My education in reloading goes back to the early 80s. I had a buddy who'd owned his own gun store and custom ammo mfg. He showed me how one evening. He used an RCBS powder measure (don't remember the model) and we loaded 30-06 together. 15 years later, I started doing it myself.

It is from that initial lesson that I learned the proper way to use a powder measure was to move the barrel up smartly to receive the charge and then down to dispense it. The trick was to do it as close to the same way each time to minimize charge-to-charge differences.

When I got my RCBS Rock Chucker Master Kit, it came with a Uniflow measure. I assembled and used it as I remembered. I've had decent luck with it over the years. However, I noticed a drift when I was loading, usually towards a higher weight. There might be a drift of +.5 grains over 20 rounds. I eventually started throwing low and adding with a trickler. Nowadays I have a Hornady Auto-Charge that pretty much does the same thing.

I saw a Youtube yesterday that got me to thinking. A fellow was showing "THE CORRECT" way to use a powder dispenser. His method was completely the reverse. First off, he was slow and gentle with his strokes. His first stroke delivered the powder to the case and then rotated it up to fill for the next round. Is that really more correct? Does it make any bloody difference?

Second, he said that you should always use the small volume cylinder for everything. I've got both cylinders, and use the small one for pistols, and the large for everything else.

For the most part, I'm not using my Uniflow much these days. As I said, I got the Auto-Charge a while back, and it does a reasonable job. I've also gotten a Hornady LNL Auto-Progressive that came with its own powder measure. It's taken on the bulk of my pistol loading.

Still, I'm wondering. How do y'all use a powder measure?

The "correct way" is subjective.

Some powders meter differently than others and demand different "techniques", but a baffle in the hopper helps dramatically to lessen any drift.

The correct way, is the way that gets the job done as efficiently as possible and with the least amount of fiddledickin' around.

I'd echo FA. The powder baffle minimized the drift from a full hopper to a low hopper since the same amount of "pressure" is on the drum from start to finish.

Yup a baffle properly positioned in a uni flow cures alot of the drift problem and cures the flake powder problem. Proper procedure is finding what works for you. Got a 80’s Hornady Deluxe measure that i have never used the small metering stem only the large whether pistol or rifle, my uniflow is just the opposite never have used the large drum. 35-40 years practice on something does help in understanding what proper operation in your usage means.

I bought a powder baffle for my Uniflow very early on. While it changed the drifting towards heavier charges, it did not make it go away.

Do any of you reverse the operation of the measure from the recommended procedure? That is, do you start with the drum raised to the top, dispense the charge and then return it back up? I've never done that, and I'm wondering what others have found.

Mind you, for the most part I have gone to the Hornady LNL AutoCharge for about 90% of my rifle reloading. This is just a question out of curiosity.

What got me out of the habit of using the Uniflow was large stick powders, particularly H4831 and H4831 SC. I was having a terrible bridging problem. I tried every trick you guys could offer me to no avail. One throw would be 5 grains under and then I'd get 5 grains over on the next charge. For that particular project, I fashioned a dipper out of an old 30-06 case and then dumped it into the pan of my 5-0-5 and then trickle up. For a while there, I was finding this rather primitive method gave me excellent results and I ended up making similar dippers, one for each of my rifle chamberings that used stick powders.

Then I found a Hornady LNL Auto-Charge on sale at Natchez for a ridiculous price and decided to make the jump.

I have kept the dippers for when I am working up a load at the shooting bench. A dipper, a trickler and a small electronic scale are all I need.

Curiousity? Well, every time I go down to the bench I see my Uniflow sitting there, and I wonder to myself how I might get it back in the game. There is bound to be a project that will require charging a tray full of primed brass somewhere in my future.

For 35-40 years now. Feels more natural.

The best way is to be consistent from drop to drop with whichever method one chooses. My preference is to raise the handle smoothly and wait for a moment for the powder to settle. Then use a smooth stroke to finish. A baffle helps keep the pressure consistent from drop to drop.

Of course the type of powder, ball or stick, is the big factor on volume measuring. I've tried a lot of different manual manipulations of the handle & I still can't recommend the best technique.

I took the vibrator out of an old cell phone & glued it to a small plate along with a AAA battery & a mercury switch. I attached this via the handle screws. For my first tests, I adjusted the switch to come on with handle in powder "receive" position. My next test I reversed the switch to come on in the "drop" position.

