Does anyone have a spare .3cc one I could acquire?

I do not, but if I really need one to throw a certain powder charge I just make it myself. A fired cartridge case cut to size and some kind of rod screwed into it work quite nicely.

Dave Sinko

Good idea. I made several using different calibers empty cases, and glued small wooden dowels to each one using 5-minute epoxy. Tough little buggers.
I finally bought the set of dippers, but never quite got the consistency that others talk about, even when I scrape something over the top of the case. Perhaps I should try that again.
Sonny

Why use the dippers in the first place? From many folks I have talked to, they seldom give the desired results. Almost always much lower.

Do you have a scale? Use it WITH the dippers. Paul5388 taught this to me over this very forum. Maybe he will have some pictures to share in just a little bit.

Here's how you do it: Take a dipper that is JUST too small. Fill it, dump it into the scale's pan. Get another dip, tilt it over the scale's pan and TAP it gently over the pan. Stop when the beam begins to swing upward, adding a little as needed. If you go over, start again.

This is time consuming BUT each and every load has the same exact weight of powder in it, that is, as accurate as you WANT to be.

I would NEVER use just the dippers. Certainly not for full power loads either.

I was using H110 and W296 a week ago or so. They are the EXACT same powder with variances found to be only the same as lot to lot of each on respectively. The variances in case fill changed dramatically from powder to powder. I used the same weight for each powder and got the results that the recipe called for (within tolerances). The setting on my Lyman #55 was WAY different though.

So, the moral to the story is, use a scale, in a long winded sort of way!

JakeB,
I have an extra .3cc dipper you can have if you e-mail me your mailing address. [email protected]

I do agree that they are easy to make as the others have stated. I also feel that if one will spend some time practicing one can dip very consistent loads. I would never use them for a max load but for target loads they work very well.

A couple lifetimes ago some of us used dippers to load for our benchrest guns, and they seemed to be pretty consistent for that.

Here's the technique Skip was referring to.



It works even if you've burned the back of your hand on the wood stove.

After the large dipper is used to "rough" in the weight, it's much easier to control a small dipper for the final "trickling".

Some of the electronic scales won't recognize small additions, so just touch it lightly with the edge of the dipper, which makes it think much more weight has been added. It will settle down to the correct weight when you remove the dipper. If you still are uncertain about the weight, lift the scale pan and set it back again. It should reproduce the weight you got the first time.

On a Ohaus (RCBS and others too) 505, like I'm using in the picture, just lift the pan with the dipper and let it settle again. That weight should duplicate also.

I used lee dippers before I bought an electronic powder measure. Instead of the methods listed above (which should work just fine) I used a dipper one size smaller than required then I used a RCBS powder trickler to drop the final grains of powder in my scale pan.

Just a caution friends. This is a public forum. There a "bots" and other software that scans the Internet looking for email addresses. Once you put your address out like this, you are going to get spammed.

A solution is to use the Private Messenger function on this forum or put your address in a different format, such as: "blahblahblah AT blah.net".

Explain to folks they need to copy and paste your email into their mail client removing the "AT" and inserting the "@" symbol.

Hope this helps.

I use my dippers like mentioned above, with a scale. You need some 'welder's gloves' when stoking the woodstove.

Good advice from Skip.
I use a teaspoon to add powder to my Ohaus 505 or to my RCBS digital scale. And don't fail to use your 10 and 20-grain weights to check accuracy of your scale every so often.
Sonny

The idea I have is to do just as most of you have mentioned....rough out the charge with a dipper then trickle up.

I would like to use this method for the times that I just don't want to hassle with setting up a measure.

- Jake

With the right sized dipper & when you get the feel & visual calibrated it flows pretty good. I always weigh every charge rifle or handgun. After that I do the light 'visual' check into the cases. This may sound a little slow but I've got ammo out the wazoo & have never had any accidentally miss-charged ammo. I know the jokes about underwear & reloading but I also load for a buddy. I want his ammo to be top shelf.