Nammo Buys Vihtavuori Plant from Eurenco — It’s Official

[Bonz]

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/12/nammo-buys-vihtavuori-plant-from-eurenco-its-official/

December 19th, 2013
Nammo Buys Vihtavuori Plant from Eurenco — It’s Official
Vihtavuori powder fans can rest a bit easier now…

Nammo buys Vihtavuori Powder FactoryBreaking News: Just hours ago the Nammo Group announced that it has acquired the Finnish company Eurenco Vihtavuori OY, which produces Vihtavuori powders. This deal was finalized through the signing of a Share Purchase Agreement today, December 19, 2013.

The official press release adds that: “The agreement is subject to approval by French authorities. Filing is done and approval is expected to be granted within short time.

[Doc_Stihl]

I've never used a Viht powder but that it some great news.

[fouronesix]

That is good news if the VV powders remain available here in the US. Nammo is one heckuva up and coming, aggressive outfit. From small caliber civilian ammo to aerospace.

BTW, Nammo (aka SK) 22lr is good ammo!

[MtGun44]

Never heard of "Nammo" - what and where are they?

Bill

[felix]

Nammo is the most ATK-like company in Europe; a holding company. ... felix

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nammo

[bhn22]

Can the change the name to something more easily spelled.

[dtknowles]

I worked with Nammo Raufus guys from Norway and Denmark. Shape cookies.

Tim

[Moonman]

Thanks, That's news I have been waiting to here.

I'll bet many a competition shooter will be relieved also.

[Moonman]

Thanks, That's news I have been waiting to here.

I'll bet many a competition shooter will be relieved also.

[Bonz]

At this point, we need every powder manufacturer to pickup the pace to start getting some powder back on the shelves. I'm sure that reloaders that used to use Vihtavuori have substituted using other powders, myself included. VV N105 is great in .357 & .500 magnums or just about any other large pistol cartridge while firing the heaviest bullets for that caliber.

[starmac]

It seems like the vv powders actually stay on the shelves longer here than about anything else, I think mostly because of the price.

Is it as expensive everywhere else.

[MtGun44]

Looked it up. Anybody that makes Exocets, 'Winders (AIM-9) and ammo from 5.56 NATO up to artillery
shells can't be all bad!

Bill

[NWPilgrim]

Will they change the powder names from the funny Letter-Numeral-Letter nomenclature to something with more snap? Whammo, Bammo, Crammo, Flammo, Jammo (well, maybe not that one)?

Good to hear they will stay in production. I just picked up some N110 because getting low on W296 and that was the closest thing in stock. Also plan to try a can of 3N37 in my .40 loads.

[PbHurler]

That's Great news, what a nice Christmas gift! :happy dance:

Thanks for posting this Bonz! I've been impatiently waiting to hear what was going to happen with Vihtavouri and was hoping Nammo would step up to the plate.

I for one, am VERY HAPPY this has happened. My .45's are smiling too.

[Ola]

Can the change the name to something more easily spelled.

This is an old one, but I just couldn't resist:

Vihtavuori is a little village in Finland. That's where the factory is located. So they are not going to change the name.

And it is not THAT difficult. Just two words that have a meaning:
VIHTA= birch whisk used in sauna (yes, we hit our selves with a vihta in very hot sauna.)
VUORI= mountain

Easy, isn't it?

[Surculus]

Easy, isn't it?

Heh. Sure, until you change direction & the dang names change! Crazy language you Finns have got. Whoever came up w/ conjugating nouns needed their heads examined! :-o
;)

[TXGunNut]

Still not seeing any VV powder on the shelves around here. I think N135 would be awesome for a few projects I'm working on but I have less than a pound. How's the availability in Finland?

[Ola]

Heh. Sure, until you change direction & the dang names change! Crazy language you Finns have got. Whoever came up w/ conjugating nouns needed their heads examined! :-o
;)
Oh, well, there is that..

In Vihtavuori = Vihtavuoressa
To Vihtavuori = Vihtavuoreen
Fom Vihtavuori = Vihtavuoresta
and so on..

This is a nice one: Vihtavuorelaisuuttaankaankohan? It has a meaning but I just can't figure out accurate translation.

To TXGunNut: The availability is normal in Finland. Actually, Nammo has even been pushing it: "buy VV powder and Lapua bullets, you'll get a discount".

