There was a thread on Modern Muzzleloader's In-line forum in February by a fella named Mike Vaccaro regardingtubes for pre-measured loads of powder. He had located some "cut tolength" shipping tubes and caps that he was ordering from McMaster-Carr Supply Co.

In a PM, he told me how happy he was with them and gave me some good poop on cutting them. I ordered some caps andtubes (they come in 48 inch lengths),and made up some powder vials. Used them in my last two range sessions and THEY ARE GREAT! I had 50 pre-measured powder charges ready to dump.

The picture below shows the made-up powder tubes and thehome made cutter I used to cut the tubes into 1 & 3/4 inch lengths. Each vial will hold up to 150 grains of powder.

The 4-ft. tubes are $1.23 each. A pack of 100 caps is $5.53. Two tubes and one pack of caps will yield 50 powder vials. Problem is, shipping cost almost doubles the price - get together with friends for a group order.

The package says you can cut the tube with sissors, but that does not produce an even cut. The board gizmo in the picture is a cutter I made at Mike's suggestion. It worked great. It's hard to see, but there's a piece of razor blade imbedded in the slot 1 & 3/4 inch from the blocked end. I would suggest you use Mike's method and insert the tip of a craft knife blade through the board.

I used the 0.70 round tubes and the 3/4" caps. The vials are flexible enough to squeeze slightly when dumping powder in the gun and it works fine.

If you're interested, go to http://www.mcmaster.com/and type 2044T44 in the "Find Products" window for the tubes, and 9753K54 for the caps.