Comments on: Thrown (Volume) Charges vs. Weighed Charges — What is Better?

By: Julio

Julio — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 18:05:54 +0000

I throw charges from an RCBS measure that are slightly under-weight then tune them up using a Target Master electronic trickler. This is as quick as using my Lyman DPS3 but eliminates drift and gives much more consistent charge weights. I then throw the powder from the pan into the case via a funnel with a drop tube. I’ve not compared charges metered or thrown in different ways, but the method above leaves me confident of its consistency.

By: andre

andre — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 03:12:44 +0000

Shaking of ar-15 action. Packs powder in magasines ammo… similar to volumetric centrifugal dispender using vibrations for better filling. at some point wiegthed charges doesnt have same consistency in ammo as thé volumetric ones… is like gas and air, in a combustion chamber.. where à good spay mist in needed instead of à wall weting.

By: andre

andre — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 03:07:52 +0000

I weight m’y powder… shooting compétition. loading with m’y 308. Consistency is key to grouping. According to rifle id say its better to volumétrie charge du to action and shaking of other bullets im magasines…. a charge weight for a ar-15 application wouldnt beneficiate thé same consistency due to powder packing up in other bullets on each shot…wich thé volumetric centrifugal dispender does.

By: David Joe

David Joe — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 23:39:47 +0000

The downward pressure of the column of powder in the charge thrower also affects the density of the kernels in the charge thrower. It lessens with every powder throw. But even if it were constant, the analogy is filling a truck bed with bricks, dumping them in with a front end loader, until the bricks are exactly even with the top. You would never expect any two payloads to weigh very close to the same.

By: Tim Courtney

Tim Courtney — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 13:01:03 +0000

A long time ago I quit trying to use my Chargemaster because it was so slow. Then I tried throwing sub-weight charges from my Redding measure and using the Chargemaster as an oversized electronic trickler. Worked for me, but I am shooting minute of Bambi..

By: L Saunders

L Saunders — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 00:03:20 +0000

One man’s experience. Some years back I bought a Lyman 1200 DPS3. Being obsessive I started by check weighing each charge on my Hornady Pacific balance beam(I have a set of test weights, and it’s accurate). Went through all the manual procedures, warming up ahead of time, calibration, etc. I couldn’t get two charges in a row that were the same, and I don’t mean differences of one/tenth of a grain. The differences were often half a grain or more. I tried adjusting for drift after every charge. Made no difference. I’m sure some people must get decent results from these electronic devices, but I couldn’t. I’ve never loaded a box of ammo with mine. It’s much less stressful to use a powder measure, alone for short range, and trickle up for long range precision.

By: Guy

Guy — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:38:54 +0000

One things for certain. If the bench resters could get better groups by weighting charges they would be doing just that.

By: David Joe

David Joe — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 15:01:33 +0000

Like Rich said, weigh a run of thrown charges – but prepare to become very disturbed by the results. Just like kernels stack to different heights in case, so to in charge thrower. For those that weigh or measure bullets to sort them, there would really no choice, if you didn’t weigh charges, the pressure variances would negate any small benefit of sorting.

By: LouB

LouB — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:29:04 +0000

Many years back “Precision Reloading” published an article comparing volumetric vs weighed charges and also found volumetric charges more accurate. Certainly, not intuitively obvious but here we go again.

By: Frank Rutkosky

Frank Rutkosky — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 13:12:12 +0000

The short fat powder column has been proven to be more inherently accurate. I think throwing off a powder throw gives a more consistent powder column height.
Take 3 cases and weigh it to .02 and be very consistent to how you fill the powder in the case. then take the same powder charge weighed to .02 then use three different case fill techniques three different powder columns see what happens.