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Grain weight accuracy

Y

Yowie

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 22, 2014
111
0
Hey guys,

I've got myself set up now and just started readying my first load of H1000. I'm loading 75gr and when I weigh it on my hornady GS-1500 digital scales and I can never get 75.0gr. I'm using the provided lee "perfect powder pourer" and ensuring I do the same thing every time but always get either 74.8, 74.9, 75.0, 75.1

Is this accurate enough? Once I got it to 75.0gr I did about 10 pours and still couldn't get them all to be 75.0gr

I need help!!!
 
Using a Powder measure, your always gonna be a bit off of your desired charge. That said most guys (including myself) Set the powder measure to throw a little less than the desired charge weight, then trickle up to their desired charge. Depending on the powder, I usually set mine to throw about a half a grain below my goal. So if you want 75 grains set it to throw 74.5. Also I'd recommend a different scale, I've used that hornady and it tends to wonder quite a bit
 
I suppose it could all be to do with how the like sticks fall into the tube, sometimes more go in sometimes less depending on the compaction and way they stack in.

I'll check it against my manual scales
 
I just bought an RCBS chargemaster because my lee balance beam would stick, giving inaccurate results, and my hornady gs1500 wondered all over the place. If it works for you then that's great, but if you start to see a low charge come up and you haven't changed anything in your pouring, you know what's going on. I had to re zero that scale just about every other charge and at that point I wasn't confident in the scales ability to safely weigh my charges.
 
How do you find the electric scales/powder dispenser?
 
that is actually pretty good for the Lee. They can take a good while to break in sometimes unlike the ones made of metal from RCBS, Redding, etc. I consider the Lee only good enough for pistol charges anyway. Keep doing whatever you're doing with it because you're doing it right.
If you want 75.0, set your Lee at 74.0 and then get a trickler and trickle the last 1.0 in.
 
I use a hornady LnL auto charge powder dispenser, and then double check on a beam scale for precision loads. This makes for very consistent charges.

I would recommend you get a beam scale to double check. Having consistent powder charges is important.
 
I use the Hornady LnL powder dispenser, and use it with Varget and IMR-4064 in the 23gr-53gr charge weight range.

If you set it up according to the quick start, you are probably going to get a lot of overweight charges. Read further into the manual and learn about the speed/timing adjustments. They can make a night/day difference in charge throw consistency. The good thing is that the audible overcharge alert will keep you honest, and the converse is that you'll be hearing it a lot if you don't refine those adjustments according to instructions.

I find that charge weight accuracy is generally +/-.1gr, and that such variances are below the radar for my accuracy loads. For weights around 75gr, I'd consider them even father below the radar, but always exercise caution about variances when working at or near the max charge level.

Greg
 
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Greg is correct. H1000, Retumbo, and the like are very dense powders with heavy grains, so you have to trickle them slow, a kernel at a time.
 
Ok, well I'll bust out the manual scales and compare what I get from the digital to the manual readings and go from there.

How are you going about manually trickling that last 1 grain into it?
 
Yowie said:
Ok, well I'll bust out the manual scales and compare what I get from the digital to the manual readings and go from there.

How are you going about manually trickling that last 1 grain into it?
Click to expand...


most of your good scales will come with a trickler. if not, you can usually pick one up for $10 or less.

I allow a tolerance of .1+/- on my loads. For 308 I load 43.5 grains but will allow between 43.4 and 43.6
 
I had a look at the electronic powder scales/throwers and the RCBS is over $600 here and hornady around $450-$500. To start with I'll be happy with +/- .2 grain as I'm just getting a feel for it all. I've followed all the instructions in regards to trimming and preparing the cases so should be all good.
 
Snag yourself a set of RCBS check weights, the confidence they give you is worth the cost.
I use a Chargemaster with a 10-10 for cross check.

Make yourself a leveling plate for your beam scale, goes a long way toward consistent accuracy.
Keep your balance points clean with de-natured alcohol and q tips.
 
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