I have read about folks weighing pounds of powder before opening but I never did it. After today, I will start doing it myself.
I opened up a fresh bottle of 296 today and loaded 357 magnums. I ended up loading the whole bottle and it seemed like I had too few rounds for the pound of powder. Since I box and serial number everything I pulled the spreadsheet did some quick math and found that I had loaded 6,357.3 grns of powder. There should have been 7,000 so where did the 642.7 grns go to?
Well first I checked my scale again. Normally I calibrate it at the start and so I pulled my lyman check weights and yes the scale is spot on.
Next I pulled some random loads and checked them on the scale. Everything was within 0.1 grns of the label so I think I am good there.
I only loaded 399 rounds so I would have to be off close to 1.5 full grains to make up for the loss which is highly unlikely with a digital scale and check weights.
So after being pretty unsettled by the whole event, I thought about it some more and decided that the pound of powder must have been short. I bought it locally from a vendor here in town but I don't remember which one of the three I got it from.
It did have the factory seal on the bottle that you peal off but that can easily be stuck on.
I could speculate at length where the shortage occurred but in the end I don't know. I do know that I wonder if what is in the can really is 296? I will have to try some out to be sure.
I did learn a lesson though. Always weigh new pounds of powder and write the weight on the can so I can track its use. Once I develop a tare weight table for the cans then i will know before I open them if they are short somehow.
I opened up a fresh bottle of 296 today and loaded 357 magnums. I ended up loading the whole bottle and it seemed like I had too few rounds for the pound of powder. Since I box and serial number everything I pulled the spreadsheet did some quick math and found that I had loaded 6,357.3 grns of powder. There should have been 7,000 so where did the 642.7 grns go to?
Well first I checked my scale again. Normally I calibrate it at the start and so I pulled my lyman check weights and yes the scale is spot on.
Next I pulled some random loads and checked them on the scale. Everything was within 0.1 grns of the label so I think I am good there.
I only loaded 399 rounds so I would have to be off close to 1.5 full grains to make up for the loss which is highly unlikely with a digital scale and check weights.
So after being pretty unsettled by the whole event, I thought about it some more and decided that the pound of powder must have been short. I bought it locally from a vendor here in town but I don't remember which one of the three I got it from.
It did have the factory seal on the bottle that you peal off but that can easily be stuck on.
I could speculate at length where the shortage occurred but in the end I don't know. I do know that I wonder if what is in the can really is 296? I will have to try some out to be sure.
I did learn a lesson though. Always weigh new pounds of powder and write the weight on the can so I can track its use. Once I develop a tare weight table for the cans then i will know before I open them if they are short somehow.