Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles weighing your loads

And yet that variation is the fundamental problem a lot of guys struggle with. Your particular measure and technique might have small variation, but I know I'm not the only one experiencing large variation with long stick powder. I don't really care if the total of ten throws averages exactly right, if one throw is only 41gr and the next is 42.5 or something like that.

I don't think it's useful to tell people that weighing charges doesn't matter, unless you also have tips and techniques to share that will reduce variation. With high variation between throws, it does matter.

In earlier conversations about thrown charges I have mentioned how I do things. I fill the hopper and throw at least ten charges to get things normalized, for lack of a better term. I don't tap the measure myself. I don't let the throwing motion tap at either end of the stroke. I grasp the whole handle in my hand, not just the part that sticks out for the fingertips. I use a slow, high torque motion. If grains want to get cut, then they get cut. They don't hang up my throw. Because I'm using "overwhelming torque" the troublesome grains don't cause a lot of vibration to upset the way the powder is settled in the measure. If I do feel a really rough one then it and the next throw are returned to the hopper.

I did enough testing early on to know I don't get variation over a few tenths either way. Because of that I quit checking, and that's why I say I don't know what it really is. The fundamental problem, and early on it was a problem for me too, is getting over the idea that a few tenths matter to what you'll see on target provided the load is well developed in the first place.

To be clear, I'm not talking about long range benchrest and the like. At those distances the variations in MV from charge variations that don't affect short-mid range groups will start to show up as vertical.

No, I think most of us here understand that.

The fundamental problem with not measuring thrown charges that I see is the large and inconsistent variation that many of us experience. With powders like Benchmark, etc or any ball powder, that will drop within a couple tenths each time, I don't bother to weigh every charge either. It's with the long stick powders like 3031 and 4064 that I and most others feel the need to weigh each charge.

A couple tenths variation is one thing, in a good load. A full grain or more variation is something else entirely, and is not acceptable in anything I shoot, except a black powder mortar.

The targets tell me whatever variation there is when I'm throwing 3031 or 4064 certainly isn't spoiling things. I outlined my throwing technique. I don't believe it's that special.

Every reloader will have his preferred methods, I throw all my charges whether ball or stick powder. Clint Smith from Thunder Ranch did this comparison several years ago and found no measurable difference weighing vs throwing charges. I agree with Clint...

This discussion just shows how factors can stack, or not. I think the threshold for concern is, of course, adverse results either on paper, or on extraction, or whatever factor trips your "trigger."
I'll agree with Bugger that he did a smart thing and analyze his situation to his satisfaction. Then pass on what he figured out. Most of us know that charge variations matter the most in small, hot cartridges, this just affirms it. If throwing works, then it works. But if it honestly doesn't, and that happens sometimes, ya do what ya gotta do.