My conclusion was that all this was a waste of time & bought a RCBS Chargemaster.

Another technique I have adopted through trial and error with garden variety dispensers like Redding...I glued in another baffle, spray graphite the drum and body once a year, and I tap against the stop both directions, and I maintain a fairly uniform column of powder in the hopper...always above the top baffle.

About the same as Flintlocke, except no baffle and I keep the hopper about half full. Still throw light and trickle though. Handgun ammo gets loaded on my Dillon Square Deal B and all that powder meters well

As already mentioned, different types of powder need a different “knock” on the drum. The baffle really help but also maintaining powder level in the hopper really helps to prevent charge weight changes. Keeping the powder weight/level (downward force on the baffle) in the hopper the same makes a difference.

Stick powders are going to make problems for you every so often, so you just need to deal with it.
When I get a hangup with stick powders, I know it's going to be heavy. I'll drop it in the scale pan and with a babies spoon remove the excess powder instead of dumping the whole charge.

I only use the large volume drum. I use the Micrometer Adjustment Screw instead of the screw that comes with the standard model so I can quickly return to a different load measurement. I always start with the drum down (empty chamber).

Holy schidt, don't trust about 90% of what you see on youtube. There's a lot of stupidity there.

That's sad man. I use my Uniflow on a very regular basis. When I drop ball powders, or fine powders, I can drop right from the Uniflow to the case. It is very quick. Charges stay well within/less than a tenth of a grain. Pretty much spot on with every charge. When I drop powders like H4350, I drop light and trickle in the rest. Like micincolorado said, if a long kernel hangs up, like they do every once in a while, I know it's going to weigh heavy. I automatically tap a few kernels into the trickler, weigh, and then trickle the rest into the pan. Very simple and fast enough. Weighing a charge in this manner takes an average of 6 seconds. Charging cases directly from the powder measure (Uniflow) with ball powder is extremely fast: Where I can charge 50 cases in less than 2 minutes. So that works out to about 2-2.5 seconds per case. Even if I'm charging 308w with CFE223 (as an example) where I'm putting 45.5 gr's in each case. It's fast, and very efficient. When done properly, accuracy/precision isn't harmed and it is a very safe operation. Always eyeball your cases in the loading block, before stuffing a bullet on top.

Handloading to me is a hobby so never thought much about speed except the bullet leaving the muzzle. Speed will come with the practice of doing things slow, precise and exactly the same enough times. Also the flaws in your procedure will show themselves in some fashion.

Or...just upgrade your technology.

I use a Lee Perfect Powder Measure. I'll use the same motion with each stroke. I like to throw and weigh 10 charges and divide by 10 to get a more accurate weight of the average charge. Then just spot check every 5th or 10th round. I've not yet been convinced that consistent volume isn't as good or better than consistent weight. Volume is what you are getting from these powder measures. If I feel a crunch or anything abnormal, I'll either dump that charge back in the hopper or at least weigh it.

My technology works exactly the same each and every time. Works in sub zero to 110*, rain, shine or snow flawlessly. Also works day or night, no electricity required. Never have to worry about a brain board, digital display or other malfunction unless I close my eyes and have a massive brain fart.

KISS principle in full use.

What does the factory RCBS uniflow baffle even look like?

I made my baffle out of the side of a metal IMR4831 can. I cut a piece out, bent it at not quite 45 degrees, cut it to fit down in the hopper and reasonably fit all around the circumference, then cut an adequate "V" notch out of one side of it. It rests at the bottom of the hopper. Other than stick powder catching and cutting every once in a while I've never had any unacceptable high or low. It's extremely accurate with ball powder and within a couple or three tenths with stick powder....which I throw light and dribble up anyway. I never fill the hopper up all the way unless I'm doing a big run because I hate unloading any unused powder. Mine's mounted to a stand and not convenient to take off and dump, so I twist the micrometer all the way out and run it through the measure back into the jug. I only fill what I think I'll need. So my baffle works fine no matter how full it is.

I just use the same stroke,sometimes i have to re do some because of the IMR logs.

I also put an o-ring between the lock nut washer thing and the nut on that holds the drum in the measure.

Keeps it from moving.

I do use the small plug for everything.

