Do you visual powder check?

Yes. I visibly inspect each drop. Much more attentive, after a squib fire. I have a small flexible light I have on my press, shining on the case, so I can see how the powder is dropping into case. I initially weigh several drops to make sure all is good and then periodically after that.


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Thoughts and comments?
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I use powder dies and lock out dies for progressive presses. And then there is that part I have never found entertaining; Pulling the trigger without a hint of what is about to happen.

I weigh components, I am never in mortal combat with reloading. I know the weight of the bullet, the weight of the case and the weight of the powder, For me it is a simple matter of adding the weight of 4 components when trying to determine if I left something out of one or too much in another.

F. Guffey
 
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Guffey you are a better loader than I. Sorry but I'm not going to weigh sort 1000 commercial pistol bullets or brass before I start or after I'm finished. I have checked weight on commercial pistol bullets and over a 500 count box I found a variance of almost 1 grain and tat was just with a light 100gr pistol bullet.

Sorry but I don't believe I would trust adding weights or to go thru the effort to weigh every loaded round.
 
I don't use a progressive type press because I am so anal in checking primer seating and powder charges that they are put in reloading blocks so I can check them all at one time. I can compare the powder levels in each case to those around it. If I have a short or over fill it is readily apparent.
 
Sorry but I don't believe I would trust adding weights or to go thru the effort to weigh every loaded round.
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You're on to something. Even 9mm brass of the same lot/headstamp can easily vary by 2 grains. Add to that a variance of a grain or so with a 124 gn projectile, and you are already exceed the tolerance of some lighter 9mm charges. TG has a max of 4gns with a 124gn projectile, 700x does as well. Just two powders off the top of my head that I'm familiar with.

Weighing can work great as a quality check when you use quality same headstamp brass when loading .308. It does not apply to smaller pistol loads.
 
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Guffey you are a better loader than I. Sorry but I'm not going to weigh sort 1000 commercial pistol bullets or brass before I start or after I'm finished. I have checked weight on commercial pistol bullets and over a 500 count box I found a variance of almost 1 grain and tat was just with a light 100gr pistol bullet.
Sorry but I don't believe I would trust adding weights or to go thru the effort to weigh every loaded round."

What brand of bullets were these that had a variation of less than 1 gr for a 500 round count?
Cast lead or jacketed?
what weight of projectile?
Many thanks for the info.
 
Gary Wells, those were Xtreme plated .355" 100gr for 380acp.
Low was 99.4gr and the high was 100.6 grain. The very light and very heavy were just a few, maybe 6 or 7 total but they were present. The largest percentage were within 99.9 to 100.2 grain so I would say that overall they were pretty consistent.
 
II do not load jacketed bullets, so I can't say for sure, but that sounds very consistent to me. I reload cast or swaged lead bullets and the swaged are the most consistent at .5 grs for a 50 count sample. Most cast lead not quite so consistent.
 
To get back on topic I have posted this a number of times over the past year or so.

I only load for pistol and for most the charges are small and the start and ending charge is also small. So in these instances the 0.10 grain difference by percentage can be huge.

As a test I have taken a group of cases charged to my target weight. I then added some that were 0.20gr light and 0.20gr heavy and mixed them all together. Upon just a visual inspection I could not pick out the over or under charges. I then repeated this only increasing to 0.30 grains and I still couldn't tell consistently. With many pistol calibers there is only a 0.60 grain difference between starting and max.

So yes I look in each case and best I can tell is that there is powder in it. In most cases a double charge would over flow the case or at least be up near the top.. Looking can also warn of a bridge or malfunction as the charge is way off from normal.

If you can tell if a powder is 0.3 or 0.4 grains over or under just by looking then you are much better than I am.
 
Well, I thought maybe I was being anal. Turns out I was being safe. Thanks for all the thoughts and comments. Need to figure out a light or a mirror or something that will show me the powder in taller cases without having to remove them from the case holder.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
If you can tell if a powder is 0.3 or 0.4 grains over or under just by looking then you are much better than I am.
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I cannot tell without assistance, but that isn't the point. I want to visually see powder to prevent a squib. I've had a few now (mostly from the lee autodisk leaking powder and binding and not dropping a charge). I've fixed my powder measure issue, but a visual check for powder before placing the bullet is a QC check of mine now.

I also have a method for visually measuring the powder that I will post in another thread when I get around to taking photos.

Well, I thought maybe I was being anal.
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Not at all. I learned the hard way. Well, not too hard I didn't blow up a gun or anything. But knowing I could have scared me :eek:
 
I visually inspect all powder charges on all my presses. Of course, I alway use a bulky powder, so a double charge overflows the case. Safety first and always.
 
Like most of the others, I visually inspect every case for a powder drop.
I use a Dillon Square Deal press, and velcro a bore light to the primer magazine
so I can see right into the cases as they move from the 2nd to 3rd station.
$6.99 well spent!
 
I would never consciencelessly place a bullet atop a case without first checking for a powder charge. I would never adopt a load style that would not include this critical safety check. Just won't do it.

I say "consciencelessly" because in 34 years of loading, I have missed this critical step at least once. And I know this because I had one squib round - no propellant in the case. I'm human.
 
condor bravo wrote:
I consider it mostly a waste of time since you can observe the powder as it flows through the RCBS drop funnel.
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You can observe powder flow, but you cannot observe how much powder flowed.
 
kmw1954 wrote:
Sorry but I don't believe I would trust adding weights or to go thru the effort to weigh every loaded round.
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That's entirely your choice.

But why are you getting defensive about it?

I do weigh every loaded round against a standard weight. And every time I have had a discrepancy, I have disassembled the round and found something wrong, so I will stand by my process.
 
kmw1954 wrote:
If you can tell if a powder is 0.3 or 0.4 grains over or under just by looking then you are much better than I am.
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Nobody ever made any claim of being able to spot a particular level of over-charge/under-charge.

Again, why are you getting defensive about the fact you don't follow a step you regard as unnecessary?
 
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