Powder drop tube

i've seen people take springs from an ink pen & stretch them out & use them,why not just use a longer tube?
 
I had this key ring that had a set of Allen wrenches on it, held in springs that fit around their long ends. The end coil of the springs were bent at 90 degrees from the rest and threaded on the key ring. One of those springs ( They were tension springs that had no space between coils.) was just a little too big to fit in a long .22 caliber plastic drop tube, that fits my Harrell measure. I grabbed both ends of the spring with pliers and pulled it till it was about as stretched as I could manage, and then trimmed up the ends, so that they would not hang up or when inserting it in the tube, or catch powder too much. At that point I discovered that the OD of the stretched spring was smaller than that of the tube, so I put a slight bend in the center of the spring, to cause interference that would keep it in place. After I put it in the tube, I positioned it far enough down so that if powder hung up in the tube above it, that I could see it. When you use one, it allows you to get the same advantages of a long tube with a very slow, or intermittent drop, with less trouble, BUT after the powder is mostly in the case, you need to tap the tube sharply, a couple of times to dislodge any kernels that have hung up on the spring, lest your next charge be a hot one. You can't get as much in with a long drop tube, as with a long tube, combined with a very slow drop or a long tube with one of these modifications.
 
Would it be feasable to use a separate funnel & tube to achieve the result?

Reading an old PS a while back, I came across an article where the author used a twist drill to provide the swirl, but it was necessary to use a "jig" on the funnel mouth to hold it in place. I tried it myself & found with the powder I was playing with (VV N550), I got an extra 3% in the case. The drop tube itself was 9", so the load was already getting a bit of packing. I guess you might be able to get by with one that was a snug fit in the tube as long as the leading end was suitably profiled to stop powder hanging up. It's worth noting that it did noticably slow the delivery of the powder to the case.

Like Boyd Allen, I found when I tried them that springs tended to get powder kernels hung up.

I remeber seeing some sort of transfer arrangement in a piece of office equipment a while back that used a helix rolled into the wall of a brass tube. I think that could be the way to go.
 
Todd

When i used a measure to throw charges, i scotch taped a piece of white paper on the back side of my drop tube. This let me see just how much of a glob of powder i was actually throwing when lowering the handle on the measure. You'll be suprised at how much difference this makes in getting more powder into the cases.

Also try what John Kielly says.

Then again when using a chargmaster, a pan, a funnel, and a 4" drop tube, 30.3 grains of N133 can be put into a case without compressing the load.

Later
Dave
 
I use the combo 6" .17 cal drop tube from Dillon with has a permanent funnel as part of the tube. The tube end is flared and fits perfectly over the mouth of the case. Use this funnel with my Charge Master and just slowly swirl the powder from the pan into the funnel...works very well.
 
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I used a tap and threaded both the top and bottom of my harrells drop tube, it slowed it down enough to lower the charge half way down the neck, I never could get a streched spring to fit like I wanted.
 
I charge a loading block full of cases with a Harrell's and then pour the dropped charge from the case into a pan on a Denver 603 D. I pinch powder in or out of the pan to regulate the thrown charge to +/- 0.01 grain. Swirling 48 grains of Varget back into a Lapua 308 Win case through a funnel with a 4" drop tube (like Jerry) lowers the level from 1/8" below the neck as dropped to the neck shoulder junction. My Palma loads are the only ones that need a drop tube to fit but I use the same method for everything anyway. Because I weigh each charge it doesn't matter what measure I use but I enjoy the mechanical precision of the Harrell's. Charging an entire loading block of cases in one run and then weighing them in sequence helps refine one's technique but no amount of skill or experience at the handle of a powder measure is adequate for long range loading. Of course there is Sam Hall who spoils this rule.

Greg
 
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