Powder Measure - still weigh every one?

[JonB]

Hey all,

For those of you who use a powder measure, do you still weigh every charge or just 'spot check'?

I load with a very manual process - Lee hand press, hand prime tool, weigh every charge (GemPro 250 scale). I process in batches, ie 600 rounds deprime/resize in front of the tv, then prime 300, then charge and seat bullet in batches of 100 which take about 40-45 minutes.

I am thinking of ordering the Lee Perfect Powder Measure to boost the output of my powder/bullet seating step. Do you all weigh each charge still? Or set it and weigh every 10th round or what?

Weighing each round doesn't do much to improve what I am doing today.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

Nope. When I'm first starting out a batch I set the powder measure close, drop 10-20 charges to let the powder settle (dump them right back into the hopper), then I start doing final adjustments. Once I drop 10 charges in a row that are my target weight, I start loading. Then weigh every 10th charge for the first 50 rounds. After that if I'm not seeing any issues, I check every 50th charge and any charges that look low to my eyes. This is loading pistol ammo and .223 AR plinking ammo on a progressive. When working up rifle or pistol loads, and loading hunting or precision rifle loads, I weigh every charge even when using a powder measure. Its all still work but it beats using a dipper, tickler, scale, and funnel.

 

[hanno]

I also batch reload with a SS. I Use a Redding 10X Pistol Powder measure which is very accurate. Still, I weigh every 10th powder drop and do a flashlight check of the tray before bullet seating.

 

[lauderdale]

What they said that 10x Redding is very accurate! I use the gem Pro2 also and T-7 turret. Have not been using my progressive lately as when I tried that 10x measure I liked it. guess I just slowed down some for now?

 

[cfullgraf]

When I started reloading, I would check charges thrown from my powder measure more frequently. Maybe every 20 charges or so.

Over time, I have gotten confidence in my technique and powder measures and I do not check weigh charges as frequently.

When loading with a single stage press, I charge a tray full of cases and then visually check the level in each case. The visual check is to make sure no case is missed or doubled charged.

As I added progressive presses to my reloading equipment, I began check weighing powder charges more frequently. Again, as I gained confidence in my technique, I have increased the interval between check weights. I either look in each case visually or use a powder check die to verify that there is powder in each case.

 

[VINTAGE-SLOTCARS]

I measure about every 10 rounds of pistol and 223 rounds. For my rem 7mm mag I hand check every round for exact weight.

 

[ArthurE]

When I get my measure zeroed in on the charge; about every 15 to 20 charges I throw 5 charges into the pan and weigh them. Divide that weight by 5 and you get the average weight of your charges. That takes the accuracy of my scale from .1 grains to .020 grains. This really helps with the coarse flake powders like 700x.

Needless to say; make sure you return the quintuple charge to the hopper!

I absolutely agree with the all-important final visual check before adding the heads.

 

[Candyman87]

I use an RCBS Uniflow with the small cylinder (0-50 grain charges) and I'll throw 15-20 charges and dump them back in. If I'm getting consistent charges after that, I'll start loading. At that point, I'll check every 10th round to make sure its not drifting. This is for handgun plinking ammo only. Anything requiring tighter tolerances, I'll measure every load.

 

[TfflHndn]

Depends on what powder I'm using and what I'm loading for. If I am loading a fine ball powder (AA#2, Silhouette, etc.) for general use I adjust until I hit the load I want and then load away, checking about every 25th load. I dip and weigh every load for match ammo. Drop-and-trickle or dip-and-trickle for loads with chunky powders (Dots, Unique) that are anywhere near max loads. And always check the cases with a light before seating.

 

[Blue68f100]

All depends on what powder your using. Some powders meter very accurately, ball. That all I will use on my progressive. Some do not at all, large flake and extruded come to mind. On my progressive once every thing is dialed in I only spot check. With large flake, I no longer use, there are other powders that do just as good if not better and meter accurately. Extruded powders I normally drop low and trinkle up. But I load very little rifle so this is not a big deal for me. If I did a lot a auto dispenser would be in order.

Bottom line it gets down to how your dispenser handles the powder. If it will drop 10-20 accurately there is no problem. Then spot check is all you need to do. But if your using a powder that does not meter accurately you have several choices. One is to shoot for the middle of the load range provide the variations stays in it. Knowing they will not be consistent. Find a dispenser that will measure the power accurately if possible. Or weight each charge, use a auto dispenser.

 

[Gadawg88]

For pistol rounds, using the Lee Pro Auto Disk, I weigh the first four or five to get comfortable the drop is good then I crank out the rounds spot checking about one out of every 15 rounds. I use HP-38 for most pistol rounds and it meters like water through the Auto disk so I have a high confidence in the drop. If you load at or very near max, which I usually don't, or use a powder that meters poorly, which I wouldn't , then I would weigh each round. For rifle loading I use the RCBS Chargemaster 1500 powder dispenser.

 

[rskent]

Only for match rifle, I drop the charge into the scale pan. Weigh it. If it's
good fill the case. If its not, dump it back into the powder measure and
try again. Life is to short for trickling.

For pistol, you are kidding, right. Set it and forget it. I do look inside the
case to see if there is a normal looking charge in there.

 

[splattergun]

Loading for rifle, I weigh each charge. For new load development, I weigh each round.
For HD, I weigh each round. For target fodder, I spot check every 10 or 20 or so.

