i need to speed up weighing charges.

How many grains are you trying to measure and what tolerance can you live with?
For shotgun loading +/- half grain is perfectly acceptable. With 9mm, not quite as acceptable.

Look into getting a powder measure. One with the rotating drum like the Hornady and others will work well with flake powder as long as you use the correct insert or drum for the amount of charge you throw, IE. pistol (small insert) for less than 10gr and the large or rifle insert for more than 10 gr. Then weigh every 5 or 10 throw to ensure consistency. Don't worry about +/- a .1gr or more on large charge weights. A 1% variation in charge weight from round to round won't make any real difference in accuracy.

I'm guessing you are working with a very narrow charge table of probably .4 grs., yes? If so, I would get that used up and then find a more appropriate powder with a broader charge table, and that fits your loading needs.

But since you are using a scale exclusively, in the mean time you can use a dipper larger than the charge you are needing, and then trickle it manually by hand into the scale. Takes a little practice, but I can load at least 3 cases per minutes doing it this way.

GS

First off- I feel your pain on both 700x and unique... they both go +/- .3 of my target charge. Meaning im Im shooting for 15.5gr, I get between 15.2 and 15.8gr... I dont like it but my slug loads are well within safe parameters and shoot well enough. Ive tried charges through my Lee load all powder bushings, autodisk measure and lee perfect powder measure(the standalone one).

Not to Hijack the thread, but anyone know of a measure that will accurately meter H110/Win296 and similar granular "ball" powders? The stuff binds up my autodisk and standalone mesure within a couple throws. Im weighing my full house 357 loads on a balance beam. a couple heaping powder scoops get me darn close and I gotta tap in the rest. very time consuming but not a huge issue considering I only shoot ~10 of these loads each week.

Hornady auto charge unit for the application you describe. Nuff said.

Well I'm new to reloading and I'm getting into a nice groove with my process but I'm having a hard time with weighing charges. It takes 75 percent of my total time just charging cases. I'm weighing every charge with a lee safety scale. I can't just use a dipper because I use 700x and its so inconsistent that I can't even get close to the right charge without throwing a smaller charge on the scale and then slowly adding powder until the target is reached. What do I need to do to make this faster? If I could charge cases faster I could load a few hundred at a time instead of 50. Thanks for any info.
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Don't use 700x. I know, probably dosen't help.
Been there done that. 700x, 800x, Red Dot, Unique, and other large flake powders just don't cut it.
I pretty much just use Titegroup and Hp38 for all pistol loads now. Universal too if I could find it. Also for a wide spectum of burn speeds: Acurate 2, 5, 7, and 9. All mesure great from what I have read and heard. I've only used #5 and #9

If you can live with a swing in charge ( I don't know what your differences are) the .5 dipper should be about 3.7grns but with +.2 that puts you close to 4. I would try putting a piece of pencil eraser (as I recall it is about the perfect diameter to fit in the .5 scoop. Cut it to a size where you scoop gets about 3.4 in the middle. Then your swing might be 3.2 to 3.6 for example which gives you some more clearance on the heavy side if 4 is the max. I used the eraser trick for a friend of mine who was using a different powder but .3 was to small and .5 was to large. You can always remove the eraser if you want to. Of course I nice powder measure is great but costs$, Pencil erasers are cheap.

I have not used Lee scoops in a while. It sounds like you have Lee equipment so if you have Lee pistol dies you can use the Lee autodisk/Prodisk. (Have both, Prodisk is nicer) They are not that much and can help speed things up by charging the case on the press and are nice if you ever buy or have a Lee turrent press. Don't know how they do with 700x but I can get mine to + or - .2 with Unique (usually with .1 either way for a .2 swing )and it tends to err on the + side so I just allow for it.
Unique is not known for it's great metering qualities but my LGS had some and it looked lonely on the shelf so I brought it home so the tiny bit of Universal Clays I have left (meters great) could keep it company.

Anyone out there used them for 700X?

With the right powder you should be able to use a regular powder measure to get +-.05 tolerance. Unless you're a bullseye shooter there's no reason to have to weigh every 9mm round. I use Power Pistol and weigh 10 charges together at the beginning of each load session. My charge is 4.2 gr. So 10 charges is 42 gr. I always get within .4 gr for the total. It's so consistent that I don't weigh individual charges.

