[blitzen]

Ok guys, I've been loading .223 ammo with Varget and IMR 4064 because that's what I use for my .308 loads but as you know measuring every charge for .223 range ammo gets pretty old. I now have a Lee Perfect powder mesure set up and would like to know of a good spherical powder that can be thrown by such a device. Thanks.

[rcmodel]

WW748, any of the Hodgdon ball powders suitable for the .223 like BL-C(2), H335, etc.

Any ball or spherical type powder flows like water through a powder measure.

rc

[Walkalong]

Yep, and you can't go wrong with H335 or W748. Meter great, shoot great.

[jerkface11]

My Frankfort armory Uniflow copy meters 20mm cannon powder. I wouldn't be able to stomach a measure that wouldn't handle Varget.

[Walkalong]

Varget is not going to meter as well as ball powder in any measure. Meter well enough? Sure.

Harrells (http://www.harrellsprec.com/)

Redding (http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/powdmeas.html)

and quit weighing every charge. :)

[Historian]

I have been using H335 for quite a while now. Great for .223 loads and I have found that I only need to check every tenth throw. Very consistant.

Historian

[Bula]

AA 2230 and W748 get my vote, very good flowing powders and both work well with .223 loads

[Fat_46]

Ramshot TAC - pretty clean, easy metering, and (at least up here) easy to find.

[R.W.Dale]

I would get rid of my powder measure, dog or heck even the wife before I gave up on Varget

Ditch the plastic toy powder measure and get a real reloading tool. I like a lot of Lee's products but their scale and powder measuring systems are a joke. Lee using the word perfect in conjunction with their measure is borderline false advertising, and yes I owned one.

As far as the LEE ppm goes there are two kinds of powders.

A. Powders that won't meter at all

B. Powders that meter great but get leaked all over the place around the drum


Weighing individual rifle charges = waste of time

[eng23ine]

another vote for W748

[agd1953]

I use Varget (I have 16 lbs) and it work great and measures just fine, stay with Varget:)

[evan price]

Varget works good in my Lee Autodisk, but H335 flows like water.

[Redhat]

I use the PPM with IMR 4895 and H4831...does a great job! :) Oh and who is really going to believe advertising that says "Perfect"? I never expected it to be perfect but it works well for me. YMMV

[rfwobbly]

I would get rid of my powder measure, dog or heck even the wife before I gave up on Varget.

Obviously, your wife does not read THR !!

:D

[PCJim]

I use BL-C2 for .223 on my 550b and get excellent consistency between throws. Must admit I haven't tried any other powders for .223, yet.

[blitzen]

You're right the Lee Perfect powder measure is kind of cheesy. I'll try some of the recomended powders and if it works, great if not I'll junk it and get something that does. Thanks

[PotatoJudge]

The Lyman 55 and RCBS Uniflow can often be found used for $40 or so, usually less for the Lyman than the RCBS but they're both great measures. I like Lee and use it for most of my reloading, but I sprang for the Uniflow.

[rundm]

benchmark

[sublimaze41]

AA2230, best buy and easy to meter.
I like H322 and Varget... but cost & metering lead me to choose AA2230.

[hawkeye1]

I have a Ruger M77 in 223 and have used H335 with good results. Flows very well. But when I switched to Hodgdon Benchmark, which by the way, flows great in my RCBS powder measure, group sizes went down to very pleasing little groups. There are a number of good powders for the 223, but I will stick with the Benchmark. Good stuff.

good shooting

[30Cal]

Charge weight consistancy is highly overrated.

I weigh my 600yd match loads about half the time, but can't see a difference on the target.


I value temperature stability more than I do smooth metering.

[jcwit]

The Lee Perfect Measure may be made of plastic but once set up and adjusted correctly it throwes charge after charge Perfectly. Golly wasn't that what its supposed to do? Oh ya it didn't cost $100.00 and there fore has no bragging rights.

My vote for a good powder for the .223 is AA2230, Use it for B/R shooting.

