Dipper Calculation-Surely I'm Wrong?

[72V]

Just for the heck of it yesterday, I thought I'd see just how consistent the Lee dipper could be. The only one I have is one that came with a set of Lee pistol dies. (0.5 cc)

Just dipping and dumping wasn't very impressive.... lots of variation due to uneven filling and powder hanging onto the handle. Scooping and striking off was a little better, but still varied plus or minus .1 to .2 gr. The best results were had taking a heaping scoop, tapping on the container (an aerosol can top) to settle and knock off anything clinging to the handle, and then tapping gently as I dumped it. I was able to repeat 4.9 to 5.0 gr of Bullseye enough that I would feel comfortable loading without a scale.

The only question would be... why would I want to load 45ACP with a Lee dipper? :banghead:

 

[SST]

Low Budget Shooter,
Until purchasing a nice set of scales is in the budget, you can calibrate your dippers on somebody else's scales and continue to use the dippers with confidence.

 

[fitz47]

you can get a digital scale from midwayusa for $30 on sale. i got one it works well. also have lee dippers and they work well however you really need a scale

 

[Pine Cone]

If you are looking for a low budget scale option try eBay. You can get a nice used power scale for under $30 with shipping. Most of them are re-branded Ohaus scales with RCBS or Lyman names on them. You don't need anything fancier than a 502 or 505 model.

I like the dippers, but like most others here, I like to be able to weigh the load so I know what I am really doing. The Lee charts give you an estimate of what volume gives you what weight for a specific brand of powder, but in my experience the batches of power I have bought don't always match what they are supposed to be.

I'm not sure if you know about this, but a free volume-to-weight chart can be downloaded off the Lee website.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/Dippers.pdf

 

[ants]

It does little good to offer him advice. I don't think he's reading it.

His only three posts this calendar year ended with his last activity 3 weeks ago. His previous posts were in 2003. He seems like a nice guy, but he's a very infrequent visitor.