Volume vs weight ?? I am going to vote with Vanguard on this issue and present two questions to base this decision.

1. How is Lake City Match ammo and Federal Match ammo measure their powder?

2. What does Dillon Precision have to say regarding volume vs weight?

If you are interested then you will know or look up the answers. I imagine Joyce Hornady is having a jolly good laugh right now.

I'm going out on a limb and say they all use Lee dippers?
Sorry, I only load for hunting accuracy and don't have a competition shooting rest in my deer blind. I'll stick with my Dillon Eliminator and go kill stuff.

Great debate, Volume vs Weight.

im interested in reading up on this, i did few searches and couldnt find anything, can you post up any links or info on the subject

If I'm just loading a box or so of ammo, I use the beam scale, but a few yrs. ago I got an automatic trickler, w/digital scale
and you have to wait 30mins for warm up but then I load shells in
the 100's and haven't had an issue..but when I'm working up loads
and shooting groups..I use the beam because I'm done before the
DMPS can warm up..but the digital is a little more accurate..Don

I parked the RCBS 1010 scale and went digital. That's 30 years with the 1010 and 1 with the digital. The Lyman throws it and trickles it. Much faster. And you'll have to work pretty hard to convince me that the beam scale is more accurate. I think it's actually less accurate, though it doesn't need a warm-up time.

Not trying to get involved but beam scale is not influenced by fluorescent lights.

I'll be reloading again soon, and I'll set up the RCBS 1010 alongside my Lyman and my PACT. I'll throw and trickle charges with the 1010 and then I'll measure them with the PACT and the Lyman and see if they are all dead on or if they have a range of plus or minus .1 or .2 grains. The Lyman and PACT probably have a range of plus or minus 0.05 and round off to the nearest tenth.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3603622

I have never shot Palma Match but some of these fellows have.

I use my RCBS chargemaster under a fluroescent (sp) light, never really noticed it bothering it... thinking I may throw some charges and check with the old beam scale. I know when I bought the charge master I checked the checkweights against my beam scale and it was right and the chargemaster scale has always measured them corectly. Oh well mine shoot plenty good enough for me now.

In centrefire rifles of calibres of say 243win and about .1 or .2 of a grain does not make much difference to group size.

Try loading up some ammo where the weights are varied and see. If you run it over a chrony, you will also see it has very little effect on the velocities achieved.

Interestingly, if you take something like Lapua match ammo, this will be consistently good in a variety of rifles without any of the "fine tuning" us handloaders normally do..

Measure the length using a comparator, and you will find more variation than typically we fuss about at home and if you pull the bullets, the power weights will show a degree of variation also, but it will still very well in any half decent rifle.

I suspect that its down to low run-out and perhaps having a very consistent neck tension on the bullet when they are seated at the factory, something handloaders often overlook..

Some bullets are very forgiving of seating depth. Precisely why Berger started making the hybrid. I think accuracy is a relative thing as well. Work the pits of a mid or long range match and you will see the difference.

Not attacking but trying to clarify. Lapua ammo is good in many rifles as is the Federal Gold Match. But some handloads are great. What is the difference?

Neck tension....now we are talking! Why many people are starting to anneal cases.

At 100 yards, you're right, it may not be a noticable difference in a rifle that shoots 1" at 100 for hunting. Have that variation in a precision rifle capable of same hole accuracy at 100, you will no doubt notie this difference. And the further out you shoot, the more you will notice it. A .3 grain jump in powder should be about 25 to 30 fps, or up to 40-50 fps in your fast calibers. So, .1 grains is about 10-15 fps, and .2 is about 15-20 fps. At 600 yards and beyond, you will start to induce vertical stringing, just because of the difference in powder charge. So you will begin to hit low and high, just based on the varying powder charge. And at .2 grain difference in powder charge (high or low of my accuracy node), my rifle can go from a 1/4 moa gun to about a 1/2 moa or more gun. I begin to get out of my accuracy node. When you have precision rifles, every little thing makes a difference. This is why people spend $3000 plus on precision powder throwers to get your powder to throw exactly to the kernel of powder. So, yes, a .1 to .2 grain difference does make a difference.