I have found a great difference in bushing chart drops between the powder company guide and the Mec chart as far a powder drops. Sometimes the recommended bushings are shown 2 full grains apart for the bushings listed! My gut feeling is to go with the Mec chart to start with. I realize a scale is the only "true measure" but I want to be as close as possible at the "starting point". Just wondering which is most accurate?
What I do is fill the bottle and start to put each drop on the scale. I have a paper where I write the powder, bushing number and grains droped. I write out the range and underline the number I get the most on the scale. Example Red Dot bushing 28, 16.5 to 17.2 and 16.8 is underlined because of the 20 drops I put on the scale 16.8 showed up the most number of times.
Starting with New to Me Spolar Gold..Currently set up with Green Dot..Drops about 18.5.
Would Like Info . about What Bushing to use for 700x..about 18.5grs in a Federal Paper.
Thanks for Any and All Info.
Shoot Well..Shoot Often with Family and or Good Friends, Bart
I can't help w/ the 700X cuz I don't use that smelly nasty stuff.
I would suggest tho that a better way of evaluating bushing drops is to use a cut off pill bottle and drop 10 charges into it. Weigh that and divide by 10 for the average. (OK - don't forget the tare if you weigh the bottle too hahaha) Gets you way better into the better working end of the scale AND virtually eliminates those pesky 0.1gr differences. I usually do three of the ten drop weighs. Makes me feel good about the results.
Bushings are pretty cheap. For me it was worth spending fifty bucks and buying a dozen bushings to cover different types of powder. The Hornady bushings are incremented by a few thousandths and allow you to tune in the powder drop perfectly.
Over time, you will also find that some batches of powder can vary slightly in density, requiring a change in bushing in either direction.
I primarily use Titegroup (very dense and requires a tiny bushing even for handicap), Clays which is medium dense and requires a medium size .450 bushing for my singles load, and International Clays which is also medium dense but since I use it for handicap I use a larger bushing range, something like .465.
As for weighing powder charges, I found that I prefer to pull shells off of the machine to weigh the powder and shot. I then replace the powder in the shell and put it back in line. On my machine I get an ever-so-slightly different drop when I do a dedicated powder drop, versus what happens during a "production run."
I know Scales are the only true measure but, as my original post said, I want to be at the best "staring point" before I try several different bushing to get the drop right.
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