July 26, 2025

The 45-70 and Varget powder

Varget works for everything!

I just tried some loads with H322 and the Berrys plated 350 grain bullet.
Here are the results I got: 

H322  350 plated Berrys  34.0 grains  1369 fps
H322  350 plated Berrys  37.0 grains  1491 fps
My Lyman 50 manual shows a 42 grain load with Varget and the 405 grain lead bullet. They say this will give 1258 fps.

So, I loaded up 50 of these and we went to shoot them.
Here is what we got: 

Varget  405 cast lead  42.0 grains  1470 fps
So we got about 250 fps more than what the book predicted. I'm not surprised -- these are not the "mild" 1250 fps loads the book led us to believe.

I would be tempted to just see what 35 grains of H322 would do under these 405 grain bullets.

A quick note on volume of H322 versus Varget. When I finished loading with 35 grains of H322, I reloaded the Dillon powder measure with Varget and weighed what it delivered and got 35.5 grains. So H322 and Varget are pretty much equal volume.

When I switched from loading 12 grains of 700X to loading H322 I got about 25 grains of H322 from the same volume. That 700X is a pretty fluffy flake powder.

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org