For those of you who use drop tubes, do you make them or buy them? If they can bought, who sells them? If you make them, what are the specs so that I can try to do it myself? Calibers I reload include 375 H&H, 404 Jeffery and 416 Rigby (but I doubt I would need a drop tube for the last one).

Check out MidwayUSA for drop tubes but, they can be made from thinwall tubing easy enough. With the 416 you won't need it and, as long as you're not using slow burning powders in the Jeffrey and the .375, you won't need it. I load H4350 in my .404J up to 90+ grains and haven't needed a drop tube. The .375 (as long as it's an H&H) will work better with powders in the 4064 burning rate.

Masterifleman, I am trying to find some good loads with the 380 grain Rhino bullet for my .375 H&H. If you have ever used this bullet then you know how much case volume it eats up. If you've got a recommendation for a good load that doesn't require much compression (I thought a drop tube might help here) that is what I'm after. For the 404 Jeffery, same story, I am trying out loads for the NorthFork bullets and of course they take up more case volume than an equivalently weighted lead core bullet. If only I could get a few more grains in behind them, rather than resorting to faster powders.

Russ Haydon's Shooter's Supply
1-253-857-7557
Russ sells drop tubes for most all of the powder measures out there and if he doesn't have it he will probably make you one.

IMO any drop tube made to attach to a powder measure will not get the full benefit from a drop tube. The whole point is to get the powder into the case SLOWLY so that the powder has time to stack into it's tightest arrangement. If you get the powder dumped from the pan, into the drop tube, and on into the case, in less than 10 seconds, you did it wrong. For full benefit, the powder MUST be trickled slowly.

Don't know what your access is to raw material but over here, go to the hardware store and buy 2 feet of 1/4" copper tubing that will be good for 270 through 423 (3/8" for over 40 caliber cases). Have the store flare one end to go over the case mouth and take the burr off the other end with a pocket knife, for the funnel to set on. When you get home, roll it out straight on a counter top. Your done.

Depending on the grain size and type, a drop tube will give different yields. I define "yield" as the percentage increase in powder capacity, in grains, that will fit into the same volume of case capacity, and stated as a percentage increase over the original grain capacity, before using the drop tube.

Long stick powders (IMR 3031, IMR 4831, etc) give the lowest yield, generally less than 3% and sometimes less than 2%.

Short stick powders (IMR 4320, H4895, etc.) will yield from a low of 3% to as much as 6%.

Ball powders will give the greatest yield and, depending on their size and structure, it will be 7% to as high as 10%.

I ought to be able to find some copper tube here and will try it out. So once I've got the funnel on the tube and the cartridge case at the other end, I should "trickle" the powder into the funnel? Just how slow/fast does one go to get full benefit?

I just count to 10 to make sure that I'm not getting it in quicker than that. It's not rocket surgery

Increasing that time by 50% will not gain any noticable amount.

If all you are going to do is 375 and up, go ahead and get 3/8" tubing (or metric equivalent). It will be easier for the folks to flare it. 1/4" tube will need a very healthy flare to go over a 40cal case mouth and most store folks don't have the skill to do that. My 1/4" tube will go up to 45 cal but just barely, but I only have one tube for all calibers. For just the big ones, 3/8" will work best.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
For those of you who use drop tubes, do you make them or buy them? If they can bought, who sells them? If you make them, what are the specs so that I can try to do it myself? ...

Hey Wink, There is a company called " MTM " that makes a Funnel Set which includes adapters for various size Casemouths as well as a 6" Drop Tube. It works fairly well, but I use the Set along with an " Arrow Shaft " that I've attached to one of the Adapters.

Over here you can get an old arrow shaft from an Archery Range or a buddy who is constantly "updating" his equipment. The arrow shaft I use is 33" long, just because that is how long it happened to be.

I also agree with NFMike about allowing the Powder to drop in very slowly. I pour it into a Funnel atop the arrow so it "swirls" around the inside of the Funnel a few grains at a time and eventually down the shaft. No idea how long it takes, but slow is the key word.

Best of luck to you.

I'm using the Frankford with the drop tube.

Frankford

The drop tubes that come with some funnels do help, but I thought of a way that also helps. If you have an electric shaver, after you have dumped the powder in the funnel with the longest supplied drop tube (which is on the case), turn on the shaver, touch it gently to the case (hold the case and funnel solidly) and the vibration will help settle the powder. A friend uses his electric toothbrush (without the brush) to do the same thing. You'd be surprised how much extra powder can be added.

I use a small electric engraver, just don't use the point, place the shaft against the case.

Gentlemen, thank you all for your suggestions, I'm looking forward to getting a few more grains into my cases.

Wink, FOrster makes one w/ a 6" tube attached. It's very usefull for 90% of the applications. A 18" piece of 3/8" dia. brass tubing as sold in many hobby store would also work. There is a plumbers tool for flareing the end but a large punch will do. Super glue or epoxy a funnel on the cut end & away you go.

Vibrate the sucker. Touching the case to a running vibratory tumbler for a few seconds will settle the kernals every bit as well as a drop tube.

If you really want a drop tube, auto supply stores carry pre flared tubing for hydraulic lines.

So, my goal was to get some more of a double based French powder called SP 11 into my .375 H&H cases to shoot the 350 grain South African Rhino bullet. Since it is a double based powder I wanted to avoid compressing the load. Straight out of the normal RCBS funnel I could get only 65-66 grains of powder into the case before I needed to compress the load. I took the cleaning bowl off my case cleaner, turned it on and placed a case on it for around 15 seconds. I can now get 69,4 grains into the case, an increase of just over 5% without compressing the load. Thanks guys. I'm expecting to get around 2350 fps with this load (and a long way from any pressure problems), which ain't bad for a 350 grain premium bullet out of a .375 H&H and it should be fine for the big stuff.