Best digital scale for trickling

[irishlad]

https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/1012952421/rcbs-quick-change-powder-funnel-kit

Works well for me.

 

[cheygriz]

Using your most accurate rifle, shoot 5 each 5 shot groups with charges thrown from the measure and not weighed. Then shoot 5 more groups with charges meticulously trickled.

Betcha you will not find any difference at all in accuracy!

 

[jmorris]

You won’t be shooting at just a couple hundred yards if you do.

 

[Skgreen]

Back in my 223 funnel/loading block days, I picked up a collection of various funnels.

Wished I would have started with this type: https://www.brownells.com/reloading...MI4IK6o8G73wIVjYbACh0LSw0JEAYYBCABEgIiePD_BwE

 

[cheygriz]

You won’t be shooting at just a couple hundred yards if you do.

Haven't done much past 600 yards, but my custom heavy barrel 6MM Remington shoots the same 3/8 MOA whether the charges are weighed or thrown from the measure. So does my .22-250.

A group of bench rest competitors in my gun club. None of them weigh charges. They're the ones who convinced me that it was a waste of time.

 

[Chuck R.]

Haven't done much past 600 yards, but my custom heavy barrel 6MM Remington shoots the same 3/8 MOA whether the charges are weighed or thrown from the measure. So does my .22-250.

A group of bench rest competitors in my gun club. None of them weigh charges. They're the ones who convinced me that it was a waste of time.

Meanwhile the LR precision guys swear by low SDs and ES and you don't normally get there with thrown charges. It's not just about groups at normal distances and a lot of the load consistency stuff doesn't show an effect till the greater distances.

http://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/04/18/how-much-does-sd-matter/

 

[Reeferman]

Back in my 223 funnel/loading block days, I picked up a collection of various funnels.

Wished I would have started with this type: https://www.brownells.com/reloading...MI4IK6o8G73wIVjYbACh0LSw0JEAYYBCABEgIiePD_BwE

My brother in law has a set of those and are really nice.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I need a better solution, guys. This isn't working.

For starters, my Lee auto drum throws a maximum of about 40.2 grains of Superperformance powder. At that point, the key for the tube just falls out. The minimum starting charge is 43.8 grns.

The next problem is that this trickling BS isn't working either. I dump my 40.2 grns of powder in the pan on my beam scale and start turning the trickler. I was turning too fast, sp it would go from pegged at the bottom to shooting right through zero. SO I slowed down and now the problem is that when I"m right at that moment that I'm about to stop, or I need to trickle just a few granules more to get up to zero, a crap ton of powder comes out and the beam pegs to the top.

I've been at the bench for more than hour now, and I've loaded exactly ONE cartridge. we've got to come up with something different.

And besides all that, I don't know how the hell I'm going to produce volumes of ammo if the max capacity of the auto drum is less than the minimum starting charge.

 

[jmorris]

How has your plan changed from.

My plan is to load rifle cases using a powder trickler. So I will weigh the empty case on the scale, put the case on my press and load a charge that is 1-2 grains light using my Lee auto-drum powder measurer, and then return the case to the digital scale. From there, I will do some math and then trickle the last grain or so into the case with the case on the scale and the scale directly reading the weight.

With all the suggestions and what directions are you willing to go?

You don’t always need to go “bucks up” to get what you want. I make “free” powder measures out of spent cases, copper wire and solder at times.



You can get the volume you want or at least a quick volume and trickle up from there or you could always get a measure better suited to large charges.

For that matter if you are wanting a 50.0 grain final charge and your measure can’t throw more than 30.0, you could always throw two 24.9 grain charges, for 49.8 total and trickle in the last .2.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

So this was an "all on me" screw up. The KEY fell out of the measure...I thought the TUBE had come out. smh

So I've got it throwing a couple grains less than desired (43.9 at last check), and I'm trickling up from there.

I've figure out that I have to swing the trickler tube away from the pan to stop the excess from falling in and pushing it over the top.

