Does a tenth of a grain matter?

[kam582]

Santa brought me a Chargemaster for Christmas. I finally got it set up and have loaded about eighty 223 cases. I've checked each load against my beam scale and I have to say I'm fairly impressed. Every once and awhile though, it will throw a charge that's a tenth of a grain light. Never high, always light. My question is, does that tenth really matter? I am loading for my Rock River AR, which I use for coyote and prairie dogs, and I like accuracy. Thanks

 

[GLShooter]

Quite simply no. You'll never see it in the field.

Greg

 

[5spd]

I have yet to see 1/10th gr. make any difference in my reloading since the 70s!
I would not even start to worry about that.

 

[Kracker]

Only if your OCD

 

[OldTurtle]

I guess I'm a little OCD, if I expect really consistent accuracy..

I've found that .1gr will make the difference between a "Fair" group and a "Great" group...However, unless I'm shooting from a 'bench' type situation, such as long distance Prairie Dogs, the difference is not significant if shooting from sticks or pretty much 'free style'...

I know that for the upcoming Egg Shoot at the PM Hunt, each round that I take will be as 'perfect' as I can make them..I still will likely not finish 'in the money', but it won't be because of poor loads...

 

[muskrat30]

I wouldn't be concerned about it, especially with a charge weight near 26 grains or so. Even a small charge in a 380 case I wouldn't worry.

With a powder measure one may have it set on the edge of a charge weight, like the fence between 25.4 and 25.5. In this instance it could easily waiver between the .4 and .5.

Just another reason to stay inside the charge envelope too. With some powders one should at least give some consideration to possible warm/hot Summertime shooting temperatures.

For the average shooter / hunter it doesn't matter, though we strive to be consistent.

 

[MDM]

For most of the hunting distances guys shoot at, no, it won't matter at all. For someone that shoots out to 1000yds regularly, it does matter. I shoot 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5x47 Lapua extensively throughout the year. In all or my load work ups, I've found that .3 grains generally equals out to 15-20 fps in those cartridges. For 223, in my most recent 17" build, I saw 20 fps per .2 grains with Varget and 80 vld's. So, if you do the math on you favorite ballistic calculator, you will see that .1 can make a difference in vertical spread the farther you shoot. It just depends on what you are doing, but for 95% of guys and hunting purposes, nope, It won't matter one bit.

 

[Blake Pulsipher]

I have wondered about the very same thing myself, and came to the conclusion that a tenth of a grain will not make as much of a difference on bullet placement as the jerk on the trigger (aka. me

). Although I also want to remove as many variables as possible from the equation, I'm still in it no matter what else I do. Oh by the way, it's CDO to those of us that have it

 

[Beluebow]

In a gas gun,,,probably not.

 

[Varminterror]

It depends where your rifle, bullet, and charge land in terms of forgiveness. If you do follow the philosophy of "ladder testing" or "optimal charge weight" or "forgiveness envelope" then you should be loading with a charge that will forgive you for a lot more than 0.1grn variability. Alternatively, if you're shooting outside of that window, it might make much more difference for you, or if you're on the ragged edge of that window, then changes in temperature might push you out and into more variability.

Almost all of the electronic measures out there throw +/- 0.1grn, and for what it's worth, even our beam balances (they're balances, not "scales") aren't perfect, such that frictional losses can provide fractional grain deviations that I've found to be in the 0.05 to just under 0.1grn ballpark when they show the same on the indicator.

Reality is that for most of us, we're not shooting consistent internal volume cases, let alone elasticity, nor consistent enough bullet weights (nor metallurgical consistency) such that 0.1grn will not produce as much variability as these other issues.

 

[steve garrett]

the thing is you don't want this to make a difference. that is why you should do a ladder test. This is the best way to find a forgiving load. That way you have done your best to simulate changing conditions like temperature etc. if a load shoots the same plus or minus 4 tenths of a grain. I think you can also think to yourself its would likely shoot well if its 15 degrees outside or 75 degrees outside.

 

[IAyoteHNTR]

Originally Posted By: steve garrettthe thing is you don't want this to make a difference. that is why you should do a ladder test. This is the best way to find a forgiving load. That way you have done your best to simulate changing conditions like temperature etc. if a load shoots the same plus or minus 4 tenths of a grain. I think you can also think to yourself its would likely shoot well if its 15 degrees outside or 75 degrees outside.

^^^^^^^THIS!^^^^^^^

A good ladder test is the BEST way to start developing a load IMO.

 

[NdIndy]

I'd only sweat it if I thought I was 1/10th of a grain away from blowing up my rifle. For all other situations, no difference at all.

 

[Riflemann]

Most say no, but I fall into the OCD group, I will wonder if I miss a shot, if that load was light or not. I always am right on with the powder charge, than I can only blame me for the misses.

 

[pahntr760]

Take out 5 rounds. One loaded .2 and one .1 grain heavy and the same light. And one at the desired weight. Put them through a chronograph and on paper. I'm willing to be there isn't any reall difference.

Most of us do not not have scales that are truly accurate within .1 gr anyways.

 

[eric n]

I wondered that myself, so I checked it 2 weeks ago at 600 with a 223.
5 with the chargemaster, double checked on the 505 to make sure that it was ''close enough''.+ or - .10 from charge.

5 on the gem pro. + or - .05
5 on a friends sartorious + or - .02.

The rounds from the chargemaster were all over the place in neck length and seating.
The others were prepped as well as I can get them. Bullets sorted, brass weighed, trim length, etc.. Although one variable I didn't account for was annealing, some were freshly done and some had a couple firings so neck tension was different.

The conclusion.... I can barely shoot the difference.
There was the least amt of vertical in the .02 spread, the .05 had an outlier at 2.5'' of an otherwise good group and the .10 was the biggest of all vert wise. Although, I had a really good group with them later as I had a lot of them already made.
I think a shooter better then me would benefit from more precise charges.
The gun has a very big accuracy node and I'm backed of .2 from scatter so that is something to take into account as well, like others have said.

 

[hm1996]

.1 gr. will make no difference (depending, of course on the powder used. .1 gr. pistol powder is worth a lot more than .1 gr. of slow burning rifle powder.

While this

 

[IAyoteHNTR]

Originally Posted By: hm1996.1 gr. will make no difference (depending, of course on the powder used. .1 gr. pistol powder is worth a lot more than .1 gr. of slow burning rifle powder.

While this

 

[Jay Cummings]

I would move to a different powder if my load was that sensitive.

 

[hm1996]

Originally Posted By: IAyoteHNTROriginally Posted By: hm1996.1 gr. will make no difference (depending, of course on the powder used. .1 gr. pistol powder is worth a lot more than .1 gr. of slow burning rifle powder.

While this