Which Ball Powder?

[Zilberbak]

I am now coming to the end of both my Vhit 320 & 340 tubs, which l load my 9mm and .357 with. I am using A Lee turret press without the twizzle stick as l batch usually a 100 at each station before moving on to the next part of the reloading process. The consistency of the loads vary .5 through the volumetric disc. I am trying to achieve 4.5 grains and had hoped the cylindrical shaped of the Vhit powders would be better than Titegroup’s flattened powder shape that l had been using previously.

So, with the Shooting Show looming hopefully giving access to most available powders l am thinking what unflattened ball powder to consider for reloading the following assuming this would be best for volumetric measurement,

.357 158gn truncated cone for my Marlin & Taurus LBR
9mm for my SGC lever
.40 S&W 180gn for my Armalon PCC

I use a Lee manual for load development.


Thanks in anticipation.


.

[bradaz11]

Lee manual isn't the best. Recommend Lyman.
I liked ramshot trueblue in 9mm but might be a bit fine for disks as it's finer than salt.
All the alliant stuff is flat.
Where did you get titegtoup from? I want to get that to try

[Zilberbak]

I used Titegroup when l first started reloading from Shooting Supplies Bromsgrove but wanted something that was less prone to leakage when using Lee discs. I have a Lymans reloading manual but bullet options aren’t as comprehensive as the Lee manual. The Ramshot Trueblue sounds too fine.

[dromia]

Rely on the Lyman manual loads not the Lee, you don't need the same bullets in the manual just the same weight will give you a starting point.

Lee do not pressure test any loads, they just copy them from other manuals with the added bonus of throwing in their own errors.

Because Lee try and get people to buy into their volume metric system (rather than develop sound reloading principles) then the loads they give are at the conservative end so not only do the plagiarise other peoples results they only give you part of the story.

[Zilberbak]

I don’t want to overemphasise the Lee bit as l just want some advice on what if any un-flattened ball powders from the numerous manufacturers of powders available to us would be the best suited for volumetric reloading for pistol caliber cartridges. Bearing in mind l weigh the first 5, last 5 and every tenth in a 100 batch session to check consistency. The problem l have is the variation in loads can be up to .5 grains or more, which when the load is only 4.5 grains is significant even if still well within the maximum load. Ideally is there a list of powders that tells you ball, flattened, ball, flake or extruded?

[dromia]

What dispenser are you using?

[bradaz11]

i know this isn't the answer to your question, I had issues with the auto disc for this very reason. I bought the auto drum, which is a bit like the perfect powder measure, but die mounted like the auto disc. you adjust the size of the cavity by screwing in a plug. once this is set, there is no discernable difference in throws that I see on my rcbs balance beam, on which is easy to see .1 gr differences.
I would suggest upgrading to a better powder throwing solution, rather than trying to cater to the discs. which at £50 posted from Kranks, is probably cheaper than buying a different powder too.
https://www.henrykrank.com/index.php/le ... asure.html

[Zilberbak]

I have started using the auto drum but these still use a volumetric process. I even started using a dipper as l was getting better results. I wanted to go back to try and use the discs as the principle is sound and l thought an un-flattened ball powder would give the discs the best chance to perform.

[PeterN]

I am a fairly low volume reloader usually loading in 50 round batches. I don't rely on volume measures but weigh every charge so I know it is right. I throw a slightly under charge into the pan and It doesn't take long to tap a few extra kernels into the pan from the trickler to bring the scale to zero.
Regards
Peter.

[Alpha1]

I am not a fan of any thing made by Lee the one exception being there dies. I certainly would never use the Lee reloading manual as a reference. I have lots of the Lyman cast bullet and metallic cartridges reference books.
I have a couple of RCBS powder dispensers. I drop a charge of any type of powder into a glass sample jar I use a toffee hammer to tap the drum before dropping the charge. I deliberately drop the charge under weight. The powder then goes into the pan on my Hornady beam scale. (The beam scale has been calibrated and tweaked by 1066). Once the powder is in the pan on the beam scale I use the Electronic powder trickle,r supplied many years ago by 1066 to bring it up to the exact charge weight. I have had the powder trickle,r for God knows how many years and it just works.