Vihtavuori Pistol
Vihtavuori N320
A general-purpose fast handgun powder covering roughly .32 through .45 calibers. Vihtavuori points it at sport and hobby shooters, including cowboy action competitors, and at law-enforcement/authority loadings.
Official Vihtavuori load data →
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Vihtavuori |
|---|---|
| Product family | Vihtavuori Pistol |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | pistol |
| Grain form | extruded |
| Composition | single-base |
| Burn-rate position | 28 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 9mm Luger, 38 Special, 357 Magnum, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 44 Special |
Vihtavuori states N320 contains an added decoppering agent. Tubular grains slightly larger than N310's; it reaches higher velocities than N310 at acceptable pressure.
Burn rate
Fast pistol powder, one step slower than N310.
Chart agreement: consistent across charts - listed in the same relative neighbourhood by every publisher that carries it Ranked by: Hodgdon, Vihtavuori, Shooters World, Wolfe/LoadData.
Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:
- Winchester Super Handicap (position 25)
- Shooters World Clean Shot (position 26)
- Hodgdon International (position 27)
- Accurate No. 2 (position 29)
- Ramshot Zip (position 30)
- Hodgdon HP-38 (position 31)
What reloaders say about it
Unverified community anecdote. The following is a summary of what handloaders report in public forums. It is not manufacturer information, it has not been tested, it may be wrong, and it contains no load data by design. Treat it as colour, not guidance.
N320 is the most consistently praised pistol powder in these threads: users describe it as clean, soft-shooting, well-metering, and bulky enough that a double charge is visible in the case. Multiple posters who tried to save money by switching away from it report switching back.
- reported as very clean burning, including in suppressed pistols
- meters well
- described as soft-shooting for competition minor loads
- bulky enough that users cite double-charge visibility as a safety benefit
- widely regarded as worth its price premium
Availability: Described as widely available, with pricing that has stayed comparatively sane relative to other brands. Several users report it now costing close to what budget options cost.
Reported cautions:
- Users report N320 and Alliant Sport Pistol behaving very similarly for them — but one commenter in that thread also described blending pounds of different powders, which the community should treat as an outlier practice and not a recommendation.
Consensus level: widely held. Drawn from thread 1, thread 2.
Sources
Other Vihtavuori powders
Verify the charge, not just the recipe
Good data gets you a safe starting point. It does not tell you what actually went into the case on stroke 340 — a bridged measure, a double charge, a squib. That is what an RCM Laser Powder Check is for.