Originally Posted by Jwjarrett

I ran some throws using as many of the tips as I could. I made a baffle out of cardboard similar to the one in the RCBS video (Thanks Twoboxer - is that your P51?)

No, but she was "mine" for an hour lol . . . and then only from the back seat of that modified P51C. Couple years later I flew back seat again in "Toulouse Nuts", a modified P51D. Those flights took the next to last thing off my To Do bucket list.

I practice consistent throws, zeroed my scales, added powder to 3/4 full. The first run produced throws that average 7.3. (7.27 on the digital) Max was 7.36 by the digital, minimum was 7.21. Most were 7.25 to 7.28. Bottom line with the baffle is that it was more consistent than yesterday.

Without the baffle with all other things equal, the throws were higher, averaging 7.60. Most were consistently 7.56 to 7.62.

I'm going to assume that your digital scale isn't fluttering around and constantly losing zero due to RF noise or other causes. While likely not enough throws for "proof", you've got enough data to see the trend now. With consistent weight above the flow port and consistent technique, throws will in fact cluster near the average for your run. For handguns, this is good enough for almost if not all shooters.

My take away was a loaded bottle without baffle can result in consistently heavier loads - 3 grains heavier in this case. Both seem acceptable consistent with a full hopper but I would expect the non baffled to start out heavier and creep toward lighter as the level in the hopper decreased. I would expect the baffle to dampen this unless the powder level ran below the baffle.

Another thing I paid attention to this time was the uniformity of the powder. I would assume the smaller flakes could settle causing denser loads.

Smaller flakes will, but the irregular shape of that flattened ball powder will *also* allow edge-to-edge bridging . . . until its "weight limit" is exceeded. And that effect will vary due to the irregularity.

When my primed brass gets here, I'll be watching the powder and being very picky on the first few hundred until I can be comfortable. Maybe then I reduce to measuring every 10th.