Bench mounted powder measures

[pete2]

Save your money and get a Uniflo or Redding ,or Lyman. Plastic stuff usually doesn't do well for me. A good one will last forever.

[pcxxxx42]

There was an article in Precision Shooting around the year 1998 (I regularly re-read my ~20 years of them.) The author was a benchrest shooter, Frank Murphy, I believe. He gathered up, begged and borrowed every kind of powder measure you can imagine and tested the consistency of all of them. I don't recall what scale he used to measure the throws, though, and that is sort of important.

At any rate, he tested them all, and by a very small margin the Lee threw more consistent charges than the Harrel, Jones, Redding BR-30, RCBS, Lyman etc. measures. Probably not statistically significantly better, but still, better.

Surprise! It ain't purty, but it runs with the big dogs. I'd been lusting for a Harrel or Jones, but they did no better than my BR-30. Ho hum, another $250 saved.

As I load for more and more calibers, I'm tired of paying $200 or more for a set of dies. My last five or six sets have been Lee, and they work just fine, thank you very much. I esp. like the rifle sets that have FS, NS collet, seat and factory crimp dies.

[Kevin Rohrer]

You ever use one?

I have read enough bad about them to know that one will never cross my threshold.

[Unclenick]

I have two. I bought them twenty years ago because the powder shutoff feature in the hopper together with a rubber band to keep the lid on will let me leave powder in the hoppers and lay them on their sides in my range box for load development. One of them works great, the other not as well. That's perhaps the risk associated with the inexpensive construction method; they may not all work exactly alike. The patented elastomeric wiper is supposed to prevent grain cutting, an action that shakes an entire measure when it occurs, causing a degree of powder settling that causes the next throw after the cut to be thrown heavy, and, to a diminishing extent, sometimes the two throws after that. My better Perfect never experiences any catching that approximates the bump caused by cutting in a metal drum. The Perfect that doesn't do as well gets a hesitation every few throws that approximate a cut and causes the overweight charge problem.

I probably could return that less successful copy to Lee, but I haven't bothered because I seldom do range powder dispensing now. I now usually dispense a series of incrementing charges in a series of primed cases at home and transport them to the range where I only seat the bullets, stopping when I am seeing more pressure than I want. This is so any settling of the powder that transportation vibration is going to produce gets a chance to happen. With stick powders, settling tends to lower the effective burn rate.

But the bottom line is the Perfect in good condition does stick and large spherical grains, like H380, as well or better than most if you get it anchored rigidly enough. Nothing I had actually beat it with stick powder until I got the JDS Quick Measure. It does stick powders best, often staying within 0.1 grains of nominal charge, but it's not cheap or as convenient to set and use.

[TruthTellers]

For $25, I'm going to get the Lee. I was loading .32 on Sunday using the Hornady dispenser and it was painfully slow. Accurate, but slow. Again, I'm not demanding superior consistency, I just want something that works well enough. If being plastic to some people is the dealbreaker, they should really try before they judge.

It's probably got more to do with that "Everything I buy must be made of metal so my grandchildren's grandchildren will be using it thinking about how their great-great grandfather bought this 100 years earlier and now it's a family heirloom: a powder measure."

Yeah, a mass produced piece of equipment is a family heirloom. Shoot, I should endeavor to keep the Scott's push mower in the garage so I can give it to my son believing he will pass it on when in reality he's going to pawn it for $20 to buy beer.

[jetinteriorguy]

The Lee PPM is a good measure. One hint to help with leakage on fine ball powders, take some plastic polishing compound like used for cleaning up cloudy car headlight lenses and lap the disc to the body. This doesn't eliminate all the leakage but takes care of most of it. I also have their newer more deluxe model that accepts the drums from the Autodrum and it works great right out of the box. For a few bucks more I would go with this one over the original.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Kevin Rohrer

You ever use one?

I have read enough bad about them to know that one will never cross my threshold.

In other words, you haven't used one.

[7.62 man]

I use the Lee Perfect Powder Measure it doesn't cost much & works great with stick powders. You will need some graphite lube to lube the moving plastic parts before you start the first time.

[Marco Califo]

The PPM instructions say to cycle a hopper full of powder through the measure, prior to reloading. This coats all internal surfaces with graphite already in the powder. That powder can then be used for loading.

[rodfac]

USSR says:

While I use a Redding powder measure at home, in the NRA Metallic Cartridge Reloading course I teach, we use a RCBS Uniflow. It works great with both flake and ball powders, but with extruded rifle powder you will get some hangups that happen when some of the extruded rods are getting cut. The Uniflow can be found used for less than $50 and I recommend it for someone on a budget.

Plus one...and get the smaller micro measuring chamber for handgun use along with the rifle sized one, while you're at it. I've had mine since the early 70's...ie. before the turn of the century...sounds neat that way, eh Komrads? Best regards, Rod

[Kevin Rohrer]

In other words, you haven't used one.

Sorry, I never buy a Yugo when a Porsche is available.

[Targa]

I don’t have a perfect powder measure but my auto drum meters accurately and replacement parts are cheap as dirt if you need them. The negative is it leaks fine ball powder with every pull of the handle.

[TruthTellers]

I set up the Lee PPM and cycled through maybe half a hopper of powder before weighing the throws. Only did Trail Boss, since that's one of the main powders I'm planning to use with it, and it's damn accurate. Lee says it's accurate to +/- .1 grains, but it's looking like it's even more accurate with TB, like +/- .05 grains.

