[serf 'rett]

Powder Measure is RCBS Uniflow. Single stage press.

I was loading in batch mode a few nights ago; had adjusted the powder measure to meter the desired amount of Power Pistol powder and loaded the first 50 9mm rounds. I normally only charge 50 cases at a time, but decided to drop powder into a large batch of 200 cases, so powder was dropped into 4 trays with 50 cases per tray and the trays set aside.

I’ve used the powder measure for a while and have found the Powder Pistol to meter very consistently with little variation; therefore, everything seemed normal when I followed my standard practice of dumping and weighing the powder in the first and last case of the first tray of 50 charged cases. Bullets were set and life was lovely…until I happened to pick up tray number four next and I got an eye opening plunge of the scale pan revealing a significant increase in powder weight. What?! I carefully looked into the remaining 150 cases but could not see a difference in the powder levels. To investigate, I weighed the powder in round numbers 51, 60, 80, 90, 100, 130, 150, 180, and 198 and found that the powder weight had steadily crept up over the last 100 throws. What was going on? I’ve never had the Uniflow creep out of adjustment before; just set it and it’s set.

When I reached over the check the measure, I found the bushing, which screws into the drop cylinder and through which the charge adjusting screw passes, was loose in the cylinder. It then was obvious that as the bushing backed out, the powder charge increased.

This type of thing can give me the be-gee-bees and confirms that old carpenters adage of “measure twice, cut once,” which is a way of saying be sure before proceeding.