Varget substitute for 7mm-08

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Varminterror said:
I’ve used 42.0grn Varget under 140 NAB’s in 7-08 in a handful of rifles. For a turn-key short range load, these have always shot well for me.

Be patient. It’ll stay pretty damned cold out for a while yet, we’ll see a third wave of this imaginary Varget shortage when this final round of “why can’t I find Varget” guys finally finds some on shelves and buys a lifetime supply, but it’ll level off soon enough. Place your back orders, it’s still shipping to Hodgdon and they’re still shipping it to retailers at the same pace they always have. This bubble is imaginary, so it won’t sustain unless you make it so.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure where the first two waves of this as you say imaginary shortages were but the current one is pretty Damn real. Shelves are empty Power Valley sold out again. You must something we don’t
 
Powder Valley has 1 lbs of Varget listed for sale right now.

No H4350 available though. Maybe this is the start of a major powder shortage!!!:rofl:
 
There are alot of powders that will get you there, but if you are looking for easy to acquire powders, the 4895's get my vote. They may not be the perfect powder, but I always keep a 8# of H4895 on hand as it so handy for 30-06 and smaller cartridges on down.
Hodgdon
H4895
38.0 - starting
2,618
42,000 CUP
40.5 - max
2,769
49,700 CUP

If youre looking for straight velocity and stability? H4350 is the king according to Hodgdon.
Hodgdon
H4350
45.0 - starting
2,692
42,300 CUP
48.0C - max
2,868
49,800 CUP
 
South Prairie Jim said:
I’m not sure where the first two waves of this as you say imaginary shortages were but the current one is pretty Damn real. Shelves are empty Power Valley sold out again. You must something we don’t
Click to expand...

Call Hodgdon and ask why the shelves are empty - that’s what I have done which most of these “oh no, all the Varget is gone,” posts have not done. There wasn’t any change to the flow of Varget, not in bulk to Hodgdon, or in retail packaging to consumers. But retailers and Hodgdon both are facing increasing back orders as this rumor of a shortage is spreading around.

First wave - an actual increase in real demand. A BUNCH of high volume competitive shooters switched to 6 BR based cases this season. A few shelves ran dry.

Enter the ridiculous rumor-mill: because these shelves ran dry, a bunch of idiots started telling stories about a fire at ADI or GD or a Hodgdon warehouse, or telling lies about new Trump tax impacts on importation, or about higher Australian demand pushing Varget to local demand instead of the US, or other non-descript and unsubstantiated claims about supply interruptions - ESPECIALLY claiming “shipments wouldn’t be made until Q1 of 2020” or “after the new year,” since it sounds so official. Further propagated by dozens of Internet forum posts regurgitating these red herring tales...

Second Wave: the folks who didn’t think to question any of these wild claims ran out and bought out inventories. Folks who might buy one or two pounds per year bought out 10+ pound inventories. Even a professional shooter at GAP Grind bought 24lbs (all Hodgdon had on hand) - about three barrels worth, when he probably really only needed 8lbs at that point in time.

So the imaginary prophecies became self-fulfilling, even though actual usage demand increase for Varget barely moved the needle.

Third wave: the late comers to this particular dance are finally starting to notice Varget is out of stock at their usual sources, so they poke around online to see why, and they’re finding all of these rumor-mill posts and reports of empty inventories, and they’re placing back orders, and panic buying in the same way the second wave had 3-4 months ago.

So as I said above - stop panicking, backorder what you’ll responsibly use in a reasonable timeline, and don’t buy an entire shelf-full when you find some, and everything will get back to normal soon enough.

Same thing happened to H4350 2 years ago, and at a lower level, the same thing is happening to Retumbo now too, since a certain portion of the country is growing tired of the LR game, and thinks they need to jump on the ELR bandwagon. A small increase in demand emptied a few shelves, a bunch of people started screaming about the sky falling, and suddenly there really isn’t enough Varget on shelves. Ride it out, it’ll level out soon enough.

ETA: I called Hodgdon for myself on October 8, after seeing a few posts like this. I also spoke with their rep at the Midwest Regional Finale a few weeks later. I posted about these on Nov 11 here as well on another “oh no, where’s all of the Varget?” threads. Anyone can contact Hodgdon on their own dime if they so choose.
 
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Calm down ....I'm pretty sure you did {we’ll see a third wave of this imaginary Varget shortage } I don't need to call Hodgons or anywhere else I know when the shelves and venders are out of product. I do agree with the point you brought up regarding highly competitive shooters switching to BR cases.
 
keep hearing that varget is getting hard to find. so i looked at several retailers, midsouth shooters, natchez, graf and sons, and powder valley. the ones that i have used for big orders. they all are out of varget. this summer i was getting 8 pounds of varget for around $165.00. even the local sportsman warehouse had it at $165.00. then the price of varget went up to over $200.00 for a eight pound jug. you can bet when it comes back there will be another price increase.
 
^^^ That's what I came to report.
Still showing 320 in stock.

But as for the OP's question, RL15 is very versatile. It's hard to find a non-magnum cartridge that it doesn't do a good job in.
 
Arkansas Paul said:
^^^ That's what I came to report.
Still showing 320 in stock.

But as for the OP's question, RL15 is very versatile. It's hard to find a non-magnum cartridge that it doesn't do a good job in.
Click to expand...

I too have found RL15/RE15 to be as good as Varget in my .308 bolt action.


FWIW - PV is now down to 141lbs of Varget - 19H30 12/05 EST

Edit add 09H00 12/6 EST - PV is out of stock of Varget now. It did not last long :-(
 
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