powder drop recomendation plz

OFFGRID

OFFGRID

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Aug 7, 2022
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im getting tired of weighing every single charge. i need a powder drop on the cheap and it seems the lee dippers..
.well it seems they just get close and then i have to trickle up
what would you guys recommend? tell me the $20 lee perfect measure is awesome! lol
 
I hand weigh all my rifle charges and don’t load enough to make it worth it to buy either an electronic dispenser and scale or a stand alone powder measure. I do the same thing, dip and then trickle but it’s accurate. How many rounds are you loading?
 
blackd24 said:
I hand weigh all my rifle charges and don’t load enough to make it worth it to buy either an electronic dispenser and scale or a stand alone powder measure. I do the same thing, dip and then trickle but it’s accurate. How many rounds are you loading?
Click to expand...


20 or 30 at a time for now, but i just got started
 
The Lee Perfect is awful, but the Lee Deluxe Perfect is acceptable. The difference is a machined aluminum drum versus a injection molded plastic drum.
 
If you're not loading for pistol, then a drum measure like the Lee Deluxe Perfect I suggested earlier is not ideal at all. You will still have to hand trickle. That's what I do, but I don't load more than a handful for hunting.
If you don't want to keep trickling by hand, you're better off with an auto-trickler. Get the best one you can afford.
 
I loaded about 200 6.5CM by hand after I found a load my rifle really liked. That will last me a long time, maybe 10 years. So I figured it wasn’t necessary to buy a powder measure for that application.

Im going for accuracy so I don’t mind knowing every charge is exactly what I want it to be.
 
Lyman 55...it's old but still available. Once set up it is repeatable. If you use the knocker and same procedure each time.

I loaded 30-06 and pistols. It does cut stick powder, but so what the weight is still good. Ball and flake....no problem. Just adjust for the smallest drop chamber. Keep at least 1/2 full. Did it for 39 yrs.

EDITED; To add: I used a powder baffle in the powder hopper, about 1/2 way down. Search I'net for powder baffle; there is a site with patterns for any powder measure for DIY baffles made from soda cans.
 
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Hornady rotary drop gets my vote. They are dead accurate with ball and short cut extruded powders. Price is fair. Long cut extruded powders will cut and have issues in almost any drop, so trickling those up is still a necessity.
But the RCBS, Redding, Lyman, etc, are all good as well. Buy what you can find for the price that suits you. Worth a mention as well, the baffle helps a ton with creating consistent powder drops in any rotary drop.
 
The herters used to be 20 bucks on ebay and I like mine just fine. Seems like we're on an up cycle. I find the powder your trying to measure has a bigger impact than the name on the side of the measure. They seem very fond of ball, the finer the better. If your loading extruded it's just as easy hand measured.
 
You will have to detail what you are loading for and how perfect due you want??
Pistol Rifle? Do you want to charge the case in a loading tray or on the press?

Actually the Lee PPM is very accurate and I found it was better with flake powders than my RCBS Uniflow. I used a Lee PPM for a long time, No real issues
Also used Lee dippers and they are as accurate as most powder measure if done correctly. There is a long to do thread about nothing on it!:what:

The Uniflow and Hornady are excellent.

They all pretty much work the same way. It's a matter of how they are built, quality and customer service. Just a hole that fills with powder and then dumps it.
 
For years I used Lee plastic dippers to get close and then trickeled up with a scale. You can actually get to be pretty fast with a little practice. Now I use a RCBS Chargemaster. But not cheap.

I have owned several powder measures. Lyman, Pacafic, Hornady, Dillon, RCBS, Herters, Harrells and maybe another one or two. With a little practice they all were accurate with flake and ball powder. None of them were accurate with extruded powder. But worked well enough to replace the Lee dippers, by throwing the charge and trickle up. The Harrells was not much more accurate than the others but was much smoother to operate and much more accurate when returning to a setting.
 
