I am running short on IMR4895, and have several lbs. of VARGET and 150gr bullets

Anyone use VARGET with 150gr ?

I can't help you with a specific load, but Varget is probably the #1 or #2 most popular 308 powder for pretty much any bullet weight, so you should be in good hands.

45 grains is about right

bump

Hornady 150gr FMJ

43gr VARGET = 2656fps

43.5gr VARGET = 2709fps.

Brass selection determines powder charges. M80 7.62x51mm brass needs a substantial powder reduction compared to commercial .308 brass, especially Winchester brand .308 brass that only weighs 155 to 160 grains empty and unprimed. Lake City 7.62x51mm brass can weigh as much as 180 grains empty and unprimed. That's a huge difference that can't be ignored.

I would start at 41.5 grains and work up in .5 grain increments, which is approximately a 30 to 35 fps increase per step. I consider 2700 to 2750 fps maxim velocity for a 150-grain bullet fired from an M1-A.

I'm really surprised there wasn't a bigger response to this thread. It seems like everyone shoots Varget these days. Maybe there's not that many people shooting 150gr? I stick to 165-180 grain bullets myself, so I can't help.

You’d probably get a bigger response over in the reloading section.

I have loaded 150gr with varget. But it’s been a while, and I can’t remember how much I used.

I used IMR4895 or TAC, so no help there. However, I adore that paint scheme.

Well 150s are surplus loaded ammo.  I am still nursing my SA and FN surplus.

I load 168 Noslers.  

I have tried varget but needed to use it elsewhere more than M14 loads.  Still shooting 8 pound Kegs of IMR4894 and 4064.  After that I have Vihtavouri N150.  

I have a smidge of Varget left and it is great stuff, I just quit chasing it when I couldn’t reliably get it for a normal price.   It is good to see it around more often.


+1 on the paint scheme!

Agreed.  Varget is a premium powder.  I would use a premium bullet to go along with it.

Varget will work fine but my cheap side would choose a lower cost ball powder, such as CFE223, BLC-2, 748, or TAC.

Some of my best groups in my M1A were from Varget,
Stoped using it cause my dillon powder measure hates it
and popps when it cuts the powder

That was certainly the case in the past, but I'm not so sure that's really the truth at the moment. At any point things can change again, but as of today from Powder Valley an 8# jug of Varget is $406, an 8# jug of CFE223 is $322, 8# of W748 is also $322, and 8# of BLC-2 is $314. That's not a price difference I would really worry about if Varget really does perform better, and for many people it does. If Varget shoots better with a cheaper bullet than other powders does with a more premium bullet, then that seems like a no brainer to me.

You might have a point with TAC, currently that is 8# for $265, that is a decent savings.

20-30% difference isn't the truth?

I figure that if someone is shooting an inexpensive FMJ bullet, they aren't looking for peak accuracy.  If they want to spend 20 or 30% more on powder, I won't stop them. Powder isn't going to make a big difference in this case.

I guess that's true. I'm just in a state of constant shock with the $500+ jugs of powder now. Varget doesn't even seem bad by comparison. And on top of that, one of the all time highest cost powder brands, Vhitavouri, is now one of the cheapest. Im scared that as soon as I find a good load with N140 it's going to go back to being for the super rich again.

150 SMKs LC Brass and #34 primer.41.5 grains of varget. My M1A loaded LOVES them. X ring gun on an SR target.

It depends on what brass you are using. Lake City or IMI (or any other 7.62x51mm brass that weighs close to 180 grains, empty and unprimed) requires a 2.0 grain reduction in powder charges compared to Winchester brand commercial .308 brass.

Primer selection matters. Remington 9.5's, CCI-200 and CCI-250 primers are milder than Winchester and Federal brands, which allows for slightly higher powder charges, think .5 grains to no more than 1.0 grains.

Varget is going to be very close to IMR-4064 when it comes to burn rates. 43.5 to 44.0 grains will be maximum in Lake City brass.

I had an Ultra Match a few years back...I loaded 4064 exclusively for it and had zero concerns. Havend owned an M1A in a while,  but have loaded a bunch or 150s and 168s for my 308 Alamo Precision bolt. For most of my reloading the past 10 yrs or so its been about half and half 4064 and Varget. ( no real preference... just depended on what was available when I needed to load). I havent seen much difference between them in normal weather. In really cold or really hot weather (in my modest opinion) perhaps the Varget is a hair less temperature sensitive.  (IF ITS 20 DEGREES OR 110 DEGREES, i TEND TO STAY INSIDE  LOL)

Have also been loading Varget almost exclusively for both my Garands  for 7-8 yrs now ( one std gi  and one old 50's tanker conversion). Both shoot the same ammo  just fine

In in my experience, in particularly hot or cold weather, the chronograph showed Varget to have just a little less spread in velocity than 4064 as compared to "normal 75 degree weather ( Just a LITTLE... not enough to ever get me to give up 4064). Both are fabulous powders. Just take your time and make sure your powder charges are consistant ( for anything thats intended for 300 yds +, I just go slow and weight out each individual charge on an old rcbs Chargemaster) With the bolts I use Federal Primers, but for the Garand I stick with a harder primer like the CCI Military primers

Let me also add that my Dillon 650 does evidently NOT like many cylinder powers. Does fine with flake and ball powders, but for my better ammo that Im individually weighing charges anyway, I just pull out the old 1970 Vintage Rockchucker...

For "good" loads I weigh, mic and sort the projectiles, measure and turn the neck walls for consistancy. length trim, polish and then weigh and sort again. Once loaded they all go through a loaded case guage and anything not perfect is set aside as "zero" or plinking ammo. Its a slow methodical routine that has kept me entertained many a long winter night,  and consistantly gives me 1/4" spread or less with no flyers ... Has never let me down.

If 1-2 moa is fine, I just crank away on the Dillon with whatever powder you wish.  If I want to pick the left or right eye of the fly, its the Rockchucker. I make enough "shooter" errors as I get older... I want to remove as many variables as possible

Without going to my logs I know I never used much if any Varget in my M1a.   I hoarded it for the Obermeyer barreled M700.

IMR4064 and 4895 was my steady for the M14 type but I also dabbled with some ball powders early on like 748 and Ballc2.   Some RL15 too iirc.

At the time some guys said Varget was slightly too slow for it.  Which sounds funny now as it burns pretty close to 4064 which is a known performer in the M14.

Edit, late to the draw of actually going back and looking at my log.

Only entries on the M14 pages was 43 grains with a 168 SMK in commercial cases.  I had a note about some failures but at the time I had a chamber issue where springfield scored the chamber with spinning chips on the reamer on barrel number 1.  Barrel number 2, the attempted warranty fix was also crap as they spun a big chip on the shoulder leaving hideous imprints on the brass. Barrel number 3 was finally smooth.  Only a few years later I noticed I had one of the flawed receivers where the right rail cut out that clearances the bolt roller was too shallow. My bolt was never ever fully locked.   I cut it deeper myself and bought a pull through reamer and fixed it myself as the bolt now closing all the way tightened headspace a bit too much.

Funny, On my very first chambering job I didn’t spin any chips and got a clean cut.

In all the temperature sensitivity studies I have read the old IMR4064 was the best for insensitivity as far as the older traditional powders. It was not far behind the new powders engineered for temperature insensitivity and was better at it that some that claimed to be insensitive to temperature.


For milsurps 4064 does quite nicely.   The only thing it stinks at is going through a measure and through small necks.

A guy with an automated electronic powder dispenser with scale could load 4064 without a care in the world as long as it fits in the selected case.  Even a long drop tube would fix a lot of that.