Yes, most of you have probably never heard of it. It is made in France by Nobel Sport. In my experience, there were to two attempts to market Vectan powder in the US. The first time I know of was in the 1990's. They must've brought the powder over here in bulk, because it was packaged in the US in 1 and 8 pound containers. The plastic bottles were marked made in So. Carolina. The second time around was in 2015, these were packaged in France and were in .500 Kg. bottles, which as a bit more than a pound. In the '90's, I bought it from Graf and Sons. In 2015, I bought it from Powder Valley. You can't find it here now; apparently nobody is importing it anymore. It was very attractively priced both eras. In fact, that's what got me started using it.
Tu-3000 is a wonderful stick powder comparable in speed to IMR 4895 but uses a little less volume to achieve like results. And it meters better than IMR 4895, the sticks are just a little shorter. Tu = Tubal. I had several bottles that I bought in 2015, I used the last of it tonight loading .308 Win. After using up a box and some odd bullets, I had a couple of tablespoons remaining, and Ioaded six .223 Rems.
Tu-2000 was the Vectan equivalent of IMR 4198. I had an 8 pound jug of that in the 1990's that I stupidly traded off for something else. Had I not done that, I'd still be working off of it.
What I have left in the Vectan line is some BA-9 (like Bullseye), some A1 (medium pistol and shotgun powder), and some AO (slower pistol and shotgun powder). I've used both A1 and AO loading 12 and 20 gauge shells, there's quite a bit of data for them. I also used some A1 in .38 Special going by data in my Vectan loading manual, but I fired a few in my Combat Masterpiece and put it down. They were pretty hot, so I saved them and later fired them in my Ruger Police Service Six which is a .357 Magnum and that's what these .38's felt like. I've used the AO in 10mm Auto with great success, also .32 H&R Magnum.
Tu-3000 is a wonderful stick powder comparable in speed to IMR 4895 but uses a little less volume to achieve like results. And it meters better than IMR 4895, the sticks are just a little shorter. Tu = Tubal. I had several bottles that I bought in 2015, I used the last of it tonight loading .308 Win. After using up a box and some odd bullets, I had a couple of tablespoons remaining, and Ioaded six .223 Rems.
Tu-2000 was the Vectan equivalent of IMR 4198. I had an 8 pound jug of that in the 1990's that I stupidly traded off for something else. Had I not done that, I'd still be working off of it.
What I have left in the Vectan line is some BA-9 (like Bullseye), some A1 (medium pistol and shotgun powder), and some AO (slower pistol and shotgun powder). I've used both A1 and AO loading 12 and 20 gauge shells, there's quite a bit of data for them. I also used some A1 in .38 Special going by data in my Vectan loading manual, but I fired a few in my Combat Masterpiece and put it down. They were pretty hot, so I saved them and later fired them in my Ruger Police Service Six which is a .357 Magnum and that's what these .38's felt like. I've used the AO in 10mm Auto with great success, also .32 H&R Magnum.
