Any of y'all use Varget?

[sharps_74]

How does it work for .223? I'm mainly interested in using it for 68gr. rounds. What loads have you used? Thanks

[UVvis]

I've used it with 69 SMK's and 75gr Hornady's. Worked pretty well. Not really sure on the charge weight. You should work up anyway, but I was thinking they were around 25.4gr of Varget.

[Kurt Reifert]

Varget works very well in .223.
The only down side is that it does not meter consistently.
If you have a Lyman DPS 1200 or RCBS automatic powder dispenser, you'l have no problem. Otherwise, you'll need to trickle your charges.

[sharps_74]

Thanks folks.

It might work well for me. I weigh every charge and bullet that I load. It's slow however, it give me good accuracy. I may have to look into getting one of those machines that trickle and weigh the powder. I've been using a beam scale.

[KACSR15]

I used in the past but that was before switching gears from bolt guns to AR's. It worked quite well as it was a one stop shop and used it for both my .223 rifles and .308. Seemed simple enough buying one can or powder and have it work for both calibers.

My experience is it worked for me, what I was using it for and was a good all-arounder.

[docholliday]

Hodgdon shows a max charge of 26gr. w/ a Sierra 69. I have been loading 25.5 gr. of Varget w/ a Hornady 68 gr. hpbt and have had great accuracy with it out of my Rock River 18" varmiter (vel. chrono'd @ about 2800fps.). I also loaded the Hornady 75gr. hpbt w/ a 25gr charge of Varget for about 2750 fps with great results. I load on a Dillon 550 and the varget actually meters quite well as long as you don't get in a hurry and give the powder time to drop. Polishing the powder funnel helps too.

[Mark/MO]

Our high power competition load is a 75 gr BTHP w/ 24.0 grains of Varget in BH brass. It has shot quite well in both mine and my son's Colt H-Bars.

As someone else has pointed out, always work up the load for the individual gun.

[SMJayman]

I have had some really good results with Varget behind 62gr Barnes TSX bullets, 25.0gr gave me the best accuracy. This through a 16" 1:9 barreled AR. I was hand weighing each charge, I haven't had much luck getting consistent throws in my powder measure.

[zac4551]

Thanks for the info I have been thinking about using varget in my 223 loads, since I am now loading for a 308 bolt gun.

[HHI 812]

Just finished putting together my AR. Started with a stripped RRA lower, and a YHM stripped upper. Put a 16" Colt pencil carbine barrel on it, and a YHM smooth floating handguard. First shots out of it this past weekend, at 100 yards and with a Nikon 2x7 shotgun scope afriend gave me, and a cheap riser and rings, 7 shots of Wolf 75 grainers went into a 2" group. With a few of my reloads, I took a guess with 23.5 Varget and the Hornady 75 BTHP went 5/8"for four shots, and opened the group with a 5th at 1-1/4". Second group went 3/4" for 4 shots and pulled the last to 1-3/4". Same load with the Nosler 77 grain with cannelure went 1-5/8" for 5 shots. Not as tight as the Hornady bullet, but considering these were not developed loads, but just a starting load, I think Varget has some possibilities. Got a pound of H4895 and AA2230 to try next, along with loading a little more Varget?

[JWNathan]

I've been having really good luck with H335, very consistant through my pops Dillon 550. My current favorite loading is 25.5 grains with the 60 grain V-max.
-Jesse

[Kurt Reifert]

For excellent results with the heavies try VV N140.
You won't be disappointed.

Oh yeah, get a chrono. It doesn't have to be an expensive one, in fact, I'd recommend a cheap one so you're no too upset when you shoot it.

[taliv]

varget is the gold standard for high power shooters and heavy bullets (68-80g).
afaik, it's still sierra's accuracy load.
most loads will be compressed or nearly so.
it is pretty crunchy going through most dispensers
it's clean burning
it's cheap compared to VV but you can get a good bit more velocity with VV's high-energy line

[ccoker]

I don't reload for 223, but it's my go to powder for 204 ruger, 308 and 45/70

[eightmillimeter]

Ballistically, in the 223 it makes good sense, but there are limitations. It offers good load density and great accuracy in 223 and 308, but it does not meter as well as others. It is decently clean burning, but not as good as some others. Some people will will swear up and down that it is not sensitive to temperature changes, but my chronograph doesn't lie. I once shot a match using Hornady 75 grain match hp, it was hot and an otherwise normal load pierced every single primer with the exception of a couple, plus it was running about 1 MOA high on my 600 yard zero. Where Varget excels is when you want one powder for multiple calibers, because it works well in many. With heavy match bullets like 75 and 80 grain, I use H4895. RL15 is a very solid choice for match bullets above 68 grains. I have also used AA2460 and AA2520 with good results. TAC, W748, H322, BLC2, and Benchmark have not met my expectations. With heavier bullets, I would be tempted to try VV140 or 540, those and RL15 are the most common match loadings I see from the really good shooters at the 600 line.

[Damascus]

When I started reloading for .223, I worked up loads with TAC to start with, but then, since I'd been loading for .308 for a while, I had Varget and RL-15 on hand already, and decided to try that.
Despite what Sierra's accuracy load is, I got better results (tighter groups) with RL-15 than I did with Varget in BOTH my 5.56 rifles (M&P15T and Bushy A3 20" Hbar). BTW, I only shoot 69gr. SMK's in these rifles, both are 1/9" twist.
The weirdest part is that I get almost identical results when I load for my 26" barreled .308! You'd think Varget would work better for me in the 5.56 rifles, since it's slightly faster burning than RL-15 (although barely, and lot-to-lot consistency may also be my culprit.. I've only used 2 lbs. of Varget so far).