I have become somewhat bubba with age
I am no longer interested in velocity ES/SD and don’t even chrono. I test for accuracy and shoot for dope.
As I shot more I begrudged weighing and trickling.
I tested my Uniflo and Harrrel over 50 charges with my desired charge of 53gr VVN160.

Uniflo - Max 53.3, Min 52.6

Harrel - Max 53.7, Min 52.5

Using the Uniflo I can hit the 0.5MOA prairie dog at 500yds. ie it shoots better than I can.
The Harrel operates within the tolerance of my scales with ball and VVN133 but not coarse powder.

This, Yes!

I started reloading in 1966, at age 11. A friend's father taught me. Before I was 12, I had saved my money and bought an RCBS Rockchucker and Uniflow powder measure, Ohaus 10-10 powder scale, set of Lee powder dippers, Ohaus powder trickler, RCBS .45 ACP and .303 British die sets, Speer and Lyman loading manuals, and the other tools and supplies to start reloading myself. Dad's only advice or admonition was "pay attention to what you're doing and don't blow yourself up." I still have every bit of that to this day and, other than those manuals and a case lube pad, still use every bit of it.

Anyway, my friend's father had a Lyman powder measure that had a little "knocker" mounted on its side and when loading any of the stick powders of the day, you HAD to use that knocker to keep it from bridging and/or having any hope of consistent charge weights. When I started using my new Uniflow, I learned to do a double bump at the top and bottom of each up-stroke and down-stroke when using stick powders, but out of habit I do it for all powders. BUT, I also figured out to throw my charges a few tenths light into the scale pan and trickle them up to proper weight when using stick or coarse powders. I sometimes "trickled" out of one of the Lee powder dippers instead of the trickler.

I also experienced charge weight drift as the amount of powder in the measure went down, which was another good reason to throw light and trickle up. Sometime in the late 60's, I saw an article or tip in a magazine that described putting a baffle in the bottom of the powder measure hopper, so I made one out of the lid of a Campbell's soup can, and it worked really well. While it stopped most of the charge weight drift, it did not prevent heavy charges when the stick powder would "crunch".

I do NOT move the handle slow and gentle, but I don't slam it either. It's important to develop a very consistent cadence with the measure. I start with the handle in the dump position, raise it up smoothly but not slowly, do a quick but not hard double-bump at the end of the stroke, pause about a second, and move the handle down at same speed with another double bump at the bottom.

The double bump at the top of the stroke does two things: 1) it helps the powder chamber fill consistently, and 2) it helps to keep the powder in the hopper settled more consistently. At the bottom of the stroke, the double bump helps reduce powder bridging.

I load all of my big game hunting ammo on my Rockchucker or an upgraded Forster Co-ax press, using the Uniflow measure. I also have a couple of Dillons that I use for volumes of anything over 100 rounds and only use fine or ball powders in the Dillon measures on them. Whatever I'm loading on, I try to keep the charge weights to +/- 0.1 gr for critical stuff and +/- 0.2 gr for less critical stuff.

One thing I find interesting is the number of fellow tricklers responding. I've been here at the 'Fire for over 20 years, and I can say that the early campers thought a trickler was the most useless piece of kit ever devised.


Truth there. That's why I brought it up to y'all. Even though there are plenty of flyers on this forum, the groupings have remained consistently tight and near the target over the years.


So okay, here is a stumper for y'all. Let's go all the way back to the beginning of this. I have an RCBS Rock Chucker Master Kit, and starting at square one. I start to see a lot of variation in my charge weights and add the baffle to the Uniflow. I still get variations, and there is a fairly steady increase in weight. For a while before I decided to trickle up, I'd weigh every 5th charge and be tweaking the weight back down almost every test. It became enough that I eventually decided to resort to throwing light and trickling up.

Where was that variation coming from? It never weighed lower than expected, always higher. The problem continued into my days as an inveterate trickler. I'd get one charge that was spot on and then screw in the barrel a tweak to get it back down below .2 grans under target. Throughout all this, I was mostly messing with stick powders. The most common was H4895.

I played around with different things to get less drift, I came up making a funnel out of aluminum with the spout stopping 3/4 way down the hopper. This works to keep constant pressure in the hopper i also use a baffle, This set up will hold 1 pound of powder and when reloading volume when powder stops coming out of funnel i refill, the funnel spout is .300 hole. This is what I came up with trying to fix drift and it works very well with stick powder, with ball powder it's dead not on. I made alot of funnels for friends and they all been happy with the results, they keep telling me I should start selling them.

