Opinions on powder throwers??

[Kenny]

M70...so it does, I thought it was sitting on the red pill box behind

Should be flamin' brilliant like that

KY

[Model70]

Ogre, the RCBS part number is 9091, Nioa have them here apparently 23 in stock, I got my one off the shelf at St Marys but Stuart at HPGS said he could have one in a week for $70. Who ever deals in RCBS or with Nioa trading should be able to help you out.

[flyer]

I'm much too anal to use a thrower

I've made scoops out of the same cailber case for all mine and then trickle up to weight.

I couldn't live with being .1 gr out, it's an obsessive/compulsive thing.

Flyer

[wem]

How consistent are the Harrell throwers??

[Ned Kelly]

G'Day wem,
the harrels throw to +/-0.1gn with small powder kernals such as BM1,BM2, 2206, H322 and Vit133 etc and the ball powders.

The larger kernal sized powder needs to be weighed. By comparison, the next best in my experience is the Redding BR-30 (not the 3BR) as it will throw th same powders to +/- 0.15gn

To achieve this I threw 10 charges and weighed them and then devided by 10 for an average weight.

hope this helps

Cheerio Ned

[siacci]

I use a lyman thrower. I find with the 2206 it throws very consistantly. With the 2209 I find it hangs occasionally. Still its within .2gns on the 2209 and usually .1 with the 2208 and 2206. I still weigh nearly every one of them on the electronic scales to be sure. I would not be with out it.

Dave

[morten]

Ogre, the RCBS part number is 9091, Nioa have them here apparently 23 in stock, I got my one off the shelf at St Marys but Stuart at HPGS said he could have one in a week for $70. Who ever deals in RCBS or with Nioa trading should be able to help you out.

M70, can you measure the drop tube diameter where it attaches to the thrower & i'll check to see if it will fit my lyman.
thanks
Mort.

[Curtley78]

Model 70,

Powder throwers are definitely the future in reloading, as opposed to the 'ol scoop & trickle' method, how tedious, however I will always weigh my powder and reload in three stages.

#1 Trimming, De burring & Priming #2 Charging #3 Seating projectiles.

I have only just started with powder throwers, I use a 'Redding Master'. I throw just under and trickle up.

I have witnessed many guys down the range 'skylarking' about throwing and not weighing, in time these guys could find themselves in serious trouble, one day we may be reading their names in the obituaries column, believe me it's not worth the risk.

I recall a trip to Belmont Range in Brisbane, back in 1995 when I started out with only a 'Lee Classic' and a few measuring scoops, I must have somehow misplaced the measuring scoop and over-charged a case, how embarrassing. I had to take it inside and crack the bolt open with a rubber mallet, it could have been worse.

The moral of the story? Always weigh your powder, regardless of whether you use measuring scoops or a thrower.

I know of a Pro Roo Shooter who found himself like a Baghdad bomber, he was careless with his reloading, a primer found its way in to the powder. When the case was fired it blew the action apart, embedded part of it in his arm and they found part of the barrel about 150m away from the vehicle, it also blew the windows out of his rig, needless to say that was the end of his career, rifle and reloading, he was fortunate to survive.

Moral of the story? Do the reloading in three stages and when finished with primers pack them away.

There are other powder throwers on the market such as the 'Redding BR 30' which I am led to believe measure in point of grain increments and were designed to do away with weighing completely, however the objective of reloading is to optimise consistency in velocity and accuracy.

I would advice against merely throwing because a point of grain increase or decrease of charge will also provide a variation of internal discharging pressure and with slightest of breeze interferes with velocity and accuracy, hence flyer's.

It also pays to weigh your brass because of the inconsistencies within the thickness of each case, an increase or decrease of .2, plus or minus the thickness of the case wall will also impact upon the internal discharging pressure.

More to the point, you don't want to have jammed your action, blowing your favourite rifle apart or in hospital because the thrower malfunctioned because of its over-use. I have found increases of 5 grains because of poor technique and that I was fatigued.

You also need to ensure that when finished that it is cleaned thoroughly before next use i.e that there are no left over granules in their that could turn stale, impede upon pressure or contaminate another powder being used at later stage.

