The authors have obtained detailed information on the short-range order (SRO) in Fe_1-cV_c alloys over a large range of concentrations (1<or=c<or=20 at.% V) using neutron diffuse scattering and zero field NMR on the ⁵¹V nuclei. The theoretical and experimental limitations of these complementary techniques are discussed. In the dilute limit (c<or=3 at.%) NMR is more sensitive than neutron scattering in determining the SRO parameters alpha _i whereas beyond a few per cent, neutron scattering is more suitable and gives access to a larger number of alpha _i values. Over the whole range of concentration and temperature investigated, the observed behaviour corresponds to strong repulsive interactions between first or second nearest-neighbour vanadium atom pairs.