Powder by weight or by volume ?

[Lucas McCain]

I have been using an RCBS uniflow powder measure for years, I like it because once I set it up, it is fast, I can fill 50 cases in about 5 minutes. Of course, it functions by volume of the charge and not the weight. I did an experiment with various powders, it is most accurate with ball powder. +/- .1 gn. with stick powder it gets within +/- .2 gn. So in the interests of accuracy (and I wanted a new toy) I bought an RCBS chargemaster combo. That measures each charge by weight and is always very accurate +/- .1 gn but the damn thing is very slow. I change my routine when I use the Chargemaster to measure and fill and bullet seat each round. I was loading 28 gn of H110 behind a 200gn jhp .44 mag it was taking the chargemaster 25 seconds a round to meter out 28 gn. Does this seem crazy to you guys? Now I am thinking that for near max loads, use the chargemaster and for normal stuff use the uniflow. What do you guys use to measure powder? Anyone using a Chargemaster combo?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[sdavid]

I use a progressive loader, the powder is by volume and has been +- 0.1 grain

 

[bpm990d]

I use mine for loading ammo that is used for shooting at longer ranges 600 - 1000 yards. I've used a Reading BR measure to dump loads for 600 yards with extruded powder and it seemed to work pretty well.

I don't think you would need the accuracy it offers for pistol, but I don't really reload for pistol a whole lot.

B

 

[jhrosier]

Joe,
I don't use a chargemaster, but if I did, here's what I would do.
Use a Lee dipper to throw a slightly underweight charge directly in the pan and then let the chargemaster bring it up to weight.

Jack

 

[PatMcD]

I've given up on weighing charges. I dump everything.

 

[Dick]

I measure by volume for all my handgun cartridges, and for rifle cartridges where I'm not working at maximum pressures and/or looking for sub-MOA accuracy (e.g., .35 Remington in my Marlin 336C). For the high-pressure high-accuracy rifle cartridges I throw a short charge (maybe 1 gr below what I want) with the measure and then bring it up to the exact weight using a manual scale and powder trickler. That's a very slow way of doing it, but for the amount of that kind of reloading I do it isn't a problem.

 

[Lucas McCain]

Joe,
I don't use a chargemaster, but if I did, here's what I would do.
Use a Lee dipper to throw a slightly underweight charge directly in the pan and then let the chargemaster bring it up to weight.

Jack

Thank you all for the advice. Jacks idea is something I will be trying next time I reload.

Joe