# Dumping Powder



## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

Not being a very bright guy it has taken me about 3 years to discover this, and I would like to know if there are any benefits and or drawbacks. I noticed today that while dumping powder from my weighing pan into the funnel the powder packs much better if I let it swirl down the funnel instead of just dumping it all in and letting it drop straight down. It left noticably more room in the case when it went around the funnel rather than straight in. Is this because the grains align themselves more parallel when going into the case rather than just dumping into what ever position, or what is happening? Also, is there any benefit, other than a little more neck room(some times) when loading. Does a tighter pack give better burn, or will it hurt because there would be more airspace between the powder and bullet? Or won't it matter either way? Thanks for any info!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I forget the reasons that bench rest shooters do that. Often you will find people using long drop tubes. I have seen drop tubes a foot long. I think one of my books somewhere explains why they use the long drop tubes. I know to stay away from static electricity and to pack black powder for an even burn black powder shooters use a ten inch aluminum drop tube. 
When I see that C , for compressed charge, in my loading manuals I get out my six inch drop tube and trickle it in slower rather than dumping. Right now I am loading Retumbo with a 210 gr VLD in my 300 Win Mag and I am using the longer drop tube.


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## gunattic (Jan 9, 2005)

I thought I had too much time on my hands


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## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

LOL, the discovery was completely by accident, I wasn't doing it on purpose. I happened to notice the case I had just dumped into looked less full than the previous. I saw the funnel was leaning toward me, and dumped another charge in the next case with the funnel leaning the same way. It loaded the same as the previous one did. I then dumped the next case as usual, just dump and let gravity do the work and it looked more full as the others did. Tada!!


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

drop funnels work wonders on compressed loads.
xdeano


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