[jerkface11]

You can always tell the Lee guys have never tried good equipment.

[jcwit]

Hey jerk It throws the same charge every time checking with my RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 scale. Also matches my Harrell measure from Sinclare. Lee doesn't give me the gritty feeling.

Till you know what equipment I reload with and own you have no idea what you're talking about. So the best advice would be to keep your thoughts to yourself.

[Redhat]

Yup! I had a uniflow that was given to me. Had to order an extra drum and it had two spouts I believe...very solid pice of equipment but that "crunch" when I operated the handle made me somewhat annoyed.

[tbtrout]

The Lee PPM is not good for ball powder. Mine and any I have known tend to leak the powder ou of the side of the drum. Stick powder worked fine.

[jcwit]

Understand this to be true about ball powder, have not need to try it as yet.

Down the road will be using ball powder to reload .30 cal. carbine but this is probably a year away yet.

If this turns out to be the case I'll have to change to one of my other measures.

[Redhat]

I use the PPM for extruded and Pro-Auto Disk mounted on the press for ball powders. Covers my needs at low expense and so far they've been accurate.

[isitdeadyet]

I use a Lee ppm. Figured I'd try it out. I asumed it was'nt going to work and was planning buying a high end one. So far with varget I can't see how it could be better, now the adjustment dial, it sucks. I just "set and forget it" like my Ronco rotisserie.

[LTR shooter]

Ok guys, I've been loading .223 ammo with Varget and IMR 4064 because that's what I use for my .308 loads but as you know measuring every charge for .223 range ammo gets pretty old.

Try H335 and I think you will have found what you are looking for. Varget is one that does not meter well in either of my powder throwers - a Hornady and a Harrell. I have a pound left and may get around to using it once they outlaw powder.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

I always weighed every single load ever since I started reloading some 25 years ago.

Recently, I started loading .223 and for the first time -- just relying on my powder measure.

I find H335 to meter exceptionally well and when I weighed various thrown charges they were all within .5 grain of the targeted weight thrown. Since I'm not loading at maximum, I don't mind the slight variation and am happy with the results.

Whether the rounds will be accurate or not is yet to be seen. All things considered, though, I would say the charges are as accurate as most factory ammo, if not more accurate. I've only loaded 100 rounds for now, to see how well they do on paper.

I have the micrometer adjustment on my powder measure, so I can easily come back to almost the exact same spot every time when I set up the measure in the future.

[Walkalong]

when I weighed various thrown charges they were all within .5 Did you mean .05?

[redneck2]

I use Varget in my Dillon measures, and it's pretty consistent, typically +/- .1 and usually spot on. I think the up and down thing helps settle it. My free standing Hornady is not nearly as consistent. Also does the "crunch" with long cut IMR's

I weigh most of my charges just because it's a "comfort" factor.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

Quote:
when I weighed various thrown charges they were all within .5

Did you mean .05?

No, I was shooting for 25.5g and some were higher and some were lower. Then, I was interested to see just HOW MUCH higher and lower, so I weighed the high ones and they were about 26.0g and the lower ones were about 25.0g.

I was careful to make sure the RCBS Powder Measure (with optional Micrometer setting plunger) hopper was at a pretty constant level of powder and moved the handle to charge the exact same way every time (same speed, all the way up and all the way down).

When I looked by eye at 50 cases filled with powder, under extremely bright lights, I could see that all 50 charged cases appeared to have the exact amount of powder, however, like I said, when I weighed about two to three out of every ten, that is how much the powder weight differed. So, .5 grains difference either side of 25.5 would actually make each case within 1 grain -- when compared to EACH OTHER.