[bustedleg]

To add further to the story I just acquired a LEE "Perfect Powder Measure" (and I use the term loosely) after pissing around with it for three hours and after doing the maths converting from grains to cc and never getting a weight match with my beam scales I sat down with a reloading manual, and then getting on the net (ADI) to tryand find the specific weight of the powder (I use AR2208) I then sat down and using a dipper I then weighed 1cc of 2208 to get the specific weight of it then re did the maths and now another couple of hours pissing around it now consistantly throws the weight of powder that I need
Like I said took me better part of half a day
what I learnt is
every powder has a different specific weight
need a good quality set of scales
if you change a load you need to set up thrower as per maths (So a qualith calculator is handy)
need to time to mess around getting it right
Conclusion
throwers are not worth the efford for the home reloader

[1kshot]

G'day model 70, keepin well I hope!
Its is all about technique and I love the term Glenn Asher used “when I’m on”
I use to use a rcbs thrower but now use a Rcbs combi and my manual throwers are a Harrell and a redding br3 can’t use the br30 as it won’t throw enough powder on the larger cals.
I ain't no expert and don't claim to be but I have learn't a bit through trial and error, I found tequnique very important, consistency is the many thing, I don’t think it matters how you throw as long as it remains the same with every throw I will still use my manual thrower for most of my hunting rounds from 17 rem to 45-70 except for the long, long, long range stuff just to help with some sort of direction this is my routine,
I throw the first charge then put it back in the hopper then with the lever still down I will raise it to the top of the stroke (filling the charge) lower the handle about 1 cm (not dispensing any powder) then raise the handle hitting the top of the stroke (with a quick but light and consistent force) then repeat the 1cm top of stroke thing then drop the handle and cut the charge to dispense it, sounds a bit long winded but when you get the routine its quick and accurate a simple throw, raise the handle, tap, tap and throw again
Like I said it’s no magic technique but it lets me be consistent, hope it helps and gives you something to start with

P.S. The harrel is great but my old rcbs was a good unit to and able to throw neat charges.
lookin at some of the BR maniacs (in a good sense) they just throw on the day and vary their loads to suite (sounds so simple when you say it quick) but it comes with a lot of practice and experience, and they put ragged holes in paper and will shoot better than me in their sleep!!
If you are using flat out max loads weigh each load but remember speed isn’t everything and may not be the most accurate round for your rifle.

All the best
John

[macca]

As has been said technique(or more precisely repeatable technique) is the key.I throw most charges a fraction under and trickle in the last bit.Always about .3/.5 under the charge according to the scales until the bottom one third of the powder dispenser when all of a sudden the charge is on or .1 below.Lyman thrower.
Baffled dipensers work well and the BR class ones throw very consistant with practice.
My electric dipenser gets some use but I'm still more comfortable with the thrower and scales.
I get a fair bit of practice, most weeks I load about 100 rounds sometimes more if we are spotlighting a lot and then it will be 300 to 500 if I do some for the other blokes.That's pretty standard for 46 weeks a year.
Macca.

[bustedleg]

further to my pevious comment.
I have now been using the perfect powder measure for roughly 3 weeks, and I found out that if you open up the feed tube to its max then run about a kilo of powder through it so that it gets that nice graphite powder coating over everything it will throw almost perfect loads every time. I now just weigh at randon. but i still check the specific weight of each new batch of powder so that loads remain accurate.

[Model70]

This is why this fandangled RCBS set up is good, with a built in trickler you simply throw and trickle up in one slick-as-duckshit motion, and every charge is identical!!
I couldnt live with myself if I simply threw even one load and didnt weigh it, it'd shit me!

[chris.tyne]

Hey M70,I hope you never get the BR bug .

Regards Chris.

[Rook]

I have had and used both Lyman and RCBS digital scale/dispenser systems and whilst fast and accurate I no longer feel I could live with one. In my opinion digital scales are ok for checking projectiles and cases when batching and that's all. If they decide to start lying to you you generally wont find out until you have either damaged a rifle or loaded a stack of ammo.
I now use a redding 3br and then trickle the remainder of the load up to the mark Scales are Model 2 Redding and trickler was also a redding unit which I thought was the best as its cast iron and nice and stable unlike some of the cheaper plastic/alloy units. But since i started using the new trickler I possibly wont go back to the redding unit. The new unit consists of a small eggs cup full of powder and I simply pinch a small amount of powder between thumb and fore finger then slowly rub them together over the pan its easy and faster than any trickler I have used yet.

In My opinion
Lee Thrower is a POS (At least Tupperware has a decent warranty)
Lyman is a very nice bit of gear but I found it was a bit finicky to set up with the 3 different slides and also very tricky to record and then replicate loads quickly
Forster Not really a Benchrest thrower as advertised and again tricky to set up and replicate loads quickly

Regards Richard