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November 7, 2015
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I understand competition demands but I left that behind over 25 years ago. Loading for and shooting old Winchesters is much more enjoyable. I do enjoy exploring the capabilities of these guns and I’m very impressed with many of them. Loading for the old BP cartridges is a whole different world from smokeless and I enjoy both. My Chargemaster will occasionally dispense a charge that indicates two tenths over but I’ll simply dump it back in the tube and go on. I’ve occasionally checked it with a PACT scale and they agree, for my purposes a variance of a tenth of a grain is acceptable. I cull my cast bullets by weight mainly because a variation of over a grain for 350 grains and under indicates a poor fill or cavity. It still amazes me that BP is best measured by volume and quite often a good BPCR load has a smaller ES than many very good factory smokeless loads. Many good BPCR loads have no neck tension; the powder is dropped, sometimes compressed and held in place with a wad. The bullet is simply placed in the case on top of the powder column and wad. Mindboggling for people who also load popular smokeless cartridges.
Mike
March 31, 2009
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My very first powder dispenser/scale was a Pact. I think they were bought out by RCBS. If not the RCBS has a lot of the same features. You know I shoot all my rifles. But I don’t shoot black powder. The exceptions are the Henry, 1866 and when fire forming cases. A tenth of a grain is good for the old guns. Even the bench rest guys load smokeless by volume. As the weather changes so does the weight of the powder. I don’t measure the neck tension for all but the 45 Calibers that I’ve tried to get shooting better. A lot of the old competition rifles had a false muzzle so they just pushed the bullet in from the muzzle and it just set on the powder. I don’t measure and sort bullets. The competition guys do. They have found that longer bullets shoot/fly better and often hit higher. Not all bullets in the same batch have the exact diameter at the pressure ring. The point where the straight part touches the beginning of the boat tail. Neck tension and bullet release is very important. You want the bullet to come out as easy as possible and the case to expand enough that it is not causing drag on the bullet.
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