but I'm still wondering if repeatablility (with one grade and one brand of powder) couldn't be achieved in volumetric measurements.
Of course it can and it's done all the time in smokeless powders. You set your powder measure (which meters out a specific volume) so that it throws a volume that gives the desired weight. After that, charges are dispensed from the measure (by volume) with only a periodic re-check of the charge weight to ensure nothing has changed. That's the way reloaders have been charging cases fer many decades.
The only smokleless reloaders I know who weigh every charge are the extreme accuracy nuts like benchrest shooters.
When you get to Blackpowder rifle and pistol shooting, things are less straight forward because #1 - blackpowder is hydroscopic (picks up moisture) and #2 - most all BP shooters are more concerned with volume than weight.
I'z been shootin BP competatively fer the last couppla years 'n' the hydroscopic nature sure shows up big time! In the spring (after a long dry Manitoba winter), my shotshells and my 20g (by volume) FFFG loads in my 1858 Remingtons have LOTS of zip. By mid summer and after a few months of higher humidity, my shotshells are getting purdy enemic 'n' I go to 40g (by volume) of FFFG in my pistols, which brings the muzzle velocity back to that with dry powder. Fer me BP cartridges (44-40), which are effectively "sealed" when the boolit is seated, I try to limit my reloading to mid to late winter when the powder has been sitting in the dry house for a couple of months.
For BP rifles and pistols, most everyone uses a VOLUME measure that is calibrated in "grains" - unfortunate that they used the same term! These measures are available at any muzzleloading store and front-stuffer shooters don't worry about weight, only volume. The "conversion" from grains-weight to grains-volume comes from a SAAMI standard (Sporting Arms Manufacturers Institute, or sommitlike that), but I don't remember the number.
Since BP seems to have about the same density as water and is highly hydroscopic, neither weight nor volume will give the same effective charge as the dampness of the powder changes. A given volume of "humid" powder will have less kick than dry powder. If you weigh the charges, you are also weightin the water in the powder so I suspect that damp powder of the same weight would be a slightly smaller volume (unless the grains swell, which I don't know).
Their have been many lively discussions of weight VS volume on the Blackpowder bulletin boards!
CJ