From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The above is the way that the Kemira Company, of which
Vihtavuori is a division, spells the name!
I have been using that Company's powders, for both
rifle and pistol reloading, for many years now and have
always found them to be clean-burning with the decided
advantage that they meter particularly well through
volumetric powder measuring equipment.
Their pistol powder, N310, seems to develop a particularly
'hot' flame front in that I used to experience really
severe leading problems in the chamber throats of my S&W
686 - but not in the barrel - even with the recommended
target load of 2.8 grains of N310 behind a 148 grain GECO
lead hollow based wadcutter bullet in a 38 Special case
with Winchester or Federal primers. That load produced a
muzzle velocity of about 770 ft/sec - checked over my
PACT chronograph - and should not have resulted in such
leading. The chamber throat dimensions of my pistol were
not excessively large either. (I found that 2.7 grains of
Hercules - now Alliant - 'Bullseye' powder behind the same
bullet in the same cases with the same primers produced far
less leading but was a much dirtier 'burn' - leaving smoky
deposits all over the gun - and didn't meter as well through
my RCBS 'Uniflow' powder measure.) Accuracy results were
very similar - both being very good indeed provided I could
play my part in the equation! I had similar success from the
accuracy point of view using 357 Magnum cases and 3.5 grains
of N310 behind the 148 grain GECO lead wadcutters. The
leading problem with N310 persisted with other types of
lead bullet too and so I concluded that it was a feature of
the powder rather than just of the bullets.
I had no success in developing light loads in .44 Magnum
using N340. The listed 'Magnum' load is some 12.8 grains of
N340 behind a 240 grain bullet. Dropping this in stages to
10 grains did not seem to reduce the violence of the load at
all! More vicious 'soldering' of lead around the chamber
throat and on the underside of the top strap of my S&W
Model 29 - but not as severe as in the S&W 686 above.
Vihtavuori claim in their literature that reduced
loads with their powders do not produce the 'explosive'
state that we are always concerned about but they still
recommend the choice of a powder that will result in a charge
of propellant that almost fills the space available in the
cartridge case. I found the Hercules powder range better for
developing 44 Special power level loads for the 44 Magnum
cartridge.
N320 worked beautifully in my .45ACP 1911A1, reworked for
me by Tom Nield, and now safely stored with my other pistols
in Belgium.
I find the Vihtavuori N140 rifle powder to be superb in
7.62mm NATO behind 155 grain 'Palma' bullets.
Vihtavuori powders are well known in my part of the world
and are widely used.
Hope that the above 'ramblings' may be of interest!
Best wishes,
Richard Malbon
--
The US importer used to give us two types of powder, I
think one was N340 but the other one didn't begin with
"N", I think it was something like 3N37, apparently
this was a good powder for various hotter IPSC loads
although he never managed to sell any of the big name
shooters at my club on using it (e.g. Armando Valdez,
Jeff Dixon).
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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