[ole 5 hole group]

Powder Valley usually has some VV powder - as of this morning, March 16th they currently have N105, N133, N135, N140, N150, N165 - N310, N540 & N550.

[GabbyM]

I've wondered if VV is the manufacture of Reloader powder and AR-Comp for Aliant? My jug of Aliant AR-Comp says made in Sweden. Norma or Nobel Sport or somebody?

OK I searched it and found Bofors. AR-Comp is an advanced re-formulation of Reloder 15, a double-base Bofors powder. There are changes to internal and external chemistry to provide much better pressure/velocity stability across a wide range of temperatures.

Can’t tell who currently owns the powder division. Looks like bofors was split up and sold in parts in 1999. Saab AB, United Defense Industries (UDI) United States, BAE Systems acquired United Defense and its Bofors subsidiary in 2005, and BAE Systems Bofors is now a business unit of
BAE Systems AB (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/wiki/BAE_Systems_AB), Saab Bofors Dynamics (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/wiki/Saab_Bofors_Dynamics) is a unit of Saab AB (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/wiki/Saab_AB)
　
Jeepers, whatever. My main concern was to check to see I wasn’t purchasing powder from China. Because I’m ticked off at them and the Russians of late.

[Ola]

Would you buy powder that was made in China?

I would hesitate, because in reloading components I expect for at least some degree of "quality control"..

[perotter]

Would you buy powder that was made in China?

I would hesitate, because in reloading components I expect for at least some degree of "quality control"..

I think I have some. At least that is what I was told where it came from when I bought it. I was told it was surplused by Accurate because it didn't have a flash suppressant. It's the PSA rifle powder that was being sold here several years ago.

[Ola]

I think I have some. At least that is what I was told where it came from when I bought it. I was told it was surplused by Accurate because it didn't have a flash suppressant. It's the PSA rifle powder that was being sold here several years ago. Really? Never heard anyone using Chinese powder. How is it?

We used to have easter-European powders that were quite fine if the user had the brains to fiddle with them: every container, no matter what it said in the label, was different stuff. Working up loads from the beginning every time one bought a new bottle of powder.

That's one of the reasons I really like VV and Hodgdon..

[perotter]

It works fine. There is a large amount of muzzle flash, but that isn't problem for me. As far as I know only that one lot ever came in and was sold. I bought a couple of 8# of it.

FWIW. Back in the 1950's one of my uncle and the several members of the rifle club he belonged to order a truck load of a South American made 4895 burn rate powder. It was in 75 kilo containers. About 10 years or so after getting it, one the members powder self ignited and burned his house down. The rest of the member throw their remaining powder away. From the little I know and to my understanding a powder that is the process of going that bad, the burn rate would have be changing also. But I'm not sure about that. This is the main reason I didn't buy a larger amount of the PSA back then.

[Ola]

We'll, yes, the modern powders have all kind of coatings in them, probably some also against aging.

F.e. Vihtavuori powders that are used in our military ammo are little different from civilian stuff. In 9mm pistol round I have seen VV N322, which is NOT available for reloading. It probably has some anti-aging agents in it because military stores ammo for quite long times.

[perotter]

We'll, yes, the modern powders have all kind of coatings in them, probably some also against aging.

F.e. Vihtavuori powders that are used in our military ammo are little different from civilian stuff. In 9mm pistol round I have seen VV N322, which is NOT available for reloading. It probably has some anti-aging agents in it because military stores ammo for quite long times.

They all have them in and have since the 1800's. Likely that South American powder was made from a nitrocellulose that hadn't been boiled in water well enough after the nitrification process and still had more acid in it than the anti-aging chemicals could handle.

[DR Owl Creek]

...

Vihtavuori is a little village in Finland. That's where the factory is located. ...

Just two words that have a meaning:
VIHTA= birch whisk used in sauna (yes, we hit our selves with a vihta in very hot sauna.)
VUORI= mountain

Easy, isn't it?


That was interesting. Thanks for posting that.

Dave

[Ola]

That was interesting. Thanks for posting that.

Dave You are welcome. If you are interested, here is some other Finnish gun related brands:

-LAPUA is a town in western-Finland. Lapua probably means something, but I do not know what.

