Powder swapping?

[mzvarner]

So I worked a load with Varget that I am happy with but only have about a half pound left. I was able to come across a few pounds of 4064 which is supposed to be very similar to Varget. I looked up the burn rates of the two and they are different by only a few spots away from each other from 3 different sources. Is it safe to drop my established Varget load by say 5% or 7% and work up from there?

I have looked at a lot of the pet loads posted here for 308 and the charges people are using for both are very close to mine (43.0 gr Varget) and then a lot of people are happy with very similar loads of 4064?

Thanks guys, just trying to not blow things up in my face.

 

[nuclear_shooter]

If you want to be safe, check here: Hodgdon Loading Data. As long as you're not running near the max load it should be safe to just swap em, but any OCW will probably go out the window. If you are close to max, you may want to start a bit lower and work you way up, or just risk it.

 

[roggom]

Drop down and then work back up , if you are shooting 168's or 178's I would say the 43 Varget is just below the middle node. Just drop down to around 42 and work up. 4064 and varget are almost grain for grain equiv in the manual.

Hit me up on PM with bullet, seating depth, case water volume (take a fired case, weigh, fill with water, weigh) and I will run the info in QL for you. Wont get you shooting cloverleafs, but remove doubt about approx speed and pressure.

The powder shortage has been a bit of a blessing for me, I ran out of varget and picked up a keg of RL15. Hell, Im never going back.

 

[bruddah]

The powder shortage has been a bit of a blessing for me, I ran out of varget and picked up a keg of RL15. Hell, Im never going back.

I've read great things about RL15 being a great powder for accuracy. It is not however supposed to be as temperature stable as Varget though.