Originally Posted By: triggertapI am brand new to reloading. I recently bought the hornady lock and load kit with the extras it did not have. I have only loaded for my rem 700 vtr in .243. I have only used varget so far because i heard it was an extreme powder that was not affected by temp. I have read several things that say if you want one powder that will work in almost everything you own then start with varget. I see that my gun seems to shoot best with the high end or max load in the Lyman book. The Lyman book goes "hotter" than the Hornady book seems to. Shouls this be a concern?
Varget is extremely popular and for good reason. The only way to verify if it is temp. sensitive for you is to shoot them over a chronograph. Otherwise, if you aren't seeing pressure signs from your brass/primers, or noticeable differences in POI/POA during season changes I wouldn't worry about temp. sensitivity much. If you are loading to the very maximum charges recommended, then yes, you better do your due diligence and figure this out.
As far as different manuals having different ranges, that is very common. Each company has their own "risk management" level for limiting their liability. Each company also has different test rigs, equipment, etc. It is a really good idea to take your load data from multiple manuals, as there is often errors in printed manuals. Plus you can sort of take the "average" from multiple manuals instead of trusting just one.
Good questions!
