Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Simple solutions are sometimes the best

Back in October, I asked y'all for ideas for a problem I was having with H4831SC. It was not metering well in my RCBS Uniflow. Y'all gave me a bunch of good ideas, and it has taken me until now to work through the list. None of them panned out. I tried again yesterday, and after cleaning, and swapping out the drop tube I was still throwing crazy loads.

Work was slow today, so I'm sitting there fretting over this situation. It suddenly hit me. Why not a dipper? I had some brass wire, and 15-year supply of old brass. I went home and immediately got to work. My target was 50 grains. On the second attempt, I was able to modify a 30-06 case with a split neck to where it threw a 49-point-something load consistently. That's all I was looking for anyway. I use a trickler to get it up to what I want. This dipper puts it within two or three twists of the trickler.

I used a tubing cutter and a case neck reamer. I used brass wire for a handle. I've seen this kind of contraption around, and what got me to thinking of it was the idea of a set of Lee Dippers. Those cost $12 or so, and the chart I looked at online showed that, I'd get an approximation at best. This got me right where I wanted.

My next step is to take what I've learned and make a couple more dippers that are close to 42 grains and 47 grains of H4895. That will dip about 90% of my deer loads. I think I'll also fashion a dipping trough so I can dip with a minimum of powder using that back-of-the-dipper-first trick.

My question to y'all is this: this seemed ridiculously simple. What am I missing?

My first handloading mentor made me a dipper from a .44 Magnum case (with a copper wire handle) that threw an appropriate charge of H380 to propel a 100-grain short jacket from a .30-30. It is still around somewhere.

Shaman,
I have been using the Lee dippers for filing my scale pan for years.
With the full set of dippers I pick the one that throws just under a full charge, dump a dipper full in the pan,refill the dipper then I tap the dipper with my index finger to top it off.
It's a fast and accurate method.
Gave up on powder tricklers etc... a long time ago.

I don't know what problems you are having with the RCBS, I have a few of them and they work well.

I have used several different brands of drum-type powder measures over the years and still have them on my bench. With consistent technique that I have practiced, they all throw very consistent charges. There is really no difference between them, although Redding tools are always nice to have.

Having said that, when loading for rifle rounds, if I am not using a ball powder, I set the measures to drop a grain under weight, drop into a scale pan, then use the powder trickler to bring the charge up to exact weight on the scale. The scale beam responds to a single kernel...it's not really necessary, I just like to be precise. Ball powders are so consistent that weighing them is a waste of time.

Dippers work too. It's the same principle of measuring volume. I used dippers I made decades ago before I bought my first powder measure...they were a week's pay back then. If you prefer them, there's no reason not to use them.

Since I bought my first powder measure I haven't used mine a single time.

The powder measure is a lot quicker than dippers.

I wouldn't waste time dipping and trickling H4895 for deer loads. Just throw and go.

+1

The problem that brought all this on was after 15 years of reloading, I'd run into a problem trying to load H4831SC into 25-06. The Uniflow measure was holding back several grains at a time, only to dump them into the next load. It never has done that with any other powder.

I was weighing each load and using a trickler to top off, so I was catching it, but it was still a pain. I had a thread going back in October. At the advice of y'all I did a thorough cleaning of the measure, and went to the next size up in drop tube. That didn't help.

Normally I use a lot of H4895 out of the same Uniflow measure, and normally everything goes well. I use the Uniflow for everything-- all told about a dozen different rifle and pistol chamberings. This was just plain odd.

The reason I mentioned H4895, even though I'm not having trouble with it, is that I could now make a custom dipper for a few of my H4895 loads and a good deal of my yearly loading tasks would be taken care of.

It does not take a whole lot to make a custom dipper out of a case, and afterwards there is no calibration needed again ever. I'm wondering why folks don't do it more often. I had my 50 grains of H4831SC sorted out in no time. The only tools I needed were a tubing cutter, a case reamer, and a pair of electrical pliers to attach the brass wire. It beat spending $12 on a set of plastic dippers let alone $120 on a new measure.

Yes, this!!!

Lee Dippers are the way to go, IMO, for just about all reloading. They just make it simple, and I like that.

And another "YES"! I am always amazed that powder tricklers are not attached to the chests of boars.

Technique will help consistency. I'll run my thrower to where I want to start a load, and trickle my workups with a shot glass of powder, kinda like putting pepper on food. Once I find what my charge will be, then set the thrower. 3-4 kernels of powder looks like a lot on the scale, but equates to diddly. 4831SC in my RCBS has been fine. Throw a block of 50 and measure one out of each row (5) for a 10% sample.

Pretty wide birth on RL-15 and my 260

I guess the bottom line in all this is after 15 years of throwing, I have become a near-instant convert to dipping. I'll still use the Uniflow for load development, and I still will throw all my pistol cartridges with it. However, I've moved to the dipper camp.


Will I spring for Lee Dippers? I don't know. I think what made this project so quick and easy was the new-in-the-box tubing cutter I found as I was going through Dad's tools. He probably bought it for cutting stems when we started replacing toilets in a big way at the apartments back around 1974, and it got lost. I found it in the back of a drawer in the garage. Dad used to get on me for always wanting to go to the hardware store for parts. He was old school, and always tried to make it work with what we had.

My trickler is my right thumb and index finger. Muddy

I've had my RCBS Uniflow act up on me on two occasions, throwing wildly erratic charges. Both times it was the same issue (caught after a few minutes on the second occurrence due to remembering what the issue was the first time).

The problem both times? A fly had climbed up the drop tube and died. What possesses flies to climb up a drop tube? Something on the powder attracts them? One fly telling it's buddy "Dude, hold my beer and watch this!"?

It surprised me that the dropping powder wasn't enough to dislodge the fly. Powder would flow around it on one throw, being 5 or more grains short of your desired charge. And then next time you'd get 100% of thrown charge plus some extra that got caught before. But the stupid fly was still stuck up there where you couldn't see it. I now have the stick from a q-tip sitting right next to the powder measure and trickler, just in case I start getting wildly erratic charges.

Of course, I highly doubt this is your issue especially since you've talked about cleaning the measure. Just one of those totally random things that has happened to me and thought it might give you a little smile to hear about it.

Good luck!

You are the type of person I'd like around camp when a problem surfaces. KISS works every time. I need to run one off for 6.7 grains of HS-6.

Make sure you use the largest dia. drop tube that is possible w/your neck size. Muddy

I will keep my electronic dispenser.

Azar, would that be why a shot separated from the group is called a flier??....

what you are calling a "powder trough", I call a Tupperware bowl.

Stillbeeman: I did my testing with a margarine dish. The problem is that you need to maximize depth while minimizing width. I'm thinking paneling scraps with 1/2" cleats forming three sides. Think of a pack of cigarettes laid on its thin side and then blow it up 2X. That way I can get the most out of a half-pound of powder using the back-it-in method that Lee suggests.

Vic: Dang you got to that line before I did.

1minute: Thanks you. That's the nicest thing someone's said to me all week.

Azar: Funny, but as I was cleaning the Uniflow, I found something similar, a small shred of plastic from the seal of a powder bottle. Ah Ha! I thought. This was the cause! Trouble is, when I re-assembled the Uniflow, the problem remained. Go figure.

All: I guess my big message is to the guys using measures, and that is this: Dipping ain't so bad. If you're weighing all your loads, it's probably easier than using a measure.