Use of Powder Dispensers vs Powder Droppers??

[Dobeman887]

I have been reloading for around 10 years or so and am yet to get an electronic powder dispenser. I have two Hornady Powder droppers (one set up for pistol cartridges and one for rifle loads) that I have used since beginning. Living in the Mid-west I haven't had the need for many loads using powders that are more cylindrical, thus more difficult to meter correctly through my powder dropper. As I work up loads for the beginning of hunting trips out west I am creating more loads using powders more difficult to meter (IMR 4350, H4350, etc). I love using Ramshot rifle powders because they are round/spherical powders and measure more smoothly. Point is, do I NEED an electronic powder dispenser if I am going to be creating a great number of loads for my .270, 30-06, and 300 Win Mag? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Pickettpuncher]

I had one for about 2 years. Wasn’t overly impressed and got rid of it. I drop and trickle every load I make.

 

[TaperPin]

Maybe it’s like how people usually have a fondness for where they grew up over all others - it may not be ideal by any metric that can be thought up, but it feels like home. Pushing a button like a vending machine doesn’t feel right.

I increased the enjoyment of throwing charges a little bit by adding a nice looking powder measure stand positioned exactly where it feels right, bought a more solid feeling cast iron Redding trickler, added better lighting, and replaced the loosey goosey plastic tray with a machined aluminum one. It’s not really faster, but just looks and feels better. Money well spent. Next on the list is a custom handle for the measure to replace the cheap feeling aluminum one.

 

[Dmoua]

A good electronic dispenser is worth it imo. I enjoy shooting more than reloading so less time at the bench is better. It also depends how much you are loading per session. I can’t imagine how dreadful it would be to load 200-300 rifle rounds in one session without one.

 

[seand]

I don’t think you need it, especially for hunting loads. I don’t use an electronic dispenser or a trickler. Few years ago I shot a couple tests at 600 yards, 20 shot groups and found no difference between thrown and weighed charges. I had been weighing charges with stick powders for 20 years before that and believed I needed to. Folks assume precisely weighed charges will significantly improve SDs but I don’t think that’s really true in most cases. And not enough to make any difference at 600 yards.

The Lee perfect drum measure is about as good as it gets for a manual powder measure for stick powders. I keep one set up for each load, and just swap them out as they are so cheap.

 

[seand]

Link to a post on snipershide from miles Neville (Hornady engineer) , scroll down to post #35.
Link

 

[schmidty3]

A really nice electronic scale (fx-120) is what you need for ultra precise charge weights. How you get it into their doesn't matter. A dropper and then onto the scale and trickle to finish would be pretty quick and super precise.

 

[waspocrew]

I use my electronic dispenser (RCBS chargemaster) for large rifle rounds. Recently, I picked up a powder dropper and with ball powder it has significantly sped up my loading of 223 and 300 BLK. Small extruded powders work well (even up to Varget), but if I move up to larger kernels, I go back to the chargemaster.

 

[TaperPin]

Link to a post on snipershide from miles Neville (Hornady engineer) , scroll down to post #35.
Link

That’s a great bit of info.

 

[Tanner]

I went from throwing .3-.5gr low and trickling up, to using a Chargemaster and so far the ChargeMaster is a way better mousetrap for me as I can seat the previously charged case while the next case is filling, so loading goes way faster.

For ball powders I will still throw charges.

 

[ddowning]

Another gunsmith that won a lot of prs/nrl matches loaded his match ammo on a Dillon 1050.

 

[Carl Ross]

I have been reloading for around 10 years or so and am yet to get an electronic powder dispenser. I have two Hornady Powder droppers (one set up for pistol cartridges and one for rifle loads) that I have used since beginning. Living in the Mid-west I haven't had the need for many loads using powders that are more cylindrical, thus more difficult to meter correctly through my powder dropper. As I work up loads for the beginning of hunting trips out west I am creating more loads using powders more difficult to meter (IMR 4350, H4350, etc). I love using Ramshot rifle powders because they are round/spherical powders and measure more smoothly. Point is, do I NEED an electronic powder dispenser if I am going to be creating a great number of loads for my .270, 30-06, and 300 Win Mag? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

For your use case, throwing loads will be just fine.

If you haven't tried the micrometer adjuster for your Hornady measure, it'll save you a LOT of setup time.

 

[JoeDirt]

Had good luck polishing the internals on a RCBS for more consonant drops.

 

[Okie_Poke]

Had good luck polishing the internals on a RCBS for more consonant drops.

How did you polish it?