powder measure

delta wolf

Well-Known Member
I am currently loading .308 with 46g varget and 150g hornady interlock as recommended by several on here with excellent results. I am using a lee perfect powder measure which throws the above within about .3 grains. I have been trickling to get it exact but i do find this slows me down a lot.

2 questions,

1. Is an error this small likely to make a huge difference to as these are not for competition accuracy but stalking?

2. If so, is there a more accurate measure to save the trickling?

Thanks in advance!!

Andy
 
no not for stalking ! i like every round i make to be as good as it can be my choice. my dps 3 auto alarms at .2 over so i set mine at .2 under and it then gives me the correct 45gr every time. lee pp no so perfect then feller ! why not drop your load by .3 under 46gr and that may sort it out if not slow down mty, you have spent lots of time on your reloads getting it just right so why rush your powder fill!
atb
paul
 
Very good point when you compare the trickling time to the whole process, never thought of it like that!!
 
I load 26grn varget into my .223 and use a lee, I weigh every 10th and its always spot on. In fact i have never known it to be wrong. However i do fill the hooper half full and keep it in that zone, never tried to run it all out, if I need to weigh out precise weights i tip the powder out of a plastic universal container and its easy to tap out a few kernels to be spot on.

​D
 
I use a Lee ppm and get the same variation but I dont bother with the differance, for the differance in accuracy the extra time to get them dead on is not worth it for stalking rounds.
If you use ball powder the Lee throws dead on load after load.
 
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I use the RCBS Uniflow, with the baffle and a solid mount to the bench, it has never shown a measurable error on my scales.
But without the baffle and on the supplied strip steel mount it was not so clever, + or = .5 of a grain.
Now provide I keep it more than a 1/4 full it is spot on.

Neil. :)
 
Measuring the powder, is where we have the edge over ammunition manufacturers. I can take the time to get it absolutely spot on, they can't. I want my rounds to be more accurate than they can make. It doesn't take much more effort in reloading, to get the powder exactly right.
 
I use the RCBS uniflow with the baffle and it's pretty good as is my old Lyman 55 Lyman Products Your Primary Source for Reloading Equipment which I've has since, oh dear, 1983... I've a soft spot for the latter although mine does not have the baffle. With the right powder the Lyman's dead good (I use N135 and I don't bother weighing other than 1 in 5 to check the loads) and when it looks off on the scale the scales been blown on by a draught or needs re-zeroing.
Varget's not bad but bigger grains than N135. I used it a lot in my target gun (22BR Barnard) when I had that as it's very accurate but swapped to N135 as it's easier to dump accurate charges and was common with my 22-250.
Consider a ball propellent by all means but check the amount of heat generated as they can run hot. There are some spreadsheets about on accurateshooter that give some more data. RamShot BigGame is one of the coolest burning ball types... N135 is one of the coolest burning single base tubular types.
 
Why are you in such an all fire hurry?

Relax and just take it slow and trickle the last bit if that's how you do it. You don't have production targets to meet. hand loading is part of the hobby so relax and take it slow :D.
 
I use the RCBS Uniflow, with the baffle and a solid mount to the bench, it has never shown a measurable error on my scales.
But without the baffle and on the supplied strip steel mount it was not so clever, + or = .5 of a grain.
Now provide I keep it more than a 1/4 full it is spot on.

Neil. :)

Either you don't reload much or your scales a rubbish! :-o

I have the same set up and get variation in both powders I use in my Uniflow. So following on from post #2 I throw short and trickle onto my balance scale.

I do the same with my Lee PPM but I only use that for +\- 4gr on that so this margin of error is smaller.

"Not worth taking the time for stalking ammo?" How much do you reload to stalk for goodness sake? 20 rounds done right might take you an extra 5 minutes.

A job worth doing and all that.
 
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