weighing finished product

[mr_dove]

I'm not a reloader yet but I've been doing research and reading the reloading threads here. I have a question about weighing ammo though.

I've heard of some people weighing each finished round in order to make sure that there is a uniform charge in each round. This helps avoid double charges and disfiguring accidents.

My wifes experience at sending bulk mail at the post office gave me an idea though.

Is it possible/wise to weigh ammo in bulk? If one round has a known weight than 100 rounds would be 100X heavier. If you knew the weight of 100 rounds could accurately measure it instead of doing them individually?

The post office weighs your bulk mail and then calculates your total number of items based on the weight of their sample.

The only drawback I see to this method would be having to finding the problem round/s if you did have a discrepancy.

 

[ocabj]

Unless you weigh each individual component before loading and make sure they are all the same then it wouldn't work. Brass usually differs in weight. Bullets can vary by as much as 2gr depending the brand and quality.

Generally, weighing loaded rounds isn't reliable for any kind of comparison purposes (ie: checking for squibs or double charges in pistol ammo).

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I tried weighing some of my old silhouette loads a while back because I couldn't find my load data for the charge weight. It doesn't work, too much variation in brass and bullet weight, even with identical brass (these were 7mm I.H.M.S.A. loads).

I finally had to pull a few bullets and weigh the actual powder charge.

 

[dodgestdshift]

Mr_dove:

As an experiment weigh about 10 cases, and about 10 bullets. I think you will find that the difference possibilities (say light case, light bullet and heavy case, heavy bullet) will be more than enough to disquise any difference in powder charge. The best way to detect a problem is before you seat the bullet. The only way after seating is to pull the bullet. Moral of the story be careful and recheck before seating the bullet.

Bulk weighing won't help for the same reason. Your only drawback is also correct.

 

[yesterdaysyouth]

i've caught screw ups before by weighing finished rounds... using a balance scale it's easy to see a 5gr. over/under charge...