Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles weighing your loads

Ever weigh your loaded ammo and sort by weight to see if it has an effect on accuracy?

Yep. It's why I don't do it much anymore. Having a quality powder measure goes a long way in that regard though.

Bugger: Years ago (and did so for decades!) I used to weigh my brass and sort it by weight when new. Then I would simply sell the lighter brass in one lot and the heavier brass in another lot. Folks at the gunshow in the NW used to seek me out and buy my "seconds".
Back then I would buy my brass from Kesselrings Gun Shop near Bellingham, Washington they bought all manner of brass by the barrels full and sell them by the pound!
I would buy 200 or 300 brass at a time and then sort it keeping the middle 50% after weighing them and sell the rest.
I have since given up that practice.
Maybe my accuracy suffers a tiny bit nowadays but I am not a bench rest shooter I am a Varmint and Big Game Hunter.
I have never weighed my "loads" (it sounds like you are referring to loaded rounds?).
How about you - have you made a habit of weighing your loaded rounds?
It would be interesting to hear from someone who does.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I did that when I was climbing the HP classifacation ladder years ago. Loading 100 rounds for an 88, including sighters, round match. Found I was always short "good rounds" for the 600 slow fire stage, or had extras for the rapids etc. Finally just sorted brass by weight for the whole 100. Everything was more uniform..but I eventually found it a PITA..so droped the RP stuff and bought Lapua. No more sorting and weighing.
But having talked to some of the older Palma shooters, Boots Obermeyer was one I believe, where Military stuff was used, they sorted it by weight, looking for accuracy and consistency. They musta thought it worked.

If you are going to weight sort, sort the brass.

On a batch of 200 you will have a few extreme flyers you will want to cull, and rest just group by weight. It helps in top end rifles, and will eliminate some flyers.

Your time would be better spent checking round out consistency rather than weighingd loaded ammo

I used to weigh brass, polish the brass, trim the brass, anneal the brass, check for consistent neck thickness, ream the inside of the primer hole opening, weigh every powder charge with an electric trickler for getting exact weight etc. But that was when I was going for the last 'th of MOA. However, I don't play those shooting games I used too.

This last week, I loaded a couple hundred 17 Hornet ammo and didn't do due diligence weighing the power as I loaded - I did for a while and since it didn't change, I thought so I stopped weighing the powder regularly. I was loading 25 grain bullets and 11 grains of 1680 with Remington 9 1/2m primers with new Hornady brass. I happen to measure the last powder throw and it's rather embarrassing and concerning how much the charge had changed. It grew from 11 grains to 12.7 grains.

So, I weighed the loaded ammo. The loaded rounds went from 91 grains to almost 94 grains. To be certain, everything 92.9 grains and over will not be fired at the PD shoot this summer.I have the loads sorted. I'll be doing some checking before I go to far. I'm concerned.

I have an inertia bullet puller, which I assume is worthless with light bullets. I may sacrifice bullets.

I'm in the market for a better powder measure! At least one that handles small powder charges better. And I will be weighing every fifth round from now on, I will especially be more careful for reloading a small case like the 17 Hornet.


It has been thirty years since I did what I stated in the first paragraph and frankly I don't know how much the 17 Hornet Hornady brass varies in weight. I'm confident the primers and the bullets don't vary measurably in weight.

One more thing I think I will pull a bullet or two in each of the loaded ammo's weight range and weigh the powder charge. My understanding is that 1680 is heat sensitive and I don't need already overloaded ammo in a PD fire fight.

It's embarrassing to screw up this badly.

Did I mention, I'm in the market for a better powder measure! They stopped making the one I have long ago. I think Pacific bought out the company that built this powder measure.

Which powder measure do you use?

My FIL use to weight the brass and bullets. Cull the brass he felt was out of specs, and I dont know where or what the specs were. When loading, the powder loads would vary according to the weight of the bullet. For example, if the bullet weighed 99.9 gr instead of 100 gr, he would adjust the powder by a very small amount. He was always striving for that 5 shot 1 hole group at 100 yds, and he very nearly made it. You could cover up a 5 shot group with a dime at 200 yds. He could shoot and had the rifle to do so. I'm not nearly that good.

I use the Lyman 1200 DPS and have been very pleased with its performance.

Never have, never will...

Then look to Hornady as they bought out Pacific in the 70’s. They no longer support them, hell they don’t even support the measure I bought in 88.

I weigh every part of my loads and I separate them by weight. I load only components that match.

How many ended up being too heavy?




By all accounts, I use one of the cheapest measures you can buy. I have a couple RCBS Uniflows.


I will often weigh the 25th charge, but no sooner than that.


I have had the charge screw back out before, that caused an increase. I just make sure the stem is secure in the barrel and that the lock ring and spring washer are tight-ish.


I use a baffle and make sure there is always powder above it. I also try to run the lever in a consistent manner.

With the 1680 I load for the 17 Hornet, the charges are always right on..



I dont blame you for being cautions after your experience. With good technique and good equipment you will gain your confidence back.

I've not weighed a powder charge,on over 3 Decades and throw EVERYTHING.

Hint..............

Many handloaders weighste a lot of time.

If you're going to weigh anything, weigh the brass, and if really nitpicky, the bullets. But weighing an entire cartridge tells you nothing because you have no less than three variables not related to each other at all.
As for charges, again, weighing the entire cartridge might not work and tell you what you really have. If you have either a 20 or 22 collet puller, you can use a cut case neck from a 17 to make a "temporary" collet yanker.

Must have been a "fluffy" powder. I had "creep" like that a couple of times with pistol powders. It was a mild charge so the only consequence was some vertical stringing, so I just plinked with those messed-up loads.

Still, I didn't like what I'd done, so after dumping powder in the hopper, I always give the measure a few love taps on the side of the barrel, throw a quick, violent five into a cup, basically shake things down. And yep, keeping the baffle covered with powder helps be consistent. But once I've banged things around and settled, and I get the charge I want, I just concentrate on being as consistent as possible in the charging motion on the handle. If I blow a pull, I just dump that one and try again.

How did you manage that with AA1680? It meters like water and has always dropped within a tenth from a full powder measure to nearly empty, for me. Are you sure you didn't mess up the scale, or bump the powder measure adjustment? What powder dispenser were you using?

I can see that happening with a big flake powder like Blue Dot, or maybe a long stick powder like 3031, but with AA1680? In your shoes I'd have been suspicious about the measurements being wrong, either at the start or at the end.

Nicely done

I have not weighed the charges yet. About a third of the loaded cases are over 93 grains. About half are between 92 and 93 grains. The rest are under 92 grains.

I have never seen this happen before with any powder. 1680 looks to be a perfect powder for measuring, so I do not have a good explanation on how "I screwed up". It is unlikely it was the measure's fault. Probably a short on this side of the measure. Still this an old powder measure. And I no longer use an Herters "C" press and my old two beam scale is in the corner gathering dust.

Maybe it is time to buy another measure and maybe I can ignore where the fault really lays and justify a new one. - Back when I played golf, I saw a guy wrap his Ping no.7 iron around a tree and the fault of his 7 iron was about as likely as the fault of my measure.