Easy powder weighing and verification

[44fanatic]

Was reloading some 44mags today and got lazy in a good way w/ weighing my powder.

I am using a Lee Perfect measure and I got tired of dropping the powder in a pan and weighing it, then funneling it in the case (did this for 5 of the 1st 10 rounds I reloaded). So, the next 5 shells, I tared the scale w/ the empty case, filled it w/ powder and weighed it again. After the 1st 10, I then did this w/ every 5th round.

Was pretty quick and easy to tare the scale w/ the empty shell, load the powder and weigh the actual powder inside the casing.

On another note, I found that the static in the powder measure liked to hold onto powder.

[35remington]

Destatic the powder measure with a dryer sheet or work enough powder thru that the static charge is eliminated.

Most times I simply throw my pistol charges and only weigh the occasional charge to ensure the setting hasn't varied. Most pistol loads I shoot don't require weighing.

[44fanatic]

Can do this with either rifle or pistol cartridges.

Reason for such detail...it was my first time using that powder measure.

I ran a full tumbler of powder through before hand, never thought nor knew about the dryer sheets, will give that a try next time.

[runfiverun]

the powder gives graphite coating to the measure, you can help it out.
the dryer sheet takes out static.

[Echo]

Or rinse the inside of the powder hopper with a dilute mixture of liquid fabric softener.

[mike in co]

break in the measure by running a bunch of powder thru it...this will coat it with some graphite off the powder, and should kill a lot of the static.

depending on the powder you choose, you should be able to direct charge the cases.


same for rifle...its all about how consistant does the powder throw, and what kind of tollerance does the load/rifle have....


mike in co

[shootinxd]

Dust the inside with powder graphite from the local hardware stores.

[parson48]

Dust mine with graphite powder. Solves static cling.

[JIMinPHX]

Are your cases consistent enough in weight to trust that method?

[cbrick]

Are your cases consistent enough in weight to trust that method?

No kiddin, you'll have more variation in the case weights than the powder throw. Those charge weights could be all over the place. Hope it wasn't a really fast powder.

Rick

[357maximum]

No kiddin, you'll have more variation in the case weights than the powder throw. Those charge weights could be all over the place. Hope it wasn't a really fast powder.

Rick

I read it that he was tare ing the scale with each case.

[mike in co]

No kiddin, you'll have more variation in the case weights than the powder throw. Those charge weights could be all over the place. Hope it wasn't a really fast powder.

Rick

me thinks you missed hwat he said...he tared the case each time.......

[cbrick]

I stand corrected, he did say that and I did miss it. Sorry, forget I said anything.

Rick

[jsizemore]

I think, from his original post, he zeros for each case.

[44fanatic]

Are your cases consistent enough in weight to trust that method?

I place the empty casing in the scale, tared it (zero weight w/ the empty shell), and then weighed the shell w/ powder...end result is the exact weight of the powder inside the shell.

I did notice that there was a allot of difference in weight of the cases.

[Rocky Raab]

That's quite clever, but I doubt it's faster than the pan and funnel method.

I'd never put anything into a powder measure but powder. Too much chance of contaminating the real powder later. I would run a hopper-full of powder through a new measure first, using a graphited extruded powder like 4895. Between uses, it can really help to keep a used dryer sheet in the hopper. (New ones can be "damp.")

Finally, in dry climates, it can help to run a fine copper grounding wire from measure to balance beam scale and then to a good ground. Nothing prevents static buildup better than that.