Anyone know what would be the lightest charge of Varget that could safely be used in a 7-08 using a Speer 120g Pro Hunter? Just curious what the bare minimum would be.

The 2020 Hodgdon Annual says with Nosler 120 Ball. Tip the starting charge is 24.5 gr. @ 2996 fps & 43.8K cup.

I'm unsure how Varget reacts to lower pressures.

Did you mean 42.5? The data on their website shows 42.5 with the 120 BT.

H4895 and or Trail Boss are used in several cartridges for reduced recoil loads. You may want to look at these powders for your use?

OK, are you asking about the SIERRA 120 gr Pro Hunter? Speer Manual #13 does list a 120 gr bullet, a SP Spitser, but they haven't offered one in a long time. The manual also shows 41.0 gr Varget as the starting load for a velocity of 2788 fps with that bullet. That's where I'd start.

The reason I was asking is that a friend who has a 7-08 was telling me he uses 37.0 grains of Varget with 120s, an easy shooting one ragged hole load for him. Since I've never seen any posted loads with that low of a Varget charge before, I was curious if you could go that low or not.

Contact Hodgon?

Sierra Reloading Manual (5th addition) shows 37.6gr of Varget for 120 gr Pro Hunter bullet. According to the manual you should get approx. 2600 fps velocity.

What do you think is going to go wrong?

Richard Lee of Lee reloading products fame did tests with nearly every powder existent some years ago, and found that many powders are charge-reducible far below what many would consider safe and produce very linear results. He reduced charges by as much as 50%. I would not do this with ball powders, nor would I do it with the slowest powders for a given cartridge, but picking a fast-burning powder for a cartridge and pairing it with a light bullet and then reducing the charge a bit until you get the velocity/recoil/performance you are after is nearly always a recipe for success.

HuntnShoot,

That's good info, thanks. I'm new to reloading, so have no experience with any possible problems that might happen if you use a charge lighter than the recommended starting charge, as my friend does. Sounds like his load is okay. Thanks again 👍

Heard back from Hodgdon regarding using lighter loads of Varget than the recommended starting load. They recommend against it. Here's what they said:

"There are no reduced loads for Varget in the 7-08 cartridge.  We do not recommend going below the starting load for the bullet weight selected".

Ooops. Yes. I did mean 42.5 gr. Sorry. Fumble fingers is why you should always check data from a more reputable source than internet forums. The Hodgdon annuals are cheap & usually easily available.

It's too bad you couldn't actually interact with a powder tech and have a real discussion with him on the subject, rather than "We do not recommend going below the starting load..."

I'm not Hodgdon, who sells the powder (they are just salesmen), so I am not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do, just like they won't.

I will tell you that reducing fairly fast-burning powders for a cartridge and bullet weight well below the starting load has never caused a verifiable problem. I will tell you that there are lots of guys that use powders this way, learning their burn characteristics in many cartridges, and then using them for purposes that diverge greatly from the published data. I will tell you that if you are concerned, you can "work down" in just the same way that a hand-loader starts low and "works up". I will also tell you that long ago I trusted Richard Lee's experiments in various cartridges with various powders, and that I have had NO odd events, let alone possibly dangerous ones, from using greatly reduced charges of relatively fast burning powders in cartridges. The results I have seen have been utterly linear regarding velocity and perceived pressure clear down to about 50% of a max load. Just as Richard Lee reported in his book.

As with all of hand-loading, you take all of the risk, and you reap all of the reward.

If there is a load for H4895, that's where I would begin with reduced loads. Reloading can be very unforgiving. If you're being told not to do something by the manufacturer, distributor, there may well be a good reason for such advice.

Hodgdon isn't the manufacturer, that's Australian Defense Industries. Of course they're going to give you the stock answer of not to do it, no company is going to expose itself to legal liability in the U.S. today where you can get sued for not using the right pronoun.

With a fast burning powder like Varget I'd work my down with a chronograph until I got to the velocity I wanted. I agree with HuntnShoot

Thanks Crow hunter, I used the wrong word but fixed it for you.

all Hodgdon's tech people are telling you, are what their lawyers are telling them to tell you...

if I listened to techs, after the fact, I should have been dead decades ago....

at least according to their lawyers....

Using your head goes a long way....