Vihtavuori Pistol
Vihtavuori N32C Tin Star
Purpose-built for Cowboy Action Shooting with lead bullets in single-action revolvers and lever guns. Also used for subsonic and blank loads.
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 | 34 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 38 Special, 357 Magnum, 44 S&W Special, 44 Remington Magnum, 45 Colt |
Vihtavuori made N32C deliberately bulky, with markedly reduced bulk density, so that the large-capacity cases of older cartridges fill properly. They note that the resulting high loading volume makes an accidental double or triple charge far more obvious, and describe it as burning very clean with easy ignition. Vihtavuori keeps Tin Star in its own product group rather than inside the N300 series, and it does not appear on their published burn rate chart.
Burn rate
Vihtavuori places it between N320 and N330.
Chart agreement: coverage gap in the OPPOSITE direction - listed and ranked by Hodgdon and Wolfe/LoadData, but omitted from Vihtavuori's own current tabloid chart. Ranked by: Hodgdon, Wolfe/LoadData.
Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:
- Hodgdon HP-38 (position 31)
- Winchester 231 (position 32)
- Alliant 20/28 (position 33)
- Winchester WinClean 244 (position 35)
- Alliant Unique (position 36)
- Hodgdon Universal (position 37)
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.