Quoted:
I have only been reloading for 6 months or so but find myself having a hard time trusting my powder drop. For .223 I reload Hornady Zmax 55ers with 25.3 grains of H335. When I use my Lee powder drop I can get anywhere from 25.1 to 25.7 grains of powder. Is this variation too much?? Reason I ask is now I use my RCBS digi scales and measure EVERY charge which obviously takes a lot of time. Will my accuracy be affected a lot by the. 6 variation I am getting out of my powder drop or am I over-thinking it?
I used to hand measure my .223 powder.
I too noticed variation in powder weight dropped from my Lee measure (+- 0.3 gr).
I used to hand trickle to try to get exact charges.
Then, one day I looked at powder sitting in the charged cases in my loading block.
The powder level was higher on some cartridges, and lower on others, even though I was
trying to trickle and exact charge.
I jiggled the cases to try to get the same density, but the variation in level seemed to be
more than I expected due to case variation.
I tracked the problem down to drift in my RCBS digital scale. Even when I allow the scale to
re-autozero between every charge, the scale would drift. I even measured one fixed charge
multiple times in a 10 minute period to see the drift of the scale.
So, you may actually be decreasing you charge accuracy if you chase the drifting scale.