Laurie,
I don't really understand that. I have used a lot of Varget, but had to switch to VV N140 with a heat content of 3720. The two powders seemed to me to be grain for grain twins. How is that?
We first saw N140 in the UK 10 or more years before Viht powders were imported into the US - I first used it around '84 or '85. It was the most popular powder in British handloading by far back in the late 80s and through the 90s. When VarGet first appeared, it found its admirers but sold a lot less here being considerably more expensive on a unit basis.
Over subsequent years, as interest in higher performance increased in cartridges like the 308 Win, VarGet became increasingly admired and sought after. When FTR came into being, it soon became the powder for 308 and the then prevalent 155gn bullet weight as in the US simply because it gives considerably and consistently higher MVs, although some competitors preferred the equally high specific energy H4895. Unlike TR where a 155 Sierra and 2950-3,000 was good enough so that N140 is still very popular indeed and the grade's lot to lot consistency is much treasured, the very high specific energy H4895 and VarGet were in a league of their own bar Viht N540 which was soon shunned thanks to dramatically reduced barrel life. 3,070-3,130 fps was the usual MV range in 'Palma' brass for the two Hodgdon powders, but I've seen people run them faster - N140 goes nowhere near that. When we went through various Hodgdon / ADI 'supply droughts', people were near bereft and would pay well over the odds for a season's worth of H4895 or VarGet from a single production lot.
Although temperature insensitivity is valued, especially as the upper limits of performance are explored, it has never been as great an issue here as we don't get North American continental temperature extremes or anywhere like them across a year, never mind a day. It is sheer performance that sold this pair of powders here, and in VarGet's case its flexibility working in so many cartridges. Our importers could sell every pound of the stuff that Hodgdon Powder would send them - by 2016/17 year the order backlog stood at over 5,000 lb, a vast amount for the small European market.
There are a lot of people here scratching for alternatives now that it has been withdrawn from Europe, but we have a lot more choice now, especially with Nitrochemie's Reload Swiss RS52 - anything VarGet will do RS52 does too but gives a little more velocity. It may or more likely may not match VarGet on the temperature issue, but it's good enough for our climate.
