powder measurer which one?

[Sweetwater]

ive got two rcbs measure and since i bought my first hornady i havent looked back. the rcbs units for the most part collect dust. The hornadys are more accurate with a wider verity of powders and i love the quick change metering stems. I leave stems set up in the most used powder charges and just snap them in and go.

Lloyd - will the hornady run stick powders without trying to cut the sticks? I'm not familiar with the system. Apparently metering stems are available as opposed to constantly resetting the stem?

Regards,
Sweetwater

[Tn Jim]

I picked up a used RCBS Uniflow back in '91. It still works great with every powder I've used in it. I also use a RCBS powder trickler to load my larger rifle cases (30-06, 7-08), but that's just the way I have always done it. For 223's and handgun cases it has always been very consistant.

[briannmilewis]

This maybe a bit too much like "redneck" reloading to most folks that have spent big on powder measures, but I present it anyway for those of us on really limited reloading budgets.

For loading L'il Gun in my 22 Hornet, one powder, one caliber, I spent a whole $10 on Lee Powder Dippers, then customized them, and loaded super fast, one weighing only before I started my first reloading, and never weighed for any subsequent reloading of 12gr L'il Gun.

When using ball powder in Lee Dippers they fill a dipper almost perfectly, nothing a little tap with the finger won't fix to make the powder exactly level with the dipper lip.

So I was loading 12gr, and if I looked at the dipper chart the .3cc and .7cc combined would give me 13gr if I remember correctly (don't quote me on the two dippers as I have sold off my reloading equip recently and can't go back and check the mod I made to the slide chart).

So I filed down the lip of the .7cc dipper, a small amount at a time and measured the throw, until it reduced the powder by 1gr. I then throw one modified .7cc dipper and one regular .3cc dipper in my scale, and make sure that the charge was exactly 12gr, then all I do is dip and drop the mod .7cc and then dip and drop the .3cc. Done, never weigh again for any L'il Gun 12gr load.

[Graybeard]

The Lee Dippers are handy things to have and I do use them BUT I do not and never will trust them to put a powder charge into a case without weighting it. I use them primarily with coarse grain stick powders since my RCBS Uniflow doesn't flow so uniformly with them. I had a Lyman DPS 1200 that worked beautifully the first try but died while trying to use it the second time. Now I guess I know why whichever GBO member it was sold it. He better hope I don't figure out who it was that sold it to me or his trader feedback will reflect it.

I use the dipper closest to proper charge then a small one is used as a trickler would be. I can drop a perfect charge on my digital scale that way in not much longer than it takes to do it with the powder measure. But witht he differences I've seen on my scale when the dipper seems completely full I'd NEVER trust it to just put the powder from it into a case. I've seen as much as 5 grains difference from the largest dipper between consecutive charges.

[xit]

My wife bought me the RCBS powder measure for Christmas.  When I pulled it out of the box the plastic barrel was inserted crooked into the metal.  It looked terrible and likely would not have flowed powder consistently.  So we are waiting for the store to get a replacement for it.   

[Sweetwater]

That's a good start! Gotta love a wife that tries to please her hubby!

One word of caution: it will work great with ball powders, BUT with stick powders, make sure you go from the measure to the pan and final trickle to get your weight!! If you get impatient and just measure your stick powders, your charges will be very erratic - to the point of being dangerous. Ask me how I know...

Regards,
Sweetwater

[KeepTryin]

GB, the variations you were having when using the Lee dippers and the reason you distrust them-were you typically getting overs or unders or was it all over the place?
Thanks
Tryin

[Dand]

I do like GB with the Lee dippers for a lot of my small batch loading. Long time ago when I got my first scale I tested my dipping consistency and found I wasn't at all. Especially with the larger stick powders. I don't recall being consistently high or low - all over the place was more like it.

[briannmilewis]

L'il Gun and Lee dippers worked great for me.

[bobg]

  I use a ReddingBR3 for all my stick powder. It works great. I used a lot of Red Dot and 296 in my handguns. With that i used the Lee Auto Disc. That seems to work well too. I have a drawer full of Lee powder dippers and think they are useless.
      bobg

[gray-wolf]

I Have a hornady/and rcbs uniflow and they are what they say they are.  They work fine to a tenth of a grain.  The stick powders are a little tricky and they do cut the kernals but they work.
I also have a rcbs 505 scale that I always check and cross check with.  If my rifle likes 52.5 grains of a powder I don't want 53 grains.  Not after I have proved out the load.
  HOWEVER I did spring for the rcbs charge master combo and I love it fast and accurate.
dead on with flake and short cut stick.

GW.