questions on vitah n500 series

[Guest älg]

I wonder if someone has used this high energy powrs enough to see if barrel/throat erosion is worse than with the ordinary powders??

 

Thanks.

[baldie]

I,ve not noticed any difference , and i,ve used vhit 560 in a swede, and i now use vhit 540 in a 6.5x47. The 500 double based powders have a flame retardent built in, to alleviate this potential problem.

[Chris-NZ]

I,ve not noticed any difference , and i,ve used vhit 560 in a swede, and i now use vhit 540 in a 6.5x47. The 500 double based powders have a flame retardent built in, to alleviate this potential problem.

 

 

Tried 550 in the 7-08 but it gave no better vels than my usual ADI-2208 (Varget) despite noticeably more recoil ;-)

 

Chris P, NZ

[Ratwhiskers]

This debate hit the AR forums last year when I was looking for a 7-08 load, and below is what one of the chaps posted from an e-mail he had.....

 

....We are happy to be able to supply reloading powder for all quality concerned shooters like you.

 

Bore and throat erosion is really dependent on powder composition. The important parameter is flame temperature, which is unfortunately immeasurable quantity. Based on thermodynamic calculation, and long experience it is well known fact that higher energy content (i.e. heat of explosion) leads to higher flame temperature and higher throat erosion.

 

Easiest method to improve ballistic performance is to add nitroglycerol in powder composition. These powders are called double base powders. As you have heard, these powders tend to cause more barrel and throat erosion compared to single base powders. This difference is clear but it is, however impossible to quantify as for example as numbers of rounds to reach same erosion level.

 

All Vihtavuori N100 (N105...), N300 (N310...) powders, 3N37 and 3N38 are single base powders. These products are made with best available raw materials and manufacturing methods to get maximal performance you can get without using more erosive double base composition. Therefore, these Vihtavuori products cause less erosion than most of other competing powders. Especially high nitroglycerol contents (and thus erosion) are used in spherical powders (ball powders) and some US products.

 

Among Vihtavuori product line we have only five types we call N500 (N530 ... N570) which are by composition double base powders. N500 rifle powders contain small amount of nitroglycerol to add a bit more performance required mainly for extremely long distances. Even with these products we have added a special additive as well kept nitroglycerol content rather low in order to minimize the barrel erosion effect.

 

So, my opinion and advice is to keep barrel and throat erosion on minimum by using only single base powders like Vihtavuori N100, N300 and 3N.

 

Best Regards,

 

Mikko Vuoristo

EURENCO Vihtavuori Oy

[baldie]

There you go...straight from the horses mouth. Cant say i,ve had probs myself however. The 500,s should be used in the right context, not just because "you fancy a go"

Their use is to extract that last 50-100 fps you sometimes require to hit the sweet spot, which in target shooting, is generally accepted to be 3000fps regardless of calibre, and keep the pressure managed, if not down. Beware....the vhit 500,s only work accurately when run around max loads, if you try and run them 3 or 4 grains under, they dont work, and you are wasting money. Following this logically, then means you are going to get accellerated wear, as you are running max loads.....you would get this with single based powders too. Why buy a ferrari, and drive it like your grandad would?They have another advantage...they are bulky, and fill the case well.

I,ll give a good example. My 6.5x47 would only hit 2900 ish, before the pressure rapidly spiked with reloder 15, so i switched to vhit 540, and got over 3000 fps with a lower charge weight, and no pressure signs. In fact it would stand a little more, but it shoots as it is.

To be fair...if throat life bothers you, buy a .308. Barrels are a commodity that wear out......no such thing as a free lunch guys.

[Guest älg]

Thanks everyone for the replies.-

 

The question has been clarified.-

[Alycidon]

When I ran powder 'what if's' through Quickload in a BR case I found no advantage with the N5 double base range over the N1 powders. N150 (might have been N160 and N560) from memory delivery very very slightly higher velocity but with lower pressure than N550. Why this should be I dont know, it was not what I was expecting.

 

A

[Ronin]

Hi Alg

 

 

nice to see you on here, seems like the world is getting smaller and smaller

 

 

Andy