After seeing that, I then remembered why I initially got in the habit of weighing EVERY charge. I remember "throwing" loads when I first started reloading, and no matter what powder I was using (ball, sperical, flaked, etc.) the thrown loads were off considerably. And that would have been a complete different powder measure back then, as I got out of reloading for a while, then bought all new equipment and started all over again with new RCBS equipment.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[moooose102]

the only thing i see wrong with this is at least in my not so "perfect powder measure" is it leaks like a sive with small, fine, ball powders. it measures very well with any powder i have used, but the ball powders leak like crazy. i have tightened up the adjuster so much you can not hardly even turn the thing, and it still leaks. so, i wish you a lot better luck than i have with that! i ended up buying a little dandy powder measure to do my pistol powder with. i use extruded powders in my rifles, so for me, this works.

[Walkalong]

so I weighed the high ones and they were about 26.0g and the lower ones were about 25.0g.With ball powder! Time to buy a measure. ;)

[Uncle Chan]

Ramshot X-Terminator. Flows like water.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

This is what I was using. http://images.cabelas.com/is/image/cabelas/s7_216102_imageset_01?$main-Large$
I stated:
I was careful to make sure the RCBS Powder Measure (with optional Micrometer setting plunger)....

[Walkalong]

That measure should do better than a .5 gr spread with ball powder. If it doesn't, it is still time to buy a measure, although I did read wrong, I thought you were using a Lee Perfect Measure. :)

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

Well, if I recall correctly (which I usually do), I had the same issues with the first RCBS powder measure (25 years ago) that I am having with this identical RCBS unit.

I remember weighing thrown loads and finding enough discrepancy that I started to always throw the load a bit light into the scale pan, then trickle the powder up to the weight I'm after.

So, when you say it is time to buy another measure, I don't know what you mean. Should I trash this perfectly good powder measure to buy another one (one that will most likely do the same thing the other two did/are doing)?:scrutiny:

I always thought there was variation between thrown charges vs. virtually no variation between those charges that are each individually-weighed.

Someone please verify this, or correct me on my thinking. Thanks.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

The way the RCBS powder measure works with the micrometer adjustment, the hole in the rotating cylinder stays in the upward position, due to the weight of the micrometer adjustment on the opposite side of the cylinder.

Could this be my problem -- the fact that, when the powder measure is sitting "parked" the column of powder in the hopper is lying against the cylinder opening where the powder gets measured?

I'm thinking that, using a rubber band, or something, I can have the weight of the hopper column powder against the closed portion of cylinder and when I throw a charge, I am then getting the opening in the cylinder to "pick up" the load, then drop it into the cartridge case.

Does anyone else have this problem or figured out a way to resolve the problem?

Thanks.

[R.W.Dale]

I have had no such issues with a RCBS uniflow equipped exactly as yours. I get within .2 grn throws with varget no problem even without a powder baffle. There's no reason a Uniflow shouldn't do much much better than .5

This leads me to wonder if your discrepancy may be in your scale you're checking the uniflow with.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

One thing I did not do was throw a pound of powder through the measure when it was new. I just went down to my basement and looked inside and there were some powder granules stuck inside the cyliner hole just at the adjustible plunger edge.

So, I opened up the micrometer all the way (wide open) and ran at least a pound of powder through the measure. I'm hoping that solves the problem.

They say that in doing this, it puts a coating on everything. I did carefully wipe all interior surfaces out well with a clean rag before I assembled it, so I know there is no oil in there.

Also, I read that one needs to be perfected as to technique. I need to be sure I am operating the lever exactly the same each time. With the H335 powder I'm using, I see no potential problems there as it does meter extremely well.

Thanks for the thumbs up!

[R.W.Dale]

Periodically I wipe down my plastic metering and measuring equipment with a fabric softner dryer sheet. This will virtually eliminate any static cling.

What scale are you using? with H335 a Uniflow should darn near be as accurate if not more accurate than your run of the mill reloading scale

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

I'm using a new RCBS 5.0.5 scale.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

I'm using a new RCBS 5.0.5 scale.

[weeniewawa]

I use a lee perfect thrower with varget and it is extremely accurate.

weighed on a Dillon D-Terminator scale