Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles IMR-4198 through a measure

Getting ready to load some 222 loads and am using IMR-4198.

Best to weigh each load or does it seem to run through a manual powder measurer okay?


I didn't realize it was such a long grain compared to RL-7 which I use in a measure with no issues.

I have a couple of good quality powder measures...but I get better uniformity with all long grain powders and some very fine flake powders using, shame on me, gasp, gulp, Lee scoops. But there is a small learning curve...read the instructions, uniformity filling the scoop is #1 and striking the scoop is #2...it will take about 10 minutes to figure it out.

I use scoops when I weigh each load. Been using them for 20+years.

Once you get the idea of exactly how full to fill the scoop it can be surprisingly fast to charge brass.

Depends on the measure. I use 4198 for a couple small capacity wildcat cases. It meters quite nicely through one of my old Belding&Mull measures but not the other one for some reason. (I suspect there's a difference in the shearing surfaces of the two.) It measures ok in my Harrell also, but indifferently in my old Saeco.

Note that those results are mimicked with all tubular grained powders not just 4198 (except 4831 which is like metering chunks of firewood). That's why the one's that work with them are designated for that use, and the others are reserved for ball and flake powders. Like most guys I'm pretty anal about such stuff, but in truth I'm hard pressed to see significant accuracy differences between accurately metered charges and charges dropped with shuddering crunchy operation of the measure's handle, or individually weighed charges. The difference may well matter to a benchrest competitor, but not to a deer standing 60 yards away.

I shoot a lot of .32-40 cast bullet loads with 4227 powder*, a small grained stick powder, and I probably drop a few thousand charges of the stuff per year in experimentation and competitions. The Harrell measure and the one B&M work equally well but it's the Harrell that does all of it because I charge the case at the shooting bench and it allows me to dispense directly into the case as opposed to the B&M which has an intermediate measuring tube. Checking the Harrell charges against a scale it's as consistent as one can hope with stick powders, but not perfect - but darned if I can tell a difference on the target paper at 200 yards. The wind has a more deleterious effect than a measly 1/10 grain variation.

* breech seating bullets into the rifling, re-charging the one case over and over for each shot. A single case has lasted me for hundreds of shots because there's no resizing involved, just de-re cap and charge the case with powder, put a thin wad in the mouth, and insert into chamber behind previously precisely seated bullet, fire.

I'll run the first 5 or so across the scale to give me confidence, then it's just scoop, strike, dump. I burn a lot of Titegroup in the .38-40...where a tenth matters...no worries.

I initially learned about reloading around 55 years ago at the LGS. The curmudgeonly guy who ran the place put me to work in the back of the store doing his scut work at the loading bench. (Probably to get me out from under foot.) He had a thriving business reloading .30-06's for the local crowd*, and it was the "scoop method" simplified. I deprimed/full length sized each case, reprimed, then dipped the case into a 25 pound keg of Surplus 4831, struck the powder level at the mouth, and crunched a 150 grain bullet down on top of it. Done. The theory was that it was impossible to get enough Surplus 4831 in an '06 case to be dangerous. The guys would drop off their empty brass and for a couple bucks we'd give them back full. My wages were paltry, but hey I was working at a gun shop and I mostly took it in the form of stuff off the shelf I thought I needed anyway- it certainly kept me in .22 ammo. The locals loved the ammo - we had the reputation of making accurate stuff that killed deer deader than dead. Nobody ever complained about a blown up rifle so I guess it was copacetic!

* It seemed that everybody had a .30-06 of some kind around there back then.

I just use the caveman era Lee Powder Dippers and a 505 beam scale...

brother in law, Fred Flintstone gave it to me....back before Jesus was born...

Cool story gnoahhh.

I thought Jesus built your house, but I might be wrong??? Or was it your loading bench?

Load bench... remember he was a Carpenter, not a Building Contractor...