I agree completely with Benjamin on this.
However, VarGet does seem to suit more peoples' barrels than most powders in some cartridges, for example 6BR and 6.5X47 Lapua. In my own rifles, it was the case with the BR, but the same rifle now in 6.5X47L won't shoot for toffee with this powder and needs something slower than VarGet / Re15 in the 4350 / Viht N150 sort of area.
I suspect though that its massive popularity and hence angst over shortages is threefold:
1) the reputation / myth that has grown up over the last 20 years since it was introduced. Many just assume it'll be best for them and don't want to try anything else - ie it's seen as the easy / safe option.
2) flexibility. For the average handloader doing two or three small / midsize cartridges, it's likely to give at least acceptable results in them. Many people simply don't want to have to buy and stock three or four rifle powders if they can manage with one or two.
3) the absence of a really close direct competitor. Where it does work really well, running out and no replacements available might not only see considerable load development needed trying alternatives, but no guarantee that an equally good alternative is found. It makes me grieve to see people here insisting on using VarGet in run of the mill 308 Win combinations which is likely the least powder sensitive cartridge around and for which there are maybe 20 alternatives available.
(On #3, we in Europe now have what appears to be a near 100% satisfactory alternative, Reload Swiss RS52. Howver, it's a high-energy number and whilst it produces spectacular MVs, better even than VarGet, is likely to be more temperature sensitive. This isn't as great an issue here for us, so we can live with this. This might or might not be coming to / arrived in the US as Alliant Re16 with Alliant ATK steadily introducing Nitrochemie manufactured RS powders using its own nomenclature.)
So far as the most popular quartet of Hodgdon ADI manufactured extereme powders go - H4895, VarGet, H4350, and H4831/4831sc - Europe is getting hardly any to nil now with the importer told to 'push' IMR equivalents and St Marks spherical numbers instead. So we're not too badly off for IMR-4064 / 4895 / 4350 / 4831 / 7828ssc as well as new Hodgdon CFE223. We've still to see the IMR Enduron powders, but the problem with the existing numbers is that nothing gives a really good VarGet match or in cartridges like 284 / 7 Shehane ' F-Class 7mm short magnum loads matches 'shortcut' as H4831sc is popularly known.
One result is that a lot of peope here have simply become fed up with the non-supply and nobody knows if / when there might be supplies situation. Viht is always available here and was cheaper than Hodgdon even before people started putting a premium on the quartet's prices, RS has arrived and is same price as Viht, Ramshot (made in Belgium and comes direct avoiding the USA by agreement with Western Powders Inc) is good and a lot cheaper, so have made a decision to do a 100% switch to these European alternatives.
Even through dealers, Hodgdon prices have risen. One major regional retailer lists most Hodgdon extruded powders at £44.50 / lb ($70.48), but wants £48 for VarGet ($76.03) even though its website shows the powder as unavailable. Private sellers are trying it on just as in the worst days in the USA with a member of the Stalking Directory ('Stalking' = Deerhunting) with 6lb for sale wanting £60/tin or $570 US for the lot in the forum's 'classified sales' section. Bear in mind that we have a 20% sales tax called VAT on all new sales, but even with 20% knocked off, Hodgdon has become very expensive here compared to US dollar prices.
