Hodgdon 4350 vs Norma or Vihtavuori

[klejeski]

Why do you never see a comparison of these 2 powders in a similar burn rate mentioned as a replacement for h4350. Was under the impression that they are a premium powder. Or are they not temperature stable just been thinking about other alternatives with the availability issues of h4350
thanks for any and all input

 

[atxhorn4425]

No clue on Norma or Vihtavuori, but for what its worth, Alliant also makes a temperature insensitive powder now that has had good results from what I've read. I just picked up a few pounds of Reloder-16 to try in my 6.5 Creedmoor since I couldn't find any H4350 either.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2017/03/tyler-kee/powder-review-alliant-rl-16/

 

[NukeMMC]

I had some excellent results with N165 in a 6.5x55 with 140gr SMKs. N165 ends up slower than 4350. A closer match to that would be N150 or N550. My 260 actually like RE17 pretty well.

 

[InTraining]

From my experience, N150 is much faster than H4350. It does work well.

 

[_Raining]

I'm a novice shooter and reloader. I am not getting great results in my 308 with RL-15. I was having weird issues with my 6.5 creedmoor using IMR4350. I decided to try RL-16 (Alliants temp insensitive powder) and it is working out very nice. Now again, I am not a good shot so my groups are nothing to write home about but my last test resulted in the following:

Virgin Brass:
38.6 gr: SD - 16.1 (7.9 if you exclude the first shot with reason given as cold/clean bore but this could just as easily be a reloading mistake)
39.0 gr: SD - 11.9
39.4 gr: SD - 13.1
39.8 gr: SD - 8.9
40.2 gr: SD - 7.6
40.6 gr: SD - 4.3
41.0 gr: SD - 9.1 (5 if you exclude one value larger than the rest, reason for this value unknown)
41.4 gr: SD - 5.7
41.8 gr: SD - 6.5
42.2 gr: SD - 6.0


Once Fired Brass:
38.6 gr: SD - 5.2
39.0 gr: SD - 5.8
39.4 gr: SD - 7.0
39.8 gr: SD - 5.7
40.2 gr: SD - 6.5
40.6 gr: SD - 6.1
41.0 gr: SD - 6.6
41.4 gr: SD - 4.8
41.8 gr: SD - 5.4 (If you exclude an outlier here of 2844 vs the next highest of 2829 you get an ES of 4 and an SD of 1.6, reason for this value[2844] unknown)
42.2 gr: SD - 6.7