Studies of the effects of doping MgB2 bulk and Fe-clad wires with V are presented. Samples of composition Mg1-xVxB2 (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) have been investigated to understand the role of V doping on the phase formation, microstructure and superconducting properties. Fe-clad wires were fabricated by groove rolling and cold drawing. The superconducting transition temperature remained constant at about 39 K for all the compositions studied. Energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis confirmed the presence of V in the superconducting phase. Enhancement of magnetization hysteresis loop widths indicates an improvement in flux pinning for V-doped samples. Studies on the variation of maximum reaction temperatures suggest that the optimum reaction temperature varies with V content. The optimum reaction temperature also depended on the wire diameter with the larger wires requiring higher reaction temperature. The transport critical current densities measured for groove-rolled wires were in the range of 1.0 – 1.4 × 105 A/cm2. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]