Weigh loaded rounds for safety?

[Coyotefurharvester]

I throw into scale pan -0.1 .02 gr and trickle up on the balance. I use a digital scale to adjust powder thrower. I'm loading for hunting mostly, for pd shooting I choose a powder that "flows" well and throw charges one or two loading blocks at a time. Use a light to double check each case has a charge when block is full.

 

[Rustytigwire]

Block of 20 or 50 223. Charge all with powder. Look in all the holes. Odd ones "fuller, not as full? Re weigh charge? Weigh brass?? Fat or heavy/thin or light case put in plinker bucket.
Doesnt take much. Easy to see.
Rcbs 2000 digital. Grounded antistatic wipe. Ck for drift with known mass empty cartridge close by.
Rock chucker.
Mine are not match case prep or loads by any measure but reasonably safely uniform and carefully prepared.
Thanks guys for all the fine examples this site presents.

 

[Baer45]

You never got distracted and wasn't sure you charged all the cases before seating the bullets?

I did not get distracted but had never used a powder that did not throw well. Usually just throw ball, etc. Bridging that one time scared me because like a lot of benchrest shooters, they trust their Harrells culver....90% of the time I use an auto throw, I was loading some 223 and decided to throw..I looked in the case but it dawned on me I could have missed something, even a couple of grains..I’m going to weigh all 50 rounds and deep six any that are high or low.../

 

[Baer45]

I load everything on a Dillon 550 with powder charges dumped from an autotrickler/autothrow. Every round gets weighed before it goes into the ammo box as a final QC step. I'm not really worried about missing a charge, but this eliminates a lot of potential problems that I wouldn't want to find during a match. My .308 loads will weight between 378.0 and 379.5 if everything is correct. If they fall in that range, they go in the box. If not, I'll take a closer look and see what's going on. The weighing takes about 2 seconds and is done while the autotrickler is doing it's thing, so it adds zero time to my loading process.

That’s my answer!

 

[Brians356]

Another trick for inspecting charged cases is to take a stick or blunted toothpick and drop it into a charged case, mark the case mouth level on the stick with a sharpie, then drop it into every other charged case to sanity check powder level against the mark. Takes longer to write it out here than to check 50 cases.
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[Rocketvapor]

Oh jeez, I feel so anal now
Just loaded up 69 22N (Dogtown) cases with 10.5 carats of Staball 6.5
Sorted out the cases and 88 ELD-M Factory second from Midway (they needed sorting).
Primed cases to +/- 0.2 grains, bullets to +/- 0.1grains, powder charge to 10.495-10.500 carats.
Digital scale checked often with a 2 gram (10 carat) check weight in the pan.
Cartridge total weight was 238.8 to 239.1 grains.
( I even sorted those into 20 round groups )
Since this is a new powder to me I want to know for sure it will do better than my old standby IMR4350 load.

 

[JayHHI6818]

When I load 338 Whisper I use Redding BR30 dropping 10.2 grs of HP38 and I charge 50 cases at a time but confirm weight after every 10’th case. Use LED flashlight to confirm all charges are the same in the cases. After searing the bullets my OCD kicks in and I weigh every round just to be sure!

 

[Webster]

I am new to precision reloading. I have been throwing with a Harrells when doing large batches of 223. I throw and seat BULLET in one step to avoid any heavy charge. The other day I noticed some difficult powder had slightly bridged and dropped into the correct case but then I started wondering if I could have a bridge I did not catch and it dropped on top of the next load. I though I read of some Hand-loaders that weigh each piece of loaded ammo on an electric scale and would pull any that were high (given the normal average). Anyone do this or anything else?

Now I tap on the downstroke to make sure there is no bridging...

I have all of the cases with sizing lube wiped off and primed in a loading block. I put the powder in all 50 cases while they are in the loading block. Then I look in each case for powder. My main concern is when waking away from the reloading bench and coming back I may forget which is the next empty case. i want to make sure I don't seat a bullet on an empty case. 3AM just fiished my Fed income tax forms.