I think there's something to be said about accepting the shortcomings and margins of error in any given mechanical device, and developing methods that circumvent those shortcomings efficiently enough to get the outcome desired.

Chargemasters and the like wouldn't exist if our powder measures performed precisely every time. That's where technology has taken us so far to counteract the shortcomings and margins of error.

At my bench I use only stick powders in my rifle cartridges. I'm OCD enough to want a precisely weighed charge in every load. I'm also cheap enough to steer clear of things like a Chargemaster. So, to get what I want I trade fast/convenient for time/effort, and trickle up.

I long ago accepted that a Uniflow measure is going to be only so accurate with stick powders, ie shortcomings and margins of error, and not much I could worry about would tighten things up. So I accepted the fact that I needed to become accustomed to how light a charge I needed to throw, to have room to trickle up to the correct charge, without constantly friggin' with the measure. How much depended on the powder, and I never put any more energy into it than that. Just do it.

To alleviate the always mundane task of manually twisting the trickler I built a powered trickler that requires only a push of a button to rotate the tube and dispense the remainder of the charge. Even that has its own shortcomings and margins of error, but it's exponentially faster and less mundane than the old manual way.

So now, I can set my uniflow for a touch lighter thrown charge and cover all bases that the uniflow is lacking on, because the power trickler makes up for it in less time/effort. I used to dread running through 200 or 300 rounds of match/practice ammo every month, just because I hated the powder measuring process. Now I can hate each step equally. Lol.

You can see it sitting in the hopper.

Mine I made is slightly flatter angle, and only one notch.

Might be the difference.

I thought about making one like you did, but it was cheap, so I said screw it, just go ahead and buy it.

My measures don’t drift like shaman is describing. Maybe the difference is I run 20+ charges and thrown them back in the hopper before I start charging cases in the loading block

I used to use the uniflow for stick powders but it was frustrating and I would re-throw a lot of charges. Now I use the uniflow with ball and lee perfect for stick. The lee works much much better.

I run the handles slow and smooth, and I use baffles. I don’t weigh charges every 5-10 like folks describe, I do a visual check to verify the powder height looks correct in the case.

I stopped trickling/weighing powders when I verified with 20 rounds groups at 600yd thrown vs weighed with RL16 and couldn’t tell the difference. I’ve putting together a rifle that will run H1000 which has longer “sticks” so I’ll re-run the test with that and I hope I don’t have to resort to trickling. I really enjoy not having to weigh charges

There's a piece of old school technology that mitigates a lot of what I see being discussed here. It's the old Belding&Mull measure. (Google it if you care to see what it looks like. I'm too lazy to go through the rigamarole of making a pic of mine.) It works via a side-to-side moving chamber which dispenses into a separate adjustable charge tube. Shearing action with big fat stick powder granules remains an issue but the beauty of it lies in the absolute constant powder level in the dispensing chamber. It's a device that's been around for most of a century now and is the darling of a lot of knowledgeable handloaders to this day. I like mine so much I acquired an identical spare one as backup even though my first one's still going strong 40+ years on. The only powders I revert to throwing light and trickling up are the really coarse ones like 4831 and 4759. The rest just go straight into the case and damned if I can tell any significant difference in accuracy over weighed charges.

For outdoor use, breech seating single shot target rifles at the bench, I have become a fanboy of the Harrell measure. Aside from its uncanny precision when dropping charges of fine grained powders like 4227 (something that I could just as easily do with the B&M outdoors), its claim to fame is its precisely repeatable micrometer adjustments which are handy for jockeying loads when dealing with changing shooting conditions - trust the micrometer, and forego the scale which can get dicey if there's wind blowing.

There's that too. I use a lot of H4895 and it is one of the most forgiving powders I know. Sometimes you cannot really tell a difference of .5 grain as far a where the bullet hits. Still, I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

Remember, I'm the guy who escaped from Planet 4 MOA. I tried everything I could to minimize my groups, and one of the first things I did was try and get as accurate as I could throwing charges. This was one of my least productive rabbit holes, but it did give me good discipline in charging cases.

I use a similar system, but bought a commercial electric trickler. This combined with setting my Harrell's a .1 or .2 short is relatively quick. I really like using my "tuned" 10-10 and fixed the "parallax" by incorporating a camera to bring the scale to eye level:



Can see the impact of a single kernel of stick powder.

