Compressing the powder

[jims]

In hindsight this is a question I should have asked before doing it. On duplex loads I have inserted a nearly full size bore sized dowel to compress the starter powder and then did the same thing to the primary powder. I did this to keep them layered and so they would intermingle less. Apparently they do not mix much anyways from reading recent posts but the question is-Am I risking problems in the compaction of the powder? I do not stand on the dowel with that much pressure but I give it a firm push. Am I wasting my time or even worse causing ignition pressure troubles.
I have shot compressed loads in my 25-06 (the case full and the bullet compressing the powder when seated) without problems over the years but certainly no gain in accuracy only speed.
The powder gurus will answer I am sure. Thanks

[Harley]

I'm not a powder guru, but believe you are doing no harm whatsoever by compressing each layer. I also think you are completely wasting your time by doing so. I'd rather see you compress after loading both, either by pressing on the following wad or the bullet/sabot combination.

Harley

[rbinar]

8-)Unless you are hitting the dowel with a sledgehammer you aren't strong enough to worry about compressing the powder.

Reloading presses are stronger than you think in order to compress a load a lot of mechanical advantage is required. A bare handed compression of more than 1 or 2% is difficult to achieve.

That means the load is not changed much if any.

[Harley]

Rb, I'm thinking there is compressing, and then there is COMPRESSING. I believe most of us are just trying to "settle" the load, not really compress it, in the hope that we are making more uniform loads by removing some trapped air. Maybe that's a waste of time, too, I don't know.

Harley

[joe21a]

I have found compressing (compacting,settling) my loads the same amount is one of the keys to better groups. There is no chance of over doing it unless you use a hammer

[dwhunter]

Feb 23, 2009 10:10:00 GMT -5 joe21a said:

I have found compressing (compacting,settling) my loads the same amount is one of the keys to better groups. There is no chance of over doing it unless you use a hammer

Absolutely correct.