 

[Rocketvapor]

For my 600yd match, I load 70 rounds (60 plus sighters) at a time, sort of.
I pick the cases plus a couple extras, prep, size, and measure them and they end up Neck up in the blocks.
Easy to inspect each case.
I prime them one by one culling any that don't feel tight and any with an upside down primer
They are now base up.
I hand toss each charge placing the charged case back into the block and insert a bullet (previously sorted of course), nose down into the charged case. Now I can see the bullet position and any that drop into the case are pulled out of the line .
I charge maybe 20 to 30 at a time between HVAC cycles.
Then to the press with the block. Pick a charged case and set it into the die. Remove the nose down bullet, touch it into my mica, and put it into the case and pull.
Since this is usually completed by Wednesday I have time on Thursday to sort those into 20 round groups to shoot on Saturday. Some time is wasted looking and rubbing the shiny bullets. Ooh

This week I had to work twice as hard. Taking a new powder that has only been to 100, and a backup of my old standby.

 

[Brians356]

I have all of the cases with sizing lube wiped off and primed in a loading block. I put the powder in all 50 cases while they are in the loading block. Then I look in each case for powder. My main concern is when waking away from the reloading bench and coming back I may forget which is the next empty case. i want to make sure I don't seat a bullet on an empty case. 3AM just fiished my Fed income tax forms.

That illustrates the reason to use two loading blocks, and migrate each case from the "empty" block to the "charged" block after charging it. An interruption cannot cause confusion. This method seemed obvious to me when I first started handloading 30 years ago, I assumed everyone did it. It was probably illustrated in my first reloading book.
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[Webster]

That illustrates the reason to use two loading blocks, and migrate each case from the "empty" block to the "charged" block after charging it. An interruption cannot cause confusion. This method seemed obvious to me when I first started handloading 30 years ago, I assumed everyone did it. It was probably illustrated in my first reloading book.
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You don't need two loading blocks if you look in each case with a flash light. I have 50 charged cases in the loading block it takes 15 seconds to examine all of the cases. Imposible to double charge a rifle case.

 

[Brians356]

You don't need two loading blocks if you look in each case with a flash light. I have 50 charged cases in the loading block it takes 15 seconds to examine all of the cases. Imposible to double charge a rifle case.

I do that anyway! It's called doublecheck, or sanity check, after all cases are charged and in the second block. Recall I previously described checking all 50 cases with something like a matchstick.
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[dcali]

No charge is the worst problem. To prevent that, fill a loading block with charged cases, visually inspect (good overhead light is important) all them to verify that there is powder in every case and that they all look the same. Then seat every round in the loading block before charging more cases. Another trick is to shake each round as you're putting it in the ammo box. You can hear the powder unless you're at 100% capacity or compressed. It's a lot faster than weighing them, which you can also do (if you do, do two or three at a time - it's faster. You're checking for grossly undercharged rounds, so the weight difference will be significant.

 

[Rocketvapor]

I can weigh loaded rounds faster than I can shake them.
When I'm charging, empty cases are upside down and most likely empty.
When I charge I can SEE the powder and with most loads can feel the point hit the powder when I put the bullet nose down into the case.
No spills with a bullet in the neck mouth either. The bullet comes out after the case is in the holder.
I don't leave charged cases open while playing with powder.
Sometimes I even use the range box (see earlier pic) for my loading block.

Muscle memory, forming and sticking to a procedure, even if interrupted is necessary for consistency and safety. Double check wieght, flashlight, toothpick, what ever is necessary.

Here's some old sorting videos

 

[Brians356]

No charge is the worst problem. To prevent that, fill a loading block with charged cases, visually inspect (good overhead light is important) all them to verify that there is powder in every case and that they all look the same. Then seat every round in the loading block before charging more cases. Another trick is to shake each round as you're putting it in the ammo box. You can hear the powder unless you're at 100% capacity or compressed. It's a lot faster than weighing them, which you can also do (if you do, do two or three at a time - it's faster. You're checking for grossly undercharged rounds, so the weight difference will be significant.

Few shooters my age or older can still easily hear powder inside a loaded round. I'm deef in one ear and can't hardly hear with t'other. Tinnitus.
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[Twicepop]

When I'm loading with extruded powders I weigh each charge because of the possibility of bridging. With smooth flowing ball powders I don't, but will periodically check every 5th or maybe every 10th round to verify the charge weight.

 

[Twicepop]

Few shooters my age or older can still easily hear powder inside a loaded round. I'm deef in one ear and can't hardly hear with t'other. Tinnitus.
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You're singin' to the choir now, when I was much younger I could hear a fly fart in the next room. Now I couldn't hear him if he was sitting on my ear lobe, and Tinnitis also. Too many years of LOUD music, LOUD cars, LOUD machinery and LOUD guns.