Armory Sponsor
Posted: 12/31/2014 6:53:02 AM EDT
| Am having trouble metering an accurate charge of IMR 4064 on my 550B. Yes, I've polished, de-staticed, extra baffled, and micrometered. The variation is from 0.2 to several grains. Then I saw an add for a different powder measure called the Quick Measure. Anybody have actual experience with it? It expensive but would be worth it if it works. |
|
No experience with the Quick Measure, but you might try getting an aquarium pump (they are pretty inexpensive) and tape it to the powder hopper. It causes a gentle vibration that can settle the powder for more consistent charges.
I can't remember if 4064 is an extruded powder or not, but if it is sometimes a ball powder will meter better (335 vs Varget). Good luck! |
| 4064 is an extruded powder and so is 8208. Thanks very much for the advice, but I am not interested in changing powders. Unfortunately, if I can't get this rig to produce...I'll go back to a single stage press with the Inline Fab. modifications and measure each charge...painful as it might be. I can deal with a small variance on an occasional basis, but can't deal with large variance on a regular basis especially when it throws charges that could be dangerous. |
|
I owned a Quick Measure and it worked OK, but it is a spendy proposition if you plan on using it for more than one caliber.
I sold it to a friend that was getting into prairie dog shooting and went back to using a standard Dillon powder measure. Whenever I use IMR-4350, I tap the powder drop die with a 1" wood dowel to settle the charge. Haven't has more than a 0.1 grain variance doing that. |
|
I'm novice so if this is a dumb idea I apologize. But would a hornady powder measure work better since it's a different method to "grab" the powder drop. I have heard it is more accurate, but not sure if that is the kool aid talking or the truth. I also second the advice of adding a vibration device. Some are using cell phone vibration motors rigged to the powder drop to help settle the charge. |
|
Quoted:
I'm novice so if this is a dumb idea I apologize. But would a hornady powder measure work better since it's a different method to "grab" the powder drop. I have heard it is more accurate, but not sure if that is the kool aid talking or the truth. I also second the advice of adding a vibration device. Some are using cell phone vibration motors rigged to the powder drop to help settle the charge. Not really. Ive run IMR4198 thru my Hornady rotary drop. That stuff meters so hard that on my last run of a few hundred rounds to use it up, I crushed 4 cases on my LnL. The only reason I used it up was because it was was free, and the load I was shooting was really accurate. |
|
The trouble I had with the Hornady powder measure was the rotor. The pistol rotor is too small to get a full drop and the rifle rotor is too big. The diameter of the hole in the rifle rotor is so large that fine tuning a drop is difficult because very small changes on the stem add or subtract too much volume. I suspect you'd have a lot of trouble with extruded powder because the measure cavity would be very shallow and the shear plane very large.
What I did was bore out a pistol rotor and make a new piston for it. Its much easier to dial in - but I still doubt it would work well with extruded powders. |
|
Something is wrong with your measure or your technique.
I use my 550B to throw the old-style IMR4064 into 308 cases. It throws charges with SD = 0.1 gr. Yes, that means an occasional 0.2 gr variation like those you've seen. Being off by "several grains", is proof positive something is wrong. Heck, being off by a full grain means something is wrong. You have not provided enough (or any) details on what you are doing to help diagnose the problem. If you think everything is set up correctly, fill the measure, tap it lightly to settle it and throw a few charges. Weigh each charge and record the weights. Post that info. |
|
Quoted:
I use IMR4598 for my M1Garand loads with my Dillon 550B and I can get a .1gr variance which is no big deal. I recently saw a video by Handloader Magazine where the guy was talking about .1 to .2gr variance will not affect accuracy in the least. V This is absolutely true in every rifle I have ever tested, including my Garand, my match 223, 308, 6XC,... etc. Some will say, well, as you get to greater and greater distances, it does become important. For me, I don't see it that way. As I go out to 600 yards and beyond, my wind doping errors, trigger pull errors, pulse beat and aiming errors swamp any and all other errors in the loads. Then again, I am a mere average human, so YMMV. |
Armory Sponsor