Thread: Black powder in a charge master it says not to but Realistically....

Normally I messure my black powder by Volume as most do
The only time i Waigh charges is for my long range Precision bpcr
Normally i do this on a beam scale I throw a slightly lighter charge then trickle upto waight
It takes ages as I drop tube each load into the case aswell

I do a couple of competitions very yeah that require a shitload of ammo an entire day loading worth

I was thinking if trying my charge master but there’s lots of warnings about using it for black powder
I know why this is they are worried about sparks and Static Electricity
As they could ignite black powder

But Realistically how much risk is there? or is it a covering of arses

They are not kidding Static is a real danger with Black Powder the powder throwers for Black Powder are made of Brass for that reason
take extreme care with it this time of year with the dry weather the Static risk is high.

if you do, be sure to video it for us

There has been A LOT of discussion and internet posts on this matter. Here is a link as a starting point to one of the better ones

https://tinyurl.com/tvu676y

and a further lnk to others https://tinyurl.com/w62tqlq

Frankly, I do not beleive that the risk exists, but as I have ofen been wrong in the past on a wide range of subjects and the results of being wrong on this one are dramatic and fairly final......I reluctantly "go with the flow."

I can't envision any situation where loading BP to 1/10th grain would be required. Admittedly I don't target shoot with it but do burn quite a bit a year.
I dip loads using homemade dippers. I think that over a string of shots fouling would cause more variation in poi than small variations in powder charge.

I also am thinking the waight thing is a waste of time
And I don’t do it for my other guns
Only this one because I’m shooting 300-1000 yards generally so every little bit counts waighing Powder and bullets for consistency
All the top shooters are doing it so must be something in it

My Chargemaster recently played up when dispensing Winchester ball powder 296. W296 seems to have very fine "dust" in it compared to W760 which I also run thru the CM wit out issues. The fine granules worked their way down around the rotating tube's bearing and the dispenser noticeably started to slow down, to the point that it was too sluggish to trickle the last 1/2 grain. I had to strip the CM down and clean out the fine dust.

What I am saying, aside from safety recommendations is that your BP may do the same with your CM. Back in the day when I shot a lot of BP both muzzle loader and cartridge I used to use a lot of WANO powder which was extremely dusty. It would have been a classic candidate to jam up my CM.

Back to safety, for a long while I used an RCBS Uniflow dispenser for BP. I then reflected on what I was doing (younger and sillier than) and ceased. There was probably a greater chance of something going wrong with the Uniflow than CM.

So, cannot recommend using a CM.

Originally Posted by muzza

my guess is that any American made piece of reloading equipment will have the Lawyer Clause attached to it . Someone somewhere has had an oops with one of those units and the makers are covering their arses with warnings not to use BP. I wouldnt either - just use a dipper , weigh every ten or so loads to check consistency , and carry on

Totally agree with the "black" but as regards the "red", I,being a newby to serious BP activity understands that BP is "measured by volume" not by weight.

So are you suggesting that :
1...10 dip samples be taken,each weighed and then placed in a high to low lineup.
2...The 10 weighed results are then averaged.
3...The weight of the dip sample in the line up nearest to the averaged calculation result is to be used therafter as your number 10 weight check?

Asking, because although i have yet to do "lotsa dipping" with the Lee dippers, I have read several reports from others who have and they write that if the dippers are used correctly, there is no or very little variation.

A final ponder point,

4....Would this task to obtain an average weight have to be done for each different grade of FFF' powder and also following a change from one brand to another?

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

I also am thinking the waight thing is a waste of time
And I don’t do it for my other guns
Only this one because I’m shooting 300-1000 yards generally so every little bit counts waighing Powder and bullets for consistency
All the top shooters are doing it so must be something in it

For comp shoots, not plinking club days and hunting where I dispensed from flask to a measure, I pre weighed all my loads into very small screw top pill bottles.
For my 577/450 I only had limited brass so had to reload on the range. The preweighed charges just made the whole exercise easier plus it did make my groups more consistant but probably not by much.

Always weighed my boolits which definitely helped.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

Totally agree with the "black" but as regards the "red", I,being a newby to serious BP activity understands that BP is "measured by volume" not by weight.

So are you suggesting that :
1...10 dip samples be taken,each weighed and then placed in a high to low lineup.
2...The 10 weighed results are then averaged.
3...The weight of the dip sample in the line up nearest to the averaged calculation result is to be used therafter as your number 10 weight check?

Asking, because although i have yet to do "lotsa dipping" with the Lee dippers, I have read several reports from others who have and they write that if the dippers are used correctly, there is no or very little variation.

A final ponder point,

4....Would this task to obtain an average weight have to be done for each different grade of FFF' powder and also following a change from one brand to another?

Attachment 128494

What I did was Waigh 10 Charges out of my Volumetric messure
And took the Average which is what I use as a by waight number to work to

Yes this this would need to be done for each brand and grade of powder
But i use swiss 2fg for this rifle
I messure everything else by volume as is the “proper” way
Volumetric messures Are not all that consistent as it depends how the powder settles etc
You get 2-3gn of variants (by waight)
Which for black powder is fuck all and for general muzzle loader’s and bpcr is completely adequate
But at long range every bit of consistency you can get the better
Well that’s what im told by some of the extremely good shooters (Better than ill ever be) im privileged to brain pick

And it works ive inproved so much since getting into the long range bpcr stuff 2 years ago