If you need to speed up the process of loading hard to meter powders one of these is about the only way.
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00005050068

If you don't have the funds for that right now then, what I used to do was use a thrower set to about .5 under my target load and dump that onto the scales and dribble from there. It was a lot faster than guessing at it with a spoon and for the easier to meter powders you won't need to use the scales for anything but setting the measure up to start with.

The plastic Lee dippers mentioned above would be the most economical way to do the same thing.

Consider getting a powder trickler for just a few bucks. Mine is a Hornady. The idea is to get close but below the desired charge and then using the trickler to finesse the scales into balance.

A good powder measure and the proper technique will meter 700-X and Unique just fine.

700-X is about the only powder I use in 45 ACP.

For pistol level charges, I prefer a Redding 10-X powder measure but other drum style powder measures work well as well. I even modified the Redding for use on my Hornady and RCBS progressive presses.

I also have used the RCBS Little Dandy powder measure but the fixed cavity rotors can be limiting at times.

For starters, get a better scale. Everything I've heard about the Lee scale is that they're a PITA to use. Especially if you're weighing every load.

First of all, take a dose of reality--reloading is not a race. Just about everything you could do to make weighing charges faster will also introduce higher risk of a double, missed, or inaccurate charge.

Slow is better. Some speed can be gained safely, but if your main focus is speed, please let me know where you're going to shoot your reloads so I can be somewhere else.

A dose of reality for me is that I ain't weighing every charge. I do use a Dillon 650, and it has a pretty accurate powder drop. I also use AA#5 for loading 9mm. Meters well, and requires a couple of grains more than the 700.

Take RealGuns advice & get a powder trickler. Use a Lee dipper or some sort of measure (a fired case cut to the appropriate height with a wire handle soldered on will work) that gets you a few tenths below the desired charge. Then trickle up to the right weight. An inexpensive trickler will eliminate going over the desired charge because you dumped too much powder while you were trying to trickle a little out of a spoon or a measure - that really costs you time.

Lots of good advice. But there's a reason that people's comments on a powder very often include an assessment of how well it meters. For some of us, metering well (i.e., volumetric measurement generating consistent weights, and dropping uniformly with no bridging) is a significant facet of powder performance. At this point, I don't buy powders for handgun that don't meter well.

I use a beam scale and a trickler for rifle loading. RCBS trickler if I recall correctly. As said above, I made dippers out of rifle cases cut off at the shoulders and trimmed them until they dip close but on the low side. Then trickle to weight. I soldered some .223 cases to the sides of the trimmed cases and then drilled out a dowel and jammed it over the .223 case for a handle.

A better scale will help the process. RCBS, Lyman, dillon all make decent beam scales.

RCBS, Lyman, and Hornady all make electronic tricklers that mate with a digital scale. They are slick - but expensive.

I used to use 700x for shotgun, I always thought it metered fine - 800x is what has the rep for not metering well.

A step up from dippers would be something like the RCBS uniflow powder measure or the Hornady measure on a stand (or a Harrells if money is no object). I do the same thing, dial them in close but low and trickle to weight. When you gain confidence you may dial it in closer and not need to trickle at all. I have both an RCBS and a Hornady - I prefer the Hornady.

Loading blocks help also, they keep you cases organized and prevent them from tipping over.

Not to Hijack the thread, but anyone know of a measure that will accurately meter H110/Win296 and similar granular "ball" powders? The stuff binds up my autodisk and standalone mesure within a couple throws. Im weighing my full house 357 loads on a balance beam. a couple heaping powder scoops get me darn close and I gotta tap in the rest. very time consuming but not a huge issue considering I only shoot ~10 of these loads each week.

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As mentioned above, the RCBS Uniflow I have does a great job of throwing consistent charges every time. I can charge 50 9mm in a wooden block in about 1 minute

I use the same scale, and it took a while to get a feel for it. It is remarkably sensitive and can weigh to 1/20th of a grain but has to be gently jiggled to get consistent weight. I load a coarse stick powder for my ammo and I can consistently weigh each load down to the KERNEL. Try gently tapping the canoe until the arm rises 1/8 inch over the scale and let it return down, settling on a reading from the same direction every time. Also, any fans or blowers in the room will tend to cause frustration, although a gentle stirring of air can reduce the need to jiggle the scale.

I would think about upgrading your scale a little to maybe something like an RCBS 502/505 or the Redding No2 then have a look at the Omega trickler or the Omega auto-trickler if you have the funds available.

This is how I do mine:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnVOoGd1bDU