Weighing out my powder

TSPIRI

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Ok I'm relatively new to reloading I read a book and watched a ton of videos on YouTube. I got my equipment over the winter and have been working on my rifle loads.

I'm using imr4350 and when I weigh it out on my digital scale it's hard to get exactly the 68.20 grains I'm looking for. Just trickling in 1 individual stick of the powder can throw me over or under my target weight by about .03grains. Its usually 68.19 or 68.22

How much of a margin of error do you guys accept when reloading with stick type powders?

Thanks
 
You're looking at less than a 1/10th of a percent. Don't sweat it. Your scale probably has a greater error margin anyway.
 
OP, if you were using a faster powder, in a much smaller case, as mentioned, then you might have something to worry about.

Rule of thumb, cartridges with the capacity you're loading, won't notice even a tenth of a grain, plus or minus.

The only time there may be an indication of problems is if your load is WAY OVER MAXIMUM. Then it might be just enough to cause a pressure spike. That's not likely with IMR4350.

I used to do a lot of Hunter Bench Rest shooting in my time. Most of the loads I fired were charged with a Lyman micro adjustable thrower. I could just about guarantee a one tenth plus or minus difference in charge weights. If you've ever shot such competition matches you would know that the 100yd 10 ring is about a half inch diameter and the X dot is an eighth inch. At that range, you need to be in the 10 ring with all counting shots and have about half of the shots touching the X dot.

A tenth of a grain didn't make a bit of difference, even out to 300 yards. I was shooting a 308Win. The fellows shooting 6PPCs needed to be more careful with their charges but not to the degree you're worried about.

When I started shooting competition, I was anal about everything being perfect. I would weigh every charge before the match and put the powder into small bottles, for use at the match.

I only had 20 cases with turned down necks for that HBR rifle. I put around 1200 rounds through it before accuracy started to open up. Other than the first 200 rounds, all the charges were thrown.
 
Cartridge case volumes and bullet weights are not identical to one another, rather they fall within certain tolerances. Match and varmint bullets usually have tighter weight tolerances than hunting bullets, and premium brass like Lapua or Nosler usually have tighter volume tolerances than bulk brass, but they still fall within certain tolerances and are not identical to one another. This is another reason why its usually pointless to worry about keeping powder charge variances to a tenth of a grain in rifle cartridges.

Having said that, I think its a good practice to keep the tolerances that you can control at the loading bench to a minimum and weighing powder charges is a good example of that, keeping brass trimmed to the correct length is another, as is annealing case necks, both of which affect the bullet pull weight, which if not uniform results in poor accuracy. I bought a scale that measures to 2 decimal points so that I can be sure that the tenth of a grain reading I get is correct. The more accurate the scale is though, the more challenging it can be to use due to its greater sensitivity.

I weigh and never throw charges for maximum loads for either rifle or handgun loads. When I do use a powder measure, I only use ball powder or short extruded powder, never long extruded or flake powders. Long extruded powder particles get cut up by the powder measure's drum which sets up vibration within the hopper, settling the powder and affecting the volume of the subsequent thrown charge, while flake powder hangs up due to its light weight and large surface area. When I want to throw charges with long extruded or flake powders I use Lee Spoons which can be used with surprising consistency once you establish a good procedure with them. The results obtained with a powder measure are affected by the technique of the user more so than any other tool on the loading bench. The speed at which you roll the drum should be consistent, and you should avoid banging the drum on the stop at either end of the rotation.

I weigh every fifth thrown charge to ensure the consistency of the powder measure, which can be affected by the height of the powder in the powder measure's hopper. I think its a good practice to keep the powder hopper topped up, regardless of whether a baffle is used or not. I also consider it a good practice to check the consistency of the scale with a set of check weights, if my scale gets bumped, I'll put check weights on the pan, equal to the charge weight, to ensure the scale is still reading true. If it doesn't read true, I re-zero it.
 
Tweezers.
Razor knife blade.
Cut them kernels until yer bang awn.

Okay, just tweezers and pick or add the one or two to make the scale happy.
 
I weigh charges until I get a consistent charge out of my Harrel or Lyman 55 then throw everything until I get past 500 meters , then I weigh and trickle the charges .
Never had an issue even when testing loads that were individually weighed as opposed to thrown .
Cat
 
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I've been using a lee powder throw to get close then trickle to my target weight. Then I go nuts with tweezers. I also do spot checks before seating because I've noticed my scale sometimes loses its zero. It can sometimes drift by a half a grain so I go back and dump my brass out and double check it.
 