Is your rifle, optic, target and course of fire such that you can also provably see it on target?

Nice

Isn't he talking about the camera view on his scale?

^^^

THIS!

I know the comment was about seeing it on the scale. My question was about the relevance of that as it applies to the target.

Sometimes good serious and throwing to the kernel make a fella feel better! Nothing wrong with that.

My question is also the relevance. A 24 grain load would have 240 tenths what is the difference between 239 tenths or 241 tenths. Scale accuracy of +-.1. Personally I have never had a rifle accurate enough to discern .1 grains powder variation on target.

or shooter

If a load is well developed, then a number of other ducks need to be in a row before +/- a tenth means much at all.

One of the easiest things a reloader can do is weigh charges to the 10th of a grain. I weigh all my hunting and target powder before it goes into the case. Any higher volume shooting I just use a RCBS Uniflow, I slap the handle down to dispense the powder and slap it back up to recharge.

You got that right. Only powder I have ever trickled is 4831. Everything else comes out of the Uniflow close enough for hunting loads (of course if you are shooting BR or similar, it might make a provable difference but in that case 4831 is not your huckleberry).

The statement was just concerning the sensitivity of the scale and trickling, nothing more, nothing less.

Since you've obviously got an opinion that you're chomping at the bit to expound, by all means burn up some bandwith....

Went to a quite a few group shoots in the mid to late 90’s and had more than one BR shooter when asked about charge weight they didnt know. Had one that I thought was kidding state I fill it to the top with N133, scrape it level with a pop sickle stick then place a 68 grain bullet on top. 🤔
Seems most loaded by volume and didnt give a hoot about weight.

It all really comes down to task/purpose and intended distance..


Normal benchrest 100-200yds probably isn't the best indicator for thrown VS weighed and the precision cause the effect of higher ES and SDs aren't really kicking in yet and from what I've seen a lot of those guys use thrown charges. F-Class might be a better indicator. Here's a survey conducted of PRS shooters in 2015 that delves in reloading and a little bit on weighing charges. IAW this 49% (the majority) of the top shooters were using high end scales :

https://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/12/31/reloading-tips-from-top-precision-rifle-shooters/


So apparently, at least in 2015, some top shooters are using expensive equipment cabale of more accuracy in their powder weighing for no apparent reason...

I may be wrong, but what I've read is the competitive shooters use their scale to develop a load, then set a measure to deliver the volume that corresponds to the desired weight at the time the load was developed. Till they get a new lot of powder, they don't mess with that measure setting. Humidity changes affect powder density, but not the amount of fuel in a measured volume of a given lot of powder. Again, this is based on reading, and if I'm wrong I'll stand corrected.

For all I know you're an F-Class High Master and you can prove the difference at 1000 yards.

My opinion is that a large percentage of handloaders spend a lot of time weighing powders to fractional gnat's ass increments to no real benefit in their application. If it makes them feel better about what they're doing that's perfectly OK.

Yep.

Nope, did compete at 800-900-1000 and was a master class silhouette shooter. I've got far more worries than .1 grains in powder, but the time spent in addition to get there is minimal.

And I agree, the task/purpose defines the requirements. I did find it interesting that guys that are competing and doing well are spending the money on scales/dispensers that can weigh to that level though.

Agree Strongly.

My wife bought a Midway micrometer powder measure a very, very long time ago. I find it more consistent with large charges of stick powders than my more recently purchased Uni-Flow. On the other hand, the Uni-Flow with the small cylinder is more precise with lighter charges of pistol powders.

As per technique, consistency is paramount. The charge handle naturally comes to rest at the bottom of the stroke, between cartridges. I raise the handle smoothly to fill the hopper, then also smoothly lower it. If I feel the crunch of powder granules as the rotor comes down, experience has shown that charge will likely be off by a grain or more, so I discard that charge.

Most importantly, after the hopper is empty, I lift it halfway to the top again and drop it firmly, every time. This does two things. First, it dislodges any bridges below the rotor. Second, it helps to uniform the mass of powder above the rotor prior to the next charge.

Probably more important with stick powders than ball or flake. But I have developed the habit with any powder.

$9 on Amazon

Guilty as charged.

