Powder Measure or Scale for hunting loads?

[Rocky Raab]

Give Contenderizer a cigar.

Unless you're talking about a full-custom target rifle and all the attendant brass prep, case weighing, bullet sorting and all the rest of the accuracy hoohah, then weighing powder isn't going to make much difference.

In a factory rifle, with average brass and hunting bullets, you cannot detect an accuracy difference until powder charges start to vary by more than 1% of the charge. With 50-grain charge weights, that as much as a half grain variation before you can see an accuracy change that's attributable to the powder.

In smaller cases, with smaller charges, that 1% allowance is much smaller, so that in a Hornet with a 13-grain charge, the charge weight has to be kept to about 0.1 grain (which is why some people claim the Hornet isn't accurate. It is, but you have to be MUCH more precise when reloading for it.)

Note that we are talking accuracy ONLY here. PRESSURE can spike with smaller than a 1% powder variation - especially if you are loading to never-exceed levels to start with.