You're looking at less than a 1/10th of a percent. Don't sweat it. Your scale probably has a greater error margin anyway.


This - IMHO unless you are using charges at the very, very top of the load recommendations, not a big enough margin of error to be concerned about...

My friend has loaded Winchester 760 (a ball powder) for 270 Win with great success - sub MOA on his pump rifle.

Perhaps others who have also used it can relate if it meters more accurately on a digital scale
 
the smallest Lee spoon is very nice for trickling with, beats the krap out of using tweezers or twisting the knob on a trickler. Being as unless you spend a fortune on a scale, they are all +/- .1 error factor, a 50gr charge could be 49.9 to 50.1, even if the scale reads 50.0. I threw AA9 charges at the range for my Schuetzen rifle, 209gr cast bullet @ about 1450fps. I couldn't tell the difference between 13.0 and 13.2 and 13.4 on the target at 200yds. And I knew I was usually throwing 13.2 to 13.3. Or with a bullet that weighed 208.0 to one that was 208.8 along with the variance in the charge weight.
 
Ok I'm relatively new to reloading I read a book and watched a ton of videos on YouTube. I got my equipment over the winter and have been working on my rifle loads.

I'm using imr4350 and when I weigh it out on my digital scale it's hard to get exactly the 68.20 grains I'm looking for. Just trickling in 1 individual stick of the powder can throw me over or under my target weight by about .03grains. Its usually 68.19 or 68.22

How much of a margin of error do you guys accept when reloading with stick type powders?


Thanks

If you're taking it to the closest grain, then you are as accurate as you can get. The real question is: does your powder scale actually have the accuracy to measure a difference of .03 grains? Unless you spent $500 or more on the scale it probably isn't that accurate.

edit when I said " to the nearest grain" I meant the actual powder grains, not the nearest grain by weight.
 
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If you're taking it to the closest grain, then you are as accurate as you can get. The real question is: does your powder scale actually have the accuracy to measure a difference of .03 grains? Unless you spent $500 or more on the scale it probably isn't that accurate.

Most modern scales utilize load cells. You would have to spend a lot more than $500 to get a scale accurate enough to consistently measure .01 grain variations.

I used to work in a factory where they produced commercial glass bottles. A lot of the ware went to alcoholic beverage producers. They were extremely fussy that every bottle have a fill point that is almost identical.

Their reason for this was so that people didn't look for bottles that appeared to have more than the others on shelves. They are held to very close tolerances by the government +- 1/100 ounce in a 26 oz bottle variance is their tolerance.

The main reason bottles have labels on their necks is to hide the fill point.

I know, this has nothing to do with the OP issue. I just wanted to give an example of how difficult it is to achieve certain weight measurements consistently beyond a certain point. Such exacting scales do not come cheap and are seldom required, which only makes them more expensive
 
Most modern scales utilize load cells. You would have to spend a lot more than $500 to get a scale accurate enough to consistently measure .01 grain variations.

I used to work in a factory where they produced commercial glass bottles. A lot of the ware went to alcoholic beverage producers. They were extremely fussy that every bottle have a fill point that is almost identical.

Their reason for this was so that people didn't look for bottles that appeared to have more than the others on shelves. They are held to very close tolerances by the government +- 1/100 ounce in a 26 oz bottle variance is their tolerance.

The main reason bottles have labels on their necks is to hide the fill point.

I know, this has nothing to do with the OP issue. I just wanted to give an example of how difficult it is to achieve certain weight measurements consistently beyond a certain point. Such exacting scales do not come cheap and are seldom required, which only makes them more expensive

Yes, I think that's what I said. Weighing powder to the nearest .01 grain is likely beyond the capability of an inexpensive scale.
 
jethunter, I wasn't disagreeing with a thing you mentioned other than your lowball :) price.

I only added to what you said to give an example of where scales that accurately measure consistent weights are needed.
 
jethunter, I wasn't disagreeing with a thing you mentioned other than your lowball :) price.

I only added to what you said to give an example of where scales that accurately measure consistent weights are needed.

All the inexpensive / inaccurate scales are under $500 bucks afaik. Lowball my ass. :)

I used, repaired, and recalibrated mechanical and electronic instrumentation for 30+ years.
 
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