I have been loading since 1978. I still do not own a trickler. I do own a small plastic food storage bowl, and a plastic spoon. Sometimes it is faster to load fifteen or twenty rounds out of the bowl with the spoon than to set up the measure.

Free.

And from what I read here apparently works better than the commercial ones.

I'm thinking the steep angle and big notches lets too much powder into the bottom and really isn't doing the job it was intended to do.

This has been an interesting thread.

One of my questions still remains: What was I doing wrong? The Uniflow is one of the standard bits of reloading kit. As soon as I started to see problems, I added the baffle. Still, for about 10 years, I kept having problems with that fairly constant positive drift in charge weights. For a good long while, cranking it down a little every 5-10 rounds seemed to be the only solution. At some point, my MIL died and I found a 115 volt personal vibrator in with her effects. I started using it to massage the column of powder a little. That didn't work either.

Could your adjustment stem be working loose? Do you tighten it to a faretheewell? I had a measure long ago that behaved like that so I cranked it tight with pliers and then it was ok. PIA to adjust like that so I kicked it down the road.

I used the Uniflow measure for a lot of years. That’s what I learned on. I never used it to get exact measurements because I always saw it as crude even back then. I always tapped a few times against the stops each time and tried to throw a tenth less and trickle the rest. Most of our reloading was rifles and most were extruded powder. The ball powders, we accepted when we dialed the flow out. We would still weigh those at random to make sure we’re still good. Now I use a few electric dispensers instead of the Uniflow and like the consistency they give with any type of powder.

Baffle height in the column can be adjusted for better overall performance. Notice where I have the baffle compared to the other 2.

How many charge throws are you doing before you start weighing to adjust the measure?

After the measure is adjusted, does the positive drift start right away?

It seems like there has to be a point at which the increase levels off. You can settle a powder column and fill the drum only so much.


The last time I used my Redding BR-30 I was dispensing IMR 4895 for a 308 Winchester target load. The measure was already set to the charge from a previous loading session. When I filled the hopper I threw twenty dummy charges before I weighed one to recheck the setting. It was still right on, and as I threw and weighed the charges there was no drift upward.

i use Redding BR-30 power measures with the steel turkey neck piece mounted under the powder measure always ,i volume load as does factory ammo companies. my family and friends worked at a ammo factory in ballistics ,engineering and ammo testing and all agreed powder can not be weighed accurately and volume loading is generally much more accurate with many powders . i myself have tried to see what was more accurate with different cartridges with bench rest rifles and volume loading always shot the better groups . while shooting competition bench 100- 200 yards . when loading at these matches between sets ,i never ever seen a powder measure scale when anyone was reloading , but most cleaned their rifles to much i thought.

This^^^^^

I use 2 light taps at the top & bottom, always keep the powder level an inch or so above the baffle.

Make sure the lock on the adjustment rod stays tight.

And a Redding 3BR is much more consistent that the Uniflow that I had..........hands down, & the Redding does with one powder cylinder, what the Uniflow couldn't do with 2.

MM

I see a lot of guys on this forum that come off as Day 1 experts. Ther learning curves are vertical. I'm not accusing you or anyone else on this thread of being a legend in their own mind. I only make the observation to contrast it with my own self-image in regards to reloading. I always figured I must be doing something wrong. From the unboxing in 2000, I was shamed by that Uniflow. I knew it was me, but I couldn't figure it out. Here it is 20-some years later, and I'm still starring at the thing on my bench and feeling done in.

I would start weighing immediately. However, there would be a good twenty charges done before I was ready to throw the first one for real. I wouldn't try and fill the case before I had 5 consecutive throws at the target weight.

The drift might be noticeable by the 5th case. I don't remember it being particularly linear and for the bulk of my experience, it wasn't a dangerous jump. I always operated well under the MAX, so an excursion of .2 grain wasn't going to be lethal.

You'd think it wouldn't keep climbing. However, I played with it one day to "solve" the issue. I charged 50 cases of 30-06 to see, and then weighed each one. I had a .5 grain difference from first to last. It wasn't linear either. Sometimes there'd be 10 at the same weight, but runs of 5 were more common. It was after that I gave up on the Uniflow and started trickling up. Even then, I was seeing the creep. I'd start down .2 grains and after a while, I was back up to the target weight. I'd set it back down and keep going.

