Tried something today that i thought should be shared:
Have an old RCBS powder thrower, inherited from a family member, which on a good day is accurate to maybe 1 gn. Not nearly good enough for accuracy loads. And not safe either unless you are miles away from the pressure limit.
[I do realize that a Neil Jones or similar BR thrower will be far far more accurate, but it is pricy.]
Read somewhere that some folks prevent compressed loads by using an ultrasonic toothbrush to settle the powder. Tried it, and worked quite well.
From this got the idea to mount the ultrasonic tooth brush against the powder thrower reservoir. Used a rubber elastic band to attach it. It rattles the entire device pretty effectively.
Then did some tests: Found that the cheap low quality RCBS powder thrower could now achieve 3x to 4x better standard deviation than before, using Hodgedon Benchmark powder. It has the bent circular plate in the reservoir with the two holes for more even “head” (powder column height above the measuring chamber). This does seem to help a bit, but still not really good enough.
I realize this is a pretty obvious idea, so i am sure others have tried it before. Would be curious to hear if you got the same or similar result. Any modifications or improvements?
I used to throw the charges about 2 grain below the desired weight and would then trickle up to the final value (FX120 plus V1 auto trickler). Now i can set it 0.5 gn below spec, and that speeds up the process.
So for obvious reasons, I still weigh the charges to be on the safe side, but it is much quicker now to trickle it up to the correct weight.
BTW: Would not recommend charges be thrown anywhere close to a max charge. No matter how good you think your powder thrower is. As always, your mileage might vary.
Be safe!
Have an old RCBS powder thrower, inherited from a family member, which on a good day is accurate to maybe 1 gn. Not nearly good enough for accuracy loads. And not safe either unless you are miles away from the pressure limit.
[I do realize that a Neil Jones or similar BR thrower will be far far more accurate, but it is pricy.]
Read somewhere that some folks prevent compressed loads by using an ultrasonic toothbrush to settle the powder. Tried it, and worked quite well.
From this got the idea to mount the ultrasonic tooth brush against the powder thrower reservoir. Used a rubber elastic band to attach it. It rattles the entire device pretty effectively.
Then did some tests: Found that the cheap low quality RCBS powder thrower could now achieve 3x to 4x better standard deviation than before, using Hodgedon Benchmark powder. It has the bent circular plate in the reservoir with the two holes for more even “head” (powder column height above the measuring chamber). This does seem to help a bit, but still not really good enough.
I realize this is a pretty obvious idea, so i am sure others have tried it before. Would be curious to hear if you got the same or similar result. Any modifications or improvements?
I used to throw the charges about 2 grain below the desired weight and would then trickle up to the final value (FX120 plus V1 auto trickler). Now i can set it 0.5 gn below spec, and that speeds up the process.
So for obvious reasons, I still weigh the charges to be on the safe side, but it is much quicker now to trickle it up to the correct weight.
BTW: Would not recommend charges be thrown anywhere close to a max charge. No matter how good you think your powder thrower is. As always, your mileage might vary.
Be safe!
Last edited: