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Post by dovehunter on Mar 23, 2009 8:26:39 GMT -5
This past weekend I finally got around to trying out the adjustable powder measure my wife game me Christmas a year ago. Don't laugh, but after approximately 40-yrs. of reloading this is the first I have ever used an adjustable powder measure. Up to this point I had either always weighed all my charges or used the Lee dippers to throw light plinking type loads. After getting the thing calibrated with my scales as a check, I was astonished at how consistent were the charges the measure threw. Not trusting the thing at first I started out weighing like every other charge. On a 7 gr. handgun load the thing never varied by even a 0.1 gr. for a box of 50 rounds. After that my reaction was how on earth did I get along without one of the these things all these years. Adjustable measures are the nicest things since sliced bread.  |
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Post by Jack on Mar 23, 2009 11:57:05 GMT -5
They are nice!
What one do you have, Dovehunter?
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Post by jimiowa on Mar 23, 2009 12:32:19 GMT -5
I'D LIKE TO KNOW TOO!!
The one tool I have bought from Lee I'm not too confident in is my powder measure.
I've bee ndropping a charge and trickling every load.
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Post by klsm54 on Mar 23, 2009 13:14:00 GMT -5
I've had Lyman & Redding. Both threw very consistent charges. I do like the micrometer adjustment on the Redding better than the slide arrangement on the Lyman.
Of course once I bought the Pact electronic scale/measure, the manual saw less use. I still like the Redding when I'm loading up a bunch of handgun ammo.
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Post by dovehunter on Mar 24, 2009 8:28:42 GMT -5
Jack & jimiowa:
Miine is the Lee Perfect Powder Measure. When my wife got it for me I told her to get the cheapest one she could find - which would probably be the Lee - as I didn't know whether or not I would like it and didn't want her to spend too much on it.
Adjusting it according to the instructions is kind of kinky. It also works with metric units and that's what's on the scale of the adjustment rod. However I found the best way to use it was make rough adjustments following the instructions and then fine tune by trial and error using my powder scales. This actually didn't take as long as you might think. However, like I said, I found it to be worth the effort as the consistency of the thing was unbelievable. Once calibrated, it was about 10 times faster than using those Lee dippers.
klsm54:
I probably will only use my measure for handgun loading too. That's when I load the most ammo at any given time. For my rifles, I always weigh the charges because I usually shoot near maximum loads. Although as consistent as this scale has proven to be I could probably use it for rifle powders too, especially ball powders like H-380.
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Post by Jack on Mar 24, 2009 8:45:22 GMT -5
Dovehunter, you'll save yourself some time in the future if you keep a record of what setting on the powder measure is used for what load.
I check my powder measure with the scale when I get close to the final load, too. I think that's pretty common. FWIW, I load rifle ammo with ball powders straight from the measure- after I've checked the measure carefully to make sure it's throwing the correct charge weight of powder consistently.
Powder measures can surprise you with how accurate they are- the secret is to develop a routine of how you operate it, and do it the same every time.
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Post by twomoons on Mar 24, 2009 13:55:35 GMT -5
The most accurate measure I ever used is the Belding and Mull. That will drop rifle charges about as close as I can weigh them.
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