Last night I got to charging the 100, .223 cases I'd primed and prepped this past week. My normal measure is the Saeco Seeley Masker unit I've been using for the last 30 years but this time I revisited the Neil Jones Precision measure I'd been using during the Soap Creek Prairiedog Association shoot a couple of weeks ago. The can of H322 was already screwed into the measure and it should have been set for my 22 grain charge.
A quick check with the Ohaus Dial-o-Grain showed it was still set for that charge so I started charging cases. For the hell of it, I weighed each fifth charge and was pleased to note so little variance in weight that is wasn't worth trying to record. Twenty-two charges weighed and there was no appreciable difference in any of them.
The action on the Jones was needle bearing smooth. On only two charges did I get a (faint) sensation of a cut powder kernel and those two were also weighed and found to dead on. The smoothness of the action allows you to be very gentle charging; a nice contrast to the "smack it up, smack it down" action required of many other commercial measures.
The micrometer adjustment is positive and repeatable -a feature that gained Jones his reputation. The precision of the build is such that thirty-seven clicks on my measure with H322 will deliver the very close to the same charge of H322 as thirty-seven clicks on any another Jones measure. BR shooters and builders will often refer to the charge of their load as X number of "clicks on a Jones"
The last feature I like about the Jones is that you can screw the powder can directly into the measure so that it becomes it's own hopper. When you are finished loading, dismount the measure from the bench, invert it to pour the powder out of the mechanism and back into the can and you're done.
As much as I like this measure I will admit that if I hadn't bought it at an estate sale for cheap I probably wouldn't own it. They sell for $500 US new, which seems expensive for a non-competition shooter, but when I look up on my shelf and see a Redding BR-3 "Precision Match" measure that won't hold .2 grains metering the same H322, and realize that worthless measure sells for $265 US, then the cost of the Jones doesn't seem too excessive.
I'll be loading for 30-06, 308, and 6.5x55 soon. I'll let you know how the Jones works with the coarser powders. I'm not expecting anything great but we'll see. ~Muir
A quick check with the Ohaus Dial-o-Grain showed it was still set for that charge so I started charging cases. For the hell of it, I weighed each fifth charge and was pleased to note so little variance in weight that is wasn't worth trying to record. Twenty-two charges weighed and there was no appreciable difference in any of them.
The action on the Jones was needle bearing smooth. On only two charges did I get a (faint) sensation of a cut powder kernel and those two were also weighed and found to dead on. The smoothness of the action allows you to be very gentle charging; a nice contrast to the "smack it up, smack it down" action required of many other commercial measures.
The micrometer adjustment is positive and repeatable -a feature that gained Jones his reputation. The precision of the build is such that thirty-seven clicks on my measure with H322 will deliver the very close to the same charge of H322 as thirty-seven clicks on any another Jones measure. BR shooters and builders will often refer to the charge of their load as X number of "clicks on a Jones"
The last feature I like about the Jones is that you can screw the powder can directly into the measure so that it becomes it's own hopper. When you are finished loading, dismount the measure from the bench, invert it to pour the powder out of the mechanism and back into the can and you're done.
As much as I like this measure I will admit that if I hadn't bought it at an estate sale for cheap I probably wouldn't own it. They sell for $500 US new, which seems expensive for a non-competition shooter, but when I look up on my shelf and see a Redding BR-3 "Precision Match" measure that won't hold .2 grains metering the same H322, and realize that worthless measure sells for $265 US, then the cost of the Jones doesn't seem too excessive.
I'll be loading for 30-06, 308, and 6.5x55 soon. I'll let you know how the Jones works with the coarser powders. I'm not expecting anything great but we'll see. ~Muir
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