I think a big question is how you plan to meter the charges, and if you are planning to do single stage or progressive. Are these for a bolt gun or carbine? I figure Imma gonna drop charges for a carbine, and I do not currently have a bolt gun in .223. So I am going to drop charges, and if I am doing this on a progressive, I want to use the powder check. So I want to use some kind of ball powder since I will just meter the charges and load the rounds on a 650, so I also use the powder check. But I am just loading general use rounds, and use some at three gun.
The way I figure it is that you can load 77gn for the same effort.
If you are going to weigh each charge I say get started with the Varget, but if you meter it there can be bridging and other inconsistency, so I would for sure use a powder check if you are on a progressive.
I bought a bunch of SMK77s one day when I found them in stock, and I have a bunch loaded into nice once fired LC cases. Now I am curious about these RMR 75gn BTHPs (ETA: I forgot
the link...), since they are like half price. I will probably get some and load them into random cases I bought, when you miss at three gun you just shoot again, and it not typically because of the cartridge...