Will try it with Accurate #9 next.

[Mike / Tx]

I have a multitude of measures to use. From Lee to Lyman, to RCBS, Hornady and Herter's and probably something I forgot I even have. The ones that get the most use are the RCBS. I've picked up one here and there with large drums and small drums and both drums. They just work and work well for around 95% of the loading I do. I use the 55 for finer detail and more precision work, but still manage consistent charges and tight groups with the green ones.

I've picked most all of them up for 40 bucks or less regardless of the color. Bottom line with any of them is to be consistent with the motions loading and dumping the powder. Flake might behave better in one or the other but none don't all perfectly. However for bulk loading where your not pushing the limits on pressures they save a ton of time and effort.

Hope you find one that works well for you, or maybe even half a dozen.

[Marco Califo]

"it's damn acccurate."
Yes. The other thing I like is the Volumetric Density Feature that when you know the VMD for your powder you can dial in your intended charge in one or two tries without a lot of trial and error. You can contact powder makers or calculate your own for ones not on the list.
That is not nearly so easy on other measures.

[Unclenick]

Just keep in mind some powder VMD's can vary as much as about 12% from one lot to the next, so that while VMD gets you in range, you still need to check your throw weights on a scale or else use very conservative data.

Western powders lists density and VMD's for their Ramshot and Accurate powders with tolerances on their web site. The Ramshot line seems to be consistent, but the Accurate line shows tolerance variations with different types.

[buck460XVR]

I like my Uniflow, but for under $50 I'd stick with the Lyman. Amazon has them for $49 with free shipping. As for the Lee.......I'd pay a tad more to get more, even if you only are going to use it occasionally.

[Marco Califo]

VMD is not an alternative to a good scale. It just gets you in the ballpark a lot quicker. When I have calculated the volume for the load I want to drop, it does drop very close to that. The ultimate judge is the scale, but using VMD to set your volume setting is good a development. Lee's powder measure settings are in cubic centimeters seem pretty accurate. But your scale tells you the weight of your charges.

[USSR]

Bottom line with any of them is to be consistent with the motions loading and dumping the powder.

Worth repeating.

Don

[hounddawg]

Sounds like it was a well spent $25. I know a guy who keeps 5 of them mounted all set to a specific powder charge. $125 bucks and he never has to change measurements

[TruthTellers]

I tried Accurate #9 and Unique. Unique did as well as Trail Boss, but AA#9 was a real pain to work the handle and throw a charge. There was some powder leakage, which given how fine that powder is I'm not surprised. Here I was thinking that Bullseye was a fine powder, but this AA#9 was so small I was concerned that I should wear a mask so I don't breathe it in.

So, I think AA#9 is going to be exclusive to the Hornady automatic dispenser. It doesn't seem like a powder that's going to work well with the drum style measures.

However, the Lee Auto Disk measure... that one it may work with fine powders because that's a very different method of throwing a charge. Can anybody who owned or still owns a Lee Auto Disk tell me how it did with very fine powders?

If I decide to use AA#9 in .357 and 10mm regularly, I'm gonna have to look at getting something other than the Lee Auto Drum and PPM I have now cuz I'm not going to accept weighing every charge with the Hornady dispenser.

So far I can say that with flake powders like Trail Boss and Unique, this measure does extremely well and is well worth the money. If you use very fine powders a lot, I would not get this measure.

Can't tell you how it does with stick or ball powders.

[GTOne]

.....At any rate, he tested them all, and by a very small margin the Lee threw more consistent charges than the Harrel, Jones, Redding BR-30, RCBS, Lyman etc. measures. Probably not statistically significantly better, but still, better.

The reason for that is because all cavity powder measures run on volume(duh, cavities), and all of them no matter the price have the same tolerance of .02(two tenths) of a grain, doesn't matter what name is on the front, nor how much you paid for it. Of course if you bought the expensive redding or whatever you are going to tell yourself over and over that it is better until you are convinced of it.
As mentioned, the elastomer wiper in the Lee does not crunch nor cut powder, and the BR shooter in the article found that to their advantage.

[Marco Califo]

"all of them no matter the price have the same tolerance of .02(two tenths) of a grain, doesn't matter what name is on the front, nor how much you paid for it."

This is not true, and is an false generalization by some one who does not use and handled these products. Tolerances of results not only vary, but OP is getting quadruple result tolerance. (after correcting your numerical error). Most measure makers claim one tenth of a grain result Tolerances. This is written numerically as "0.1 grain". Your "0.02" would be two hundredths of a grain. Tolerances of piece manufacturing are a very limited use, and value, variable here.
The materials used to manufacture the products vary widely. The 3-D shape deminsions of the cavity volume are important for different powder types. Durability is an issue. Calibration and volume adjustment mechanism, graduations are important. Repeatability of results is critical.
Other than that, I still doubt I would agree with what you are trying to say.

[Geezerbiker]

Many years ago I was given a Lyman measure. It's great with ball and flake powders but it's about useless with extruded powders.

I bought a Lee perfect measure only for use with with extruded powders and I'm quite happy with it. I'm still overly picky and I measure into the pan of my RCBS scale and weigh every load. I find that I have to trickle more powder in maybe on in 5 loads. However if I just dumped the powder directly into the cases, it would still be more consistent than factory ammo...

Tony

[hounddawg]

Can't tell you how it does with stick or ball powders.

I always got a bit of leakage with TAC and CFE, but stick is where the Lee shines. The plastic was less prone to cutting kernels than the hard metal of my other throws.