Considerations when choosing a powder thrower

[jLorenzo]

Im interested in trying out a manual powder thrower, after talking to some F class guys online. Interested in saving time on an established load. I have an Frankfor Armory intellidropper but I want to try and save time loading.
What features and considerations should I look at when choosing a powder thrower? Just like with anything some are designed better than others, some require the purchasing of more parts/accessories. Just looking to here your guy's experience. Looking at Hornady or maybe RCBS but really dont know which to get.

 

[spife7980]

Despite being the cheapest Ive heard of great things about the lee hopper, its just sort of small. Autotrickler chose it as the first v2 hopper for a reason and then took some of its design elements to use in the next version they made themselves, its got a rubber wipe so you never have to worry about powder cutting or jamming things up.

Im curious what the online f class guys had to say about using a manual throw instead of an autothrow. Especially if time comes into it.

 

[clcustom1911]

Im interested in trying out a manual powder thrower, after talking to some F class guys online. Interested in saving time on an established load. I have an Frankfor Armory intellidropper but I want to try and save time loading.
What features and considerations should I look at when choosing a powder thrower? Just like with anything some are designed better than others, some require the purchasing of more parts/accessories. Just looking to here your guy's experience. Looking at Hornady or maybe RCBS but really dont know which to get.

Lee Perfect Powder Measure. Throws ball powder to within 0.1 consistently. Others like H4350 it does to within 0.2-0.3 which is good enough for asserted 41.2-41.6gr for 140gr bullet fodder with my 6.5 creed.

 

[Snuby642]

I have a lee manual that drops +/- a tenth, then trickle on an electronic scale. 50% come out perfect, 40% need trickled up a tenth the rest vary. Slow.

The powder dropper on a dillon is very consistant if smooth purposefull strokes are used.

I had a hornady auto and it wasn't very consistant and it shelled out on me. Never again.

 

[Steel head]

I have a Hornady and RCBS powder measure
One is for pistol and the other is for pew pew 223.
They excel at ball and flake powders, more than good enough accuracy and being fast.

I prefer the Hornandy because it has a bigger hopper and the swappable chamber inserts can make changes from load to load quite fast but they are both good units.

For the electronic powder measure the RCBS is definitely superior.

For F class/ELR the manual with trickler is certainly doable but the V3 and soon to be V4 are the cat’s meow in my opinion

 

[smoothy8500]

The powder dropper on a dillon is very consistant if smooth purposefull strokes are used.

My older Hornady meter will do the same. For my F-class at 600 loads this is perfectly adequate, since my vertical POI is
not affected by the potential +/- of a tenth grain difference.

 

[jLorenzo]

Despite being the cheapest Ive heard of great things about the lee hopper, its just sort of small. Autotrickler chose it as the first v2 hopper for a reason and then took some of its design elements to use in the next version they made themselves, its got a rubber wipe so you never have to worry about powder cutting or jamming things up.

Im curious what the online f class guys had to say about using a manual throw instead of an autothrow. Especially if time comes into it.

Only anecdotal stuff on accurate shooter forum. Just that a manual thrower was more time efficient and plenty accurate.

 

[jLorenzo]

Looks like the Hornady is the only one that you can interchange charge drums to go from one charge to another? Ive seen a negative review on the accuracy of the Hornady one though.

 

[smoothy8500]

I seen a negative review on the accuracey of the Hornady one though.

I think a lot has to do with users attention to detail. Regardless, if your node is only .1gr “wide”, it’s not really a node is it.

F class at 600 yds is still a little forgiving if you don’t have those “single digit SD” loads that everyone is chasing. It does matter, but if you’re careful you can work around it and save time. Needing 66 rounds every weekend takes a lot of time to trickle each load.

 

[smoothy8500]

I forgot to add that a baffle insert makes an improvement to any manual powder droppers consistency.

 

[Doom]

I have the Lee, Lyman 55, and RCBS Quick Change. I use the
Lee with a homemade baffle the most but only for pistol loads. None of the three throw consistent enough charges with extruded powders for my liking. I use the Chargemaster for those in rifle.

All that said, I believe that any of the three can through reasonably consistent charges if you have a wide node in cartridges larger than 22-250. I personally think that loading for 223ish load weights is a bad idea.

I did run a test with the Quick Change and IMR 4064 and it had a hard time holding +/-.2 grains as I remember. I’ll see if I can find the data.

 

[Steel head]

Looks like the Hornady is the only one that you can interchange charge drums to go from one charge to another? Ive seen a negative review on the accuracy of the Hornady one though.

I haven’t seen any reduction in consistency compared to my Rcbs.
In fact I think it could possibly be a touch better than the rcbs.

 

[Doom]

The Quick Change has different cylinders.

 

[Doom]

I found a test /check I found on the Lee with IMR 4064. Only nine loads check on a Chargemaster scale.

 

[supercorndogs]

My RCBS throws 8208 pretty consistently. I have a Lee Perfect powder measure but I have never used it. I use my chargmastert less and less because of the time involved. I really like it for load development though.

 

[Steel head]

My RCBS throws 8208 pretty consistently. I have a Lee Perfect powder measure but I have never used it. I use my chargmastert less and less because of the time involved. I really like it for load development though.

Yea, I use my rcbs as well for 8208.
Does quite well.

I only use anything with a scale for load development for my 223 load.