N160 & 139 Scenars in 6.5-284

[TZaun]

Has anyone tried this combination? If so, what kind of velocities did you see out of a 30" barrel? I see on VihtaVuori's site they say only 2740 fps out of a 26" barrel using a max load of 47.2 gr. Most everything I've read on this site talks about 2950 fps being the most common place to be for accuracy. Some more, some less, but a lot of talk about 2950. A lot of people seemed to be using 4831SC but I have a bunch of N160 I'd like to try. Maybe N160 is not the best powder for this cartridge? It's right next to 4831SC on the burn rate charts so I thought it should be a nice fit.

 

[Patch700]

I have used pounds of N-160 in that cartridge with 140 class bullets ... My experience with it was that it had several different accuracy nodes on the lower end of the spectrum (47-48 would be the last lower node) and when reaching the upper nodes (50-51) the accuracy nodes had to be found on a finer scale.

Velocities out of 30" barrels with 8 twist would range from 2850-2900 when using a fed 210M.
One important factor with that cartridge even though it is of decent capacity is to utilize a long throat in my opinion.
Throat erosion was quite noticeably lessened as compared to when using 4831sc.

All in all I was pleased with N-160 but if I had to do it again with the same components I would try using H 1000 or N-560 , neither of those powders were available to me for quite some time so I went with 160.

 

[ShootDots]

What Patch said about using H1000 is correct. If you go the H1000 route, you can expect over 3000f.p.s. and low E.S.'s, superb accuracy and about 1500 rounds of accurate barrel life. Neither will you destroy primer pockets associated with this cartridge. Stay somewhere between 54.5 and 56.0 and you will find your node.

 

[TZaun]

I have a fair amount of H1000 so maybe I will try that instead. Sounds like a plus if you can get good velocity and it's relatively easier on the throat. Is H1000 and N160 going to be comparable for throat erosion or is H1000 better yet?

 

[ShootDots]

ANYTIME you have a single-based powder that is considerably slower in burn rate, you will have an easier time on the throat than a faster powder, especially if it is double based. VV N160 is single-based as is H1000... Now if you went to the aforementioned VV N560, you can get fantastic velocities, however, your throat would erode faster than a beach in a hurricane!