Powder measure

Old melv

Well-Known Member
I'm after some recommendations for a powder measure. Never used one before and want to speed the reloading process up a bit.
reloading for hunting and a bit of informal paper punching thinking of maybe a Lee one or RCBS.
What do you think.
 
It is said, I don't know, that the Lee is in fact superior for long grain powders as it has a rubber "wipe" not a metal "shear". I had one in some stuff as a job lot. It is in comparison to the RCBS, the Lyman, the Hornady somewhat flimsy. But nevertheless there are those who rate it as the best long grain powder thrower they have used. Me? I have two Lyman 55 and an old Ohaus Duo-O-Measure....plus a powder measure that I forget the name of.
 
Have used/owned a few. The Lee Perfect was and felt cheap, however it did throw very consistent powder charges...almost scary. It did wear down over time (many years of use) and I replaced it with the RCBS which I really like. Can't say the RCBS is any more accurate than the Lee, but it doesn't leak as much as the Lee and will probably outlast me.
 
The Lees suck for fine powders but are great for coarse powder. Scary accurate.
I have a Lee, four Belding and Mull, an old SAECO Seely Masker competition measure, a Bonanza (Forster) Bench Rest measure, a Redding Competition Match, and a Jones Precision Measure.

The Lee is excellent, as mentioned. The Belding and Mull are about infallible but a little tedious to use. The SAECO is excellent with the finer powders. The Bonanza is excellent but a total pain in the a$$ to set... really difficult. The Redding I would gladly give away to any SD member who knocked on my door and asked for it. It is accurate with one particular charge of a certain pistol powder but nothing else; basically worthless. (@ $257 a copy)

The last, the Jones, is the absolute best you can buy. So accurate that a comp shooter in AU can email a guy in the UK and say, "use X clicks on the Jones" as a load recommendation and be confident that the other man's measure will toss exactly the same charge. Very expensive @ $600 but it will toss coarse powders to a tenth of a grain.

I did see the Lee Classic iron measure in the City once. It was about $100 US but the tale is that it is dead nutz accurate. I wonder if Spud carries them?? Worth a look. ~Muir
 
Have used/owned a few. The Lee Perfect was and felt cheap, however it did throw very consistent powder charges...almost scary. It did wear down over time (many years of use) and I replaced it with the RCBS which I really like. Can't say the RCBS is any more accurate than the Lee, but it doesn't leak as much as the Lee and will probably outlast me.

+1 on this.
 
Muir...Belding and Mull. That was the one! I read Keith's books so always wanted one. It took the advent of eBay to realise that goal. With it's double chamber it was a sort of Holy Grail when as a teen I used to read "Hell I was there..."!

However I did not have mine permanently fixed to my bench; but fixed to a board that I clamped on the bench. So it still used to "twist" when I used it.

I certanily liked the idea of a selection of powder tubes and my aim had been to make up a selection of such things from capped copper pipe. But as it was, indeed, tedious it ended up at the back of the drawer. It used to come out now and again.

Would I sell this one. No. Would I get one again. Also no. BUt why has no one resurrected the concept of the things?
 
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I got my first about 40 years ago and it was my "precision" measure for a lot of years. A coworker of mine at a gun shop had one with the highly sought after Micrometer Drop tube. I wanted that tube in the worst way but he wouldn't part with it. One day, I was walking through a gun show and there was a bin of 'bits' as you'd call them, marked "50 cents each" and one of the items was a B&M micrometer drop tube. I was in pig heaven.

Ebay brought me my other measures -about 6 total but I have given a couple away. Did you know they are still being made? No digital anything. No tech-ie looking micrometer drums. Just very accurate powder measurement. A tool of the purist.~Muir
 
Got to say muir I don't find the lees to suck with fine powders. I use mine with ramshot powders which are very fine ball powder and they've never missed a beat! Very very accurate, my 223 load I never even bother weighing and my SD and Es on that is single digit :)
 
Got to say muir I don't find the lees to suck with fine powders. I use mine with ramshot powders which are very fine ball powder and they've never missed a beat! Very very accurate, my 223 load I never even bother weighing and my SD and Es on that is single digit :)

No. I mean FINE powders; not ball rifle powders. I remember sitting up with JAYB reloading some Vectan powders (IIRC) for his (wonderful) Hornet and the dust was coming out the sides of the measure. No adjustment would fix it and no, it wasn't worn out.~Muir
 
i have two lee throwers set up
one for 20-23gr range and one for 78-80gr range N133/N160/H1000/H355 powders

I have got to the point now where I only weigh every 8-10th one they are so consistent

every now and then a kernel get trapped and stops the smooth cycle but it still seems to throw

would really like another for the .270 in the 55-60 range

just save faffing back and forth
 
LEE CLASSIC POWDER MEASURE [90868] - 70.40 : Henry Krank, Everything for shooters and collectors

Henry Krank has these in stock just at present according to their website...just over 70 quid.
Personally I've never tried one, but my RCBS are something of a pain with corse propellants. Manageable of course, but still a pain.
A powder trickler is a good piece of additional kit to use with any powder thrower in my view.
One really nice feature with this measure is that Lee makes accessory drums. These are short, limited range drums that you can leave set for your favorite load, and swap out with the original drum in a second or two. The drums come in several 'ranges' of capacity, iirc, and run about $20US each. In the case of bewsher500's plan it would save buying an extra measure - and save the bench space the extra measure would take. I don't need another measure but I'm considering buying one of these just to see how well it works.~Muir
 
Concur on a Lea once its set up its frighteningly accurate always weigh 1:10 but its never out. However on odd occasions it does seem to stick so I just discard that measure do a couple more and then continue as normal.

D
 
Thanks everyone for your views and knowledge. I think I will try a Lee perfect powder measure and see how I get on.
i can always upgrade at a later date if necessary and if I don't like using a powder thrower not a lot lost.
thanks all.
 
I reload 22 hornet and 308 and rather than fiddle about making adjustments for each calibre I have 2 LEE powder measures each permanently set up for the calibre and I check the first load with electronics scales.
 
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