A tip on how to get better results from your powder measure

[BoydAllen]

For quite some time I have made a hobby of figuring out how to get the best results from powder measures. One thing that I have absolutely proven to myself, by actual, and repeated test, is that letting the measuring drum move side to side as you use the measure increases the ES of thrown charges. Recently I was working with a new measure trying different techniques, and not meeting with the success that I wanted. It turns out that I had forgotten what I had learned long ago. When I remembered, and started putting a little inward pressure on the handle (toward the measure body) as I cycled the measure, preventing the drum from shifting side to side, my results improved markedly, becoming much more consistent.

 

[jds holler]

I'm gonna have to incorporate that into my "clink-clink" (at the top), single "clank" (at the bottom) technique. jd

 

[dusterdave173]

An interesting idea is from the late Glen Zediker from his great book Handloading for Competition

He says and I have found it to be true--when setting a powder measure up for the amount you want--thrown TEN charges at a time into one pan--weigh it--adjust the measure until the total for ten charges is right --- going for 25g? Throw ten adjust until the total is 250 Get that thing throwing as close to 250 as you can then the diff in throws will be less than aiming for getting it dead on at 25--I did it--It works!!

 

[Webster]

An interesting idea is from the late Glen Zediker from his great book Handloading for Competition

He says and I have found it to be true--when setting a powder measure up for the amount you want--thrown TEN charges at a time into one pan--weigh it--adjust the measure until the total for ten charges is right --- going for 25g? Throw ten adjust until the total is 250 Get that thing throwing as close to 250 as you can then the diff in throws will be less than aiming for getting it dead on at 25--I did it--It works!!

Don't understand, isn't the standard procedure to weigh and adjusted each charge? If you don't weigh your guessing no matter what you do to the powder measure.

 

[dusterdave173]

To get it to throw the individual charges as close as possible I have found that if you get it throwing as close as possible to the ten charge total--I mean keep adjusting until ten throws is as close as possible to ten times the weight you want--then it comes out better than adjusting to get it dead on with just one--try it you might see that this works

 

[jds holler]

Don't understand, isn't the standard procedure to weigh and adjusted each charge?

There is a great deal of reloading that I do, where accuracy to the tenth is absolutely not necessary. I still want thrown accuracy to be as good as possible, and there are several tricks that help to that end.

When I sit down with a hopper full of 4831 or 4350, I'm prolly gonna set the measure low, and trickle up to weight though. jd

 

[K22]

Thanks Boyd, I am going to try that.

For flatten ball powders like 231 which I use in pistol reloads, a technique I use to increase discharge uniformity is to pause slightly on the fill stroke before discharging.

 

[jackieschmidt]

An interesting idea is from the late Glen Zediker from his great book Handloading for Competition

He says and I have found it to be true--when setting a powder measure up for the amount you want--thrown TEN charges at a time into one pan--weigh it--adjust the measure until the total for ten charges is right --- going for 25g? Throw ten adjust until the total is 250 Get that thing throwing as close to 250 as you can then the diff in throws will be less than aiming for getting it dead on at 25--I did it--It works!!

^^^^^^^
This is how I have always set my powder charger when I use one.

Zero the pan, then throw ten charges. Weigh the ten, Divide that weight by ten for the average. Go up or down as needed to get the ten charges to average what you are looking for.

I learned this from Jerry Hensler 25 years ago.

 

[CubCouper]

I spent a few days testing 4 different Jones measures...

10-throws in a pan to find the average, repeat 10 times to find variance in averages, then plotted 100 individually weighed throws to determine SD against the expected charge.

Pick another target weight.... repeat the whole exercise.
Then pick a different powder and run the full exercise again.

(Note: Weighed every throw on a A&D FX scale -- measures to .02 grains (about 3-4 kernels of LT31)

One measure (actually a Jones Micro-version, not the standard flavor) showed a very slight gain over the other three, but all 4 demonstrated enough variability (approximate standard deviation of .12gr) that I stopped using a measure for most of my competitive shooting. After 1000's of throws, the reality was that the best measures on the market still threw at least one charge that was +/- .2gr from the average at least 1 throw out of 20. Some of my barrels would eat .2gr changes without any issue but mix that with a load that is pushing the margins of the load window and you have a group that takes you out of the two-gun.

At much as possible, I pre-throw my powder into vials with the AutoTrickler now on my bench at home. Because the environment is stable, I've stopped adjusting powder charges at all, and generally only have to make slight adjustments with the tuner to keep the rifle going at all the western ranges I shoot.

Rod

 

[JEFFPPC]

I'm with Webster.

 

[rayporter]

no matter how good you can throw in the basement it is not the same on the firing line or in your trailer at a shoot. the atmospheric conditions change and you have wind shaking you and the measure and shooting that will shake the measure as well as the RO rushing you to get to the next relay.

 

[divingin]

An interesting idea is from the late Glen Zediker from his great book Handloading for Competition

He says and I have found it to be true--when setting a powder measure up for the amount you want--thrown TEN charges at a time into one pan--weigh it--adjust the measure until the total for ten charges is right --- going for 25g? Throw ten adjust until the total is 250 Get that thing throwing as close to 250 as you can then the diff in throws will be less than aiming for getting it dead on at 25--I did it--It works!!

I do that for pistol; for instance when I load bullseye loads for 32SWL, my target charge weight is 1.8 gns. Kind of hard to see the error in a single charge. Ten charges read 18 gns, which makes it a little easier. Any error is multiplied by 10, and put in a part of the measuring range that is probably more accurate than the extremes.

 

[PDS]

Would a measure such as a Lee Classic, Lee Precision or Forster where the drum is pulled into the frame help remove some of the side play? Or a JDS that doesn't use a drum.

 

[762willdo]

How about Harrells precision measure?

 

[Geronimo Jim]

It really works!

 

[bozo699]

For quite some time I have made a hobby of figuring out how to get the best results from powder measures. One thing that I have absolutely proven to myself, by actual, and repeated test, is that letting the measuring drum move side to side as you use the measure increases the ES of thrown charges. Recently I was working with a new measure trying different techniques, and not meeting with the success that I wanted. It turns out that I had forgotten what I had learned long ago. When I remembered, and started putting a little inward pressure on the handle (toward the measure body) as I cycled the measure, preventing the drum from shifting side to side, my results improved markedly, becoming much more consistent.

I can still remember many many years ago going through different techniques with you over the phone on getting consistent throws. At the time I had three not counting the useless rcbs I had a Lyman, Redding and a Harrels, you talked me through all three of them until I had good results. I’ve always appreciated that and anytime I see questions on throwing consistently I usually tag you in the post.
Wayne

 

[bozo699]

Would a measure such as a Lee Classic, Lee Precision or Forster where the drum is pulled into the frame help remove some of the side play? Or a JDS that doesn't use a drum.

PDS,
I can’t answer that question but a couple years ago I was conversing with a member on here about throwing powder, he was in the market for a powder measurer and knew I had several, he was mostly interested in throwing Varget , extruded powders are tough to throw consistently, my old B&M’s are the best but there hard to find but believe it or not the little $20 Lee performed the best of the 4 or 5 I tested, I believe a Harrels Br a Redding Br3 a old school Lyman rcbs ,and the little Lee
Wayne