I have loaded for years and recently
came across a situation which caused me no small bit of concern. I like to use
the powder Unique for reloading where ever I can because it has been around for
a long time and if the shells ever get wet you can pull the bullet and after the
powder and primer is dried you can put it back in the shell casing and the
bullet will shoot as well as any other. The fact that the powder is known for
long term storage is legendary. Picking a load for a different shell casing than
I had loaded before I was greatly concerned because the amount of Unique being
used. The powder nearly filled the case to just below the bullet. Now if you
reload you will know that a pistol powder charge is very fast burning propellant
and if you load too much you can louse a gun.
Being in doubt as to the accurecy of
my powder scale something had to be done to have a comparison check of the
powder charge. I had a set of powder dippers but had gotten rid of them some
time ago as I never thought I would need them again as I had moved on to better
equipment. My Lee powder throwing disks were not gauged to throw Unique for the
project at hand as the powder chart attested. RCBS makes a set of weights to
check a scale with but none were readily available and I wanted to finish the
project.
I went on line and spent some
time looking at comments on loading the shell with Unique and found that others
mentioned the amount of powder being used in the shell casing prohibited a
double charge if a mistake was made throwing the powder. This made me feel a
little better but I am a careful fellow and wanted to be sure I was not
climbing the wrong tree. I do not use an electric scale as in an emergency batteries
may not be available. I reload in the garage and the scale had set for a while so
the first thing was to take the balancing arm off and dust off the pivot point
as settling dust and dirt could change the way the scale works. A small spider
had nested in the spot where the balances
pivot point were and he was so small you wouldn’t have noticed if you did not
look for him. So if you uses a regular powder scale 1) dust off the pivot point
before you start to reload. 2) Zero out
your scale so when all the balances are at zero the pointer points at zero. 3)
It is well to have the ability to check your scale before loading. This
requires some method to throw on a known charge and compare it to your scale. I
found myself looking for another set of powder dippers to do a comparative charge.
4) The RCBS scale check weights are
Quantity
1………………200 Grain
2………………100 Grain
1……………… 50 Grain
2……………….20 Grain
1……………….10 Grain
1……………….5 Grain
2……………… 2 Grain
1………………..1 Grain
1……………….5 Grain
1……………….Pair of tweezers
The RCBS weight set is Farley pricey $40 give or take. It would be
best to have a comparative scale to make these check weights (borrowed from a friend), yet in a time
when you know your scale is working right you could produce these weights out
of aluminum soda can cutouts and sand paper the edge of the cutout as you get close
to the exact weight. I have made counter balances such as these and it takes
about 30 minutes. Mark them with a permanent marker and put the weights in an
old medicine bottle. It also will not matter if you fold them to make some of
them more usable. A pair of old tweezers may be useful if the wife will part
with them or loan them to you from time to time or buy them from the dollar
store.
Richard W. Norman American Handbook on Guns Ammo and Freedom
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