I have a basic rcbs powder dispenser but realized it was +/- .4 grains on the bigger powders (R-22). Are there any accurate (+/- .1gr) powder disp out there for a good price?

I get fairly consistent throws from my Lee Powder Dispenser with 4350 which is one of the chunkier powders that I use.

If you don't have many to load, why not weigh every charge. It's pretty easy to make small adjustments with a powder trickler and a small spoon.

In my big game rounds where I might only load 20-50 at a time, I weigh every charge. It keeps me from having a bunch of rounds loaded especially if I discover that I don't like the performance in field conditions (extreme temp swings, etc).

quote:

Need a VERY accurate powder dispenser

Well, we all do. What you have is about as good as it gets.

I would look at Sinclair International. They cater to BR shooters, but agree w/ MThuntr. I weigh EVERY charge for rifles and most for pistols.

I use a Lyman DPS 3, It's close, usually to withing .3 gr. The most consistant mechanicals that I have uses are the Lee and the Redding, the Lee being the cheapest and surprisingly the most consistant as well as long as you did everything the same. I eventually went electronic, I have the machine throw the charge about a 1/2 gr low and use a trickler and another digital scale to trickle up to the desired charge. It's what works for me so I do it.

I also use the Lee and find it very uniform,even with H4350 as does MThuntr, if I am consistent in my usage but this goes for all of them. As has been said I throw light and trickle up for all critical loads but still find a real consistency with the thrower.

Von Gruff.

Search for Harrells Precision, they make some good powder measures (you can buy direct of via Sinclar).
Note, you may suffer from a bit of "sticker shock" when you see the price.

The very expensive Harrell's is said to be the best, and the somewhat expensive Redding is similarly good, but no powder measure will get you much closer than + or - .25 gr. with course stick powders. Almost any of them will get you less than .1 gr. variation with flake or ball powders -- in fact my Redding's variation with powders like H335 and BL-C2 is virtually unmeasurable. With "short cut" stick powders the Redding does around .1 gr, which is plenty close for any type of shooting, including bench shooting (for those of us who are into shooting benches.)

Stonecreek....... I shot one at a "lazered" 347.5 yards.

Here you go, the very best.
http://www.harrellsprec.com/


.

+1 Harrells.

I own a Harrels and use it at the range for Benchrest shooting. I love it. I would not go this route if you are trying to use the long stick powders. Sure it will be better than the RCBS but I don't think you will get the accuracy you are hoping for. When I am at home loading for hunting calibers I use the Lyman DPS 1200 II. It weighs accurately within .1 all the time. Very quick and accurate. My opinion only.

Matt

1. Prometheus

2. RCBS ChargeMaster Combo

3. Weigh each charge

I have three powder measures, a Lyman 55, a Redding, and a very old Bonanza. Plus the measure on my Dillion 550B.

Having tried all, I cannot prove to myself that any one of these measures is any more consistent or accurate than the others. The Lyman 55 is overly complicated. Both the Lyman and the Redding have a short reservoir. Having observed powder charge weight change with height in the Bonanza, it has a tall reservoir, I think Lyman and Redding just shortened theirs to avoid that issue.

I have a friend with a Harrell. I asked him if the Harrell was better than the RCBS he previously used. He reply was he was unable to definitely determine if the expensive Harrell threw better than his previous measures.

I like my old Bonanza. You can pour almost a pound of powder in the thing which means you can throw a lot of charges before refilling.

I have won enough highpower matches with thrown charges from my Dillion 550B, that I don’t worry that much about powder variations in the .223 or 308. I only weigh max charges for long range ammo. Because I don’t want blown primers.

My Dillion will throw 4895 within a half grain. I challenge anyone to come out to a highpower match and prove that a varience of a half grain of powder in a 308 can be seen on target out to 300 yards. I would also invite anyone to prove that a half grain difference makes a difference at 600 yards, based on score.

I am not a hard enough holder at 600 yards, (my last 600 match I only shot a 195-10X) so I might not be able to see it. But maybe someone out there can.

Quickmeasure.

To keep peace with the wife, I had better just measure each load with my scale. Thanks for the tips guys. I will keep my eyes open at gun shows.

I have two RCBS powder measures and a Redding.

I can tell (and measure) the difference between the two brands with the Redding winning hands down.

Stick powders... you're still gonna cut powder, I still weigh every stick powder charge, period.

