Powder dispensers - hand operated

[Dangermouse]

Whilst cleaning up tonight I remembered I had a LEE powder dispenser that I have never looked at as I had the Hornady auto powder dispenser and scales.
As previously mentioned the Hornady is playing up on the powder dispensing but the scales have been working fine, so I wondered if I could use the Lee with the scales should I need to.

I loaded the thing up and through a few rounds, the accuracy was not all that good with maybe around .5gn's difference from load to load, so I cleaned them off and returned them to the bottom of my box.

I have not totally given up on the idea and know that in the Sinclair's catalogue there are some powder dispensers that are more expensive than the electronic type that I have, and they don't come with scales either.

I was wondering if anyone uses a manual powder thrower for accurate loads?
I have a friend who uses one for his Lee Enfield and he says that he does not have to weigh the throws, they are close enough for what he needs.
But for where I want to be, I would like something that is pretty much spot on every time. I am not sure that a powder thrower can achieve this as surely the powder must compact differently in each throw giving different weights.

What are your thoughts?

DM

[Alpha1]

I use a rcbs hand powder measure to throw a charge about .5 of a grain under my desired charge into a empty case I drop the powder from the case into a scale pan then I trickle the last grains of powder in to the pan to bring it up to the required charge.
For milsurps I just set the charge and drop the powder straight into the case and check weigh every ten rounds.
Up to now they have all gone bang :lol: :lol:

[Ovenpaa]

We have a Harrell powder thrower, it is incredibly accurate with the right powders. Fine ball such as Vectan SP9 is thrown to perfection. With the coarser N5x0's you will be lucky to get within 2/10ths of a grain.

[Alpha1]

As I have said before I am not into reloading for bench Rest -F/Class or long distance shooting my passion is collecting and shooting milsurps so my reloading is more about replicating millitary rounds for the Lee Enfield, Mausers, Nagant etc. So my re loading regime is some what different to yours.

[Ovenpaa]

Once a year or so I build a few hundred .308's - built to milsurp specification in length and bullet and use SP9 for them. This is where the thrower comes into it's own. With the fine ball I can churn them out to perfection and each load takes a couple of seconds.

Oh to do all my loading like this.