I've got 30 rounds loaded in the last about hour and a half.

Someties...I'm my own worst enemy.

 

[Walkalong]

You don’t always need to go “bucks up” to get what you want. I make “free” powder measures out of spent cases, copper wire and solder at times.

Yep, adjust (shorten) to throw what you want.

 

[Stew0576]

I just use a small bowl and a baby spoon, tap the side off the spoon when I get close, takes about 20 seconds per charge, then using the funnel that came with rcbs just to dump in the case, works good

 

[CoalTrain49]

I can't imagine measuring every charge. If I'm within +/-0.1 grain on every 10 throws then I'm just going with that. I can't see that 0.1 grain making a difference in a 23 grain charge.

My RCBS competition powder measure will throw +/-0.1 grain. I'm using a Frankford Arsenal Platinum scale and those two seem to be very consistent.

 

[FROGO207]

I rock the knob of the trickler back and forth when I get close to the charge. That stops the "crap load of powder from falling out all at once" and only lets a few granules drop at a time.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I rock the knob of the trickler back and forth when I get close to the charge. That stops the "crap load of powder from falling out all at once" and only lets a few granules drop at a time.

Thanks. I'll try that the next time around, which should be this weekend or early next week.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I can't imagine measuring every charge. If I'm within +/-0.1 grain on every 10 throws then I'm just going with that. I can't see that 0.1 grain making a difference in a 23 grain charge.

My RCBS competition powder measure will throw +/-0.1 grain. I'm using a Frankford Arsenal Platinum scale and those two seem to be very consistent.

Measuring every load is showing me how inconsistent my Lee auto drum really is. I'll throw the same powder charge and get a different weight every single time. It runs anywhere from more than 5/10 grain under (beam pointer pegged at bottom, to 1/10 grain over (beam pointer 1tick mark over zero.) when weighed on my Redding beam scale.

I was hoping that, after I settle on a particular load, I could load a bunch of the same load faster, using the turret press, but I'm thinking now that that won't be possible because no two rounds will be alike. I saw this when I first started out, and it was driving me crazy. I was constantly adjusting the volume of the powder measure. ThenI finally gave up as I was loading pistol training ammo and didn't need the precision.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I set my volumetric to throw the correct charge on the high side and be a few tenths off on the low side. This minimizes how much powder I trickle.
Out of curiosity what powder are you using?
Reloading should be a relaxing time, not a chore that you are rushing through.

 

[rayatphonix]

Here’s my setup for rifles. Relatively quick and more accurate than I need.

I use a Lyman Model 6 to drop the desired load. I’m guessing it takes 8 to 10 seconds for a 40 grain load. Transfer that load onto my Gempro and hit the “Enter” button on the Lyman to drop another charge. While that’s happening I use my Dandy powder trickler (dandyproductsllc.com) to get the desired load. The Gempro measures to .02 grains and my goal is to be +/- that amount. By the time I finish that and drop the load in my case (I use Satern funnels) the Lyman has dropped the next load. Keep in mind that about 20% of the Lyman loads were acceptable without trickling so they were in the case before the Lyman had dropped the next charge.

I used to use a rotary drop instead of the Lyman. My CH4D did the best with stick powders and an old Redding did best with ball powders. I find this system is faster, especially with stick powders. The setup is expensive, but my time is too. I have no doubt I’m going overboard, but I know my charges are consistent every time.

If you’re not familiar with the Dandy trickler, you ought to consider it. It’s expensive but I can meter tiny amounts of powder with ease. I see from their website they’ve got a new model and if it works better than the original, consider me impressed.

 

[jmorris]

Measuring every load is showing me how inconsistent my Lee auto drum really is. I'll throw the same powder charge and get a different weight every single time. It runs anywhere from more than 5/10 grain under (beam pointer pegged at bottom, to 1/10 grain over (beam pointer 1tick mark over zero.) when weighed on my Redding beam scale.