-TIKKA was originally TIKKAKOSKI: a little village in Central-Finland, maybe 15 miles from Vihtavuori. (tikka= woodpecker, koski= rapid). The old Tikkakoski factory made the famous 9mm SUOMI-submachine gun (SUOMI=FINLAND)

-SAKO: Suojeluskuntain Ase KOrjaamo = Civil Guards weapon repair shop

-VALMET: VALtion METallitehtaat = States Metalfactories (Founded in 1946 to produce war reparations to Soviet Union)

[MtGun44]

Thanks for the education. I have a M39 with a SAKO barrel, it is a very accurate rifle.

Maybe you can provide an answer to another question. I have read that the Finnish language is relatively
unique, but that it is closely related to the Hungarian language and these two are unrelated to any other
languages. Since the two countries are quite separated, is there any historic explanation that is well
known in Finland (and perhaps in Hungary)?

[TXGunNut]

Would you buy powder that was made in China?

I would hesitate, because in reloading components I expect for at least some degree of "quality control"..


Does it help any that they invented it? ;-) But I agree, QC can be a little hit and miss in Chinese products and that's not likely to give me warm fuzzies when it comes to gunpowder.

[mozeppa]

i have 8 pounds of vv-3n37 ........i like it !:bigsmyl2:and it meters very well.

[Ola]

Maybe you can provide an answer to another question. I have read that the Finnish language is relatively
unique, but that it is closely related to the Hungarian language and these two are unrelated to any other
languages. Since the two countries are quite separated, is there any historic explanation that is well
known in Finland (and perhaps in Hungary)?

Finnish is not unique but for some reason we are located here in between languages (Swedish and Russian) that have zero relation to Finnish. The only neighbor that is speaking similar language are the Estonians.
Estonian is so similar to Finnish that we can (almost) understand each other. Lots of common words with totally different meanings. Spoken Estonian sounds like very old Finnish with weird rhythm.

The rest are small minority languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages

(About the Hungarians: Here in Finland we have an explanation. They were the smart ones. They decided go SOUTH.)

[Ola]

i have 8 pounds of vv-3n37 ........i like it !:bigsmyl2:and it meters very well.
Yes it does. It has small grain size because it is originally a RIMFIRE powder. But has a LOT of other applications. Used to be my favorite powder in 9mm, 357 Mag, .44 Mag..

[MtGun44]

Ok, thanks for the info.

[Surculus]

Finnish is not unique but for some reason we are located here in between languages (Swedish and Russian) that have zero relation to Finnish. The only neighbor that is speaking similar language are the Estonians.
Estonian is so similar to Finnish that we can (almost) understand each other. ...

The rest are small minority languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages

(About the Hungarians: Here in Finland we have an explanation. They were the smart ones. They decided go SOUTH.)

Funny, I was just reading a novel [about a U.S. child of Finnish immigrants who goes to Finland to visit her rels] and it had a line in it about there's one sentence that's the same in Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, something about "the fish lives in the water." The author worked it into the story in a funny way, but the net result was, yes, them Urgic-derivatives are the anti-Esperanto of languages. :D

[Ola]

Actually, there isn't a sentence that was exactly the same in Finnish and Hungarian. There is just old "basic words" that still have some similarities : mother, blood, piss, ****, fish, river, to live, to go, to swim and so on.

F.e.
a fish
KALA in Finnish
HAL in Hungarian

Water
VESI in Finnish
víz in Hungarian (I couldn't figure out where to find that kind of a "i" in my keyboard)

[DR Owl Creek]

You are welcome. If you are interested, here is some other Finnish gun related brands:

-LAPUA is a town in western-Finland. Lapua probably means something, but I do not know what.

-TIKKA was originally TIKKAKOSKI: a little village in Central-Finland, maybe 15 miles from Vihtavuori. (tikka= woodpecker, koski= rapid). The old Tikkakoski factory made the famous 9mm SUOMI-submachine gun (SUOMI=FINLAND)

-SAKO: Suojeluskuntain Ase KOrjaamo = Civil Guards weapon repair shop

-VALMET: VALtion METallitehtaat = States Metalfactories (Founded in 1946 to produce war reparations to Soviet Union)


Ola,

Thanks again for posting that info. I like that. It helps in understanding the reasoning behind what's going on.

Dave

[Ola]

Good to hear. If there is something else, just ask. I'll do some research and try to answer the best I can.