Historical comment:
When Hornady Light Magnum was first announced, my older brother Bob (chemist and hand loader ) talked to a contact at Hornady and told him that their powder from a 30-06 looked a lot like VV N133 powder. The contact confirmed this and Bob and I switched to N133 for my .308 and his 30-06. Since my loads equaled those of Hornady, I just stopped loading .308 and bought Light Magnum. As LM was phased out, I have switched to Superperformance and stopped wasting time and ammo playing with new hand loads. One 20 round box usually lasts a few years now.
However, I still use N133 when I want to push a new caliber velocities up at pressure lower than other powders. This is usually 10,000 to 12,000 psi lower for same velocity.
An example would be 400 grain hand loads for the 1895 .405 WCF. Velocities up to 2157 have been achieved with pressures safe in the rifle. Ongoing experimentation suggests that 400 grain velocities of 2200 fps can be reached at pressures of the original 300 grain factory loads. This velocity puts our 400 grain .405s up above the Factory Hornady 450/400 ammo at 2050 fps and well into African DG ammo ranges.
These 400 grain Woodleigh bullets do work well on Cape Buffalo:
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/51933_600x400.jpg)
