how much of my carefully weighed powder charge.....

[tek4260]

How much of my carefully weighed powder charge is burned in the barrel of my revolver, and how much is blown out of the barrel?? In other words, in a 4 5/8 revolver barrel using a max load of H-110, is the exact weight important? Or is that 2 tenths variation or so from a thrower unimportant to accuracy. Someone brought this up on another forum and it bothers me to think of all the hours I spend reloading just in carefully measuring each and every charge. Maybe its worthwhile just knowing it is as "right" as I can make it.

I should just forget it and keep loading the way I have always done, but I know that if it isn't getting burned in the barrel, it is just like boolit weight variation.

[spqrzilla]

Its all consumed pretty early. Even the slower powders.

[c.r.]

i have never seen a 2/10'ths variance with my thrown h-110 loads. that powder throws extremely consistent for me............. which is one reason i enjoy using it. HS-6 seems to throw equally well.

now i will see 2/10ths variance whith thrown unique loads......... which means i could have as much as 4/10ths spread between any two cartridges.

i'm not nearly as anal about weighing each load as i was when i started. i'll weigh just to make sure nothing settled weirdly in my hopper.......... or i'll hand weigh the specific rounds i want to run over the chrono. then compare that to the randomly selected thrown ones that i'll run over the chrono and just see if i see any material differences........ i like comparing numbers.

[44MAG#1]

What difference does it make??????????? If the load is producing good accuracy and good numbers what earthly difference could it make.
Throw the loads, go shooting and forget much of the technical mumbo jumbo that is bantered about by others. It has gotten to the point that it seems one is going to have to have a College degree to load and shoot anymore due to all the technical processes out there now.
The proof is on the paper and on game if you hunt. That is the only thing to be concerned about after ones safety.
Have fun and don't try to be too technical.

[MtGun44]

Essentially all of it, assuming you are using a pistol powder. Now if you were to us some
IMR4831, a lot would be pushed out unburned because you don't get the pressure high
enough to burn it well.

Bill

[NHlever]

Now that I do have a chronograph, it woujld be interesting to compare weighed charges with thrown charges of some loads that do shoot well.... Hadn't thought of doing that. On the other hand most benchrest shooters use thrown charges, or so I've heard. I do weigh all charges of powders that have ever "bridged" in my Lyman powder measure. My Redding powder measure isn't as sensitive to that but it did happen once. Mostly I have just stopped using powders that do that since we have so many choices now. It is a little unnerving to be trucking along, and get a really light charge, and then see how much comes out the next charge thrown. I charge cases, and then seat a bullet, and have never owned a loading block, but the bridging issue still makes me pretty cautious. I still weigh every tenth round, or so to make sure the settings haven't changed with all loads, and even using ball powders.

To answer your question, most powder is burned in the first inch, or two of boolit travel. The exception in my experience was using IMR 4895 with soft cast boolits in a .35 Remington I had. I couldn't put enough of that powder in to raise pressures any measurable amount. Once I started using a harder alloy the problem went away, and I started getting more predictable results. Expanding the cases to a smaller diameter, and heavier crimps did nothing............ that was kind of interesting.

[btroj]

Tell you what- take 20 rounds with weighed charges and 20 with thrown charges and go shoot them. Go for a distance that allows variations to show up but yet close enough for you to get a decent group. The gun and target will tell all you need to know. Shoot 5 of one, then 5 of the other. Keep alternating to make things fair to each load.
Bet you won't see any real difference.

[subsonic]

If you reduce the charge, and velocity drops, you will have your answer about how much work the powder is doing vs being blown out of the gun and un-used.

Depending on your particular accuracy requirement and range, you are likely to be unable to tell the difference between thrown and weighed charges if you are throwing within 2% by weight.

[redneckdan]

4 5/8" 44 special? In my experience with that round a max load of H-110 did leave some un burned powder on the snow beyond the muzzle. This was with the mihec 434640. Changed over to a lyman 429421 that cast too small but had enough groove that I could crimp the hell out of it. Picked up a bit of leading from the under sized bullet but the unburned powder went away.

[Char-Gar]

It doesn't matter how much powder is burning or not burning. It does matter how close the bullets land to each other on the target.

[Frank]

Burning powder in the barrel causes combustion erosion, or damage to the lead of the rifling, not to mention erratic velocity and pressure. Proper case boolit tension and selection of correct primer for the boolit are minimal prerequisites for optimal performance.

[brimic2]

Unless you have problems with powder hanging up in the measure, charging by volume should give you better accuracy and consistancy than weighing each charge.
Think of it this way- they weights may vary slightly, but the powder will fill the same volume of the case every time.
People get hung up on the concept of weighing charges because its the way reloading is taught- usually from reloading manuals.
One caveat I have is that I reload strictly for accuracy- I don't push loads to the point where a hammer is needed to open a bolt or to knock spent brass out of the cylinder. Variations in powder weight won't push my loads into any published danger zone.

[songdog53]

Long ago back in the day i read an article that to get full burn of load in 44mag had to have least 6 inch barrel. That was way back in the day, i follow the same reasoning if the boolits are hitting where i want them the matter of how much powder isn't burned doesn't matter for it is doing what i want. Besides if it works don't fix it is way i look at it.

[canyon-ghost]

Same here, I have loads that leave powder in the barrel. They are so accurate I won't change them. If a guy has to experiment just to do it, then I guess that's alright. It still won't change the fact that the loads on the shelf will split hairs.

Ron

[Groo]

Groo here

When the FA 454 was first worked on,,, the load was a tryplex..
first was bullseye, then unique and last 2400..
the 2400 was said to light about 6 in down a 7 1/2 in barrel..
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
296 was found to work well with out the dangers of mixing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The main reason to get a lot of unburned powder in the barrel is that the pressures
are not high enough to get keep the fires burning,,,,

[Bullshop]

To my understanding those triplex loads were put up in 45 Colt cases and fired in Colt SAA revolvers with 5 shot cylinders.
Mr. Casull was doing this at the same time Elmer was messing with hot 44 specials and leading up to the 44 mag in 55.
Imagine that!