Actually p-17, my books list up to 49 grns of Varget with a 150 gn bullet, and nowhere does it say to exclude Win 88s or Sav 99s nor does say "Only for strong bolt action rifles" I have also never once read such a disclaimer on a box of factory ammo, so one must conclude that they are suitable for all firearms so chambered. no?
Well, I've been loading Varget in .308 target rifles for 15+ years myself, and I've never been able to go much beyond 47 grains in any rifle without getting pressure signs. I'll accept Hogdon's data on this point because it corresponds with my own experience.
In any event, I don't know any TR or Palma competitor who pushes much beyond 47 grains of Varget with a 155, even in a super-strong action like an RPA or Barnard. It may be possible, but why bother pushing that envelope? If it works for you, that is great, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it on a public forum.
As for autoloaders and levers, virtually all loading manuals that I have encountered have stated clearly that, when loading for levers and autoloaders, you often can't achieve maximum book loads because they stretch the brass more, due to their different type of lock-up, causing extraction problems with those particular action types. This is because bolts that lock up at the front and require the bolt handle to be manually lifted to open are much tighter and have much more camming power to extract fired brass than levers and autoloaders. This is why small base dies were invented -- to give extra resizing for cases that are going to be fed into autoloaders and levers. In my experience, even brass resized in regular FL dies sometimes has difficulty chambering in autoloaders -- even with moderate loads.
The reason why FACTORY ammo functions in all rifles is because it has to. The brass is virgin and is sized down even smaller than you get with small base dies. The companies use powders and components that won't push the limits on pressure, often producing ammo that does not actually achieve full SAAMI pressures, in order to make sure that it will be safe to fire and extract in all manner of firearms.
I hope your loads work out for you. In my experience Varget always gives acceptable results in the .308 but some loads are better than others. I don't expect you'll have any trouble finding a load that works well for most purposes.