Oh, and one other thing: Early on, I thought it might be the adjustment slipping. I'd crank that gnurly knob down tight, only to have to loosen it up again in 5 rounds. I'd come out of the basement at the end of the session with my fingers hurting from those gnurls.

The Hornady LNL that came with my Auto-Progressive holds a charge much better. Of course, I'm mostly throwing pistol charges with pistol powder, but I rarely have to make an adjustment over 200 rounds. Ditto for a large batch of .223 REM that I did with ball powder.

You know what, Shaman - if I had a measure that behaved like that 24 years ago I would've kicked it down the road 23 years ago. Life is too short to be aggravated by nonsense like that. Getcherself a different measure.

As for "vertical learning curves", it all depends on research, due diligence, call it what you will, and basic handloading common sense before starting in on something new.

You could just stop pissing and moaning about it and go ahead and upgrade your technology.

I did that, starting a decade ago. However, it always bothered me that the Uniflow always seemed to best me. I was hoping someone would have said something I hadn't tried, and I could kick myself in the butt and move on.




Look Mister G: I consider you one of the wisest voices on this fire. And I would be loathe to include you in that group of instant geniuses. Nor would I include anyone who have contributed to this thread.

I spent a good 10 years researching reloading before buying my Rock Chucker and going for it. I had a good teacher back in the early 80s that ran his own custom ammo business. The measure I picked was at the top of a lot of folks' list. I always figured it was me. I probably spent 2 years working with the measure to get it to do what I wanted before resorting to trickling.

So if you don't actually use the Uniflow in question, what do you use?


Added. Really...researched for TEN years?

Heres my last advice. Contact RCBS by email or phone. They have the best customer service out there and if its never been right I am sure they will do their best to make it right.

https://www.rcbs.com/contactus

Yes, they really do.

Well, yes. Longer if you count the first time I reloaded with a friend's help to ordering my first kit and doing it all myself. A lot intervened in that time.

From the early 80s until about 1990, it looked like a lot of effort for little payoff for a fellow in my circumstance. I was not going through enough ammo to warrant it. From 1989 to 1992, I was trying to make babies with woman who had fertility problems. After #2 son came out of the oven, my wife 1.0's mental health became a real issue and it brought on a very messy divorce in 1994. The divorce lasted 3 years and then I had years of post-decree litigation. I really didn't have the free time until I'd been married and settled for the second time, gotten a third son out of the new oven and finally got a job that didn't have my head in a vice all the time.

Things did not settle down until 2000. By then, I had amassed every piece of brass I'd shot since 1980. I was shooting about six different chamberings, and I decided to take the plunge. Was I studying reloading the whole time? No. However, I'd picked up the idea and set it back down several times along the way.

The same thing has happened with shotgun reloading, but after 40 years, and numerous considerations, I have decided to table it yet again just in the past week. With shotgun, I've gone through the exercise of pricing out the break-even point and other factors, and realized it is cheaper for me to just buy loaded ammo.

What I use now is a Hornady LNL Progressive for most of my pistol reloading jobs. For all my regular rifle loads, I have a Hornady AutoCharge that has worked well for me for 2 years. I do those loads on the original RockChucker. I also have a Lee Hand Press that I take to the range and work up loads right at the bench. For measuring, I have a small electronic scale, a trickler and various dippers. I don't think I have used the Uni-Flow since I got the AutoCharge. I pre-prime my brass at home and use the Hand Press to just seat the bullet.

The main motivation of this thread was to figure out if there was something obviously wrong in the way I was operating it. Though not a necessity, it would be nice if I could charge a whole tray of cases with the Uniflow without fretting about charge weight errors. I gather from the responses that y'all don't see anything glaring. That's fine.

Yeah, I thought about calling RCBS, but I'm pretty sure they'd tell me to ship it back, they'd test it, and ship it back. These things aren't complicated. The one avenue of investigation I've uncovered in all this is the possibility that using the small cylinder might do better. I'd previously only used it for pistol loads. I will probably test that someday soon.

Thanks all. This is still a good place to turn to a friend and say, "Look over my shoulder here and tell me what I'm doing wrong."

My old Redding number 3 has both the large rifle micrometer and the small diameter pistol micrometer. It does wonderfully with pistol charges using the small micrometer. Not so well on small charges with the large micrometer. If your smaller one will throw a large enough charge it might be worth a try.