Thread: Auto powder dispensers

My rcbs thrower gets within 1/2 grain and i trickle in over the top of my A&D. Works pretty quick and it registers every kernel

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

If you have a look at some of the US shooting forums there's quite a lot of debate on the issue of powde metering and the general consensus seems to be that the likes of the charge masters etc are great for "hunting accuracy" or loading pistols etc but if you actually want real accuracy then you can't beat a thrower and then trickling using a good beam scale. Trickling aside, there's a lot of throwers that are every bit as accurate as the autos and even more so in some cases. Just revisited some of those threads and funnily enough there's a lot of guys that reckon the Lee thrower is one of those "bahco knives" type items, it's cheap, and it does as good or better a job than all the more expensive options. Your mate who was getting 5gr (!!!??) differences in charge weights was obviously doing something very wrong and probably shouldn't be allowed near any powder, electronic thrower or not.

I use a lee thrower for convenience and because I got it with my Breech Lock Challenger Kit. I took it apart first and "coated" every bearing / sliding surface with a HB pencil which made it run slick. Mounting it on a decent board is important or it seems flimsy out of no-ones fault but your own. Benchrest quality throwers are not mechanically different except they may have baffles in the powder reservoir to avoid heavier charges being dispensed when the reservoir is full and vice versa, see the diagram below. And some powders just meter better and easier, ball powders being the classic example.

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| <| <-- Baffles to avoid powder column pressure variations due to different fill states of thrower powder reservoir.
Not sure if it's worth doing this with a smallish reservoir like the Lee thrower, maybe with very dense ball powders.