Weighing powder charges

NorthernPF

NorthernPF

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Hey Guys!!
Last night I was loading some 40 on my single stage press and found myself wondering, do guys normally weigh every single charge?? My dispenser was very consistant so I only started weighing every 5th round. Just curious to know what other people do.
 
my dropper is rather inconsistent using varget so i drop a close amount and trickle the rest in while weighing on digital scale,remove and re weigh to confirm.
slower process for sure but definitely accurate.
 
For my precision rifle I do. And in fact I'd say that it is the only good way to go.

For handgun ammo a very definite NO. That would extend the loading time by a ridiculous amount of time.

The only time I'd even consider this for handgun ammo would be if I were competing at a high level in precision bullseye competitions. And I mean the really seriously slow and accuracy based stuff. But even my "bulk" reloaded handgun ammo is already better than I am. So any risk of competing with my handguns at that level are already behind me.
 
Depends...
On an auto-indexing press I'll look at each just before I place the bullet to ensure I don't get a no-powder case. If it looks oddly high/low I'll take it, weigh it, adjust if needed and continue. For me...I just want my pistol ammo to go bang and the range I'm shooting as is very close. Just fun shooting, nothing serious.

On a single stage for 'fun' rifle ammo, I'll do several throws from a powder measure at the start and weigh each one. To settle the powder and get a rhythm down and once I'm throwing consistent charges I'll just go for it. Then I'll just throw charges, eyeball and load.

For 'precision' or 'load workup' ammo I'll drop and weight each charge and trickle as needed to be as exact as possible round to round.
 
for pistol on a single stage i'll check the first 5 drops and then load trays of 50 and look in each case for equal powder drops. for progressive i do what m102404 does.
 
For pistol or certain rifle applications (cast bullets in rifles with iron sights only usually) I only weigh every 50 or so throws. I charge all my cases at once though so I verify the powder is at the same level in each case with a flashlight before seating bullets. The only pistol I reload is bigger stuff (357 and 44 mag, 45 colt) or for low-use revolvers so I don't have a progressive.

For rifle I use a Lyman Gen 6 auto electric powder dispenser so every charge is weighed (but not by me manually). I verify the dispenser charges against a known good scale every 50 or 100 charges.
 
I weigh every charge. But I know my lee perfect powder measure is consistent its only ever out by .2 grs. I don't shoot good enough to know a difference
 
I will normally weigh 1 every 15 or so, but every 200 I will weight out 10 charges at once to see how accurate it gets
 
Weighing powder charges for hunting is time wasteful, IMHO. If you have an auto charge system like RCBS Chargemaster,
then you will be so close to equal charges that it would be redundant to move the charge over to a more accurate system and
then weigh to the last kernel of powder.

If I am loading a spherical powder or a very fine grained extruded, I usually drop charges straight out of a powder measure,
checking every 10th round or so on a scale.

For long range competition, [1000 yards] I do weigh my powder charges to 1/10 of a grain. Otherwise, I don't bother.

Regards, Dave.
 
depends on the powder how often I "check" a weight. Loading rifle shells on a single stage or rotary press, with course grain powder, I check every charge. Not one bullet gets seated without a scale check.

With pistol powder in my Dillon 650 I haven't done a mid session weight check in probably 25,000 rounds. Once a slide bar & powder checker rod has been calibrated for a specific powder it will never change.

Any decent powder thro should meter pistol powder without a noticeable variance...the only fly in the ointment is human error of a double charge/no charge where a total mechanical operation isn't used.
 
I do every round, because I use a basic powder dispenser and I have found it is not consistent and gets worse with larger flake powders. Being, a person reloads to get the best they can, unless you have the bucks for a digital dispenser, I would measure every round, besides, reloading is my quality time !
 
Match grade rifle ammo requires it. Handgun ammo, not so much. So 'It depends.' is the answer. Since your power thrower is consistent you can weigh every ten or so for QC.
 
I only load rifle on a single stage. 95% of my loads are midrange between starting and max. and I don't see signs of excessive pressure. Once I get my powder measure dialed in and throwing consistent charges, I check about every tenth one on the scale. Even if I am a half grain off, it is no big deal for the loading I do. My hunting rounds are weighed individually, but my practice and plinking rounds have mare variation within the limits of starting and max.

If I was precision shooting and/or playing with top end loads, I would be very particular with consistency.
 
Depends on the powder, i find H4831 didn't run through a measure very well. Fine cut or ball powder measures very consistently. Having a chargemaster now is a chore reliever, i use the scale when working up loads though. My chargemaster is within 1/10th gr of my scale so i'm very confident in it with all powders tried so far.
 
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