Achieving (my) desired powder charge weights

[Alexander-M]

I have been curious regarding the accuracy of the charge weights when I reload, so I decided to record the intermediate and final weights for 25 rounds. Perhaps this information may be useful to some shooters.

I use a Hornady LNL powder thrower for the initial charge, and finish off with an AutoTrickler and A&D FX-120i.

The table below shows the following intermediate and the final weights.

• Hornady Thrower: Hornady LNL charge weight as thrown, before the AutoTrickler ran
• Auto-Trickler: Charge weight after the AutoTrckler stopped
• Correction: The correction I made, if any (see Note 4)
• Final: The final charge weight

Notes:
1. Powder was H4831SC
2. My desired weight was 55.80 gr, but I set the AutoTrickler at 55.78 gr.
3. I accepted 55.78, 55.80, and 55.82; otherwise, I added or removed one kernel.
4. If the correction required more than one kernel to be added or removed (about 0.4gr), I removed a small scoop-full to allow the Auto-Trickler to redo the charge, as was the case in charge number 8.



Alex

 

[Richard Coody]

if adam's Autotrickler is giving you a deviation of .14 gr. something is terribly wrong. mine was always within .02 of a grain.

 

[rockwind1]

mine will sometime be .04 above or below target weight,,,but sometimes if give it my "DAD" stare, it will adjust itself,,,,,,it is usually within .02

what is hard for me is that my grains of rl26 weigh .04 sometimes.

i've never had it be as far off as this one unless a kernel fell onto the scale and i didn't notice

 

[Bart B.]

Can anyone discriminate anything bullets do with a 1/20th grain change in charge weights around 55 grains?

 

[ireload2]

You learned how uniform your system works but functionally it was a TWOT = total waste of time.

All powder kernels are not the same shape and size so the surface area varies from load to load. The variations cause slight variations in burning rate.

 

[Alexander-M]

if adam's Autotrickler is giving you a deviation of .14 gr. something is terribly wrong. mine was always within .02 of a grain.

That was the one and only charge that went over by 0.1, and although I was tempted to ignore it and not record it, I decided to include it. I removed about 0.3 gr with the scoop, and the AutoTrickler dispensed 55.80 for that charge.

I reloaded 40 more rounds, for a total of 65, and all fell within 55.76 and 55.84, with the majority within 55.78 and 55.82, which I keep as such.

One thing I forgot to mention:

I usually do 25 rounds at a time, and I wait until I have all 25 charges loaded before I start seating the bullets. When I was all done with these 25, I went back and weighed the first and every fifth for a total of five re-weighing. And yes, they all weighed the same the second time around. I know that this is what we would expect, but I wanted to make sure.

Thx!

Alex

PS.
Ireload2 wrote, in part: "You learned how uniform your system works..."
And that is all I intended to do.