I'm loading .357's at near maximum, and my measure throws charges which vary a total of approximately .25gr.(This is with extruded powder -flake-types are close to .4) I'd like to narrow that to .15gr. if possible without spending a pile of money. I can't afford a digital. Can you fellows recommend one and include a rough idea what it would cost?

Thanks again for any replies.

My Dillon's powder measure is the best I have for flake powders. One day, I weighed 50 charges of Red Dot thrown using the Dillon measure, and the standard deviation was 0.06 grains.

The Dillon measure is made to be used with a progressive press, and it bells case mouths at the same time it throws powder. You could easily rig up the Dillon measure to use it non-progressively. It has 7/8-14 threads on the base, same as a reloading die. That is not a simple solution, of course, but if you think about it for just a minute, it would save you one step. You would not have to use your case mouth belling die.

My Lee Perfect Powder Measure (~$10) works well with extruded powders. I have never tried it for flake powders. It would have to be better than my RCBS measure.

H. C.

The best, in my opinion is the Redding 10x pistol measure. At $135 it ain't the cheapest, but the adjustments on the micrometer are precise and so are the loads.

Deutschlander

You may be surprised at what your measure may do. Try the following and see before letting loose with the cash.

I added a flat washer for a 1/2 bolt in my measure bottle to act as a baffle. What it does is make the weight that is put on the drum by the powder column more consistant for a longer period time. There would be many ways of doing this but what your after is to get the drum to fill from the same downward pressure of powder on each stroke.

Another point and I think the most important is that you must be very consistant on your technique of operating the measure. Always the same actions, in the same sequence, with the same force, and with the same speed. It took me awhile to get accustomed to doing it. I always just reached over and moved the handle up/down thinking that was all there was to it. wrong. Do exactly the same motions every time and in the same order. Every little vibration or movement will make the powder settle in the drum. So one thow that had extra movements or a harder stroke would probably be heavier than the one with less vibration and lighter strokes. I even heard of one guy who set his measure next to the vibrating tumbler. But he had to move his scale to a different table, he said it never would settle.

Try it out and see. I was ready to by a high dollar Culver and someone here on one of these boards instructed me on proper, better techniques. May have been Ken Howell. I dont remember. But it worked and now I'm not in the market.

[ 06-26-2003, 16:30: Message edited by: Ray Gunter ]

You may want to try:
http://www.harrellsprec.com/online_store.html

They sell a Culver-style measure that works well....my dad was actually close friends with H.L. Culver and helped him build his powder measures in the late '80s/early 1990s. For benchrest work, I consider them to be one of the finest.

Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

Try what Ray mentioned above.

When I first started loading I, too, had widely-varying throw weights. Finally discovered that a smooth, consistent dispensing action each time gave me good results. It takes very little variation in rythm to get way off, more so, I have found, with extruded powders. Try this before investing in more equipment.

Thanks to all for offering to assist.

H.C.: I should have mentioned that the measure I'm using is the Lee.

Ray: I was aware of everything you've mentioned(except the baffle), and have been doing my best to be consistant. The problem here is that, for some odd reason, I have to tap the sides of the measure in order to get all the powder out of the drop tube. This has been this way from day one, with each powder I've used. Apparently there's enough of a ledge on the drum to allow a tiny amount of powder to rest there at the bottom of the stroke. That's the best I can figure out. Anyway, I try very hard to be consistent with my tapping, too. If you have any suggestions, I'm listening.

I'm not sure what I would use as a baffle. It doesn't appear to me that a washer would work in the Lee measure, the way it's designed. I'll give this some thought.

Review of Hornady measure
http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar32.htm

Review of Harrell powder measure:
http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar63.htm

They are both compared to the RCBS Uniflow, which I have, and will not meter Red Dot or 800X well enough to even consider using.

I have noticed the different powder measures have problems with different things, and there is no one measure of the highest quality that does everything best. I got an old Lyman at a gun show for cheap, and it does tiny pistol loads better than my expensive RCBS.

I just remembered something that I did on my RCBS measure. The normal state of the drum was in a fill position so to operate I would have to move the handle to rotate the drum into the dispense position.

I change that so that the normal state of the drum was in dispense position and my action would then be to rotate into the fill then back to the dispense. I believe that this resulted in a more controlled amount of time that the drum was exposed to the fill position and therefore didn't have so much settling time. It helped considerably.

If you decide to go after another measure. Jbelk and other very knowledgeble folks speak very highly of an old measure by Belding and Mull. They say that it has by design all of the features we're trying to achieve with our baffles and operating techniques. I see them on Ebay quite oftem and they usually go for 50 and up. If i get in the market again I'll consider it closely.

get a lee perfect powder measure it's cheap and accurate

tasco:

Check my previous post -the Lee is the one I'm using(pardon me for not making that clear). If it's as accurate as one can get, I'll keep it. It's just that I was expecting better than .25gr. variation after reading Lee's advertising of the thing.

I'm going to try it again and be extra conscious of consistency of movement, etc.

Sometimes static electricity can affect "flow" of your powder. Try disassembling your measure,then wipe down all parts with a static remover. I use cling free sheets. I borrow them from the wife's laundry supplies.
Might surprize you.
muck

I'VE DONE THAT TRICK TOO MUCK. THEY DO SEEM TO REMOVE STATIC.

THE 2ND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL........

Deutchlander;

You don't mention which Lee measure you're using, so I'll guess it's the cheapest one they make.

Don't despair. It gets better. The more you use it, the better it gets. I had a similar concern when I first started using mine. I looked at RCBS, Redding, Lyman... Fortunately, by the time I had done all that looking around, I had also run several pounds of powder through my Lee. Guess what happened? I then noticed that that POS-looking thing was dropping load after load within 0.1 grain.

I load a lot of .38 Special�and .357 Mag too. Using Unique, which is kinda flaky, I can load a hundred rounds, checking every tenth round, and usually not have to change anything. I now own two Lee Perfect Powder measures, one for the handguns and another for the rifles.

[ 06-30-2003, 07:51: Message edited by: Derald ]

Thanks for the encouragement, Derald. I hope mine will do the same(I do have the Perfect Powder Measure.).

As I mentioned, I use the Lee PPM and am quite satisfied with it. But I jave to qualify that statement a bit; I have a set routine for reloading. I've been doing it long enough that-- should I stray from the routine-- I immediately notice it and start wondering what I've done wrong.

A major part of the routine is the way I drop powder. I always tap the measure three times when it fills from the hopper and another three times when dropping it into the case. ALWAYS! That probably has as much to do with consistent results as anything else.

But the Lee PPM is as good as (and a whole lot less expensive than) most other measures.

I've also been using the Lee PPM for years now and like the simplicity and I have NEVER had a problem throwing Bullseye or Unique. I have had numerous problems trying to throw a charge of ballpower like No.7 or H380 so I bought a RCBS Uniflow and never looked back.

Brandon