Powder measure

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I am going to load some small batches (20-50) of rifle loads on a single stage press and want to progress past measuring each powder load on my old beam scale. I am not going to Camp Perry, won't do this that often and so am not looking to spend a lot of money. Based on your experience who makes a good powder measure for single loads at a reasonable price without a lot of quirks or add ons needed? Thanks
 
For a powder measure on the cheap, the Lee Perfect Powder Measure works great. I have one and it throws within .1 grain with some powder and dead on with others, and they only cost about $25. The only thing I would recommend is to run a few hoppers of powder through it or coat the inside with Midway Mica, as it helps it throw more consistent charges(graphite works too). They are very easy to set up and adjust as well, as they have a micrometer adjustment that is graduated in cc's. I would buy one again over most others, as it does it's job well and doesn't cost a fortune. It comes with it's own stand, and can be adapted to use on a Lee turret to throw automatically as well. You would have to spend 5 times as much if not more to get a more accurate measure. I'll let you use mine to try it if you want, just hit me with a PM.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan2.html

Or buy a set of the Lee Powder Dippers, they work surprisingly well. They lack adjustment, but you can combine them to get the charge you want.

dippers at the bottom of page in the link.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan1.html
 
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I have a Redding BR3, that I used to use when I had a single stage. Very nice, micrometer adjustment. I can probably be talked into selling it! if you are interested in something used.
 
I have a Hornady L-N-L single stage, and just grab the one off my L-N-L progressive when I need it. I've used a lot of powder measures, and the Hornady is the best, and it's not even close.
 
I have a Hornady L-N-L single stage, and just grab the one off my L-N-L progressive when I need it. I've used a lot of powder measures, and the Hornady is the best, and it's not even close.
You manually fill each case or is it on a stand?
 
The L-N-L single stage takes the same bushings as the progressive. I just take it out of the progressive and put it in the single stage.
 
I have a Hornady L-N-L single stage, and just grab the one off my L-N-L progressive when I need it. I've used a lot of powder measures, and the Hornady is the best, and it's not even close.

Those are cheaper than I thought! They have awesome reviews as well. I may have to look into one when I upgrade.
 
For a powder measure on the cheap, the Lee Perfect Powder Measure works great. I have one and it throws within .1 grain with some powder and dead on with others, and they only cost about $25. The only thing I would recommend is to run a few hoppers of powder through it or coat the inside with Midway Mica, as it helps it throw more consistent charges(graphite works too). They are very easy to set up and adjust as well, as they have a micrometer adjustment that is graduated in cc's. I would buy one again over most others, as it does it's job well and doesn't cost a fortune. It comes with it's own stand, and can be adapted to use on a Lee turret to throw automatically as well. You would have to spend 5 times as much if not more to get a more accurate measure. I'll let you use mine to try it if you want, just hit me with a PM.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan2.html



Or buy a set of the Lee Powder Dippers, they work surprisingly well. They lack adjustment, but you can combine them to get the charge you want.

dippers at the bottom of page in the link.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan1.html

I have the Lee also, it is very accurate
 
OMG! I have the biggest running ARGUMENT with John Lee!

The Lee powder measures come with disks with fixed diameter holes. No in-between sizes. Sometimes (depending on which powder), the smaller hole is too small, and the next larger size is too large. Plus, he puts some damned chart in with the powder measures, which suggests that if you want this many grains of this powder, choose this hole diameter. RUBBISH! I haven't had one line up right.... ever..... Dangerous for those who just grab the chart, and don't check the actual resultant weight.

And, I always tell my students to NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THOSE damn yellow dippers. Talk about NO ACCURACY.

Sorry, Kenny, but I have to seriously disagree with you on this one.

Adjustable powder measures and a scale for checking it are the only way to go, in my book.

For a powder measure on the cheap, the Lee Perfect Powder Measure works great. I have one and it throws within .1 grain with some powder and dead on with others, and they only cost about $25. The only thing I would recommend is to run a few hoppers of powder through it or coat the inside with Midway Mica, as it helps it throw more consistent charges(graphite works too). They are very easy to set up and adjust as well, as they have a micrometer adjustment that is graduated in cc's. I would buy one again over most others, as it does it's job well and doesn't cost a fortune. It comes with it's own stand, and can be adapted to use on a Lee turret to throw automatically as well. You would have to spend 5 times as much if not more to get a more accurate measure. I'll let you use mine to try it if you want, just hit me with a PM.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan2.html

Or buy a set of the Lee Powder Dippers, they work surprisingly well. They lack adjustment, but you can combine them to get the charge you want.

dippers at the bottom of page in the link.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1272242435.429=/html/catalog/powhan1.html
 
OMG! I have the biggest running ARGUMENT with John Lee!

