So to get things moving on this forum, what is your favorite powder measure and for what applications?
To get things moving I like the RCBS Little Dandy for pistol powders. The Belding and Mull for harder to measure powders such aslarger extruded powders and the RCBS Uniflow for larger charges of rifle powder.
Ron
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Hi Ron It sounds like we both use about the same equipment for the same reasons.
I have my uniflows (2) modified to use the sinclair bottle adapter and have sinclair drop tubes on them as well.
I sure would like to figger out a way to do that with my little dandy though. Sure would make that easier and have a larger powder capacity.
My Belding and Mull sits in the drawer for the most part, I try not to use those large grain extruded powders much, but for the wifes 270 using 4831 I do use it but still trickle the charge to exact with a scale.
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Well, gents, I use the Belding & Mull for bottlenecked cases and full charges. I use the Lee Dippers for light and moderate charges and for short runs ~15 to 20 cases. I use the Lee Auto-Disk for pistol cases on the Lee Load Master where it does as good a job as the Belding & Mull as far as consistency is concerned. A gent at a gun show gave me a ?Redding? sliding-bar measure similar to but larger than the RCBS Little Dandy but so far I haven't had a load that matched the available bushings. It ought to be real fast at charging pistol cases. Best regards John
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Jeff,
Tell me about the Sinclair bottle adapters, I've never heard of them before. I also have a RCBS Duo Flow I picked up used that needs a bottle, would one work on it? I need to try a uniflow botttle on it. I was quite disheartened to learn that RCBS no longer makes or even carries parts for these.
John,
I forgot about the Lee dippers. I have both the old and new sets of those, although I haven't used them for a time. I used to have some tippers I made up with wire handles and empty pistol cases, 380, 9mm, and 32 auto. I gave them to my nephew years ago.
Ron
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The sinclair adapter allows either the bottles they sell or a standard Hodgdon 1 lb bottle to screw onto the measure. You can see them online at:
http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REPMSP&type=store
Look for part number PM-9000
Also needed will be a drop tube lit for a RCBS powder measure.
After removing the plastic cylinder from the RCBS, I drilled 3 holes at 0,90 and 180 degrees and tapped for a 10-24 screw to attach the adapter to the measure.
Sinclair is a bad place, too many nice tools I can't live without, of which all are not cheap, but they are very good!
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Ideal No 5 ... for BPCR Dillon 550B ... for mass loading of cartridge BP and the white stuff MEC 650 ... for shotgun shells Old Herter's ML 64 ... for bismuth BP waterfowl loads Lee Perfect Powder Measure ... for white powder rifle loads ... I've found all these measures to be accurate for the specific load types
B&M ... has been sitting under the bench for a long time. Accurate, but the lever deal is a pain
And when the mood stricks me, the Ohaus Du-O measure is very accuracte for both black and white powders.
Regards John
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Jeff,
Thanks, I'm looking into the Sinclair adapter. Neat site.
Thanks,
Ron
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I use the Lee Pro Auto Disk for the 357Mag, 44Mag. Just starting to reload for the 45/70 so we'll see how it does with that cartridge. The Lee Pro auto disk used in conjunction with the Lee powder through expander dies Rock-N-Rolls!;}
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After doing the powder measure test and writing the article, my favorite powder measure was the Belding and Mull.
I can't use it with the spring, I don't get the spring?? Without the spring it did everything right, and I felt that it might be/probably was the most repeatable measure tested-less one outlier.
So I bought 3, planning to have a traveler and 2 bench mounted.
I've managed to acquire a tremor that makes it impossible for me to use the measures in a reasonable fashion without throwing powder all over the place. During the test I had a big funnel over/in the scale pan, held that under the measure and charge tube, and dumped the charge tube immediately into the funnel then pan.
So I sold one and am selling the other two; maybe I'll just keep on with the 55s. But I still think the B&M is maybe best of all tested. Look at the article.
joe b.
joe brennan
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Joe
Which article and where is it located?
6.4.1 THE ASTOUNDING POWDER MEASURE TEST!
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So, I am correct in thinking that it was the brass hoppers, then luminum, then plastic on the Belding and Mulls?
