The final piece of my puzzle- Powder measuring

[Ponder_MD]

The final pieces of my reloading setup will arrive today.

I opted for the RCBS Quick Change powder measure. It's basically an upgraded Uniflow with a larger hopper and quick-change metering screws. This will allow me to change over from .30-06 to 9mm in a hot second without re-calibrating. I'm looking to have the ability to reload up to 5 different calibers so I want this feature. It got good customer reviews for precision and maintaining its settings.

I have a small quantity of .30-06 and 5.56 brass prepared. I'll be priming, charging and seating this week.

 

[atblis]

Sounds like a plan. People tend to over think this aspect of reloading a bit by weighing every charge and trying for under 0.1 gr variation. Totally unnecessary most of the time. I like to do batches by loading up a tray with cases and holding the powder measure and moving it from case to case throwing charges. You can then visually compare all the powder levels in the cases to one another and quickly spot outliers.

I would highly recommend loading up 20 rounds or so and shooting them over a chronograph before cranking out a batch. In my experience, powders can deviate quite a lot from the published data.

 

[Ponder_MD]

ike to do batches by loading up a tray with cases and holding the powder measure and moving it from case to case throwing charges.

That's what I did. Well, my measure is mounted on a stand so I moved the tray around under the powder measure.

Because I am new and paranoid, I simply dumped 2-3 random cartridges from each row in the scale and verified their weight and poured the charge back into the case. I never found any that were overcharged, only slightly undercharged. I was able to do 50 at a time. Unfortunately, I don't have a chronograph.

I shot 4 different recipes on Friday for my M1. The tightest group was the 150gr Hornady (3037) with 49.1 gr of IMR4064. This gave me 1 MOA. The distance was 100yds. I had 2 fliers that seemed kind of crazy. I don't know if the ammo was whack or if I flinched or something. I'm sure that I'm not living up to the ammo's potential.

 

[Chauchat]

'... I'm sure that I'm not living up to the ammo's potential."

I believe that would be most of us.

One MOA from the starting gate? Ya did good. When it comes to reloading there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[Ponder_MD]

Eh, not really out of the gate. I've had 3 other formulae of reloads hanging around. I finally tested them all. The most successful formula was the final group that I shot.

 

[Growler215]

That's what I did. Well, my measure is mounted on a stand so I moved the tray around under the powder measure.

Because I am new and paranoid, I simply dumped 2-3 random cartridges from each row in the scale and verified their weight and poured the charge back into the case. I never found any that were overcharged, only slightly undercharged. I was able to do 50 at a time. Unfortunately, I don't have a chronograph.

I shot 4 different recipes on Friday for my M1. The tightest group was the 150gr Hornady (3037) with 49.1 gr of IMR4064. This gave me 1 MOA. The distance was 100yds. I had 2 fliers that seemed kind of crazy. I don't know if the ammo was whack or if I flinched or something. I'm sure that I'm not living up to the ammo's potential.

To me, the flyers count when measuring group size. . .

 

[BFMIN]

When I went progressive a while back this was a big thing for me, particularly as I had acquire a Dillon & the Dillon powder meter has a bad rep with stick powder & I was using IMR3031, a notoriously long stick powder.
I checked my loads when beginning for accuracy & consistency. I did it several ways.
2 & 3 dumps & divide by 2 & 3, individual weighing with the reservoir full, 1/2 full, & almost empty/
Based on those results I added a second baffle I made, attached a small aquarium pump from PetSmart for $10 & used it as a shaker & polished the inside of the bottom metal "funnel".
After that I just dumped loads because after repeating the tests I was +/- 1/10 gr in a 39.4 Gr charge weight. My ES (15.4)& SD (6.4) for 10 round groups were so low I was convinced I'd got a good working system.

 

[Ponder_MD]

To me, the flyers count when measuring group size. . .

Absolutely. I included them.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

I would highly recommend loading up 20 rounds or so and shooting them over a chronograph before cranking out a batch. In my experience, powders can deviate quite a lot from the published data.

atblis,

As I was making my way up and back to retrieve my reloader and supplies, I had this same thought. Process up a small quantity and do some checking before making larger quantities.