Powder Measure - a cupped roundball?

[Ironwood]

It seems like I can remember reading somewhere how to measure a starting powder charge for a muzzleloader. It goes like this. Place a ball in the palm of your slightly cupped hand. Pour powder over the ball until it's covered. Remove the ball and that's the charge you should use. Is this fact or fiction? Muzzleloader lore or old wives tale?

Well... After several tries I was getting from 45-55 grains by volume of FFG Goex over a .490 ball for my .50 caliber. Hmmmmmmmm seems like I've heard that size charge before? How close you hold the spout to the ball makes a big difference in the amount of powder it takes to cover the ball. It actually wasn't to hard to pour the powder charge from my palm into the powder measure. I guess with a little practice you could pour the powder from your palm into barrel of your muzzleloader without much loss of powder.

 

[roundball]

I've read that before too...probably be a lot of variance based upon how different people cup the hand, etc, etc, and really not that much difference in size of the balls between calibers.
But it does point out something that has always fascinated me about muzzleloading...after years of reloading various rifle cartridges, being so regimented in weighing out powder charges to a 1/10th of a grain, etc...I enjoy the fact that in muzzloading we basically just measure out our powder with a teaspoon, pour it in, and the rifles are still extremely accurate!! ::

 

[Mtn-Man2u]

With all the calibers that we own, and for some reason, we forgot to bring our powder measure for that rifle.( we would never admit to that to our friends, that we left it at home.) We have a way of judging the powder for our rifle. I've never heard of this before, Thanks for bringing it up. Mtn-Man2u

 

[nvbirdman]

This is pure BS
How big is your palm?
How big is the palm of your 10year old child?
Do you cup your palm?
Do you lay your palm flat?
If I forget to bring my powder measure, I also forget to bring my balls, my patches, my powder, and my caps.

 

[Zonie]

Ah'v herd o this afore but all o tha expirts say don't do it so ah didn't. Kinda interstin what ye come up wit fer tha results.
Ah suppose if ye didn't have a measure, usin this way of measuring a load is a darn site better than jus tippin up yer horn an pourin "some" powder down the bore.

Tha reason Ah never tried usin this method is Ah thought it might be an Old Wives Tail an over tha yars Ah'v learned that tha further ye stay away from Old Wives Tails tha fewer thins ye have ta do around tha house.
A've also noticed that Old Wives Tails seem ta grow bigger an bigger wit each passin yar. (Don't ye go a tellin my Old Wife what Ah said, Ye hear?)

 

[Ironwood]

Well it could be BS. However, I knew I remembered reading it somewhere, so after a little digging I found where I read it. Below is a portion I scanned from my very first reloading manual. The manual was put out by Lyman. Since there is no load data for the 300 Win Mag, the manual must have been published prior to 1962. I started reloading in 1964. Back in those days the Lyman manual had data for Muzzleloading as well as smokeless.