I was hoping that, after I settle on a particular load, I could load a bunch of the same load faster, using the turret press, but I'm thinking now that that won't be possible because no two rounds will be alike.

Now, you are going to need 20 of your meticulously loaded rounds and just throw 20 more charges and take both sets to the range and shoot them, so you can see if all the extra work is worthwhile and by how much.

 

[drband]

Did you say what powder you are using?

 

[Nature Boy]

I’m using the powder thrower in the press to get close then trickle up to the target



I use this little 1/4 tsp to add or subtract a kernal or two to get the exact charge I’m after ( +/- 0.02g or +/- 1 kernal of stick powder)



I’ve gotten fairly quick and efficient at it. I haven’t put myself on the clock but I’ll say I can complete a round in under 30 seconds, prime, charge, seat

 

[Chuck R.]

Now, you are going to need 20 of your meticulously loaded rounds and just throw 20 more charges and take both sets to the range and shoot them, so you can see if all the extra work is worthwhile and by how much.

Great idea, but I'd also add to bring a chronograph and get an idea of what the difference might look like at distance.....ES and SD will give you a decent Idea as to your loads consistency.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Out of curiosity what powder are you using?

Did you say what powder you are using?

Hodgdon Superperformance. It seems to be a very dense, ball powder. A slight, one-gazillionth of a turn on the powder measure created a 2-3/10th swing on the measured charge. Barnes recommends it as both the most potentially accurate and the highest velocity.

Reloading should be a relaxing time, not a chore that you are rushing through.

Agreed. At this point in my life, I've had enough character-building adversity in my life; these days, I'm looking for what is easy and just works.

Now, you are going to need 20 of your meticulously loaded rounds and just throw 20 more charges and take both sets to the range and shoot them, so you can see if all the extra work is worthwhile and by how much.

When this is done, and I've settled on what I'm going to hunt with, I'm going to do that. Like I said, I'd like to be able to just load rounds on the turret press, at least for practice, and be close to the individually weighed charges. I don't have much faith that that will work, but it will be at least as good as factory loaded ammo at about half the cost.

I’m using the powder thrower in the press to get close then trickle up to the target[...]
I use this little 1/4 tsp to add or subtract a kernal or two to get the exact charge I’m after ( +/- 0.02g or +/- 1 kernal of stick powder)

I'm using the exact same trickler you are, however, I doubt would have ever thought of using the small measuring spoon. Great idea.

Great idea, but I'd also add to bring a chronograph and get an idea of what the difference might look like at distance.....ES and SD will give you a decent Idea as to your loads consistency.

I'm hoping the gun club has a chrono I can borrow. Not sure if I can spend the money to buy one right now, but it's on my list.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Hodgdon Superperformance. It seems to be a very dense, ball powder. A slight, one-gazillionth of a turn on the powder measure created a 2-3/10th swing on the measured charge. Barnes recommends it as both the most potentially accurate and the highest velocity.



Agreed. At this point in my life, I've had enough character-building adversity in my life; these days, I'm looking for what is easy and just works.



When this is done, and I've settled on what I'm going to hunt with, I'm going to do that. Like I said, I'd like to be able to just load rounds on the turret press, at least for practice, and be close to the individually weighed charges. I don't have much faith that that will work, but it will be at least as good as factory loaded ammo at about half the cost.




I'm using the exact same trickler you are, however, I doubt would have ever thought of using the small measuring spoon. Great idea.



I'm hoping the gun club has a chrono I can borrow. Not sure if I can spend the money to buy one right now, but it's on my list.

I have some of that stuff. It is very fine. I prefer extruded powder for trickling. I've never used an auto drum, but my Hornady lock-n-load did well with ball powder.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I have some of that stuff. It is very fine. I prefer extruded powder for trickling. I've never used an auto drum, but my Hornady lock-n-load did well with ball powder.

When you say "extruded" powder, do you mean stick poweder, e.g. 4895?