Weighing powder - How do I speed up the process?

Mount Sweetness

Mount Sweetness

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
182   0   0
Location
Southern Ontario
What do you guys do and use for weighing powder relatively quickly?

I would like to speed things up a bit, the weighing is the most tedious for me.

I use a Lee balance scale and Lee Dippers.
I load for Varmint cartridges and use H4198 and Varget.

I currently weigh each charge on the Lee scale but after doing 30 or 40 rounds I am bored out of my mind.

Any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
camster said:
I sped things up a little bit using a throw, and a trickler. Throw directly into pan, top up with trickler, drop into case. It's still a tedious phase of the process.
Click to expand...

If your measure is decently accurate, you can just throw the charges if you are only making fun/plinking ammo, but if you want the best accuracy I agree, throw the charge a bit light, then trickle up. I just use an empty case as a trickler. Works very well for me.
 
That was the time consuming part for me and why I quite reloading, I have other thing to do with my time
 
Kind of depends what I'm using the ammo for. For "precision" ammo, I too will throw into the pan with Lee dippers to within a grain or two, then top up with the trickler. There are a lot of choices for a powder trickler, they all seem to work about the same. Works not to bad IMHO; I'm consistently within 0.1gr and once I get going I can easily load 30 ~ 60 rounds / hour (I'm kind of guessing with those numbers).

Ammo for less than precise needs are just done with the Dillion powder measure on my 550. That isn't as consistent, but seems to be "good enough".
 
Get a Chargemaster. For larger loads (say 70 grain charges and up) keep a bowl of powder next to the Chargemaster and scoop a spoonful into the pan as it's metering. If you really want to go faster, buy a second pan for the Chargemaster and start metering the next charge as you dump the first one.
 
kawicrash said:
If your measure is decently accurate, you can just throw the charges if you are only making fun/plinking ammo, but if you want the best accuracy I agree, throw the charge a bit light, then trickle up. I just use an empty case as a trickler. Works very well for me.
Click to expand...

As you suggest:what you are loading makes a big difference in how it's done. I don't load for pistol, I imagine making rounds by the 100s (or 1000s), each individual charge might not get weighed at all! Throw, and weigh one every few to be certain all's good. I reload for rifle only, and there's a part of me that gets off on knowing how close each individual round's charge is.

I imagine a dialed in dipper would be very fast indeed, but use scales here.
 
Lee Dippers are not accurate. As mentioned above if you want to 'plink" then use them. If you want to shoot for accuracy then some form of electronic powder dispenser would be a better option.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Get a Chargemaster. For larger loads (say 70 grain charges and up) keep a bowl of powder next to the Chargemaster and scoop a spoonful into the pan as it's metering. If you really want to go faster, buy a second pan for the Chargemaster and start metering the next charge as you dump the first one.
Click to expand...

Or just get two charge masters. Takes almost 40 seconds to run out a full charge for the 14.5mm Russian.

But realistically a thrower and a trickler should cut down on some of the tedium. Good music in the background helps too.

With reloading, you can generally get two out three of the following: speed, accuracy, low cost.
 
No volume based dipper or dispenser will ever be truly accurate enough for any precision loading. Especially not with the stick style powders like H4198.

A trickler and a beam balance is the first step up. Dipper or dispenser charges that are a touch light then trickle to set the beam. No waiting for digital scales to "update" or otherwise register a trickled grain or two and then settle. So "good enough" can be done relatively rapidly. And with care "great" is possible.

Next up would be a dipper or dispenser and trickle onto a very sensitive digital scale. The one I use is only rated for 30grams and when in "grains" mode reads to + .02 grain. So I can easily trickle to within + .04 grain for the charge. Slow as blazes though as it'll typically step up to the final reading through 3 or 4 gradual updates that each take about half a second. But it's proven itself from testing to be highly repeatable.

Finally there's the "toss lots of money at it" methods involving an automated powder dispenser and integrated weighing cell. And for serious precision rifle loading and where one does not mind tossing some money at the issue this is likely the way to go.

Seems to me that you're well towards the first option. Perhaps start by adding a trickler to your dippers and scale and see if that speeds things up.
 
For precision work you need to weigh charges. A Chargemaster speeds things up.

For just a bit less that max accuracy, you can use a thrower and a ball powder. Mine will throw 748 and BLC2 with 10 for 10 the same weight.

Switch your 4198 to H335. And your Varget to 748 or H380.
 
I just use the Lee Dipper to scoop an approx amount of powder out of the jar onto the Balance scale. I then just use the dipper as a trickler, tapping out a few pellets at a time to balance out.

I had an actual RCBS trickler at one time but I didn't find it helped me much at all.

I like to load very accurate ammo for my Varmint rifles as I actually hunt small Varmint with them. I'm not at all interested in spending my time handloading plinking ammo.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
I just use the Lee Dipper to scoop an approx amount of powder out of the jar onto the Balance scale. I then just use the dipper as a trickler, tapping out a few pellets at a time to balance out.

I had an actual RCBS trickler at one time but I didn't find it helped me much at all.

I like to load very accurate ammo for my Varmint rifles as I actually hunt small Varmint with them. I'm not at all interested in spending my time handloading plinking ammo.
Click to expand...

Trust me when i say that i'm a lazy reloader.
Always looking for near perfection with the least amount of effort possible.
Got 1000$ to put into powdering setup?
If answer is yes, there is a setup of FX120 scale and autotrickler, that will speed things up considerably while keeping near perfection
 
BigUglyMan said:
Get a Chargemaster. For larger loads (say 70 grain charges and up) keep a bowl of powder next to the Chargemaster and scoop a spoonful into the pan as it's metering. If you really want to go faster, buy a second pan for the Chargemaster and start metering the next charge as you dump the first one.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I, and I'm sure quite a few others, can't afford $650 for a scale.
 
And if you could, one fx120 and auto trickler, would serve you much better than 2x chargemasters
Cheaper too than two chargemasters
I used to own one, so i can compare the speed and precision from actual experience
 
Lyman Gen6 is around $350. Only challenge with this scale is it has some trouble (or at least mine does) with large extruded powders (H4895 etc). If loading with these type of powders I dispense within a couple of grains of the charge and finish with the powder trickler.
I wouldn't to speed up powder dispenser too quick. One tends to screw up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom