Weighing powder - How do I speed up the process?

Mount Sweetness said:
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
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You don't mention if you have a trickler -- that can really help with the setup you have now. I have one of these --

http://www.cabelas.ca/product/3170/hornady-powder-trickler

-- but the current price at Cabela's Canada is a bit nuts. Shop around and you should be able to get it for less. I think this is probably the least expensive trickler out there but I could be wrong.

A different scale might speed things up for you. The Lee scale can be very accurate but it can be slow and mine seems to have trouble returning to zero, thus requiring frequent adjustments. Try a more traditional beam scale if you can. I can recommend the RCBS M500 and the Dillon Eliminator -- I have them both and like them. I'm starting to prefer the wider notch spacing and the three poises on the Dillon.

A powder dispenser can speed things up even if you are weighing every charge. Throw a little under weight and trickle up with the trickler. The Lee Perfect Powder Measure is probably the cheapest way to go here. I have one and I find it to be pretty consistent and repeatable. If you are looking for fast loading of plinking ammo, you can use the powder measure itself instead of weighing every charge. Weighed charged will be more accurate, but charges from the powder measure will work.

I was probably facing the same reloading rut as you -- I had a bunch of stuff to load and was putting it off because of the tedium. I picked up a Lee Classic Turret and the Lee Auto Drum powder measure to see if that would help me out, and it has so far. I'm surprised at the consistency of the Auto Drum -- I was afraid that that I would have trouble trusting it, especially for pistol loads, but I have found it to be completely reliable. Reloading on the turret has really been a nice break from the tedium and has renewed my interest in reloading. Case prep still sucks, but I'm working on that :)

I understand that dropping a few hundred bucks on a new press and powder measure may not be what you want to do.

At the very least, pick up a trickler and add it to your current process and see if that helps at all.
 
I throw a light charge, put the pan on scale, while it settles, I seat a bullet, remove it from the shell holder and put in the loading block. I then finish up on the 5-0-5 with a Redding trickler, and pour the correct charge weight into a prepped brass and place in the press. The pan is still in my hand so it goes back to the powder thrower to repeat the cycle. Works good. With big stick powder like H4350, Rl22, I spill some on my reloading table, and use my fingers to grab a single kernel if need be to finish the trickling process, as sometimes it will come out in clumps through the trickler right when your close to the measured charge weight. Sounds complicated but really is not at all.
 
If I had to use a LEE scale, I wouldn't bother reloading. Either set a measure slightly light, and trickle off onto a decent scale, or get a Chargemaster.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
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
Click to expand...

Weighing charges is boring, not much you can do about it except do it and get it over with.

The Lee scale isn't dampened so it will take longer to stabilize. You can dampen it with your finger and speed the process up a bit. I don't know of any faster method than you are doing right now, that's basically how I do it if I want precision. But I find that a good powder thrower used with a ball powder can be as precise as I need for shooting varmint sized targets at 350-400 yds, as far as I need for my shooting areas.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
I have has a RCBS trickler and it did nothing to speed things up, it actually slowed things down.

I'm not sure how a different balance beam scale could be faster than another?
Click to expand...

I, like most i think, find the Lee scale not to be user friendly or quick to use. I replaced mine with a Hornady beam scale before i had loaded 20 cartridges.
 
throw away the dippers and buy a good measure throw .3 grs low than trickle up to weight, you can speed that up with a Dandy power trickler a few button taps up to weight. I can load, seat and crimp 50 9.3 x 62 in about 25 mins. or about as long as a chargemaster takes to warm up.
 
AND FX120i and auto trickler... yep, it is an investment but I appreciate the accuracy and speed

I dump using the Lee dipper and let the trickler finish it up while I am seating a bullet. usually ready by the time I turn back to the scale.

Works for me...

Jerry
 
jethunter said:
Weighing charges is boring, not much you can do about it except do it and get it over with.

The Lee scale isn't dampened so it will take longer to stabilize. You can dampen it with your finger and speed the process up a bit. I don't know of any faster method than you are doing right now, that's basically how I do it if I want precision. But I find that a good powder thrower used with a ball powder can be as precise as I need for shooting varmint sized targets at 350-400 yds, as far as I need for my shooting areas.
Click to expand...

You can also speed it's dampening by putting a magnet under the pan.
 
I just use a cheap Lee Perfect powder measure and a beam scale. The good Lyman I grew up from my late Dad went to my brother. The Lee seems to vary no more than 1/10 grain. I use the scale to set the charge weight. Check a few charges, load a handful of cartridges, check a charge with the scale to catch any changes, load another handful etc. It's not "anal" but it works for me.

www.amazon.ca/Lee-Precision-90058-P...TF8&qid=1499816073&sr=8-1&keywords=lee+powder
 
Mount Sweetness said:
I have has a RCBS trickler and it did nothing to speed things up, it actually slowed things down.

I'm not sure how a different balance beam scale could be faster than another?
Click to expand...

With the tricker, are you trying to trickle the entire load? Or just the last few tenths of a grain? Typical manual tricklers are not meant to throw the entire load. Just want to mention it in case that's what you're doing.

As for scales, what slows me down with the Lee scale is how long it takes to get the scale to settle down if you accidentally disturb it. I find that mine also loses its zero pretty easily, so I spend a lot of time re-zeroing the thing.

The more conventional beam scales have more room around the pan, making it less likely to disturb the scale when working around it. It's also a lot easier to re-zero scales that have an adjustment foot.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
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
Click to expand...


One word for you: RCBS Chargemaster Combo lol!
It is a dream to use, fast, efficient and makes it a pleasure to reload.
 
Mount Sweetness said:
I was using the trickler for the last little bit, but I found it no better than shaking a few pellets out of a dipper by hand. I actually found it slower.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have steadier hands than I :)

Rather than weighing charges, how about custom dippers?

Figure out the perfect charge and make your own dipper to dip just that amount.

I've seen dippers made from 9mm and other cases, usually with a brass rod pinned or soldered to the case to make a handle. I assume that the flash hole is filled with something, such as solder or epoxy. I also assume that the case is trimmed down until it dips the right amount of powder.

If you're committed to weighing every charge and want it fast, I think you're probably going to be looking at one of the electronic systems mentioned by others. Personally, I do not trust them as I don't trust the accuracy of the digital scales in things like the Chargemaster. There's no guarantee that the scale in a $300+ Chargemaster is any more accurate than a $40 scale in a blister pack off the pegboard at your local gun shop. Others have mentioned the lab-quality or near-lab-quality scale and trickler combos but you're looking at close to $1000 for that sort of thing.

I've been looking at this thing -- http://www.targetmasteruk.com/ -- and it sure seems interesting. I've emailed to ask if they can ship to Canada.
 
Volumetric is good for pistol, done it for 60K rounds and still doing it
Experimented volumetric in rifle at first, aint that great.

If OP was just a plinker ok, he did mention being a varmint hunter and target shoots with a varmint rifle.

For his level of precision, beam scale and it takes longer,
Or FX120 and get it done quick,

OP, chargemaster won't be as precise as your beam scale.
If your target is let's say 42gr of powder, and are ok with 41.4gr to 42.6gr of variance, chargemaster will work for you

Tested mine extensively next to an fx120 and these were my numbers
 
I have a Lyman Gen6 to throw charges about .1gr under, and dump onto a Gempro 250 and trickle up. Able to keep up with the Lyman so the extra accuracy doesn't take any longer.
 
MartyK2500 said:
Volumetric is good for pistol, done it for 60K rounds and still doing it
Experimented volumetric in rifle at first, aint that great.

If OP was just a plinker ok, he did mention being a varmint hunter and target shoots with a varmint rifle.

For his level of precision, beam scale and it takes longer,
Or FX120 and get it done quick,

OP, chargemaster won't be as precise as your beam scale.
If your target is let's say 42gr of powder, and are ok with 41.4gr to 42.6gr of variance, chargemaster will work for you

Tested mine extensively next to an fx120 and these were my numbers
Click to expand...

So a $40. Lee powder measure does better than the $600. Chargemaster. Best $40. I ever spent and loads shells quick.
 
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