M14, and especially the M1 Garand, it gets much more critical not to beat those guns to death.
GENERALLY what I see from "wrong" powders in the AR is the extractor trying to lift part of the rim off the case, comes from opening the bolt to quickly, which can be affected by carrier mass, wrong powder and gas port size.
Jeff
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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What about BL-C(2)? Isn't that essentially the powder that was developed for the .308 for military use or is it also better mated to the M14 versus AR-10?
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Varget or Hunter are the best powders for my 243 WSSM, fwiw.
We may know the time Ben Carson lied, but does anyone know the time Hillary Clinton told the truth?
Immersing oneself in progressive lieberalism is no different than bathing in the sewage of Hell.
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I seldom use anything lighter than 60 grain bullets in my AR's and almost never use powder other than Varget in the .223 or the .308.
Mathew 22: 37-39
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Jeff
List powders you've used in your AR10. In my AR10, I mostly used Varget. I don't have it anymore. Varget and Nosler 155 Match bullets was so accurate, I stopped right there. I was talking about my AR15. I guess I could dig out my loading manuals and notes and try to figure it out... but basically, if I had some quantity of it around, and I wasn't using it anymore, and it showed up ANYWHERE as viable for .223... I tried it, and they all worked. It was a great way to use up a bunch of tail-ends of powders I had around. Closest to NOT working was RL7, which was short-stroking until I realized I'd not lubricated my bolt after cleaning the night before. A few drops of Mobil One from the dipstick of my truck, and they cycled. If you really care, Jeff, I'll try to reconstruct what-all I used. My point is, they all cycled the rifle. What comes to mind is AA2520, IMR3031, and H335. But that's from memory. CHECK YOUR BOOKS FIRST. Jeff... is this contrary to your experience with AR's or something??
The CENTER will hold.
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FÜCK PUTIN!
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rost- "GENERALLY what I see from "wrong" powders in the AR is the extractor trying to lift part of the rim off the case, comes from opening the bolt to quickly, which can be affected by carrier mass, wrong powder and gas port size."
Exactly what I ran into with my limited use of Varget. It's the powder for 308 win but gets too hot for an AR-10 real quick. (speaking Armalite, I have no experience with the others)
Last edited by TWR; 03/09/09.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Jeff, no, no hidden agenda like why did you vote for....
My point was I never owned an AR10, and half the replies here are off on the AR15 tangent, since you owned a 10, what powders worked ok for you? IE not tearing the brass up and such. Your data is much better than mine.
Jeff
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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TWR, not that it could be wrong, but you still have to factor in carrier weight and port size, I've seen both really make a powder act funky, and they were both wrong in an AR, go back to good old common sense of using the right parameters, and the powder that acted funny was fine....
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Velocity was the only thing I could measure. I was fine at 2650fps or so but got around 2700fps and the rims started pulling. This was in a 16" carbine and I actually read one round at over 2850something fps with a 150 gr bullet with the varget powder. Backed my load way off to hit 2650fps. Really opened my eyes to bolt vs auto loading...
There was a guy on ar15.com who made heavy buffers for the AR-10, went by slash I think. He worked with Armalite some and solved a few problems for people wanting to hot rod the 308. But at the time other than filling and redrilling gas port, there wasn't much else to do.
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Jeff
List powders you've used in your AR10. In my AR10, I mostly used Varget. I don't have it anymore. Varget and Nosler 155 Match bullets was so accurate, I stopped right there. I was talking about my AR15. I guess I could dig out my loading manuals and notes and try to figure it out... but basically, if I had some quantity of it around, and I wasn't using it anymore, and it showed up ANYWHERE as viable for .223... I tried it, and they all worked. It was a great way to use up a bunch of tail-ends of powders I had around. Closest to NOT working was RL7, which was short-stroking until I realized I'd not lubricated my bolt after cleaning the night before. A few drops of Mobil One from the dipstick of my truck, and they cycled. If you really care, Jeff, I'll try to reconstruct what-all I used. My point is, they all cycled the rifle. What comes to mind is AA2520, IMR3031, and H335. But that's from memory. CHECK YOUR BOOKS FIRST. Jeff... is this contrary to your experience with AR's or something?? Whew. That was a close call. 
"Be sure you're right. Then go ahead." Fess Parker as Davy Crockett
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varget works good in both 308 and 223
175 smk with 40 gr. varget in 308
69 smk with 24.5 to 25 gr. varget in 223
whats your twist rate in your ar10?
length of barrel?
all these play a role in deciding the right round for a rifle
ive always loved 4895 for 308 myself
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