Reloaders have made their own dippers for measuring powder charges for decades. I made a dipper from an empty .22 Long Rifle case and some copper wire, and tried it out with three different fast burning pistol powders: Accurate No.2 (AAC-2), Alliant Bullseye, and Hodgdon Titegroup.
I was hoping to get a dipper that would throw very small charges suitable for use in small, low pressure cartridges like .32 S&W Long. However, the charge weights are a bit higher than I'd wanted.
To measure, I threw 10 charges of each powder and weighed them individually on a Frankford Arsenal digital scale. I then took the average of those 10 charges.
My results (It is likely that yours will vary, see below!):
- AAC-2: 3.08 grains
- Bullseye: 2.98 grains
- Titegroup: 3.68 grains
To put these into perspective, with AAC-2 or Bulleye, these charges are good for loading .38 Special 148 grain wadcutters. They'd be light loads under a 158 grain semiwadcutter or round nose bullet, because those aren't seated as deeply in the case, thus lowering chamber pressure.
In .32 H&R Magnum, 3.0 grains of AAC-2 would be a mild load with a 100 grain lead bullet. Likewise, 3.0 grains of Bullseye would be a mild load with 96 - 100 grain lead round nose bullet.
The Titegroup load would approximate a .38 Special (not +P) 158 grain service load. It could also be used to load 85 grain JHPs in .32 H&R Magnum.
VERY IMPORTANT WARNING:
Before you rely on this data consult with one or more loading manuals. Use at your own risk.
If you try this make sure to create your own charge table. The amount of powder a dipper will measure will vary depending on the case used, the manufacturing lot of the powder, and your technique.
Since this dipper measures out charges larger than what I was after, I plan to make another one with a .22 Short case to see what that gets me.
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