Experience with VihtaVuori Rifle Powders?

[OldNewGuy]

Anybody with experience using VV Rifle Powders?  I'm thinking about getting into their N550/N150 for 308.  How do they compare to 748 or IMR 4064/4895?  Burn cleaner?  Meter better?  Pressure wrt to muzzle velocity (N550s are supposed to deliver higher velocity with lower pressure)?  Overall impressions?

I love VV handgun powders and am sort of jumping in on good faith.  Would like to hear from guys who've actually used them since I can't find anyone that has played with them locally.

Will probably use it for Silhouette and Hi Power, pushing 175gr Sierra Matchkings.

Thanks for pitching in.

[THS]

I have experience with the VV rifle powders, and I will buy no other, except Hodgdon's VarGet.

The quality lot to lot is way better than most others I've seen tested, and the accuracy was always good.  I'm talking on the order of hundreds of thousands of rounds from up to 100 rifles in a given year.

For my personal LR, NMC and Silhouette rifles, .308, .223, and 6.5-08, I use 540 and 135, with some VarGet.

Hope this helps,

Tom

[OldNewGuy]

Is there any reason you chose 540 over the 550?  I really have no idea which powder to choose in their 500 line.  They are both "multi-perforated," but I guess 550 burns a tad slower.

Does it meter well?  Shorter than the full-sized "logs" I'm accustomed to I suppose (IMR 4895).

[gm iprod]

The new style short cut V V powders are much better at metering than the old style IMR type extruded powders. Hodgdon figured this out real early on and a lot of their powders are short grained.

The V V N500 series are high energy powders and burn real good and give excellent velocities at good safe pressures. Rumour has it the Federal use a special burn rate of powders from V V in the High Energy range of ammunition. Hornady do something similar in their custom range af ammo.

I think that N550 / 150 burn rate ( IMR or H4350 burn rate? )  is to slow for 308 unless you are using real heavy projectiles. I find n540/140 about as slow as I want.

I prefer burn rates closer to 4895 and 748 for the 308 with up to 165gr projectiles. Some people have gone as fast as H322/3031 type powders and had good success.

Check out the V V web site at http://www.lapua.com

[OldNewGuy]

cool.

I shoot 175 and 180 grain bullets so I'm assuming I should go with N550/150?

Any comments?

Appreciate your help!!