Good starting point

 

'tis.

 

Vihta Vuori N165 is a powder I prefer for the Swedish Mauser 6.5x55. I use N160 for my 7.5x55 reloads using data from the Berger manual.

 

This is UK - we get whatever we can find on the shelves. No N140 here in our part of England, no N160 either. Seems they have some in Taunton, almost three hundred and fifty miles from us.

Please remind me of your 6.5x55 load for a 140gr bullet?

 

Tac,
RL17, IMR 4895, H4895 and the elusive now Gucci priced Varget are but a few highly successful powders I've used in my K31 loads with absolute outstanding accuracy 100 to 1000 yds. Sadly I went from one powder to the next as supply / availability vanished and I was forced to buy another powder & re start the "load development " process. Varget dried up, re start with next powder I could find..that dries up, re start. By forces of market conditions, I ended up with loads for a lot of powders as I had no choice but buy and shoot what I could find. Hated that but reality forces adapting to real life.

The limitations and restrictions you suffer in obtaining any Vhit powder replicates exactly why in 2008, here in Virginia, I dismissed Vhit powders entirely. If I can't get them, why load develop anything with an odd pound found here or there ...and very improbable that was. I have no doubt ..zero doubt how great they are but higher cost, nil availability canceled them off the menu in 2008. Now if your shooting life is low low volume of use, then perhaps gaining a pound or two if you can find it might be fine. Such is the case with Leon who manages satisfaction with microscopic amounts of Vhit powders found and is all good with that , it pegs his Gourmet meter for Finn , Swiss or Swede "anything". He has some good loads and good results with Berger bullets, Vhit powders, Lapua bullets and all 3 of them are not easily found in good times over here !

I shoot what I can get and I'm not suffering by that approach. I am not suffering on performance nor accuracy and I am not bleeding from the high costs of VHit, Berger , Lapua products which I can't get anyhow ...worse now in Biden's America. Even worse ? ...yes, we can't find primers and often its a long trip of several hour away to pay over 125 for a brick of 1000 primers, only made worse by high cost of fuel to get there and back.

I fully understand and appreciate the aspect of shooting what you can find. Making that reality work is what is necessary. I shoot every weekend but the Berger & Lapua bullet reloaders ?.... I see them maybe every 6 weeks. VHit powder reloaders...they don't exist on 1000 yd line ...never and I mean never. My peasant fare of Nosler & Hornady bullets and American powders found, works just fine. Of course, in Leons outlook, I am a wretched peasant using the scraps found for my hand loads. I consume a lot of scraps thankyou very much !!!

Wait a minute...travel 3 hours one way for primers ? I must be in England ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Milprileb's" remarks above are well taken. Under the current regime here, the constricted supplies of reloading components that used to be abundant force a decision: either shoot less of what you've got, or adapt your loads to whatever you can find. After much effort and time, I have finalized loads, so I am less inclined these days to spend range time and components, e.g. primers, on load development.

Regarding Vihta Vuori powders, what endears them to me is the remarkable consistency with which they meter. I weigh each thrown charge, and greatly reducing, and occasionally eliminating, the number of times I have to trickle to zero the balance beam on my scale is a big advantage to me. To paraphrase Stalin's (in)famous remark: "In the future there will be fewer, but better Russians" (alluding to the purges) in my reloading future there will be fewer, but better reloads.

 

Thanks, Gentlemen. I guess that the 'Days of wine and roses' are pretty much behind ALL of us now, eh?

I'm sitting on around 5000 large rifle primers right now, and at my rate of shooting, bearing in mind that ALL my rifles use 'em, it will still be a few years before I run out. Unlike many shooters on your side of the Great Water, I don't get to take a selection of ARs to the range and crank out a few hundred shots per session. Most sessions I shoot around thirty or so, although on a guest day that can go up to fifty. Not too many people who have never fired ANY kind of gun before care to shoot more than a couple of 600gr bullets over 75gr of 1fg from my Sniders, let alone full loads of 500gr .45-70 Govt. However, it doesn't matter what the load is - it still takes one each primer to set the thing off.

 

Thanks, Gentlemen. I guess that the 'Days of wine and roses' are pretty much behind ALL of us now, eh?...

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..." One of my jobs in the US Army was battalion training officer. It was a Pershing missile battalion with over 1.400 assigned strength. My job was to requisition and allocate ammunition for training and annual qualification. The 7th Army required all newly assigned personnel to fire their personal weapons within 30 days of arrival. In the USA every post has firing ranges, but in Germany with its kasernes ranges were not so close or convenient. I had to negotiate with another unit to use their range, and that had to be done every month. Long story short, I am engrained with ammunition discipline. I also allocate a specific number of rounds for each range session. Depending on the rifle, I limit myself to 20-40 rounds. When shooting reloads, this self-discipline is easy since I know how much time and effort precedes each "bang" and that inhibits reckless abandon for sure.

I am not an AR fan. I have a US copy of the SIG 550 - SIG 556 Classic - and a Ruger 556 TD. I was never enamored of the M16 and its direct impingement gas system. I do shoot a Swedish AG42b Ljungman, however, but its gas system has none of the objectionable features of the AR, e.g. hot receiver and need of tedious bolt carrier group cleaning. The Ruger is gas piston operated, so it evades those problems. But to me it is just a toy gun so I don't schlep it to the range that often.

 

Shooting Gucci components and shooting less is the Gourmet solution Leon adopted. That works if shooting less is a compromise you desire to make. Shooting more and shooting components available is my approach and at age 74, I am not 'stretching components and shooting ' , I am shooting as much weekly as I can. I don't know if I got next week and by the way I don't buy green bananas either. I try to shoot as much as I can on a range day and I bring the ammo to do that. Mind you each shot is hard work and precision long range shooting is what I am doing. There is no rapid firing but there is hard work making the best shot possible.

Ole Leon is in North Carolina, if there is as cloud over Labrador, he's canceled his range day. Leon wants perfect weather , but in the off chance mother nature gives him ideal weather, he does make the effort to make each shot as accurate as possible ... all with Gucci components. Mere US components...Leon is above it but waivers sometimes ...only under duress.

 

...Ole Leon is in North Carolina, if there is as cloud over Labrador, he's canceled his range day. Leon wants perfect weather , but in the off chance mother nature gives him ideal weather, he does make the effort to make each shot as accurate as possible...

Guilty as charged! I had enough of range firing in lousy weather on the army's dime. If conditions detract from the enjoyment of the range, then I don't go. I'm a fair weather shooter and a foul weather reloader.

... all with Gucci components. Mere US components...Leon is above it but waivers sometimes ...only under duress.

The only furrin stuff I use is Vihta Vuori powder for some loads. I use Rel 17 too, and it is made in Switzerland although marketed by Alliant. Berger bullets may be "Gucci" but they work. I use Nosler bullets too. My range objective is the MOA or better group shooting an ancient rifle.

 

Great discussion gentlemen. Out here in the land of frozen mosquitos I can get VV powders, but at
$100 + a pound I don't. Or won't. Hornady and Sierra bullets are available, not much else. So, I shoot what I have and live with the knowledge that the rifles are better shots and I am.
And yes, I too am a fair-weather shooter, for the three and a half months we can shoot without dressing in a parka and shoveling snow.
I love my K-31, my '96 Swede and M1A. All need more range time than they are getting.

Ken

 

I can't give any prices for Vihta Vuori powders since I have not found any since Bidenomics hit. I picked up 2 2# jugs of N135 last year at a not quite local gun store. They were acquired in an estate purchase. N135 is listed by Hornady as a top powder choice for the M1A. It meters beautifully out of my Lee Classic powder measure.