N135

Vihtavuori N135

N135? 22 grains is almost identical velocity to Benchmark and is a competitor to Benchmark. Its a "touch" slower burning than Benchmark. So one could say, very very similar with H4895. N135 is a top tier powder for your 5.56/223 adventure, so if you see it, Benchmark or AR Comp, those are the 3 to buy.

Vihtavuori N135

This is an extruded stick powder, like all the VV powders we have. N135 or N530 which is slightly faster are generally the powders you want if you are going back and forth between shooting 55 grain to 77 grain bullets. N135 would be perhaps a hair slower than Benchmark powder, and similar to H4895 in load data.

N135 very very accurate

This is one of the most accurate powders you can buy with money. If you overcome gas issue, its the go to powder for 223/5.56 without question.

These are all 77 grain Sierra Match King, loaded to 2.255, using CCI41 primers. using various brass brands for fun.

We can see here, that of the 3 brass brands tested at 22 grains of powder, which yields about 2600 FPS in a 20" barrel, that the largest group is .62 inches, and the other 2 are .39" and .44". So we can just say, it loves 22 grains, just like Benchmark powder does.

All these groups except 2 on lower left, are shot with a WOA Shilen Rachet barrel that's 1:7.5 20".

The very lower left is using Bartlien barrel 1:7.7

and above it is a Krieger barrel 1:7.7

So we can see here, there is not 1 group with the Shilen that is over an inch. Its all sub MOA.

"none" of these groups cycled the gun, which was tedious and this test took a long time. But thats because all these guns have heavy buffers with enhanced springs. As well as adjustable gas blocks that are setup under max gas, but not a lot. N135 needs max gas setting and lighter buffer. And that's that.

Bartlien VS Krieger battle w/N135!! 100 yards

Lots of good groups. Pretty thourough rundown of N135 here. The Bartlien took the overall, but both barrels produced several MOA groups in .6 or less.

Bartlien was more consistent overall, less flyers. But this is small sample size. Both made some great groups around 1/2 inch, which is really as good as one can hope on a windy day at 100 yards just using N135.

One thing you can notice right off the bat, is that N135, just like N140..has basically almost a WHOLE PAGE full of SUB MOA groups. While other powders? Not as consistent across all loads. The Bartlien only managed "1 shot" out of 55 shots, that made 1 group larger than 1 inch. That is pretty strong. 1 shot out of 55? whew.

The two groups out to right alone, are pulled bullets with dented ogives I bought for cheap for sighting in and baseline, etc.

Bartlien VS Krieger Battle!

Most accurate group went to Bartlien, with second going to Krieger, then #3 back to Bartlien, #4 back to Krieger. What made the Krieger averages less is having 4 more groups that were outside 1 MOA. Not as consistent. But if we look at best 4 shots from each group, it runs near the Bartlien.

Bottom line, if you have a quality barrel, N135 is a perfect powder choice for the range of bullets from 55 grain to 77 grain. Like Benchmark, its a perfect "all around good" powder for your 5.56.