What the best VIHTAVUORI powder for 300 Win Mag and 338 Lapus?
- Thread starter Baer45
- Start date
Good info guys. I was looking at the VV 560 loading data and it will "work" in my 6mm, 6.5mm, .284, .338 LM (300 grain Berger's), and my old 30-06. It would be nice to limit my powder purchasing to a few that will work in various calibers. Being retired and on a fixed income it's getting harder to feed these babies. 
Also, Viht says it "was created specifically for the .338 Lapua Magnum with 250 gr bullets."
https://www.vihtavuori.com/n565-the-new-vihtavuori-high-energy-powder/
If you consider fellow Nammo company Lapua manufactures a lot of 338LM cartridges each year mostly for military use, it appears N565 will be the powder used there.
As an aside, it just works in some smaller numbers. Viht lists loads for 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Rem, and 6.5X55SE with heavier bullets. I got my best group and lowest ES of the day in a long-freebore 260 Rem with it last week in a short series of N500 tests (555 v 560 v 565) with Lapua brass and the 142gn SMK. N565 needed the top load which was running fairly compressed to raise pressures enough to achieve a useful MV (between that of N555 and 560), but more importantly to burn consistently and reduce the MV spread.
Hello Laurie! In one of my .300WSMs, using the 230 Hybrid, I am using 66.0grs of N565 for a speed of 2775-2780.. It does work well in cartridges somewhat smaller than the 338LM.. Excellent observation!
No H 1000 at my local gun store but they have several VV powders including 570
ronemus
Gold $$ Contributor
reloder 33
+1 for RL-33 - it works very well for me in .338 Lapua with the 285 gr ELD-M and Lehigh Defense 257 gr ELR. I've throated my barrel at ~0.400" freebore so the shank-boat tail junction is above the shoulder, so full power loads with moly-coated bullets are not compressed. RL-33 doesn't like to be compressed; at magazine OAL, the same charge was ~100 fps slower. I'm able to run the ELD-M at 2850 fps and the ELR at 3000; both are stout loads and need to be worked up carefully.
Reloder 33 seems to be very kind to the bore; after 350 rounds the throat has not lengthened as far as I can tell (<0.001")! My loads for .223 with N-550 and for .284 with RL-17 would have moved the throat out ~0.010" at that round count. Color me happy.
+1 for RL-33 - it works very well for me in .338 Lapua with the 285 gr ELD-M and Lehigh Defense 257 gr ELR. I've throated my barrel at ~0.400" freebore so the shank-boat tail junction is above the shoulder, so full power loads with moly-coated bullets are not compressed. RL-33 doesn't like to be compressed; at magazine OAL, the same charge was ~100 fps slower. I'm able to run the ELD-M at 2850 fps and the ELR at 3000; both are stout loads and need to be worked up carefully.
Reloder 33 seems to be very kind to the bore; after 350 rounds the throat has not lengthened as far as I can tell (<0.001")! My loads for .223 with N-550 and for .284 with RL-17 would have moved the throat out ~0.010" at that round count. Color me happy.
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