Bought a couple 1lb containers of this and looks really good in 300 PRC so added to the stash.

I've heard all the newer vhitavori stuff is temp stable.

Bout time we had more alternatives to Hodgdon Extreme powders. It is super frustrating not being able to get so many powders I have depended on for years. I can do almost anything I need to do with about 5 Hodgdon Extreme powders and one IMR powder. And most of the time the Hodgdon Extreme powders are scarce or impossible to get.

H-Retumbo is the greatest example. I have not seen it available for all of 2019 and all of 2020. Such a shame, it is a terrific powder.

A few of the Alliant powders are (ar-comp, rl16 and rl23) but other than that the Hodgdon/imr brand has the market cornered.

I think most of the Vihtavuori single base powders have been pretty stable all along. It seems now they are promoting their “high energy “ powders as being stable. Not sure if they added coatings or changed formulas or are just actually advertising something that was already there like Hodgdon did when they labeled “Extreme” on their stuff.

As yes, the great hunt for Retumbo. As I understand it, Retumbo was one of the powders that were specified in certain military ammunition manufacturing contracts. So they had ammo manufacturers requiring massive production of it which screwed with the supply of it to us handloaders. Hodgdon said as much but doesn't identify the specific powders affected by the military contracts.

Hodgdon POWDER SHORTAGE STATEMENT

Why can’t I find Hodgdon powders like H4350, Varget, Retumbo and H1000?
As you have seen, Hodgdon powders, especially rifle powders for long-range and precision shooting, can be difficult to find. Dealer shelves that were formerly filled with cans of powder now have empty spots. Here are answers to your questions straight from Hodgdon.

Q: Is Hodgdon still making powder?

A: Yes, we continue shipping powder as quickly as possible. In fact, we will ship more powder in 2020 than last year. The real problem behind empty dealer shelves is complicated, but is related to shifting supply and demand challenges. As supply decreased in 2019, demand only increased. No one wants to ship more powder than Hodgdon.

Q: What is causing the supply challenges?

A: Quite simply, our manufacturing facilities have not kept up with our orders. Additionally, military contracts began specifying Hodgdon powders in the last few years for military ammunition, impacting our supply. With expanded government regulation, shipping explosive and energetic materials has become more challenging, which also impacts available supply. Lastly, rapidly changing consumer preferences for different powder types has impacted both demand and supply. We worked with all Hodgdon providers to resolve open issues and expect powder supply to improve in 2020 as a result.

Q: Is the shortage of reloading powder being caused by Hodgdon shipping their powder to the ammunition manufacturing companies?

A: While Hodgdon does sell powder to ammunition manufacturing companies, more than 80% of our powder is sold to our core market – handloaders just like you. Hodgdon has always been committed to the individual handloader.

Q: When will I start to see more powder on dealer shelves?

A: While Hodgdon will continue to ship powder as rapidly as possible, we have a significant backlog in demand. Some powders will be in stock more quickly, but we believe it will take much of 2020 to improve availability for all powders.

https://hodgdon.com/powder-shortage-statement/

Vhita Vuori has always been excellent powder that’s why the BR guys shoot so much of it but it’s kinda spendy compared to Hodgdon.. or at least it was until recently.

I have about 32lbs of N133 left for my 6ppc, used to run VV in a 300 Jarrett back when, also ran retumbo but the VV powder seemed to shoot tiny holes.

Can BR guys tolerate temperature sensitive? I think they can. The one BR match I shot in gave us a few sighters, to check zero as well as the distance that was scored. Then, time limits were extremely long compared to what I'm used to.

Change over to the guy that wants to make a cold bore shot on an animal at various distances, or the same on a piece of steel for score. Temp sensitive powders can wreak havoc when a person is shooting from 30°F to 110°F. Make that 600 yard cold bore shot in each end of the temperature swing, and elevation corrections are going to differ. The more the distance is increased the larger the elevation variance. We've already got to contend with temp and DA swings through the day, no one wants to blend in a varying muzzle velocity to go along with it all. Hunters zeroing in Texas that travel to 10,000' after elk, and are comfortable with say a 400 yard shot also don't want to fuss with a muzzle velocity variation. All those things are why I do not use temp sensitive powders.

Now, the guy that hunts whitetail out to 200 yards, from November to January doesn't need to concern himself with temperature stability. His shots aren't that far, his target isn't that small, and his weather is cool to cold. Lots of constants there.

Having said all that, I guess I need to try some Vita Vouri powders and see what I see.

I know H414 is one of the worst temp sensitive powders but it has always worked for me. Odd that Winchester uses it labeled as 760 in so much factory ammo and no one snivels about temp sensitivity using it.

That would likely be due to the fact a majority have no means of testing to know nor the necessity of the product to have such consistency considering a majority of winchester's ammo isn't geared for extreme precision.

Could be that for ranges under 400 yards a variance of 100 fps isn't going to make a lot of difference. That and a lot of rifles are sighted in at the last minute before deer season.

Agreed!...... That and the issue of temp sensitive powders is probably irrelevant to 99.999% percent of hunters, shooters, competitors and hand loaders; yet we see thread after thread of "Who stores their ammo in the ice chest?"

It's just a matter of time before YETI capitalizes on this and you can already hear the marketing campaign......"YETI dedicated ultra turbo tacticool ammo cooler....When degrees mean as much as MOA!"........ MSRP $9,875.00(3 quart model)