SmallCaliberCentral

Last week's experiment with 40-grain Bergers and 8208 XBR was quite disappointing, so I picked up a pound of Vihtavuori N540 yesterday on a whim, loaded up a bunch of rounds, and tried them out today over my rifle's favorites, 39-grain BlitzKings.

Out of the seven charge weights from minimum to maximum, three were under 0.20", with one almost breaking 0.10". Largest group size was 0.67". It looks like I have a decent OCW-type vertical consistency for 0.5-0.75 grains around the top end.

Now I'm going be stuck paying $40/pound for powder.

I still have a couple of other powders I'd like to try under those BlitzKings, but I have a feeling that N540 is going to be my go-to powder.

Such problems we have, lol!

But some are worth the pain, LOL!!! I'd do $40 a crack for 0.2!! you may find that you spend more $ by searching powders/recipes than just buying what works so well.

But its still fun!!!

bow shot wrote:Such problems we have, lol!

But some are worth the pain, LOL!!! I'd do $40 a crack for 0.2!! you may find that you spend more $ by searching powders/recipes than just buying what works so well.

But its still fun!!!

It is fun, indeed! Any of the powder that I won't keep for the .204 will either get traded or used for .223 rounds, so there won't be any waste.

I've had excellent results with 8208 and 39 and 32 grain bullets. Most of the time 5 shot groups touching at 100 yards.
I may need to look into the Vihtavuori.

The Viht N140 (single base) is one of my favorite powders, but my local shop doesn't stock it (or much of anything else any more) so on top of being expensive to start with I have to cough up $25 in hazardous shipping charges. The stuff is really nice though.

20Bore: I ran into the same thing using N133 in my 17 Mach IV and 223 Rem.....bughole groups. But now I can't find it, and when I do it's far too expensive to use sending squirrels skyward, but DANG is it ever accurate!

I guess I'll save my two pound jug for when I need to show off at the target, as it's much too good for blasting PD's or squirrels!

By the way, Mr. Potatohead in the WH is responsible for the lack of powder in the U.S. right now. Without our knowing it, he signed a 50% import restriction on all imported powder. Yes, it's true, this was passed to my wife from Bruce Hogdgon himself recently......just remember that when we all go to vote in 2016......if fat a$$ Hillary gets in, we'll be lucky to find BB's.

Rick in Oregon wrote:20Bore: By the way, Mr. Potatohead in the WH is responsible for the lack of powder in the U.S. right now. .

I surprised at you Rick, comparing the president to a potato. That's a very disrespectful thing to say about potatoes.

My appologies to any or all potato farmers in Idaho or anywhere else, it's just that I do not allow the "O" word to be uttered in my home. It's bad enough on the news when they preface the name with "president" in front of it, as this individual is no leader nor worthy of the title. H3ll, he's not even an American! Thanks to low information and entitlement voters, the rest of us are stuck with him.....at least for another (ugh) three long years.

But I like potatos, I promise!

That's OK Rick. I'm sorry if I got a little hot. I'm half Irish and we hold potatoes in high esteem.

If your wife is in heaven then she talked to Bruce, otherwise it's another anti-president lie... lol reloaders are why we have no powder! us -we- hoarders, people stand in line at LGS and resell what they "hoarded" for $$

http://www.hodgdon.com/history.html


Bruce Hodgdon passed away in 1997. Bruce was among other things an avid reloader, competitive rifle shooter, trap shooter, hunter, NRA Benefactor Member, and World War II Veteran. The industry honored Bruce for his contributions to the shooting sports in 1995/1996 with the Shooting Academy Award of Excellence. The company is now in the hands of J.B. and Bob Hodgdon, the two grade school boys back in the late 1940’s, who worked hand in hand with their father to establish and grow this company.

Sorry RIo had to call foul on that one. The HNIC did not start the shortages.

Well Don, you're right, and my bad.

After hearing Bruce's name repeated for so many years, I mentioned it in this context, but it should have read: "Chris Hodgdon", who is very much alive, very active in the companys business, and the person who related Mr. Potatohead's import restrictions on powder that affects all of us.

Gotta stay on my toes.....you guys are sharp!

Bottom line, no matter who or where, it is the government of King Obama and his admin who is the problem. They are all working at and doing everything in their power, legal and illegal, to confiscate firearms and equipment for lawful/honest citizen's. Yet the criminal will still have and get them for their use in crimes. Bill K

Even if people aren't buying to resell, three things are definitely happening:

1. People are buying to replace their stores that they used up over the last 18 months, which means they're still trying to buy more than they would under normal conditions.

2. People now realize that they need more of a reserve than they thought before. Whether that is "I had a good reserve, but now want more", or "I never kept reserve, and now want to", people are trying to acquire more than they would under normal conditions, and even more than normal conditions combined with #1.

3. We have lots of new shooters created from all of this panic, so overall steady-state demand will be higher, too.

Overall, when things settle down, they're going to have to involve significantly higher production than before all of this started. And to stay on topic of the Vihtavuori powder, we'll just have to see if Nammo ramps them back up after Eurenco ramped them down.

Those who were in the service know the term HNIC " Head N$%%er in charge.... lol

ClaimJumper wrote:Those who were in the service know the term HNIC " Head N$%%er in charge.... lol

And most can not spell their own name.. My bad. Bill K