The solution to your problem is to use only ball powders. Most measures are very compatible with them. When I am loading large numbers of cartridges, you can bet I'm using some sort of ball powder. If I am loading a stick powder, it is for a larger calibre and I will be only loading a few --say 20 or so-- and I can dump and trickle those.

quote:

Originally posted by SlamFire:
Both the Lyman and the Redding have a short reservoir. Having observed powder charge weight change with height in the Bonanza, it has a tall reservoir. I think Lyman and Redding just shortened theirs to avoid that issue.

Redding has optional reservoirs that have more capacity. The internal baffle compensates for volume (height) variation.

Sinclair has modifications for several powder measures that allow greater storage capacity.

Most all of the well made measures deliver similar powder charges. Well made here means made with close tolerances.
Long grain stick powders can not be delivered more accurately with one good measure vs another. Conversely, these same good measure deliver very accurate charges of Ball powder.
Very importantly, the operator's technique in throwing powder charges means a whole lot in getting charges that are close to each other.
Point here being, you can buy the most expensive, well made measure, and get bad results with 4831, and 4350 powder.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention that I have a Harrell's Culver Powder measure that I use regularly for most all of my loading. It does not throw the long grain powder consistently, so I thro lite, and trickle up.
If I was going to go full auto, I'd get an RCBS Chargemaster 1500. I bought one for my oldest son who shoots High Power Rifle Competetively and loads a bunch of bullets. He likes it, and every one else who have written about those measures has good words to say about them.
Been collecting old Lyman 55 measures just for kicks, and I use one occasionally. They are not in the same league with Harrell's, Neil Jones, and Les Bruno measures. I had a Neil Jones Powder Measure that disappeared during some long ago divorce of mine.. Shit happens...

Among the manually operated measures, I prefer the Neil Jones, which is bigger and heavier than some of the Harrell's Models...it is also more expensive. It and the Les Bruno (Phoenix, Arizona) clones are at least as good, maybe better, than the Harrell's in my experience.

Dedicated Systems used to make a scale-controlled electronic powder dispenser about 10 or so years ago, but they have been out of business a long time. I have one of those too, and it will reliably throw almost every charge to within .05 grain (1/20th grain). Once set, mine virtually never throws a charge more than .1 grain off of the desired amount.

A nice feature is that if a charge IS more than 0.1 grain off, an alarm is posted and the dispenser stops until a clear/re-set button is punched. When that happens, I dump that charge back in the measure's hopper and have the machine throw another one.

Another feature I like is that after each charge is dispensed into the powder pan, it is weighed to within 1/20th grain and the true weight shows on the screen. That way, a person can set his own standard "tolerance" for a run such as:

....accept only those charges dead on (no variation large enough to show as even 1/20th grain off, which is triggered at the .025 grain level),

...or 1/20th grain off,

or 1 & 1/2 20ths of a grain off,

...or a full 1/10th grain off.

To work right, the dispenser does have to be "trained" for each different powder, but it will store that training info for up to 10 different powders, each recallable at will. The training is done automatically by the machine, after pressing about three buttons to direct the start of a training session for a new powder.

A small manufacturing company, Dedicated Systems was an "iffy", under-capitalized outfit located in Silicon Valley (San Jose, California) out near the Almaden IBM research facility, and only was in operation for a year or so. Their operating instructions were about ten 8x10 pages long, and a couple of the instructions were just plain WRONG.

To boot, some of their rigs never did seem to work quite right, and delivery to the buyers was a hit or miss thing. I finally got mine after they quit answering either their mail or phones, by sending two Sheriff's Deputies and the Clerk of the California Superior Court out to pay them a "visit" on my behalf.

None-the-less, if you ever run across one for less than $150, I'd recommend you buy it IF it has the two calibration weights with it. (The dispensers sold new for about $320, more than 10 years ago.) I will print and mail a free copy of the operating instructions to anyone who sends me the postage for them.

Handled correctly, they are accurate to 1/20th grain with ANY smokeless powder. (One does NOT use black powder in an electronic scale/dispenser!!)

Stonecreek, What a novel idea: shooting benches. I don't suppose you could eat them but what about mounting? Boone & Crocket points?

You will see the old Lyman 55 measures with the culver insert, on Ebay at times asbout $150 to $200 they are in class of new Harrells in my opinion,

I just my lyman electronic it dispenses each charge exactly

+1

I to use the lee powder dispenser. It seams to be pretty accurate on most of the powders that I use. From my experience with shotshell some powders measure better than others. Wether you are using a grain powder which seams to do better than the flake powders. My advice would be to get a good digital scale to make your loads the most consistant and accurate.