Varget

[keystone183]

I'm sure someone would like some.... If you hurry you might get some...

https://www.armorally.com/shop/hodgdon-varget/?attribute_select-quantity=1lb

[keystone183]

WHOA!! Friend just alerted me to the price!!!!! DANG!!!!

That's up $18/lb from when i bought from them in june!!!!!!!

[tlen]

Why is Varget so special ? Powder Valley had it listed for $45/#, $316/8#

[Kosh65]

[lazyengineer]

Why is Varget so special ? Powder Valley had it listed for $45/#, $316/8#

Varget was one of the first "next generation" powders with improved temperature insensitivity, combined with being in just the right burn range for .223, 308 and 30-06. It also has properties that make it one of the least spikey powders out there. It's a very forgiving powder and accuracy is good in many roundd over a wide span of loads.. So in short order it became the new baseline powder that almost everyone switched to. There are others now like ARCOMP, 8208, etc, but for the longest time Varget was the hotness, and for many, it still is. And with that, supply/demand pricing and availability has become a mess - even before The Great Madness.


And with that- someone is honestly pricing it at $63/lb. I won't be paying that- and have a dim view of a retailer charging that - but whatever, they are free to set their price as they wish. And I am free to LOL at their nitrate fertilizer price, and keep running other powders. FWIW, hogdgon put much of that tech into their
4895 now, which is very close to the same thing as Varget now.

[Klem]

Australian Defence Industries (ADI) makes Varget for a bunch of customers, but mainly for the Australian and New Zealand militaries. It's the only powder manufacturer in both countries so while it is ultimately owned by Thales (France) there will be sovereign capability and oversight in that arrangement. Hodgdon's buys it in bulk and re-brands it for the US market. ADI's production plant makes only single-based powders of varying speeds from fastest to slowest;

AR2205
AR2207 ('H4198')
BM1
BM2
BM8208 ('8208')
AR2206H ('H4895')
AR2208 ('Varget')
AR2209 ('H4350')
AR2213 ('H4831')

The equivalent powder chart is found here;

http://www.adiworldclass.com.au/powder-equivalents/

ADI make other powders down in the pistol shotgun range but have had problems during the pandemic due to updating their manufacturing processes.

ADI powders are considered temperature stable due to them all being single-based. Hodgdons buys their double-based (less temp stable but more energy dense) from other companies like St Marks in Canada.

The bolded powders above are the ones they make more often as they have the highest demand. These are supposedly the powders we see more of in the shops. For Grendel case size in the 20" barrel length 8208 and 2206H/4895 are the most efficient. Varget is getting a bit bulky and slow for Grendel, but that means it is safer for the hand-loader, if a little slower in velocities.

Varget is popular in bigger calibres like 308. It's also a good powder for the Creedmore. I would use it in Grendel only if 8208 and 4895 were not available.