Well, I am resigned to weighing for anything I am going to be shooting out over 1000 meters, and anything that has really chunky powders like H1000 or n570, so I am really talking for fun shooting with 6.5C and 308, out to 1000 meters, but keeping in mind that I am as obsessional about stuff as anybody, lol. So basically I am trying to balance the ability to spend more time shooting and less time reloading where the difference is going to me minimal.
Like he ^^^, you will learn a lot more testing this out on your own. If the plan is to use a powder measure(thrower), choosing powder that meters well in your particular model will skew results in your favor. If RL 26 is your powder of choice, you may be hosed, if it is a ball powder or small kernal powder, your results may be more than satisfactory.
Yeah, where I load with 26 or 570 I am already resigned to the autotrickler. I'm going to try to grab some data today and see what works with what. I know I can throw 8208xbr with a SD of .025 grains in a dillon hopper, but I only have so many pounds of that left, and none seems to be on the horizon. If it were available, between that and Staball I could cut a huge amount of time. But I am stingy with the stuff.
Or run multiple CM. I run 3 and I can barely keep up reloading.
Is there a better way to measure how consistently a given drop system drops weights of powder? I don't do it while loading, I set up a test station and do it all at once.
So gathering data is obviously the way to go. I have two accuracy loads I've shot with 308 for years. One is with 3031, and the other is with 4064. With my Johnson's thrower I can get 3031 well within any reasonable charge spread, and that is running to case activated on a Dillon 550. With 4064, I have no luck. I am a little better than FGMM that I have taken apart spread wise, but not much. So 3031 is clearly the way here.
You surely aren't doing anything wrong, just quantify your work, it should be as easy as shooting 5 of each, thrown vs measured at differing distances. Do the same with a chrono.
With a bad attitude like that, you'll never be able to afford an expensive scale.
not bad attitude, just knowing the problem.
not realy. if you want to be sure, you need far better scale that is yours.
I think you, and BritneyRears6969, miss my point. I am currently weighing and throwing with an autotrickler in an FX120i. I am trying to figure out, from others past experience, what they have found the relationship is between load performance and variance in powder charge so that I can speed up the process by using a tuned powder dropper when possible. It isn't a question of having the right equipment or caring, it is a question of time vs load optimization. IOW, I wouldn't be loading match 50 BMG with a powder measure, and I don't load bulk 556 on a scale, but where is that tipping point where it actually matters vs where we presume it matters but for no good reason. And yes, I could figure it out all myself, but message boards are basically knowledge bases.
So to speak to your question ... I've learned through experience two key points ... (1) Powder droppers are much less accurate giving high variance in charge weights (unless you trickle and weigh manually), and (2) weighing and measuring to specific tolerances always provides smaller Standard Deviations ... full stop. My original work was with a powder dropper and the best I could do was SD's in the 20's for 6.5-CM and 300-WM. I switched to a Chargemaster and weighing everything (along with just getting better at all steps in the process) and watched my SD's eventually trickle (Ha!) down into single digits, where they remain today. I put my Redding Competition Powder Dispenser up for sale after that epiphany and nothing I shoot goes without knowing the charge weight down to the tenth/grain.
Yes you are correct, but the 120i's linearity is ±0.03gr and a single grain of H4350 weighs ~0.02gr or ±1.5 kernels of H4350. Any better scale and I'd be splitting kernels of powder.
Exactly. It takes me just as long to size and set neck tension sloppily as it does to do it as well as I can. Likewise for bullet seating. The only place I identify as a tradeoff between time and precision is in powder charge.
your possible SD of powder charge you could calculate from your SD of velocity.
Thanks. That is a helpful way of thinking about it.
of course.
The displayed resolution gives you no information of the internal resolution before rounding. The internal resolution of the FX is greater than 0.01, but it displays increments of 0.02 as basic sampling theory would dictate.
This was kind of the impetus of my questioning. I have a Tacops 308 that is a legit sub quarter gun, and it is built, like all of Mike's guns, around fgmm 168. My longest KYL on my property is 500 yards, and it makes easy work of it, so I started thinking that FGMM shoots great, but the powder charges are kind of all over the place, which started me down this path of thinking, because I "clone" the same load with 43 grains of 4064 measured to the .01, and there is literally no difference in performance over the factory ammo in this case...
