Weighing Powder Charges

[fleener]

There is no doubt that if you simply do a powder charge by volume only you will have a differences in weight. Does it matter? you only have to read the post to see that you will get as many answers as there are people.

Not all shooters have the same goals, talent or quality of equipment.

I host a rendezvous each year at my farm. Shooters of all abilities and equipment come. MOA for a buffalo at 50 yards is all that some need or care for. They could care less about cutting x's at 100 yards.

If you want to eliminate variables you will weight you charges, if your shooting does not require it you will just do a volume measure.

I do both, just depends on my goals. At my rendezvous it will be a simple powder measure from a horn, if I am trying to set a new national record, it will be by weight.

Fleener

 

[hanshi]

To no one in particular, I just fill the measure and pour it in the barrel. I consider my results, excellent (for me, that is). It's simple and it works just fine.

The only time I've experienced a major jump in velocity is with my .40 where a 5 grain increase from 35 grains to 40 grains gave a nearly 300 fps gain in velocity. This rifle does that but nothing else I have shows a similar jump.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

snipped. . . .

I do both, just depends on my goals. At my rendezvous it will be a simple powder measure from a horn, if I am trying to set a new national record, it will be by weight.

Fleener

Hi Art,
I assume that you weigh at Oak Ridge and at Friendship on the Mini Creedmore range.I think all the long range bullet shooters would weigh charges.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[fleener]

Quite a few, myself included at times simply use a lyman powder measurer and just dump powder. I have started weighting every charge for long range. Most of my round ball shooting is for fun and for fun I keep it simple

Fleener

 

[Rat Trapper]

All depends on what you need, for plinking I volime measure, when I'm seious, I weight them.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

every time this subject comes up we have those who claim to have shot for 150 years and say there is no difference. On the other hand we have those who rave about the load testing for new rifles and certain systems for arriving at the quintessential load combination. then there are those who see an improvement in accuracy by weighing.

As a few people touched on, the type of shooting makes a difference when the issue of weighing comes up.

a great many shooters do not realize how much their volumn measured charges vary from shot to shot. Unless the idea is to hit the barn from the hay loft, weighing their measured charges will at least tell them how consistent they are in their volume measurements. There is no way somebody has actually arrived at the perfect load, if their measurements vary +/- 5 grains from shot to shot. For serious target shooters who shot moderate loads, a +/- 5 grain difference in a 50 grain charge will make a substantial difference. In light bench shooting it will guarantee crappy results.

I don't weigh charges for most of my shooting. But I have several times checked my volume measurements to make sure they are running within a grain or two. In my target pistol I do weigh, simply because a grain or two difference in a 10 grain charge does make a difference in 50 yd elevation.

Most shooters who load from the pouch and shoot strictly offhand would never notice a difference. That does not mean that their shooting could not be improved by weighing, but that between all the other factors that go into loading, weighing a charge is a very small consideration.

As shooters improve and slowly narrow the many variables that can affect their shooting, weighing is important at least to see how consistent their volume measurement is. we can't control wind, humidity or lighting. We can control how consistent our powder measuring is or could be. Just as some search for a load with a certain patch or certain weight ball. those are things we can control. Plus or minus 5 grains in a load many say is nothing, but listen to em whine about how their shooting will be off if they can't find a 495 ball and have to settle for a 490 ball. or the shop ran out of their .018 patches and they had to get .015. Certainly less a percentage variable than their powder measuring. We see folks whine about whether they are stuck with one brand cap over another. Peanuts compared to their powder measuring capabilities.