Powder thrower accuracy

Reloading equipment, methods, load data, powder and projectile information.

Re: Powder thrower accuracy

Post by JimTom » 11 Feb 2018, 6:40 am

I have an old Redding powder thrower which generally throws around .2gn of what I am looking for. I set it to throw just under what I am looking for and then use a trickler to get it spot on. Well as close as practical anyway.
I know it’s a long slow painful process but once I’ve trickled the powder in I then remove the pan, and reweigh to get it as accurate as possible.
When loading a few hundered it is like extracting teeth though, and I wished I had taken people’s advice from a previous thread and purchased a Lyman 6 or similar.
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Re: Powder thrower accuracy

Post by sungazer » 11 Feb 2018, 8:16 am

Mate dont worry it not really about the quality of the thrower. The problem is that they all use (other than a few Hybrids) a volume metric method. This is where the problem lies not with the thrower. The amount of powder is always going to be a little bit different depending on the way it falls. Thats why the smaller granular powders were made to get a better measure. I think they may suffer the problem of becoming to compacted if stored for any length of time standing up or down and constant transport in the same position.
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Re: Powder thrower accuracy

Post by straightshooter » 12 Feb 2018, 7:45 am

Agonising over powder thrower precision is mostly a waste of time, particularly if all your shooting is at short to medium ranges.
The effect of slight variations in powder weight is generally overwhelmed by other variations in your loaded rounds. (You would need at least some appreciation of statistical analysis to grasp the significance of why so.)
Nonetheless if you want to minimize the effect of powder thrower variation at minimum cost try this simple method, you will however need digital scales with a tare function.
First decide what level of weight consistency is acceptable, let's say for example target weight plus/minus 0.1 grains.
1. Place your primed empty case on the scale and press zero.
2. Drop your powder into the case.
3. Place the charged case back on the scale and check the weight.
4. If the indicated charge weight is in the acceptable range then load the projectile.
5. If the indicated charge weight is outside the acceptable range then empty the powder into the hopper and go back to step 2.
This method is very straightforward and quick and automatically compensates for drift in the scale electronics and allows you to make slight tweaks in the volume setting of your thrower as the level of powder in the hopper changes.
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