Ron
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Lee Perfect Powder Measure. Easy and fast to adjust and holds consistent volume. Good for everything except the finest ball powders like H108 which leak past the drum. sundog
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The RCBS Uniflow has served me well for some 30+ years. It is accurate as long as I do my part for each case. I did do one change to it, a few years ago someone wrote in ” The Fouling Shot” about putting a drain tube in this measure. I put a 1/4 ” brass pipe and nipple in the side of my measure and it works great for emptying the powder out without having to take it off the bench. Peter aka pistolfan
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I use two micrometer conversions of the Lyman No. 55 body which were made in the 1970s by the late Homer Culver. These have bottle conversions also. The pistol measure reservoir is nice for assembling rifle gallery loads with pistol powder. It is graduated with 20 detented clicks and ten hashed graduations per revolution, with each graduation displacing 0.1 grain of W-W231, and almost exactly 1 grain per revolution. With W-W 231 displacing 0.99 grams/cc it is easy to estimate the initial setting to check charge weight, because 50 clicks on the vernier scale is really, really close to 5.0 grains. With Bullseye at 0.85g/cc the same 50 clicks give you 4.3 grains. I have found that with current Alliant Bullseye I can use the same volumentric measure setting that I did with the load “that worked” with 231 and it is a great place to start from with Bullseye. The measure settings are remarkably repeatable, but you still may need to make +/- a click adjustments to compensate for seasonal atmospheric changes in relative humidity to get dead on.
I drop ten charges onto the electronic scale, weigh the the aggregate, move the decimal and tweak the measure setting +/- a click or so and repeat as needed. In a trial or two soon soon will have it dead on zero. The Culver pistol measure is the only measure I've seen which accurately measures small charges of Bullseye as light as 1.5 grains for the .32s without having to weigh every one and trickle them.
The Culver rifle measure has a larger reservoir and was optimized for throwing H322 for the PPC series of benchrest cartridges. Its reservoir adjusts up to a maximum of about 70 grains of RL-15, 4064, 4350 or 4831 and will do so within +/- 0.2 grain which is quite accurate enough assembling service rifle ammo for highpower competition or hunting loads up to .300 Mag. Nobody today makes a powder measure like Homer did. Neil Jones has tried and has come close, but there isn't enough money to talk me out of either Culver I have.
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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My absolute favorite powder measure is the Lyman 55 I inherited from my father. While it may not offer the technical advantages of some that have been mentioned previously...this one does have a singular advantage which none others possess.
This one is the tool my Dad taught me to use when I helped him cast, lube, and load...when Eisenhower was President, I hadn't learned about girls yet, and things were good.
I still use it, and everytime the little “knocker” on the front bounces up and down...well, the sound takes me back.
THAT is my favorite powder measure.
Merry Christmas...!!!
Don
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I actually have three powder measures I like, depending on the application.
The one I use the most is for Schuetzen shooting and that's a Harrel Schuetzen model. Extremely accurate for the small charges of smokeless we use.
For “regular” at home loading and at the bench black powder shooting I like the Redding 3BR. Again, extremely accurate. It does have a problem with 1F black. But you can say that with most measures.
For those “chunky” powders like 1F black and 4759 I use a B&M.
All three measures will throw within a .1 gr. and most of the time exactly what's wanted. This, in my opinion, is imperative since I load most of my ammo at the bench during a match.
PETE
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Since 1982 I have used a RCBS Uniflow Powder Measure for reloading both rifle and handgun rounds. When the Little Dandy came out, I bought one along with a number of the rotors. I have found it to work well for loading handgun rounds and think it may likely have some application to CB rifle loads. I will have to look into it. JMHO. Sincerely. Bruce.
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My favorite measure is a Potter rotary measure I bought in 1960 as part of a Potter Duplex reloading press. It has three different sized adjustable brass rotors that change out quickly without changing adjustments. The measure mounts on a shaft and is operated with each use of the press handle. Undo the wing on the end of the shaft, slide off the measure and quickly change powders. It never binds and is very smooth in operation.
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The Ohaus Duo-Measure. It's the only one I've ever had/used.
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