powder measurement

Those of you that have a single stage press, what is the method you are using to measure your powder and load each cartridge ?
TIA
Ron

RCBS Little Dandy.

I use a RCBS powder dropper with a small drum and put my cases into used 50 rd ammo cases and can drop them really fast.   I double check weight before and after each 50 rounds.   Easy to see if there is one with a substantially different powder level.

Add powder to measure. Drop at least 20 to settle the powder before loading.  Take an average of 10 drops. Bullseye  works a lot better then Unique

Powder measure with a small drum, dropping into the cases , sitting in 2-  50+  loading blocks.

I hold the block/brass under the measure to drop the powder.

Before seating a bullet, i check the powder weight of every 10th one. 

After returning the checked  powder to the proper case, look  into each case,  at the powder level, before seating a bullet.  Dont want any double charges.

I started with a Lee single stage and I'm glad that I did. I used the RCBS uniflow with the pistol drum. It worked pretty well. Looking back the one thing I would have done differently is not waste my time and money on digital scales. They all drift. The best purchase I've made as far as my own sanity has been a beam scale. I used 2 50 round cartridge holders so that I could visually inspect powder in every case.

I always question statements with, "all", "always", "best", "every", etc. I've owned two digital scales. The present one I have is the Lyman 1200 DPS 3. I can only speak to my experience, but both digitals scales that I have owned and used have been and are very accurate at all weight ranges. I often check them with Lyman check weights. There are some factors that can adversely affect digital scales. Among these are air currents and electric interference. I've been reloading since about 1971, but I am still learning.

RCBS Uniflow with 50 grain cylinder.  Fill hopper 1 1/2 inches from bottom of clear plastic (usually load 40 to 50 per session).  Drop 10 charges to stabilize quantity dropped (Titegroup, CFE Pistol, BE-86).  Recheck scale zero.  Drop and measure 5 charges after final drop adjustment.  Manually place case under spout, drop and place bullet into case to prevent double charge.  Measure every 10th drop.  Rarely, if ever do I need to adjust the drop.  The low number of rounds loaded is due to my constantly tinkering with component and charge variables, usually 10-shot groups.

Ideal #55 measure.

Reading  balance beam scale.

BE Mike wrote:I always question statements with, "all", "always", "best", "every", etc. I've owned two digital scales. The present one I have is the Lyman 1200 DPS 3. I can only speak to my experience, but both digitals scales that I have owned and used have been and are very accurate at all weight ranges. I often check them with Lyman check weights. There are some factors that can adversely affect digital scales. Among these are air currents and electric interference. I've been reloading since about 1971, but I am still learning.

Good point. Every digital scale I've encountered drifts. I just remember getting very frustrated as a novice reloader by the inconsistencies. A beam scale has eliminated that frustration.

Greetings,

I recently came into possession of a Redding BR-30 measure with the Pistol Insert.

Initial testing showed to to be most applicable to those of us the need small charges.

Worth having a look at...

Cheers,

Dave

Simple "O" frame cast single stage press with lee carbide dies.  I weigh every charge on this really nice compact (inexpensive) digital scale that measures to +/- .02 gr accuracy.  I set tare on the scale on each case and throw charge directly into the case.  Since I weight every charge a simple Lee "perfect" powder measure works if you carefully use the same throw technique every time.  I get 8 out of 10 to measure +/- .03 gr (i.e. between 3.80 and 3.86 gr), with the other two being +/- .06 gr which I rethrow.  

I would love to have it go faster, but since I only do this for target precision, I just don't think I could trust doing anything except measuring every throw.  I don't think I would trust anything with such small charges since even .2gr difference is more than 5% variance.  If you compared that to a even a small rifle cartridge like 6ppc, that much would be only .3% variance.

RCBS Chargemaster Combo.

Used 3 years of Cabelas gift cards from Santa.
Decent speed, accurate and easy. 

http://www.6mmbr.com/powderdispensers01.html

JayhawkNavy02 wrote:RCBS Chargemaster Combo.

Used 3 years of Cabelas gift cards from Santa.
Fast, accurate and easy. 

http://www.6mmbr.com/powderdispensers01.html

I really like mine I have had it for two years.  Don

Powder Measures:
Of those I have used, I rate them as follows for consistency of charges dropped
1) Lee PPM
2) Hornady L-N-L
3) Lee Pro Auto-Disc
4) Dillon
For a bench-mounted measure, my routine is to:
a) be sure the correct rotor is installed
b) add powder to hopper
c) shake the measure gently a few times to settle the powder
d) throw at least 10 charges and pour them back into the hopper
e) throw a charge and weigh it, throw powder back in hopper, repeat three times
f) if the weight hasn't settled, I either repeat a-e or go to another measure (some days, I swear, a given measure just won't settle and the next day it will be perfect)
g) once settled (and the nut to lock the metering assembly is tight), I start loading:
*a) charge case
*b) look in case at height of powder and compare to the known cases you have already inspected during the proceeding
*c) IMMEDIATELY seat the bullet.
This eliminates any possibility of spilling charged cases or NOT inspecting a case by accident as there is a routine and I can't go from the measure to the press without looking in the case.
*d) check every tenth, then every twenty-fifth for charge weight.

For load development, I use my RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 and occasionally for bottleneck cases I'll use it.

orpheoet wrote:

BE Mike wrote:I always question statements with, "all", "always", "best", "every", etc. I've owned two digital scales. The present one I have is the Lyman 1200 DPS 3. I can only speak to my experience, but both digitals scales that I have owned and used have been and are very accurate at all weight ranges. I often check them with Lyman check weights. There are some factors that can adversely affect digital scales. Among these are air currents and electric interference. I've been reloading since about 1971, but I am still learning.

Good point. Every digital scale I've encountered drifts. I just remember getting very frustrated as a novice reloader by the inconsistencies. A beam scale has eliminated that frustration.

Check out this, maybe this is a problem: http://www.manufacturing.net/article/2013/11/7-ways-signal-noise-can-impact-your-electrical-equipment

I put my Lyman 1200 on a completely unique circuit and  it did help quite a bit with drift.  I do let it warm up for over 30 minutes while i do other chores

jglenn21 wrote:I put my Lyman 1200 on a completely unique circuit and  it did help quite a bit with drift.  I do let it warm up for over 30 minutes while i do other chores

I also only run LED lighting in my reloading room and turn off the ceiling fan.  Don