Suitability of N133 with 150gr bullet in a .308

[charlieboy-shooter]

Hi Guys,

Can I ask if anyone use Viht N133 with 150gr bullet in .308 win ? Appears to be better suited to a lighter bullet when looking at load data.

In the Lee modern reload man 2nd edition it is listed 17 of 23. It's just I have best part of a kilo of the powder.

My rifle is a Tikka T3, which I believe to have a 1:11 twist.

If yes out of interest which primer do you use.

Thinking of also starting off with Sierra Pro-hunter or Gameking in 150gr SP. Although I favour the Gameking with its bt, just as I have found bt easier to reload as opposed to flat base bullets. But I'm far from an expert.

I realise what works for you in your rifle may not work in mine but for the sake of asking, I'm interested in what others have found or there advice.

Thanks

Steve

 

[Rutlanddeer]

Hi Steve

I must admit that I have never really got on with Viht powders but many of my friends have. I have shot and reloaded for my 308's now for over 30 years going from Noble powders, trying Viht and then settling on Hodgdons Varget which I have used in Browning, Rigby & Remmington rifles in 308 and with bullet weights from 150 up to 168. The Varget also works very well in 243 and 300 WSM.

So this is what I settled on with the following recipe:

Remington Brass that has been fully sized and trimmed and using just a light crimp.

Remington 9 1/2 or CCI large rifle primers

42.5 grains of Varget

COAL: 2.800

I have used the above over many years and at 100 yards you can achieve 5 pence size accuracy and under 2 inches at 300

I used the 168 & 150 Game king and for competitions the 168 Match king all boat tail.

Hope this helps in some way.

Best regards

Michael

 

[DJC]

Hi Guys,

Can I ask if anyone use Viht N133 with 150gr bullet in .308 win ? Appears to be better suited to a lighter bullet when looking at load data.

In the Lee modern reload man 2nd edition it is listed 17 of 23. It's just I have best part of a kilo of the powder.

My rifle is a Tikka T3, which I believe to have a 1:11 twist.

If yes out of interest which primer do you use.

Thinking of also starting off with Sierra Pro-hunter or Gameking in 150gr SP. Although I favour the Gameking with its bt, just as I have found bt easier to reload as opposed to flat base bullets. But I'm far from an expert.

I realise what works for you in your rifle may not work in mine but for the sake of asking, I'm interested in what others have found or there advice.

Thanks

Steve

steve I use N540 with federal primers and Sierra game king b t in 308 works well in my sako hunter

 

[Muir]

I'm not sure he wants advice on other powders. I think he wants N133 loads. It looks if your N133 suitability window ends at 150 grains.~Muir

 

[TURNBOLT]

Vhitavuori book says N133 min36.8grains max41.9 with165spbtBullet

For150grain spbt Bullet it says min 35 max44.1

 

[Woodlander]

Don't reload for .308,but n140 would be the better choice,I would've thought.

 

[LeftHandGuy]

If Vhit publish data for N133 in 308 you can feel pretty safe that it will work. Presumably, as a relatively fast powder for 308, it will favour lighter bullets and shorter barrels.

I've always used CCI primers for two reasons,1) Lee recommends that you do, and most of my reloading kit is Lee 2) (even here in the USA,) CCI primers are the most consistently available. My local gunstore sometimes has Winchester, sometimes Fed, sometimes Remington, but always has CCI.

Really interested to hear how N133 turns out in 308. Do you have access to a chronograph, or will you be judging your results by group size and spent case condition?

 

[charlieboy-shooter]

If Vhit publish data for N133 in 308 you can feel pretty safe that it will work. Presumably, as a relatively fast powder for 308, it will favour lighter bullets and shorter barrels.

I've always used CCI primers for two reasons,1) Lee recommends that you do, and most of my reloading kit is Lee 2) (even here in the USA,) CCI primers are the most consistently available. My local gunstore sometimes has Winchester, sometimes Fed, sometimes Remington, but always has CCI.

Really interested to hear how N133 turns out in 308. Do you have access to a chronograph, or will you be judging your results by group size and spent case condition?

Intrestingly the Vihtavuori reloading site lists N133 as the 1st option for 150gr SP. But looking at other info N133 is listed high for the lighter bullets. But as Muir quiet rightly states ' that's where it ends'. The starting load and max load is however large as starts at 35 and ends @ 44.1gr so potential there for some serious testing, If I went up in 0.5gr increments.
As previously mentioned in above reply's Varget and Viht N540 are listed as 1&2 choice for the 150gr but looking at it from a purely burn rate. I'm surprised H380 is listed amongst suitable powder, which is a shame as it's another powder I have a fair bit of. But I guess it's unsuitable for other reason.

when I eventually get some data, I'll let you know.

Thanks for all the replies.

Steve

 

[LeftHandGuy]

H380 is pretty slow - what were you loading with it? 22-250? I have been using it behind 180 gr bullets in 7.62x54r - I think it would be too slow for 150 gr bullets in almost any cartridge....

 

[Laurie]

Intrestingly the Vihtavuori reloading site lists N133 as the 1st option for 150gr SP. But looking at other info N133 is listed high for the lighter bullets. But as Muir quiet rightly states ' that's where it ends'. The starting load and max load is however large as starts at 35 and ends @ 44.1gr so potential there for some serious testing, If I went up in 0.5gr increments.
As previously mentioned in above reply's Varget and Viht N540 are listed as 1&2 choice for the 150gr but looking at it from a purely burn rate. I'm surprised H380 is listed amongst suitable powder, which is a shame as it's another powder I have a fair bit of. But I guess it's unsuitable for other reason.

when I eventually get some data, I'll let you know.

Thanks for all the replies.

Steve

As with most other sets of loads data, Vihtavuori lists powders in burning rate order, fastest to slowest. The order has nothing to do with suitability, other than as LeftHandGuy says if it's listed at all, then it has to be at least reasonably suitable for the application. MVs for maximum charge weights for the various powders give a pointer, but by no means a 100% definitive statement, as to what is optimal.

N133's max MV is quite reasonable, but 2nd lowest out of the four powders quoted for the bullet.

 

[charlieboy-shooter]

H380 is pretty slow - what were you loading with it? 22-250? I have been using it behind 180 gr bullets in 7.62x54r - I think it would be too slow for 150 gr bullets in almost any cartridge....

H380 with 58gr vmax .243 win. Found it very accurate in my rifle and extremely effective on Charlie.

I guess that although N133 is listed for .308 with 150gr it clearly isn't well used / suited. Hence my original post to see what others have found.

as Laurie states not optimum. If my memory serves me correctly the Lee book lists based on MV. But as listed 17 out of 24 clearly isn't the optimum choice but as I say have best part of kg tub so just wondered.