The Lee powder measures come with disks with fixed diameter holes. No in-between sizes. Sometimes (depending on which powder), the smaller hole is too small, and the next larger size is too large. Plus, he puts some damned chart in with the powder measures, which suggests that if you want this many grains of this powder, choose this hole diameter. RUBBISH! I haven't had one line up right.... ever..... Dangerous for those who just grab the chart, and don't check the actual resultant weight.

And, I always tell my students to NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THOSE damn yellow dippers. Talk about NO ACCURACY.

Sorry, Kenny, but I have to seriously disagree with you on this one.

Adjustable powder measures and a scale for checking it are the only way to go, in my book.

The Lee powder measure that Kenny suggested is adjustable
 
I've been using the same cheap Lee for 20 years. For extruded (stick) rifle powder it is good. It gets my 55gr loads of (difficult to meter extruded) rifle powder within 0.2gr. For small charges of pistol ball powder it is great - repeatable within 0.1gr. Assuming they haven't changed it in 20yrs I would feel very comfortable going with the Lee.
 
OMG! I have the biggest running ARGUMENT with John Lee!

The Lee powder measures come with disks with fixed diameter holes. No in-between sizes. Sometimes (depending on which powder), the smaller hole is too small, and the next larger size is too large. Plus, he puts some damned chart in with the powder measures, which suggests that if you want this many grains of this powder, choose this hole diameter. RUBBISH! I haven't had one line up right.... ever..... Dangerous for those who just grab the chart, and don't check the actual resultant weight.

And, I always tell my students to NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THOSE damn yellow dippers. Talk about NO ACCURACY.

Sorry, Kenny, but I have to seriously disagree with you on this one.

Adjustable powder measures and a scale for checking it are the only way to go, in my book.

The one you're referring to Duke is the Lee Auto Disk which uses the cavity disc thingies that you hate. The one Kenny and Moto are referring to is the Perfect Powder measure which is the variable volume micro adjustable one.

PROAUTODISK.jpg
= bad
ppm.jpg
= good
 
I added the micrometer adjustment to my RCBS measure and it makes it really easy to dial back to known loads. Plenty accurate enough (+/- .1).
The Dillon powder measure on my 550B is even more accurate now that I reamed the funnel with a 1/2" tapered reamer. I dump all my .223 loads with it. Weighing each charge and/or trickling is a waste of time to me.
 
for my short range rifle ammo (200-300yards) (ammo holds a *minimum* of 1 MOA), i use a modded dillon hopper on my 650 (double-sized powder hopper, uniquetek micrometer powder bar, and uniquetek powder baffle), and that will throw charges @ +/- 0.1gr all day.

for my long range ammo, i use a Hornady LnL powder measure with the micrometer bushing. so far, it's never had a hiccup, and always been VERY accurate/repeatable.
 
Duke, I have the Lee Dippers, and I can scoop charges within .1-.2 grains very consistently. It's all about technique. As with any measure you need to weigh the charge of the specific powder you are using, and after that I can get them close enough, as .1 grain isn't going to hurt anything in a rifle case as long as you aren't at max. Using a charge of powder from any measure without weighing it is user carelessness, and is absolutely no fault of the product. I will make a video throwing charges with the Lee Dippers to prove my point. You don't "scoop" them, you put them bottom down into the powder, letting the powder trickle in over the sides until full, and then gently strike off the top with a business card. If you practice a bit, you will get them close to dead on. It is no different than any other measure that uses volume to measure a charge.

And the Lee Perfect Powder Measure(Part#90058) is micrometer adjustable, and accurate to .1 at worst. If I want to get exact charges, it only takes a few kernels to get it.

Also, Lee makes a micrometer adjustable charge bar for the Auto-Disk as well. (Adjustable charge bar Part #90792)

Everybody is entitled to their opinion, and we will agree to disagree on this. I respect you, and don't care to argue this any further. You have your ways, and I am in no position to tell you they are wrong.


Manomet, I will leave this alone from here on out, as I don't want to turn your thread into an argument. I hope you find what you are looking for.
 
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I have an LnL but have not had good luck with stick powder. I know EC said a while back that he put double springs on his to solve that problem, I felt I would wear it out prematurely with all that grinding. Does the Lee work well with stick powders?And Duke you don't make a suggestion just disparage the Lee, what do you use?
 
I have an LnL but have not had good luck with stick powder. I know EC said a while back that he put double springs on his to solve that problem, I felt I would wear it out prematurely with all that grinding. Does the Lee work well with stick powders?And Duke you don't make a suggestion just disparage the Lee, what do you use?

I use a lot of H4895 and Reloader 19, and it works great with both. It is a little better with ball powder, but it's still very accurate. It has an elastomer wiper to strike off the chamber, and it works smooth as glass and never binds or clogs with powder. It dumps 60grs of RL19 with no issue at all.

