Is a powder measure accurate enough?

[William52]

I just started reloading after many years away. I am now reloading for a 223 Rem Savage Model 25 bolt rifle. I found my Lee Pro double disk powder measure is giving inconsistent weights of powder. Plus or minus 0.1 grain with one +0.3 after weighing 20 charges on a Frankford arsenal digital scale which matches my Lee balance to the tenth. I am sure this hase been covered before? but what guidelines do you follow for using a measure vs. weighing each charge? For me I just want to get a good quality load worked up for target shooting to 200 and steel at 600 and a short range hunting load and think that the plus or minus 0.1 is probably OK for me. For my load testing I am weighing each charge, and doing increments of 0.3 gr for the first round of tests. After I select a best load I want to just use the powder measure with the occasional weighing. Using the powder measure I can get loads that are 1MOA maybe better after I do some more testing. Federal 69 gr Match gives me 1/2-1/4 MOA. I hope to be able to match this load eventually but do not want to have to weigh each and every load for target shooting after that. I am using H-Varget Powder.

 

[Tikkamike]

This is pretty common. A powder thrower like that measures by volume so naturally some will weigh more or less than others ESPECIALLY with stick powders. I have basically the same set up as you and I throw each charge light and trickle each one up on a beam scale... time consuming but accurate. You only way around it is buy something like a chargemaster otherwise those small variances are just going to be a part of life as far as I know

 

[264Winmag]

My stand practice is to throw ball powders in such caliber as the 22-250 or 223 as long as I am not maxed out for pressure, its accurate enough for plinking and allot quicker. For something like Varget throw and then trickle. With stick powder you run a much higher risk of bridging in your thrower and getting only a partial load and/or a hot on to follow. Just my opinion

Mike

 

[264Winmag]

I should mention I have an RCBS thrower and have had it bridge before, luckily only into the powder tray. not sure how the lee is set up.

Good luck

Mike

 

[boomtube]

"Is a powder measure accurate enough? "

Accurate enough for what?

I can assure you that the Federal ammo you cite for .5-.25 moa isn't weighed nor consistant within .1 gr.

 

[Trnelson]

Until I bought my chargemaster I would purposely throw charges about .1 short of desired and trickle to weight. One rifle I have is very particular to a certain charge weight +/- a .1 either way and it wasn't even MOA. If your working up a bench load then every detail needs to be documented and strictly loaded to. As you mention this is a shorter range hunting load, you likely could get that to work for your purposes. YMMV

 

[TXshooter]

I agree with the other guys about throwing the charge short and trickle it up. Your rifle may or may not care. But I am to anal to trust it. Sometimes I wished I had a second scale to check the first scale

 

[royinidaho]

I shoot a 223 and have found H-335, Winchester 748 to be top performers. Both are ball powders and would throw consistently.

Back in the day, shooting a 222 in benchrest competition, I used a Belding and Mull with RL-7 weighing about every tenth charge. Won plenty of matches.

I now use a charge master and sometime wonder if it throws what the screen says.

 

[Trnelson]

I agree with the other guys about throwing the charge short and trickle it up. Your rifle may or may not care. But I am to anal to trust it. Sometimes I wished I had a second scale to check the first scale

I always check and re-calibrate my chargemaster to match my balance beam scale before I start dropping powder into cases. All of my load developement was done with a simple Balance beam scale. I've found the chargemaster to be a bit finicky. I let it warm up for at least half an hour then calibrate it. The old school balance beam scale is invaluable to make certain X grains indicated is truly X grains. Gavity doesn't lie. On one occasion the chargemaster was off by 2g to the heavy side. The load I was preparing to dispense is .3g below primer signs and .6g below a sticky bolt. One can easily see the true need to verify all variables from this example, had I not double checked and zeroed the digital scale 1.7g over primer sign in that rifle could have been a serious serious serious safety issue. ymmv

 

[TXshooter]

I always check and re-calibrate my chargemaster to match my balance beam scale before I start dropping powder into cases. All of my load developement was done with a simple Balance beam scale. I've found the chargemaster to be a bit finicky. I let it warm up for at least half an hour then calibrate it. The old school balance beam scale is invaluable to make certain X grains indicated is truly X grains. Gavity doesn't lie. On one occasion the chargemaster was off by 2g to the heavy side. The load I was preparing to dispense is .3g below primer signs and .6g below a sticky bolt. One can easily see the true need to verify all variables from this example, had I not double checked and zeroed the digital scale 1.7g over primer sign in that rifle could have been a serious serious serious safety issue. ymmv

This is why I never bought a charge master or digital scale I heardthey tend to loose their zero quickly and a tad slow throwing a large charge. So I bought the rcbs 10-10 scale

 

[William52]

Thanks for sharing your experiences guys. This is really a great site. I will try the as thrown loads with the varget and see whats up and then some trickle up charges and compare. Going out today to try by load ladder charges at 200 yds. from 23.7 gr to 26.1 gr Varget behind the Sierra 69 HPBT match. Any one shoot 75 gr bullets in a 1 in 9 twist Savage?

 

[Jinx-)]

William52, get yourself some anti static spray and wipe outside surfaces of the powder charge bottle and powder dispensing mechanism, also wipe down inside and outside of powder drop tube, in many cases static causing powder to get stuck to the walls of powder charge measure and you get this inconsistency. Also try to develop technique of bumping powder charge handle when its in up and down position, trick here is consistency.