I recently purchased a Harrell's classic powder measure. With Varget I am getting 8 tenths of a grain variation!
Ideas anyone? Is it just not suited for Varget?
Ideas anyone? Is it just not suited for Varget?
Harrell's powder measure
- Thread starter Slim Chance
- Start date
What 19Scout77 said. While I love my Harrell's, it does have certain limitations. With large stick powders, consistency is not good -- on the order of plus/minus 4-tenths grain or .8 overall.
With small stick powder, such as IMR4895, you can keep the variation to plus/minus 1-tenth grain with careful and consistent operation. With Varget, I generally get plus/minus 2-tenths grain. If I'm loading for a match, I throw and then trickle into my RCBS 10-10 scale.
With ball powders, you can pretty much set it and forget it. It will be dead on every time.
Perfect a consistent operation that works for you. And be prepared to change the operation for different powders. My usual method is to raise the handle to its stop without tapping and then smoothly lower the handle to throw the charge. Sometimes I can do a little better by tapping gently a couple times at the top. In such cases, I set the measure to throw about 1-tenth low, and the light tapping will settle in a little extra powder to reach the actual desired weight.
Cheers,
Richard
With small stick powder, such as IMR4895, you can keep the variation to plus/minus 1-tenth grain with careful and consistent operation. With Varget, I generally get plus/minus 2-tenths grain. If I'm loading for a match, I throw and then trickle into my RCBS 10-10 scale.
With ball powders, you can pretty much set it and forget it. It will be dead on every time.
Perfect a consistent operation that works for you. And be prepared to change the operation for different powders. My usual method is to raise the handle to its stop without tapping and then smoothly lower the handle to throw the charge. Sometimes I can do a little better by tapping gently a couple times at the top. In such cases, I set the measure to throw about 1-tenth low, and the light tapping will settle in a little extra powder to reach the actual desired weight.
Cheers,
Richard
Ditto others results. Keep in mind they were designed to throw powder for short range BR matches, where they are throwing 8208, H322, N133, etc that meter very well through a measure. Also at short range the powder charge variation can have very little effect on 100 and 200 yard groups. I can vary my charge weight with H100 or other extruded powders intentionally by how slowly I raise the handle. I remember reading a test years back and it was all technique with pretty much any measure, but the Harrel is smoooooooooth and nice to use.
I did manage to improve the variation. It seems to take a dozen throws to settle in at a consistent weight.
I bought one of the earliest "Premium" measures that the Harrells made. MOST of the time with a round powder I can get +/- 0.1 grain. Extruded powders are a little more. I have an Excel spreadsheet with several powders on it. I have compared these settings on 3 different measures. They all came up about the same. If you want this spreadsheet all you have to do is send me a REGULAR EMAIL to: [email protected] And I'll reply with it attached. It also has several little hints on getting consistent charges thrown.
Good luck,
Victor
Good luck,
Victor
A very interesting comparison. It does beg the question of why spend the money on the Harrells. I fell for the advertising, I suppose.
If I wanted to trickle up to every charge, I could have stuck with the POS Hornady.
If I wanted to trickle up to every charge, I could have stuck with the POS Hornady.
Where the Harrells shines is the ability to return to the same load. 30 clicks will be the same weight, today or tomorrow. Not so much with any of the others.
I've had good luck with mine. But varget can be picky sometimes. But I always drop light and kernel up. But now I gots me that Prometheus thingy jigger
I agree completely! My 40 year old Lyman 55 does better than that. I have the Lyman and a Hornady and a Chargemaster, I verify all settings with a 210, check weights are my friends.
Thanks for the kind words. An old man likes to hear a kind word every now and then.
I appreciate all of the replies. I have experimented with my technique and the consistency is much better. Seems to need several charges thrown before it "settles". The learning process is ongoing, even after 30 plus years of reloading.
I hope some of the hints on the bottom of the spreadsheet were helpful. I came up with most of those after several years as a benchrest competitor and 50+ years hunting.
Good luck,
Victor
