Vihtavouri Powder

Deadeye

Beginner
Feb 10, 2005
30
0
Most loading manuals list Vitavouri powders. Are the worth the effort to find. We can only get it mailorder? Some folks rave about it. Any experience?
 
I use VV320 in my 45 ACP. That`s the extent of my experiance with them.
That said I found it to burn very clean, give uniform velocities, meter well, and cost dearly. I think there are other powders that will do the same things that are easier to find and cheaper, especially if you have to pay haz mat on top of the price. I found mine in a store I travel past a few times a year and stop and stock up when in the area. If I had to mail order I`d use another brand. I guess it all depends on how happy you are with your present powder(s) as to weather or not it`s worth the cost.
 
My loads for my 225gr 338WM,180gr 308Norma and 180gr 30.06 all use N-560.They say it's temperature insensistive.It needs a minmium pressure to shoot consistantly.So you end up with velocity,accuracy and moderate pressure.I like that combination.It also burns very clean.The down side is the fireball.
 
Vihtavuorri powders are not something you cannot get along without, but they have some very good applications.

In general, they burn very clean, are very consistant on the chronograph, and in some cases give very good accuracy.

I have had very good success with N 130 and N133 in the .223 Remington both for speed and accuracy. I have also had good luck with N 130 in the 7TCU, very good performance with low muzzle blast and recoil.

N 135 is just about THE chosen powder around here for a lot of pistol silhouette shooters.
It is very popular with those who shoot the 7mm BR, etc. Similarly, N 110 has a lot of followers for use in the .357 Mag and 44 Mag for silhouette shooting. (Less muzzle blast and recoil than H 110.)

N 140 performs just almost identical to Varget in one of my 22-250 Remington rifles. It has the advantage of burning a little cleaner.

N 560 gave very good groups in a 300 WSM I tested, just did not give the velocity I wanted. Having said that, it is the powder that my dad uses in his 7mm WSM, works great in that rifle.

So, I guess I have to say I have had very good luck with Vihtavuorri powders. They are reported to be temperature insensitive and seem to burn very clean. They are nice short cut powders that meter well.

The downside is they are hard to find sometimes, they are a little expensive, and when you want to try a new one it is sort of expensive as the smallest packaging they come in is two pounds.

Also, you might find it interesting that the folks at the Nosler Shooters Pro Shop report that their ballisticians tell them that they get extremely good results with Vihtavuorri powders.

They are certainly worth a try.

R F :)
 
Ditto to R Flowers post. I have used VV165 in magnum loads for years. They are very consistent from lot to lot and clean burning.
As for accuracy in my Savage 7mm magnum VV165 is so good that I have never found a compelling reason to use anything else.
 
wbm":22bi95n2 said:
Ditto to R Flowers post. I have used VV165 in magnum loads for years. They are very consistent from lot to lot and clean burning.
As for accuracy in my Savage 7mm magnum VV165 is so good that I have never found a compelling reason to use anything else.

Ditto to the above post and quote. N-165 has been very consistent and accurate in my .270WSM. It is so good that if it wasn't significantly more expensive than others, I would not still be experimenting. It runs about $45 for a 2 lb. container locally, when I can get 2 lbs of IMR-4350 for $34. Once I get a chronograph, and determine velocities of different loads, I will decide once and for all whether to "bite the Finnish Powder Bullet" and just stay with Vihtavuori since it is so good, or maybe cave in to my cheap nature and use something else like Reloder 19 ($37 for 2 lbs) or the aforementioned IMR-4350.
 
I relly like the VV powders that I've used. In my Sako 243 47 grains of VV160 and 70 gr. BT shoots in the 4's and would probably do better with a better shooter than I. VV130 makes the 444 Marlin stand up and do tricks. 50 Grains and a 265 Hornady chronographs at 2380 fps, 20 ft from the muzzle of my Marlin with a 24" bbl. with excellent accuracy. I would like to try more VV powders but they're just so damn expensive to experiment with because they're only available in 2lb. cans. That's a deal breaker for me. Vihtavouri would be well advised to follow the lead of Hodgdon and market their powders in 1/2 LB. 4 packs to allow more people to experiment without breaking the bank. Just my .02
 
I have been using Vihtavuori Powders in several rifles for a number of years now, and really like them. I use N135, N140, N150, N160, N560, N165 and N170. All are consistent and clean burning. My N160 load with the 165 Partition is super accurate in my 30-06 SSDM, and the N140 load in the Swift with the 50 Ballistic Tip is hard to beat. Regards, Eagleye.
 
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