 

[rskent]

I guess I need to add that I have used the same equipment for quite a
while and that it has proven to be very reliable and consistent. Proven by
measurement and testing not guesswork or luck. I have no desire to have
any problems with my ammunition. Either with a crappy score in a match
or worse, a safety issue.

I happened to see a young man a few weeks ago blow up a Rock River Ar.
Seems he was shooting some locally remanufactured ammo in it. The upper
and lower receivers were trashed, as in chunks missing.
Luckily he was only hurt financially.

Please be safe.

 

[anothernewb]

rifle - I measure each charge.

Psitol - Until I learn a particular powders loading habits, I weigh quite often. Once I establish a pattern, I weigh less often, but for sure at the start of each loading session I cycle a few charges through before checking.

 

[SwaneeSR]

Pistol - with a decent metering powder (Clays, Power Pistol, 700x) meter well enough for me to get my Dillon 550b setup and I can run several hundred rounds with no trouble after I get a consistant drop setup at the start. I purchased some 800x and I could not get that large flake powder to meter well enough to trust for pistol. I ran that powder in my MEC 12gauge reloader for 1 1/8 oz trap loads. It is ok for that.

Rifle is another matter. I am new to this, so I weigh ever charge and take my time work up smaller batches of 30, 40, maybe 100 rounds and weigh every charge. I drop with my Rcbs powder measure and trickle the last little bit. It doesnt take many little particles of extruded rifle powder to go over, the target charge, so i have not been pushing the upper limits of the recipe book. I use my Rock Chucker press for my rifle loading. That has only been .30-06 to date, but I am wotking on .30-30 this weekend.

 

[GT1]

PD/HD and any rifle not range fodder .223 I would check every step one at a time. I would never hurry any match hunting big rifle or PD loading.

I started with a hand press, a scale and funneled each load(It gets old pretty quick). After your measure is set up and shown to be consistent there is no reason to not run loading blocks(batch load).
Once you know what your charge should look like(Whatever your load may be) in a case there isn't much need to weigh, a simple flash light check over a loading block full of charged cases will show any obvious low/high charges(there should be none of those if you are operating a measure correctly).

 

[gonoles_1980]

I weigh after every 25 rounds. If you get the Lee perfect powder measure run lb of powder through it. Then loosen it up and run dry graphite through it. Slowly tighten, that'll prevent any leaks.

 

[oneounceload]

I weigh each one for rifle; for pistol I get the measure set, check it again, and then just go to town. Since I use a single stage and loading blocks, I load in batches

 

[gahunter12]

On my Dillon Progressives I weigh my powder drops before I start loading, and after every 100 rnds when I fill up my primer tube again. For my 7mm, and .300wm I check every powder drop on a Dillon beam scale, and RCBS Range Master 750.

 

[gojuice101]

It depends what I'm loading, or more specifically, what powder I'm using. If I'm loading rifle using H4350, 4895, Varget, or something like that, I set it, verify it, and spot check every 10 or so. If I'm using a powder such as 4831 that I can't get to meter consistently for anything, I pretty much have to check every one.

When I'm doing pistol I usually have to check every one because I use HP-38 and 700x. They don't seem to meter well for me and charges can be off significantly per throw (sometimes close to a grain off, in my experience).

I've been thinking about getting another powder measure to try to combat that problem, in case it is just my measure, but I don't have experience with any other ones or know anything about them.

 

[Ron Go]

For rifle, I weight every one. I have the charge master combo from RCBS and I have to set it about 3 grains light with IMR4350, for example. When I collect each charge I pour it into a manual scale and then trickle the rest. For some reason, I am only 0.1 to 0.3 grains light on the automatic dispenser even though I set it to 3 grains below?

Yes I do have a set of check weights and I hit zero each time. The scale does read accurately if I weight something it just does not like 'running up the weight' as it pours the powder. I also have two manual scales and they all read consistent.

I can't understand why it does this but it is certainly why I weight each load.

Also, I heard some people do not use fluorescent lights when weighing powder for some reason...but could never figure that one out.

 

[wanderinwalker]

Weigh. Each. And Every. Charge? No thanks, pass...

It depends on what I'm loading, what the goal is and the characteristics of the powder I'm working with. Pistol ammo? Gets run through the progressive at 300-rounds an hour. I only check the charge weight at set-up to make sure everything is set-up right and then go to work.

Rifle ammo? For the calibers I load, I stick to powders I know meter pretty well, like H4895, Varget and H335 primarily. I'll throw and weigh 3-4 charges at set-up, then check every 25 as I load. 25 just happens to be how many cases my loading block holds, the procedure is weigh a charge, throw 25 to fill the block, seat 25 bullets, weigh a charge and repeat. If I had a block that held a different number, my check interval would probably match it.

The only powder I've ever worked with that gave me spotty metering was RL-7. And as I was using that in a couple of rifles that aren't exactly tack-drivers (Marlin 336 in .30-30 and a 20" .45-70 Encore barrel), I just made sure to stick to loads a couple grains below max until I used it up. Then switched powder when it was gone.

 

[RugerSAFan]

As a batch loader for pistol rounds, after "dialed-in", I re-weigh after every 10-15 rds. To account for minor variations, my weigh load is 10x (easier to calculate in my head than the 5 cycles referenced by a previous poster).

 

[RandyP]

Like many others, I weigh a few at the start of each reloading session, my LCT and Pro auto dispenser is very consistent with my pistol powder of choice, Win 231/HP38.

I have a lamp positioned to easily view the inside of EVERY case to check the charge as I place each bullet . The LCT auto-advances reducing the potential for a double throw, but I still do the visual check of each case.