powder measure
 

hello everyone. is a powder measure accurate? or at least accurate enouugh for deer and chucks?

the load is 270 win, 150 grain hornady sst, cci large primers and 58 grains of reloader 22.

RE: powder measure
 

Powder measures work great. Just be sure to weigh your charges about every 5 loads or so to make sure that that the powder measure is holding it's setting. Once I get about the first 15-20 loads or so and I know that the powder measure is holding it's setting, then I will sometimes only weight about every 9 or 10 charges. For target and test loads sometimes I will use a dipper and the scale though since those loads are not as important as hunting and precision shooting. I myself have found that loading with a dipper gives me pretty good overall accuracy, and its generally pretty quick to load with one. For large batches of shells, say from 50-100 loads it is worth it to take the time to set up the powder measure.

RE: powder measure
 

With the right, ball, flake or short extruded powders, a powder measure is great. For longer stick powders like VARGET, R19, etc, it really needs to be used to fill the pan and then trickle up to weight, IMO. I suppose it could be just thrown, but the variations would be high like +/- .4 grains or so. I think I did a 10 throw test withVARGET and found +/- .3 to be my absolute variation. It has been a while. For accuracy, that isn't good enough for me.

Dippers would be nice, I never thought about that! I setup to throw, trickle and weigh.

RE: powder measure
 

Exactly - it depends on the type of powder you are using and the quality of your powder measure.My old Pacific measurer is great for flake powder like green dot and ball powder (WW296)but is too inconsistant with the longer extruded powders like IMR4350. All my rifle cartridges charges are individually weighed except the ones I load for the Stag M4. This I use Varget and my load brings the powder up to the base of the case neck. Its pretty easy to tell if I have a bad charge by doing a visual check.

RE: powder measure
 

I use a powder measure to get close on my rifle cartridges, and just trickle it up to the exact grains wanted. I load a lot faster than I shoot.

Plus I'm not trying to mass produce my loads.

RE: powder measure
 

I haven't tried it yet but I'll be using Lee's powder dippers.I have an RCBS scale I can check them with.After the stuff gets here I'll post back on accurate they are.

RE: powder measure
 

A fellow out at the range last fall was shooting a 6.5/284 and it was shooting REAL well. He told me he was using dippers and final trickling as needed. His method impressed me. I'm gonna get a set and try them also. Heck, I haven't even got my new DPS 3 set up yet.........