I was talking to a good friend of mine last night in the US.

He mentioned that I should be careful with reduced loads with fast pistol powders, to avoid a double charge which might turn out to be dangerous.

I told him I use a simple procedure, which tends to avoid this very fact.

1. I use cases that have been selected to be within one grain of weight.

2. I have made a drop tube about a foot long, and I have installed one of those small aluminum funnels on one end, and the other end fits those small plastic Sinclair attachments used on powder measures - they are caliber specific.

My procedure is I put the number of cases I want to charge on an empty loading tray.

This is placed on the left of the powder scale - I am using an RCBS electronic scale.

I place the drop tube on top of the first case, and keep it there with my left hand.

With my right hand, I use LEE powder measures - again, they come in different size, and I have made a special holder for them, picking the right one for a specific powder charge.

I weigh each powder charge, then drop it into the case.

Then I move the drop tube to the next case, and so on.

Sometimes, if I have to break this procedure for anything - like answer the phone.

I weigh any cases that I am not sure of.

Anything that weighs more than a grain will give you a warning that something is not right.

This only applies to reduced loads, although I follow the same procedure, I look at the filled cases under a light, to make sure everything is as it should be.

Why the drop tube?.
I do the same thing (hold the funnel on the case with left hand) but just drop the charge in the standard funnel. I usually weigh a few charges to make sure the measure is dropping correctly and then just drop into a heavy walled glass that sits under the powder measure and has been on the bench for years and then drop that in the funnel (or on the scale if I am weighing charges) . The glass goes back under the measure and the funnel gets shifted to the next case when the charge has been dropped into the glass. I can see the charge in the glass so that can be a constant and always check with a torch into the case for any irregularities.
I use quite a bit of green and blue dot in cases as small as the Fireball case up to the 577-450 for reduced loads and the procedure is the same.

I fixed that problem by not using pistol powder in rifle cases. I use 5744 instead. Used to use Blue Dot and the like, but got nervous because too much of that causes pressures to go way up. Hence, your method.

I have started using a drop tube because a lot of our loads either fill the case, or are compressed.

I continue to use the drop tube because I find it easier to fit a suitable bushing at the bottom for that particular caliber.

We have to use the powders we have.

I have never even seen 5744.

Sometimes I even use powder from shotgun shells which have gotten wet and the primers rusted.

For many of us living in other countries, we have to use what we have, and someti8mes even improvise.

One time I was given a sacks of powder - it came in a cloth sack!!

Each sack was about a pound.

No information about it at all.

I tried a few grains in a 357 Magnum, and from the velocity we got relative to the charge, I was able to make a guess of what to use it for.

Heck Saeed, here is the golden rule for loading pistol powder in rifle cases: Never charge an upright case.

Just keep your cases upside down in the loading block and never charge an upright case.

quote:

Never charge an upright case.Just keep your cases upside down in the loading block and never charge an upright case.

Never thought of that one.

But I don't use pistol powders in a rifle case. So that makes it easy for me.

When I load pistol caliber cases that use a less than 100% load density,I always drop one charge into the case then immediately seat the bullet. This way there is no way to forget where you left off dropping charges into a loading tray.
With a good powder measure or even Lee powder scoops you just cannot pour a double charge by doing this.
This technique is as fast as any other single stage method.

Being a member of the paranoid club, I have a large number of clear poly vials. I weight or throw into the vials. Then I squat and do a visual check of the powder levels. The count of vials equals the cases to be loaded, if a case is left over, I have a problem.

I fill 50 cases at a time in the loading block then look at the powder level with a flashlight. Been loading handgun rounds for 50 years and never screwed anything up.

Fill all the cases and than one at a time drop into each case a color graduated dowel rod. A double charge will stand out like a sore thumb. That'll take you about 5 seconds per case. Uneven charges will also stand out and I advise they should be emptied , recharged and measured.. The different colored graduations on my dowel rods are .090" apart. You can get really slick and turn a dowel rod for each caliber. It'll be a breeze for Walter roger

I use two blocks. The one on my left has primed cases standing primer upward.

I pick up one of those, charge it and put it mouth up in the block on my right, then I use a torch / flashlight to peer into them all before seating bullets. Not sure if the flashlight idea is worth anything with reduced loads, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapidrob:
When I load pistol caliber cases that use a less than 100% load density,I always drop one charge into the case then immediately seat the bullet. This way there is no way to forget where you left off dropping charges into a loading tray.
With a good powder measure or even Lee powder scoops you just cannot pour a double charge by doing this.
This technique is as fast as any other single stage method.

Another vote for this procedure. You can't screw this up. A friend of mine has recently adopted this procedure...........after he blew up a Rem 700 in 220 Swift.

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:
I fill 50 cases at a time in the loading block then look at the powder level with a flashlight. Been loading handgun rounds for 50 years and never screwed anything up.

I use the same method. Reloading for almost 30 odd years and fortunately can say I also never screwed up anything!

I will probably be severely castigated for this, but I use an auto-indexing progressive press (an RCBS Piggyback II) for anything over about one box of 20. If you don't manually override the auto-index, it is literally impossible to double-charge a case.

So far, I can still count to 20...

When you use a loading block and fill say 50 cases with the required powder load, you need to be careful not to jar or hit the block on anything and spill any powder of the 50 cases while moving it. It that happens you should dump all 50 cases and start over.

For rifle rounds I use a SS press and drop the powder and immediately seat the bullet on that brass case.

Did Walter build those dowel rods yet ?
roger

I'll go with turning all empty cases primer up in the loading block. Been doing it this way for 40 years now.
Ready to charge the case? Turn it up, and charge with powder. Go on to the next case. That way I never have to wonder where I was in the loading sequence and which cases have been charged. If it's neck is up, it has been charged.
Takes no extra time for me since that's the only way I do it.

I'm the picture of inefficiency when loading rifle brass: I have a box of primed cases. I throw a charge from my powder measure, weigh it, and bring it to the weight I want.

Then I dump the propellant into a case, swivel to my press, place a bullet in the case mouth and seat the bullet.

Inefficient, but it works for me.