Picking a powder measure on a budget

[antarti]

I need feedback from owners...

Will be reloading .45/9mm/.38Special and .223Rem. Just a couple weeks ago I started with .45 (damn this hobby is addictive). I'm on a serious budget, but would like to charge cases a little more quickly than with dipper/trickle method.

Basically, my budget permits either the Lee Pro Auto Disk/dual-disk kit/rifle-charging-die/Adj charge bar (all together) or the Hornady LNL Powder measure.

I know the LNL has optional small/large sized and micrometer metering inserts, but I can't afford them right now, or for a while.

The Lee is probably the most convenient, since it fits in the belling dies, and just using the ram to charge all the cases will likely be quicker.

How is the LNL Measure with the stock insert? Will it throw charges between 8 and 25 grns with spherical and flake powders well enough? I can take a look at the Lee, but have no way to check out the LNL, although Midway's reviews seem very positive on BOTH the LNL and Lee.

Like I said, the Lee all tricked out and the Hornady out-of-box are the same money, which is a "better" choice and why for the calibers I'll be loading.

Help me out please, thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[HSMITH]

Get the Hornady if you have to get one right now. It will serve you for years.

I've owned and used most all of them, and I would recommend you save up a little longer and get a Redding powder measure. They aren't cheap, but they are worth what they cost and are considerably better than anything else I have used.

 

[antarti]

HSMITH,

Redding makes a few powder measures, which one are you referring to, and how versatile is it without lots of extra dewdads?

 

[Jwar88]

The Hornady measure is very good. The basic unit is all you need, the LNL feature is convenient, but not necessary. It's way above the Lee unit.

Redding products are made with better quality and design that makes them worth the little bit of extra cost.

TC

 

[HSMITH]

The one I have and use almost exclusively is a 3BR. I have both small and large micrometer measures for it, but I use the small one almost exclusively. For instance, with Varget I can only get about 22-23 grains per thow with it all the way open so for a 25.5 grain charge that I use in my 223 target loads I set it up for 12.75 grains and drop twice. It is EXTREMELY accurate and consistent. The large insert will throw pretty large charges but I don't remember exactly how much, it is so easy to just throw two or three charges per case that I don't bother changing it out. With the small insert I can throw charges as low as I want, like less than one grain of Bullseye, consistently also. It is the best measure I have ever used.

 

[rick_reno]

Have you looked for a used one? I just did a search on Ebay for "powder measure" and came up with 98 hits. All of them aren't what you're looking for, but a lot of them are.

 

[rbernie]

I use a Lee Pro AutoDisk for the pistol calibers and the Lee Perfect powder measure + Lee Safety Powder Scale for the rifle calibers. I've been using this setup for more than fifteen years, and have been super-happy with it. All told, this setup covers every pistol and rifle caliber I shoot at a current price that's less than $100 for the whole thing.

For the rifles, I throw-n-weigh until I get where I want (takes me a couple of minutes per charge weight) and then just throw a bunch, weighing every tenth charge or so. Works well, provides decent repeatability and good throughput (for a single stage setup). For the pistols, I just select the disk needed, chuck up the AutoDisk, and run with it. I've weighed a mess of the disk outputs and found them all to be a wee bit on the light side, but never by much and always pretty bloody consistent.

HTH.