Grump
Member
WOT?!?!? Nobody taps their mechanical scales?
Yeah. It makes a difference of no more than .3 of a grain on my old Redding whatever scales (have two), but about 1 out of 5 weighings will shift a bit if I tap the base with my fingernail when it's settled to less than +/- .1 grain in the swing...or it's just stopped.
I also advocate the weigh 5 or 10 and divide to get the average approach. Many of my load stickers go to two decimal places..well, I used to.
When the weather warms up and I actually have time to set up a chrono/accuracy/sandbags lineup on 100- or 200-yard targets, I just may chrono those 4064 loads that I threw with an old Lyman Ideal measure, then marked each case...41.6, 41.4, even the 41.1s I'm going to see whether the weight variations on volumetrically-equal charges is more important for velocity than barrel heating. I might have a set of 10-15 that were tricked to be within .1 or .2 grains on extreme spread, too. That would establish the "noise" of random variation as far as the pure mass of the powder charge.
Other variables might affect velocity more. But the bullets are also +/- .1 or .2 grain right out of the box and the brass is once-fired and all primers are from the same lot...
But if 200-yard accuracy is the same with the most extreme-spread batch of ammo, I'm going to quit even thinking about worrying about it. Already had a large batch of Dillon 550 ammo using 748 that shot a smitdge less than 1 MOA at 200 yards, with iron sights.
If I ever get around to it, I'll report...
Yeah. It makes a difference of no more than .3 of a grain on my old Redding whatever scales (have two), but about 1 out of 5 weighings will shift a bit if I tap the base with my fingernail when it's settled to less than +/- .1 grain in the swing...or it's just stopped.
I also advocate the weigh 5 or 10 and divide to get the average approach. Many of my load stickers go to two decimal places..well, I used to.
When the weather warms up and I actually have time to set up a chrono/accuracy/sandbags lineup on 100- or 200-yard targets, I just may chrono those 4064 loads that I threw with an old Lyman Ideal measure, then marked each case...41.6, 41.4, even the 41.1s I'm going to see whether the weight variations on volumetrically-equal charges is more important for velocity than barrel heating. I might have a set of 10-15 that were tricked to be within .1 or .2 grains on extreme spread, too. That would establish the "noise" of random variation as far as the pure mass of the powder charge.
Other variables might affect velocity more. But the bullets are also +/- .1 or .2 grain right out of the box and the brass is once-fired and all primers are from the same lot...
But if 200-yard accuracy is the same with the most extreme-spread batch of ammo, I'm going to quit even thinking about worrying about it. Already had a large batch of Dillon 550 ammo using 748 that shot a smitdge less than 1 MOA at 200 yards, with iron sights.
If I ever get around to it, I'll report...