Which powder do you hate to meter?

Tarowah

Tarowah

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I’ve had a few powders that are too fine Like BLC2, which is actually my go too for 6.5 Grendel and requires a good bit of extra attention, while annoying it’s not too bad.

As of now IMR 3031 is the biggest PITA I have used to date, I spent over an hour trying to get it to meter 24 grains.... my Lee powder measurer is normally pretty easy to setup and it normally only swings +/- a couple tenths of a grain, IMR 3031 is another matter entirely, I’m talking half a grain swing over/under lmao.

I’m guessing my ol Lee just doesn’t like the gigantic sticks of 3031.

What’s your least favorite powder to work with, I’m sure there are some that meter like garbage but shoot great.
 
Interesting I was just using IMR 3031 yesterday in my RCBS chargemaster and it metered like a dream, I think I only had to redo a couple of throws.


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Trailboss sucks to meter. Too light so you get +/- 2 grain, that's 2.0, swings from throw to throw.

Best - Shooter's World Cleanshot. I can do a hundred rounds and never see a variation
 
800X. Very large flakes, meters like corn flakes.

H-110 is very fine and tends to leak out of the Lee drum type measures. Also, Nitro100NF is a flake powder and you wouldn't think it would leak, but the flakes are so thin they are almost transparent, and they leak out of my Autodrum measure.
 
I have an RCBS measure, and it seems to do well with most powders. I've had some issues here and there with IMR 3031. I get that "crunch" when throwing the lever, and sometimes the weights vary a little. Reloader 15 runs without an issue.

I use a lot of Trail Boss, but haven't had any issues with it yet.
 
Seconds on H110. I just weigh each charge instead of using a drop. It makes less of a mess.
 
Titegroup meters fine through my Chargemaster but sticks like crazy in my RCBS Uniflow powder measure. The nitroglycerin in those little flakes just makes metering so inaccurate that I have to use the Chargemaster which is slow for 9mm


Once I did the drinking straw mod in the Chargemaster spout and reprogrammed the fast versus trickle speed, it throws everything from flake, ball, and extruded stick with very few mistakes
 
11B CIB said:
Titegroup meters fine through my Chargemaster but sticks like crazy in my RCBS Uniflow powder measure. The nitroglycerin in those little flakes just makes metering so inaccurate that I have to use the Chargemaster which is slow for 9mm


Once I did the drinking straw mod in the Chargemaster spout and reprogrammed the fast versus trickle speed, it throws everything from flake, ball, and extruded stick with very few mistakes
Click to expand...
What is this straw mod you speak of? I just got a chargemaster earlier this year....
 
Stick powders can be a pain..crunchy. unique seemed a bit if a pain due ti bigger flakes than power pistol.

Prefer ball powders now.. win 748, h335..got some blc2 to try once I run out of 4895 and 4064.
 
.....fine ball powders have been easier in my experience. Very consistent charges with the Dillon powder measure or the Rcbs uniflow.

Longer stick powder is more work, but not a big deal.
 
11B CIB said:
Titegroup meters fine through my Chargemaster but sticks like crazy in my RCBS Uniflow powder measure. The nitroglycerin in those little flakes just makes metering so inaccurate that I have to use the Chargemaster which is slow for 9mm


Once I did the drinking straw mod in the Chargemaster spout and reprogrammed the fast versus trickle speed, it throws everything from flake, ball, and extruded stick with very few mistakes
Click to expand...

Any chance static is your issue with your uniflow? IIRC the literature says to fill it up with powder and work the handle until empty to reduce static.
 
When using a Lee Autodisk, I HATED Titegroup and H110.
Moved to Autodrum (TG, with mods), Dillon (TG), and Hornady(H110) measures and no issues.

For all you guys who hate H110, I’ll accept donations so you don’t have to deal with that trash anymore :D
 
Case Mouth said:
What is this straw mod you speak of? I just got a chargemaster earlier this year....
Click to expand...

get a drinking straw and cut it a couple inches long and make one end look like this and stick it in there:


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Curmudgeon said:
Trailboss sucks to meter. Too light so you get +/- 2 grain, that's 2.0, swings from throw to throw.
Click to expand...

Nice thing though is it almost doesn't matter. It would be really hard to blow something up with trailboss and it's never going to be used in any precision loads. The SD of my light 357 trailboss loads is ~50 which would be hot garbage for anything else, but for 550fps creampuff loads? Meh, good enough.
 
I remember trying to load 30carbine ammo on the Dillon with W296. Seemed like it leaked everywhere since it was so fine
 
My wife let the cat out of the bag last night, she got me a Chargemaster Light for my birthday!!

She heard me bitching and cussing up a storm at the bench and asked what was wrong, I told her that the powder was being a pain and that in the time I’ve spent loading 50 rounds I’d normally have 150 done.

I told her I’d wait until my birthday to open her gift, another week isn’t going to kill me haha.

I finally gave up trying right get close to my charge weight and dialed it to always be lower and then trickled the 1/2 to 1 1/2 grains in each case.
 
I got an old Midway Electra-Charge battery powered trickler in a lot of used stuff. This thing is great and I cannot figure out why nobody makes one anymore. It's what I use for stuff like H110:

Midway-USA-Electra-Charge-Electric-Electronic-Powder-Trickler.jpg
 
I have read this post with great interest. It is amazing how some people get certain powders to meter well and others can't. the powder bar on my Dillon 650 seems to meter Bullseye, Tightgroup, and Universal dead on the money with every pull and won't meter Unique worth a flip. My Lee Auto Disc meters H110 and 2400 like a charm but wont meter any stick powder. I guess they are just all different.
I have used some of the Lee Drum Measures, but never could keep them uniform for a long time. I do have a RCBS Competition Powder Measure that will meter everthing I've ever tried, but these days I don't do any real precision loading so the disc and the charge bar work fine for me
 
With the Dillon measure, I could get some hard-to-measure powders to do better when I strapped an aquarium air pump to the side of the hopper. The vibrations helped settle the powder more consistently into the charge bar.
 
Need had any issues with H110/Win296 (same powder) out of my RCBS Little Dandy Powder Throw, Redding PT or my Dillion 550B. Love the versatility of Unique but hangs up in the Redding. Feels like I'm cutting the flakes.


CD
 
When I load 10mm with 800x I have to hand measure every charge. Very time consuming. But I’m running a pretty stout charge, so my fingers and hands thank me for taking the extra time. :D
 
Toprudder said:
With the Dillon measure, I could get some hard-to-measure powders to do better when I strapped an aquarium air pump to the side of the hopper. The vibrations helped settle the powder more consistently into the charge bar.
Click to expand...
Great idea, to meter Trailboss I've taken to tapping the powder hopper before every throw and can tell visually when I missed that step
 
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