Powder charge measurers?

I'm looking for the utmost in accuracy so I drop a bit short and trickle to exact charge, in tests that I read the Lyman 55 was considered more accurate then even the expensive makes. It would prolly be worthwhile to work on a good load with a ball powder for the .270, over time you would save alot of powder weighing probs.
 
With ball powder i throw straight into the case, i visually check for missed cases. If i feel something different on a crank i will check that one case. I also don`t use max loads as years of shooting have shown me max loads are not always the most accurate. Every body has their way of doing stuff, after 40 years if it`s working for you, great.
 
USP said:
So nobody loads up to normal using the powder charger? You all load short than top off with a trickler?
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I load for accuracy, not speed. I would never let a powder measure tell me what kind of powder to use. For accuracy reasons I go with an extruded powder that is not sensitive to temperature variation.
 
Anybody know if a review was done on accuracy repeatability comparing the major auto powder loader brands?
 
I don't attempt to load ammunition with normal powder charges without checking the throw weight. My loads with ball or extruded powder are of two types, loaded for maximum velocity or loaded for maximum accuracy. Even when loading with H-110 in the .44 Magnum, despite the fact that H-110 meters like water, I've found that it only takes a very small variation in charge weight to result in sticky extraction. If I'm loading cast bullets I also pre-weigh them to ensure they don't exceed the weight I expect, the heavy ones are loaded in a separate group with a slightly reduced powder charge.

IMHO, none of these applications are optimum with thrown unchecked charges. When I load reduced loads, it is most often with flake powder like 2400, Unique, or Red Dot etc, although occasionally I do use an extruded powder like SR-4759. Flake powder tends to hang up in the thrower because the particles have a large surface area but are very light. That is when I use a set of Lee spoon measures, those I don't weigh once I've determined which size of measure to use.
 
USP said:
Anybody know if a review was done on accuracy repeatability comparing the major auto powder loader brands?
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I remember reading an article a while back comparing Harrells, Redding, and a few other brands, but damned if I can remember where it was:bangHead: If you spend a little time with Google you might be able to dredge it up.
 
sounds like your looking for an accurate Hunting load and not necessarily a long range comp load, if that is the case,almost any combination of a thrower and a scale will work,or a digital scale and dispenser. You mentioned that speed was not an issue,that makes a good case for weighing all your charges.I have 2 Harrels and an RCBS powder thrower,a balance beam scale an RCBS chargemaster,and the prometheus all aquired in the search for the "best" way to dispense powder (not sure I ever did find it).for ball or flake powder the Harrels work very well but as mentioned in another post they are sensitive to your throwing style and vibrations, you can expect most charges to be +/- .1gr with the odd one going +/- .2gr off ,goes back to consistancy of your throwing technique.I use the throwers for my short range gopher rounds and check them with the digital scale as a back up.The beam scales are good for most shooting, downfall is that they are slower than powder throwers,also due to the magnetic damping they sometimes don't repeat perfectly(measure the same load over and over for a visual).the digital scales are also good.the down side of these is that they can drift a little(again probably not an issue if your just looking for a good hunting load)
hope that helps cut through the confusion.
 
Pesky ab said:
sounds like your looking for an accurate Hunting load and not necessarily a long range comp load, if that is the case,almost any combination of a thrower and a scale will work,or a digital scale and dispenser. You mentioned that speed was not an issue,that makes a good case for weighing all your charges.I have 2 Harrels and an RCBS powder thrower,a balance beam scale an RCBS chargemaster,and the prometheus all aquired in the search for the "best" way to dispense powder (not sure I ever did find it).for ball or flake powder the Harrels work very well but as mentioned in another post they are sensitive to your throwing style and vibrations, you can expect most charges to be +/- .1gr with the odd one going +/- .2gr off ,goes back to consistancy of your throwing technique.I use the throwers for my short range gopher rounds and check them with the digital scale as a back up.The beam scales are good for most shooting, downfall is that they are slower than powder throwers,also due to the magnetic damping they sometimes don't repeat perfectly(measure the same load over and over for a visual).the digital scales are also good.the down side of these is that they can drift a little(again probably not an issue if your just looking for a good hunting load)
hope that helps cut through the confusion.
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I am hoping to do my first big game hunt this fall, so far its all been shotgun hunting. I felt that it seemed reasonable to make my own ammo to commemorate the event. I have a chrony, bullets and some stuff so far.

Just need to put it all together.
 
The best part of reloading is it gives you the ability to tune loads to get the best possible out of your gun combo and, you can take it to what ever degree your comfortable with.
Good luck and enjoy the process
 
I started throwing charges a year ago. I went with the top model made by Harrells Precision and it seems very accurate, but I would not throw stick powders with any measure since too many pieces will be cut. I most often throw H335 for my Tavor, and some throws cut a few pieces, some dont. Many people check the weight of every 10th or 20th thrown charge; I have thrown several hundred charges in a row on more than one occasion and have never found my charge weight to drift away from its set point, so once I set my charge I just throw until I am done without ever stopping to confirm weight. More on the Harrells Precision Powder Measure here:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472868


If you want to do absolutely everything you can to get the most accurate charge, then you need to weigh your charges on a good scale - the whole charge. A lot of people use a powder measure set low and top it off by weighing - I believe this is less accurate than weighing the whole charge since the powder measure may cut a few pieces of the powder in half. These broken pieces have a larger surface area to volume ratio which will make them burn faster and less consistant than the rest of the powder. Remember any given material will burn faster as this ratio increases (1lb of toothpicks vs. a 1lb log). Granted there are only a few broken pieces mixed in, and the difference may be negligable, but like I said if you want to do everything you can...

Also, for me it is faster to just weigh the whole thing than it is to throw an underweighted charge and top it off on the scale.
 
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