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...ever heard of weighing every completed pistol round?

2K views 17 replies 15 participants last post by  soundguy 
#1 ·
....I was invited to watch a live slide show presentation of a basic reloading class and the instructor tells us he weighs every completed pistol round that he reloads.

Really? Apparently, he thinks this will tell him if he has loaded the correct amount of powder.

I never heard of this but thought I would ask here. My experience has been that brass cases and projectiles can easily vary by several grains and this would provide a false reading of the powder that has been loaded in a completed case.

Any thoughts on this?
 
#2 ·
Yes, calling BS on that one ;)

Had to do it myself one time when my powder measure stopped throwing powder, weighed the rounds to see which had powder and which didn't.
124 grain bullets, 6 grain PowerPistol, same headstamp 9mm brass.

The end result was that I was able to identify all the rounds without powder in them, but I also pulled a few rounds which did have powder in them. With 6 grains of powder it is nearly impossible with a lower load even so.
Usually I load 3.2 grains under a 147 grain bullet good luck with that :D
 
#5 · (Edited)
Complete waste of time, take a handful of empty deprimed pistol casings and weigh them. The variation in weights within different casings will exceed most common pistol load charges. Simply nothing to gain unless all other components are weighed, then grouped together which also is an utter waste of time.
 
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#6 ·
Well, I guess that if you weighed and sorted the empties before starting, and had them all separated as to weight...nah, that's just stupid...I could see it as some have said, in rifle cartridges, but not pistol. If you feel that you really NEED to check that badly, they perhaps you need to review your loading process.
 
#7 ·
Agreed! Nothing to be learned from weighing completed pistol rounds.

The world is full of "experts" in everything. Some teach and teach stupid deviations from the norm. It might be better for this instructor to super emphasize getting the right amount of powder in each case before applying a bullet. When using loading blocks a strong flash light is illuminating in more than one way. Keeping track of the powder in your powder tank on the powder measure should also be emphasized. Suggesting short cut or spherical powders rather than long extruded powders might be suggested as well.

I know some people have to "see" a process to get it rather than just reading about it but for those of us that don't have that problem there is no short cut to honest studying several manuals multiple times to get started with reloading. Then take the first real session carefully with multiple checks of exactly what you are supposed to do and what you are doing as well as what you did to further the process. If you "follow the directions" there will be no frustration or major mistakes and the session will be successful.

LDBennett
 
#9 ·
....I was invited to watch a live slide show presentation of a basic reloading class and the instructor tells us he weighs every completed pistol round that he reloads.

Really? Apparently, he thinks this will tell him if he has loaded the correct amount of powder.

I never heard of this but thought I would ask here. My experience has been that brass cases and projectiles can easily vary by several grains and this would provide a false reading of the powder that has been loaded in a completed case.

Any thoughts on this?
This guy teaching reloading? He needs an instructor.
 
#11 ·
At best, weighing each loaded round may tell you if a round has no powder. Like if one round was 5.0 grains lower, it might be a "powderless" round, but it would only work if the load was more than about 5 or 6 grains, because as mentioned above, variations can "stack" and give meaningless info...
 
#12 ·
On a semi-related note, break out your calipers and measure a sampling of rounds from a box of factory made ammo. I did and it defintely relieves some the presure I put upon myself to get that 'perfect' OAL - lol
 
#13 ·
And to reply in another semi-related not;), Mrs Santa bought me a chronograph last Christmas which opened my eyes about "factory" loads too....EVERY batch of factory ammo I put through it, no matter the maker, up to and including Black Hills and Hornady Match had more deviation at least in MV than ANY of my handloads, whether I weighted each charge or used the powder measure without weighing...

But to get back on track, while I have never had one yet, I know of two people personally, and have heard of some more over the past 40 years or so, so it has to be rare but not THAT uncommon, who claim that they have had FACTORY loads with no powder.
 
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#14 ·
" But to get back on track, while I have never had one yet, I know of two people personally, and have heard of some more over the past 40 years or so, so it has to be rare but not THAT uncommon, who claim that they have had FACTORY loads with no powder."

As with anything mass produced, there will always be a few mistakes.
This not only aplyes to ammo but to most anything. While doing warranty work I have come across more than one factory new rifle that was stamped 30-06 and it was actually chambered for 308. I am just glad they don't happen very often.
I am always amazed that most of the factory screw-ups are caught and the public rarely ever hears about them.
 
#17 ·
About four years ago I bought a box of the Winchester White Box 9mm bulk pack ammo. Shooting it through a Hi Point C9. Went fine for a bit, then had a POP instead of a BANG. My buddy off to the side started laughing while I was clearing the pistol to check for a squib, after I had the mag out and slide back, he walked over in front of me and picked up the bullet off the ground about 2" from us.

A magazine later, did it again. Handed him the rest of the box and told him he could do whatever he wanted with them, but I wasn't shooting any more of them. Haven't bought any of the WWB since and have no plans to. He said he pulled the bullets and there were two more rounds with no powder at all. Would have sucked if we have been shooting them through his 995 rifle instead of the short barrel pistol I'm sure.
 
#16 ·
The 'Instructor' was blowing smoke. I can guess 'the why' he did it, though. Just guessin' here, but if someone really screwed up a load and was injured, that stupid suggestion might take a little of an attorney's heat off of him/her in court.

That would have to be one the biggest wastes of time that I could think of. As most of the others have already pointed out, with the differences between individual wieghts of bullet/primers/cases, wieghing each one will prove little or nothing.

If the Instructor was worried about a squib load or a double charge, then the advice was wrong in itself. The safest way to prevent either is to visually verify each and every charge in each and every case prior to seating the bullet. I use a loading block, charge the batch of cases, then I use a small penlight and look into every case and verify that every case is charged. That works for me, and some other step might work for others, but wieghing every loaded round is a useless waste of time.
 
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