blind bat Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Hello everyone! I'm a fairly new reloader and I'm looking to start shooting IDPA in the spring so I've been lurking around here for a little while. After hearing rave reviews of N320 I decided to pick up a pound. I loaded up 4.1gr @ 1.142 with 124gr Rainier RN bullets. This load is right out of VV's manual. It seems to be the most accurate load I've found so far. Unfortunately, it's a little on the smokey side especially on the last round with the slide locked back. The recoil seems comparable to 4.2gr of Titegroup @ 1.135 but TG give noticeably less smoke at my indoor range. Is this normal for this powder? I was somewhat surprised as I've heard people rave about how clean N320 is. Would I be better off backing off on the charge to decrease the amount of powder that needs to be burnt or try decreasing the OAL to increase pressure and promote better "combustion"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RePete Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Hello everyone! I'm a fairly new reloader and I'm looking to start shooting IDPA in the spring so I've been lurking around here for a little while. After hearing rave reviews of N320 I decided to pick up a pound. I loaded up 4.1gr @ 1.142 with 124gr Rainier RN bullets. This load is right out of VV's manual. It seems to be the most accurate load I've found so far. Unfortunately, it's a little on the smokey side especially on the last round with the slide locked back. The recoil seems comparable to 4.2gr of Titegroup @ 1.135 but TG give noticeably less smoke at my indoor range. Is this normal for this powder? I was somewhat surprised as I've heard people rave about how clean N320 is. Would I be better off backing off on the charge to decrease the amount of powder that needs to be burnt or try decreasing the OAL to increase pressure and promote better "combustion"? I use N320 in the 9mm and find that it isn't smokey. I'm using plated bullets. If your bullets are lead, then it will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Gaines Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Are you using bullets with lead exposed base? If so you will get some lead burning which causes smoke. vv is one of the cleanest powders out there. If you are using bullets with no lead base, you can use pretty much any powder tg included and it will shoot clean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPatterson Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 1.142 may be what VV lists for their OAL but that seems long as I am loading at 1.130. It could be that you are not getting complete combustion. And my crimp is book .380. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA Friday Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 lead bullets, exposed lead bases, and moly coated bullets will all smoke no matter what you do. About the only thing you can do is lessen the smoke through powder choice or go to a TMJ or JHP bullet and stop the lead from being explosed to the burning powder. Solo 1000 seems to be fastly becoming the number one choice to use in these cases. It's single based like N320, not as hot burning at TG, and cheap. You have two choices, learn to live with the smoke or experiment with different bullets and powders until you find an acceptable alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFin04 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I'm running 4.1gr of N320 under a 124gr plated Rainier flatpoint at 1.120 and it shoots really clean. I use a Lee factory crimp die to just take the bell out of the case mouth. These have been my favorite plated bullet load for a while now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blind bat Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 No exposed lead for me. Rainier's are plated so there isn't a lead base exposed to the hot gas. My TG loads were using the same Win. brass, CCI 500 Primers and 124Gr Rainier Plated RN bullets. I've been shooting at an indoor range and I noticed the N320 brass also left little bits of unburned gunk in the bottom of my MTM cases. The TG loads don't leave much of any carbon in their storage cases. It looks like the N320 I purchased was bottled on 4.9.2006. Could it be that this particular bottle was stored improperly and it harmed the powder in some way? I live in NH and the guy I purchased the powder from does a lot of gun shows so it's possible the powder has sat in his van in sub-zero weather. I've got about 50 of the Rainiers bullets left. I'm going to try backing the OAL down and see what happens. BTW, I've been using testing the N320 with my CZ 85B. Go south paws! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 No exposed lead for me. Rainier's are plated so there isn't a lead base exposed to the hot gas. My TG loads were using the same Win. brass, CCI 500 Primers and 124Gr Rainier Plated RN bullets. I've been shooting at an indoor range and I noticed the N320 brass also left little bits of unburned gunk in the bottom of my MTM cases. The TG loads don't leave much of any carbon in their storage cases. It looks like the N320 I purchased was bottled on 4.9.2006. Could it be that this particular bottle was stored improperly and it harmed the powder in some way? I live in NH and the guy I purchased the powder from does a lot of gun shows so it's possible the powder has sat in his van in sub-zero weather. I've got about 50 of the Rainiers bullets left. I'm going to try backing the OAL down and see what happens. BTW, I've been using testing the N320 with my CZ 85B. Go south paws! If you're getting unburned gunk it sounds like you're not getting a complete burn. N320 usually leaves nothing more than a slight film of grey and nothing else. The way VV bottles their powder it's highly unlikely that there is anything wrong with it just because it's a couple years old....I doubt cold temps would hurt it either. Extremely high temps would be more likely to break it down than cold....and we know it's pretty cold in VV land so they've got to take that into account when they make it. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 My practice/match ammo uses Rainiers and N320, as well, and I've never noticed any appreciable amount of smoke, even when shooting on an indoor range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RePete Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I'm running 3.6gr/N320 under a 147gr Frontier CMJ for a PF of 137 but at the Freezy Pengy the chrono said about 1030fps = PF 151. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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