just completed my first "scooped" box of ammo. did 100 .223's in about 20 minutes. way easier than weighing every charge like i have for the last 7 years since i started loading.

it's also nice to find a scoop that you CAN'T overfill. the lee scoop set comes with one that will not hold more than 27 grains, which is still not quite max for varget and a 50 grain bullet, which i was loading.

i am going to see how they perform. i mean, i know from working up loads that a half grain can sometimes tighten up a group, so it will be interesting to see how accurate it is with varying weights.

I use Lee dippers for most of my varmint loading. Some dippers I level off with a razor blade to get the weight I want. You would be hard pressed to make it vary by more than half a grain. Two or three tenths of a grain is my usual range of variance.

While I don't scoop, I also don't weigh. Just dump from the thrower.

That's how I roll too.

Some Bench rest shooters scoop instead of weighing. It does not vary with humidity/moisture content of the powder.

some I weigh each charge, for most of my .223 for the AR and all the pistol ammo I load it's from the thrower. I usually weigh thrown charges at intervals to check if I'm still on, probably more for peace of mind than anything.

Yet another reason not to be a bench rest shooter.

To each his own!
Some bench rests I like. Sand bags-not so much. Bags filled with Corn, I can digest if cooked correctly.

Oh, that's not what you meant!!

As long as you are consistent in how you throw it's all good

weigh stick powders, throw ball.

But also weigh & sort cases...

Agreed.

well i checked every so often. got lowest reading at 24.8 and highest at 27.1, so i am obviously not good at this yet

Not all powder measures are created equally. And most do not repeat for beans. In the short range bench rest game, thrown charges do well. some weigh charges, some don't. Out to say 300 yards, a tenth of a grain plus or minus won't be seen. Now when you start getting way out there, weighed charges are best. The 600 and 1000 yard shooters weigh everything.

Get a Culver type powder measure and you have a very good way of dumping powder. The clicks are positive and repeatable.

In twenty years of competitive bench rest shooting I never saw a single person using a scoop. When I first started the vast majority used thrown charges from a custom measure such as a Lyman Ideal with a Culver modification or several different variants of the Culver. It was widely used because shooters exchange load data by using 'clicks' instead of grains.

In the last few years of my shooting the RCBS Chargemaster was widely used. We would normally load 7-15 rounds between matches so the Chargemaster weighed charges plenty fast. I still use mine simply because I no longer shoot huge amounts at a time.

Probably the best way to use a scoop is to press it down in the powder and let the powder overflow the cup in stead of scooping the powder.

I'm like MJB, I tried one of them thrower thingys, but the results werent consistent. So, I scoop the powder from a cup (with a lee scoop) and pour it into the scale pan. I weigh every charge. Its slow, but accurate, and gives me something to do on a rainy day.

I never knew there was another way.



Travis

Be careful with that Wayne. I'm sure the rifle cognoscenti will be along shortly to tell you that you are FOS, because they once shot at a house sized rock at a 1000yd, and hit it, with a thrown charge. Rancho will be along to ask you how many B&C bucks you've killed with weighed charges, none means you're an idiot. The correct reply to Rancho is to ask him how many people he's killed with thrown charges, as that is equally pertinent, and, most importantly, creates instant and acute apoplexy on his part.

I'll throw 50 and weigh one at the end of each row in the loading block. 10% sample, good to go

This is what I do also.

when i first started I was weighing scooped charges, a little bit of OCD until i was confident

That ain't no lie.



Travis

Weigh stick, throw ball. Just my way of doing it.......

You should attend the Icebreaker next year and show us all these house sized rocks.


Travis

Possibly of interest:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth.../Re_Measuring_powder_charges#Post6696948

Yeah. Denton nailed it.

I like reading his stuff. My area of specialization was not statistics/measurement, but I am mathematically inclined.

I throw finer powders, and powders for big cases like a magnum where a little difference in charge doesn't make a difference. When using I4350 etc, i throw and trickle.

I also weighed individual charges for the first 13-14 yrs of loading. Then I got here, bought a couple rifles that were fun to shoot a lot of ammo through, and bought a Lyman Ideal.

Coupled with Ramshot powders I've wondered how I ever did without.

Of course for me a large part of the attraction of reloading is that I get to sit quietly at my work bench tinkering. Hand-weighed charges filled that need, but now with 2 boys who love to shoot an a couple 223s to feed quantity has stepped in to fill the need.

I've done enough testing out to 300 yards with accurate rifles and thrown charges of 4064 and 3031 to conclude a lot of people are wasting their time weighing charges, particularly if they're using small grained powders.

For a lot of purposes, and assuming a well developed load, the effects of small charge variations are swamped by other, larger influences.

I was just teaching my brother how to handload, and first thing he said was "I'm getting a powder thrower!"

I cannot imagine loading up 100, 223 shells in my single stage press and weighing each charge.

i have a lee press with the 4 hole turret and disabled the indexing device. so now i size all at once, twist the turret, and seat all at once. way faster.

plus i can leave the dies in the turret and remove the whole turret and replace with a different set for a different cartridge without unscrewing the dies or losing the setting accidentally.

slowing me down is weighing charges and priming on the press. i got the throwing charges idea down, and now i am going to buy a hand primer. should be nice to speed things up.

Don't buy the RCBS.

You bringin' the sheep?

We have those here. They're steel.

Doubt you could hit them though.



Travis

I know the new Lee has not been well received, but the one I've been using the past few months has worked very well.



Travis

same here. i used my brother in law's and his is a lee and i liked it.

Using buckets or cans instead of loading blocks helps too when using a single stage. Don't put them in the blocks until they're primed and ready to charge.



Travis

Put a charge of 40ish grains of your favorite stick power on your scale until the indicator is dead nuts lined up. Then drop another 3 or 4 kernels in and see how much it moves. If you're chasing the difference, you're wasting your time.

Amen to that! Get the Lee Auto Prime or whatever they're selling now.

Bench primer is the way to roll..

This. My cases get a trip to the loading block only after being primed and I always put them in upside down so that I can visually inspect for upside down primers.

Don't buy the RCBS.[/quote] Amen to that! Get the Lee Auto Prime or whatever they're selling now. [/quote]

Sure wish someone would market a GOOD hand priming tool with a tray. The Sinclair's and K&M's are good, but to pick up one primer at a time at a match just aint my cup of tea.

In the good old days a recommended .222 load was a full (scooped) CASE of 4895 carded off and then seat the 52 grain hot shooting, flat base bullet. We all had crewcuts then, or of you were a hotshot, you got a Flat Top! There was no need to say IMR , there was only Dupont powders on the back shelf at the hardware store...We all survived, somehow.