If you are near Newmarket, you can feel free to borrow it and see what you think.
 
I use a lot of H4895 and Reloader 19, and it works great with both. It is a little better with ball powder, but it's still very accurate. It has an elastomer wiper to strike off the chamber, and it works smooth as glass and never binds or clogs with powder. It dumps 60grs of RL19 with no issue at all.

If you are near Newmarket, you can feel free to borrow it and see what you think.


I have found that Varget and R15 drop consistently and accurately also
 
Hey guys, I'm just going to revive this thread to see where people stand on these powder measures these days. As with everything, I talk myself all the way up to the most expensive one money can buy and then find a thread like this that brings me back down looking at the Hornady. I really like the idea of the removable metering inserts.

At first I'm going to be using it for small batch .223 and .38 Special. I use a Square Deal for 9mm and I love it, but the setup costs for new calibers is high and I don't shoot enough .38 spec to justify it. I'm looking to get a Lyman turret to do my small batch stuff and use the Square Deal for bulk stuff.

Thoughts?

l_749006896_1.jpg
 
Fist of all, why a turret instead of a single stage?

For the price of the Hornady measure, you can buy several Lee Perfect Powder measures (Like the one on the bottom in post 13) and leave them set up by caliber. I use four of them in my reloading classes, and they work great for what they are.
 
FYI, the new Lee auto disk has an optional adjustable charge bar now to get rid of the disks. I have one and went right to the charge bar never using the disks. It throws ±.1 all day with the WC846 and WC844 I put through it so far.

537685.jpg


150005.jpg
 
Fist of all, why a turret instead of a single stage?

I like to buy more than I need right now, so that's why I was leaning toward the turret as opposed to the single-stage. I like the idea of leaving dies set up, and the Redding has 7 positions so that would give me a lot of room for that. From what I read, there's no real advantage there so I'll go back to the drawing board.

For the price of the Hornady measure, you can buy several Lee Perfect Powder measures (Like the one on the bottom in post 13) and leave them set up by caliber. I use four of them in my reloading classes, and they work great for what they are.

For whatever reason, I am biased against the Lee products. If I can afford it, I like to go for the best I can get. As they say, buy once, cry once. To be honest, I hadn't even considered the LPP, but for $20ish it could be worth a shot. I'll take a look at them.

My reloading "advisor" is a benchrest/prairiedog guy and has been steering me toward the higher end stuff.
 
My reloading "advisor" is a benchrest/prairiedog guy and has been steering me toward the higher end stuff.

He's a wise man.

Look into the L-N-L bushings for single stage presses. The make an adapter that you can install in a Rockchucker (mine are set up this way).

I understand that the turret allows you to leave a few dies all set up, but the L-N-L bushings let you keep an unlimited number of dies set up, you just don't have to keep them in the press. The locking rings that come on most dies do the same thing, they're just not as fast.
 
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I was using the Lee perfect powder measure for a short time and it leaked
any ball powder all over my press and bench. Never did get it to work without leaking like a bitch.
 
I have the hornady and it works fine for me dropping manual charges. I recently acquired 2 micrometer meters. They will be set up for 223 and 3006 my standard insurgent for everything else. So when I go from 223 to 06 I just pop in the metering insert.
I also have a single stage press.
 
Well, I ordered a couple of the Lees. If they don't work out for me I'll sell or karma them, but most of what I've read is along the lines of "I'll be damned. They're cheap and they work great.". Thanks for the help, guys.

I also ordered a Redding Big Boss II (with the fancy primer feed system) and a set of Redding FL .223 dies. The dies and primer feed system are on backorder, but so is my powder so I've got some waiting to do. Maybe I'll shop around for some .38 special dies and get my hands dirty there in the meantime.
 
Lee comes in as the cheap products that "work"
A note on lee dipper's. As mentioned if you consistantly scoop/dip/ fill your dipper's they can be fine. I use then on my small batch castboolit loads.
Duke is right about the dipper's and the charts I have 8 different dipper's and not one throws the charges indicated on the chart. YOU MUST CHECK YOUR DIPPERS WITH A SCALE.
I had the auto disc on my 3 hole turret and found it to just suck.
The lee scale I found to be accurate but a pita to use.
Lee dies they are valued for what they are..I don't mind them for my plinking pistol
ammo.
lee bullet molds are a good value in my mind. Not perfect but work.
I have had only 2 lee presses a older 3 turret one that's my dedicated lube/ deprime press for 223 06 with rcbs decap/ lube die and 32sw when I load up a few.
The other was a load all shotgun reloader it works is about as good as it gets.

LEE products to me are the poormans product. For those who are more mechanically inclined and KNOW what they are buying....the best no way but show me another company with products equally capable for the same money.
LEE customer service has been great for me....few mold issues and 2 die sets came incomplete....3 days and had the replacements in hand.
 
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