How do you guys charge cases with a digital scale??

[jtoews80]

OK, I used to use an RCBS powder pro dispenser & scale. Drop a charge, weigh it and get it perfect on a 5-0-5 scale and then drop it into the case. Took about an hour for each box of loads. If I was just going to use it for plinking I would just use the powder pro, but found it to be poorer quality and it didn't handle H110 because its such a fine grained powder.

Lately, I've developed the bad habit lately of zeroing my digital scale with a primed case on it and dropping a charge directly into the case from the powder dispenser and then weighing it again. Just tapping a bit out of the case into the hopper or tapping in a bit from a different sized case full of the same powder.

It seems to work like a darn, but I'll try some more of those loads again to make sure it isn't just coincedence. I am not to sure this is a good practice, but sure makes a box of loads happen fast. I will test this method a bit more and see if it produces accurate loads in my target rifles. Until now I have using this method in my 44 mag, 223 and a bit in my 264 with really slow powder(where the charge difference isn't as noticable.

What do you guys figure. I am very careful to do things in the same order every time to make sure the case gets zero'd before I charge it and then get it to weigh correctly after. I am not totally convinced that this method is acceptable, but am very happy with the production time. I realize that the production time for poor ammo is not important, but that quality ammo that can be produced quickly is a great thing.

JT.

 

[1Shot]

I would stop the case on the scale practice. Cases do not weigh the same exactly. When you are using powder like H110 a little goes a loooog way. With ball powders like H110 in pistol loads I would just use a powder dumper. Set up the dumper to drop the charge you want by dumping 4 dumps and putting them back into the hopper before you weighing the 5th charge to let the powder settle in the hopper after every change of the setting. Ball powders will measure very close. I then put all my primed and ready cases into a loading block and hold it in my left hand placing a case into the mouth of the spout that comes out of my RCBS powder dumper and crank the handle up with a bump and down with a bump of the handle at the the ends of the strokes. I do this to the rest of the cases weighing a powder load after every 15 just to make sure everything is with in specks. You can load the powder in 50 cases in about 5 minutes or less this way.

For rifle powder loading I know everybody thinks that they need one of those power powder measure things but I have found that my old school method works just as fast for perfect accuracy loads. I place my powder into an old plastic bullet box. I use one of the old Lee dippers that is close to the weight I want to use. I will put a scoop into the pan of my 5-0-5 RCBS scale and with stick powder that I use most just pick up a pinch of powder in my fingers and trickle in to bring it up to the perfect weight. If I use ball powder I will use the RCBS powder dumper like for pistol loading. I have won a good number of shooting matches and have killed a lot of game over the past 30 some odd years loading like this.

 

[C.Smith]

I too have used the Lee Powder scoops works good. I also have a RCBS powder through that I set up to throw close (enought to move the needle of my scale halfway up to the level line or so) to what I'm loading right into the pan and then I just trickle the remaining into the pan. This works very quickly for me and has proven to be very consistant (important).

Corey

 

[jtoews80]

I have been zeroing every case, and using a powder measure to get close. I understand that cases will vary by a 1-2 grains average. With the H110 I had stopped weighing after I got it close. That was for a 23 grn charge with a 240 grn JHP, charge range is 22.8-23.5 in the Nosler #6.

JT.

 

[YoteSmoker]

After all my cases are prepped and primed, I segregate them by 1 grain in weight, then set them in the loading blocks from lowest weight to highest weight left to right. Then, I charge each case the same with powder. The chargemaster makes it very easy to measure the case weights prior to starting the charging process and I have found better consistency at the range by shooting a string within +/-.5 grains of case weights.

 

[JDMAG]

I use the lee scoops and a trickler that I got from Hornady. I use a 5-0-5 scale, and I do one case at a time.
If you are re zeroing each case individually, I cant see where it would be a problem. If however you are using 1 case for your zero, an d not checking the rest, you might want to change that aspect of your procedure.

 

[Ol` Joe]

I gave up on my Pact and went back to my 10-10 for powder. The beam IMO moves quicker with small increases when trickling. I drop a slightly light charge in the pan (~0.2-0.3gr), trickle to wgt useing a small Lee dipper, and then dump it in a case. Takes about as long to type it out as do it.
If I`m loading multiple weights like you do during load work-up, I dip my charge to the scale then tap the last remaining grannuals needed to make wgt.

BTW My thrower is a JDS Quick Measure. It seems to be as accurate as any manual thrower I`m familiar with, and is as fast and accurate with extruded as ball.