Posted: 4/9/2011 8:23:23 PM EDT
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<sigh> Sometimes it just ain't your night....
I took apart my RCBS Uniflow powder measure to clean it out. Put it all back together, and decided to reload a bunch of 9mm. I dialed in 68 on the Uniflow micrometer, which gives me 4.2 grains of Bullseye.... verified it with the scale. Yep - all's good. I start reloading, get about 250 rounds into it, and notice that the powder charge is looking a little excessive. I check it on the scale again.... 6.2 grains. 
When I reassembled the powder measure, I guess I didn't tighten the micrometer stem into the powder wheel tightly enough. The repeated cycling of the powder measure started to back the micrometer assembly out of the powder wheel, in effect dialing in a larger powder charge. Dammit dammit dammit dammit!!! So, now I'm waiting on a .358 caliber collet for my bullet puller, as I have a bunch of rounds to pull down and re-do (doing it with the impact puller will just take too damn long). New rule established for me: re-verify powder charge after every new APS strip (25 rounds). Quick and easy to do... would have saved me about 3 hours worth of work, by the time I pull them all down and re-re-load them. crap.... |
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Quoted:
Can you use a "powder cop", it is made by Hornady. This allows you to visually see the level of powder in the case. I use it with every round I reload. I use an RCBS lock-out die, which does check the powder level. The problem is, it's not accurate enough to detect the difference between 4.2 and 6.2 grains. Had I kept going, eventually there would have been enough powder that the lock-out die would have engaged (I verified that it locks up on a double charge, as well as a very low/no-powder charge). |
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Quoted:
I don't reload so this may be a stupid question. Couldn't you weigh the cartridges to find out which ones are out of spec? Not a stupid question at all.... but bullet weights vary by a grain or so, and cases vary in weight by 2-3 grains... so even two good rounds, each with 4.2 grains of powder, will sometimes show a 3-5 grain difference in weight. Or, put another way, a round with the correct amount of 4.2 grains of powder might weigh in at 170.2 grains (115gr bullet, 51 grain case, 4.2 grains powder), and another round with the overcharge of 6.2 grains might also weigh 170.2 grains, with a 114.5 grain bullet, and a 49.5 grain case. |