Rule3 said:
You will have to detail what you are loading for and how perfect due you want??
Pistol Rifle? Do you want to charge the case in a loading tray or on the press?

Actually the Lee PPM is very accurate and I found it was better with flake powders than my RCBS Uniflow. I used a Lee PPM for a long time, No real issues
Also used Lee dippers and they are as accurate as most powder measure if done correctly. There is a long to do thread about nothing on it!:what:

The Uniflow and Hornady are excellent.

They all pretty much work the same way. It's a matter of how they are built, quality and customer service. Just a hole that fills with powder and then dumps it.
Click to expand...
I bought a "real" trickler several years ago - a Frankford Arsenal - figuring it would be faster and easier than my usual method of scooping a few grains into the dipper and finger-tapping it to trickle up the load. I was wrong. The dedicated trickler is fine for some things but neither as fast nor as accurate as my finger and a dipper. Some things just take time and patience. If you don't have the patience, you'll end up having to make the time - and if you don't take the time, you'll eventually lose your patience.
 
I started out just with a teaspoon and trickler, then upped it to the RCBS Uniflow and trickler. It saved a bit of time, but not much. I have a Chargemaster and use it, but sounds like you’re budget limited.
 
lordpaxman said:
I started out just with a teaspoon and trickler, then upped it to the RCBS Uniflow and trickler. It saved a bit of time, but not much. I have a Chargemaster and use it, but sounds like you’re budget limited.
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MY first dippers were some my uncle helped me make from old brass. We drilled out the bottoms and put cap screws in to adjust the measure. I lost those a LONG time ago and replaced them with a set of Lee's - the red cubic-inch dippers, if y'all remember them - which I still have and later I bought some yellow cubic-centimeter dippers - two sets, one for as-marked and one for modifying. Now I got bunches of every kind and a lot of modified ones for specific loads. They work and I'm faster with them then anything else. Fast enough and fairly accurate so I still use a scale and don't EVER get in a hurry.
 
I'd bust the budget and go to ebay for an old Lyman, Uniflow, etc. Fifty to seventy-five bucks (in today's inflated economy) still buys an object that will work just fine and will continue to do so for longer than any of us will live.

<edit> Following my own advice, here is one.

full.jpg

It is essentially the same as the one I have used all my life. It isn't quite as pleasant to use as something like a $300 Harrell's, but it has done the job for me for many decades, and I have no reason to believe it won't still be functioning in a hundred years.
 
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For some unknown reason a lot of folks diss the Lee Perfect Pistol Measure (I don't drop powder much, but do spill some occasionally 'cause of old fat fingers).I have two powder measures that I use a lot. One is an old style Lee PPM and the other a C-H 502. My reloading consists of about 95%+ handgun cartridges and the Lee is as consistent and repeatable as any I've tried (and easier to use). I have often been able to get 20 consecutive charges of a pistol powder (IIRC; W231 and CFE Pistol) with less than .10 grain with my Lee. My C-H is also very repeatable and consistent. Depends on the powder though, some "log" powders are difficult to hold less than 1 grain and some fine ball powders will keep less than .5 grain consistently...
 
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.38 Special said:
I'd bust the budget and go to ebay for an old Lyman, Uniflow, etc. Fifty to seventy-five bucks (in today's inflated economy) still buys an object that will work just fine and will continue to do so for longer than any of us will live.

<edit> Following my own advice, here is one.

View attachment 1130780

It is essentially the same as the one I have used all my life. It isn't quite as pleasant to use as something like a $300 Harrell's, but it has done the job for me for many decades, and I have no reason to believe it won't still be functioning in a hundred years.
Click to expand...


dont really have a budget...but im a cheap skate. hence the $20 lyman beam scale and $50 rockchucker press. lol

ebay is a little rediculous sometimes. they are asking $60 or $80 for used rcbs and midway has them for $87 new, but sometimes a deal can be had if i look lomg enough
 
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