Oddball powder measure

[sackettboys]

Picked this up at an estate sale today, thought it was a piece of black pipe sticking out of a box of stuff until I pulled it out of the box. No markings that I can see, is it an early Pacific one?

Attachment 263218
Attachment 263219
Attachment 263220

[Green Frog]

Early Pacific. Look carefully on the reservoir; if that is original the word Pacific will probably be stamped in vertically.
Drop tube is not original... appears to be a 30-06 case or similar to serve as a combination drop tube and funnel.
Top missing... no, it probably never had one! Tops apparently weren't standard until the advent of the clear plastic reservoir.
Charge weight should be stamped on end of rotor. If not otherwise indicated, the number is for grains of Bullseye, but it may be calibrated for 2400 or Unique.

I'm obviously interested in these old measures and am currently collecting info for an article on them. BTW, how is your rotor marked? A picture of it would be helpful. Oh yeah, is the reservoir brass or steel. If it is original in steel, that indicates it was wartime production and probably came with a steel rotor as well.

Regards,
Froggie

PS Just noticed marking on rotor... Pacific offered "blank" rotors that could be drilled to the user's need, such as 3.7 grains of Red Dot.

[sackettboys]

[QUOTE Look carefully on the reservoir; if that is original the word Pacific will probably be stamped in vertically.[/QUOTE]

Yep, its there. Didn't know it til you mentioned it, very small letters.

Attachment 263239

[3006guns]

I have a later version with the plastic cylinder an I believe three rotors. All three are stamped with the weight of Bullseye and they are accurate. Although I don't know how many different rotors were offered, I always keep my eye out for more. It's a good little measure!

[sackettboys]

Just tapped out the rotor and it's blank, no markings on either end. It's made of steel as is the reservoir as a magnet
sticks to both. So I take it that this dates to the 1940s?

[Green Frog]

Sackettboys, you are likely correct. AFAIK, steel rotors were only used during the war years. Also, the rotor looks like a newer vintage... I would expect it to be steel one, but I’m having a hard time identifying it. Perhaps the markings on the end were polished out when the charge chamber was altered. I’m assuming it was altered to drop the desired charge of RD, but that may just be written on as an amount if it were thrown from some other chamber.

3006guns, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain, over the 3+ decades of production they made about 7 different rotors for Bullseye, 3 for 2400, and several for Unique (I’ve identified about 4 but have some jumps. I’m sending you a PM about duplicates, and you can let me know which ones you already have.

Froggie

PS I just picked up another one earlier this week. Measure is good and solid and had an early wartime (brass) rotor for 3.0 BE.

[sackettboys]

Froggie-
here's some pics of the rotor-
Attachment 263254
Attachment 263255
Attachment 263256

[Pressman]

That looks like the real thing, made exactly like then brass rotors. The steel rotors are scarce, careful cleaning may reveal a scribed number.

[Green Frog]

^^^What Ken said while I was sending PMs to you and 3006guns.^^^

If you clean the end gently with some 4 ought steel wool, I would expect some sign of the original markings to remain. There are treatments to bring back stamping that have been polished off, but they might be more trouble than they’re worth.

I also put some more in my reply but it sort of got outdated, so I’ll let that lie until next time.

Froggie

[Green Frog]

PS to last; the pin prick in the end is something I expect to see on a rotor that has had the charge info stamped on it. Just sayin’.

[Green Frog]

PPS to PM, the ARTCA Forum has a whole topic line for the Pacific stuff including the powder measures... I should know, I was in on a few of them!

Froggie

[sackettboys]

I got the rotor cleaned up, looks like the markings were filed off.

Attachment 263291
Attachment 263292

[Green Frog]

I agree, and since it was marked with a sharpie pen as 3.7 RD, I would surmise that it was “adjusted” by a previous owner to deliver that charge of Red Dot, but that would just be a guess until I tried it.

Froggie

[sackettboys]

Was this a designated pistol powder measure or could you get different rotors and use it for pistol & rifle? Also what model was this in the Pacific lineup or were they just known as a powder measure?

[Green Frog]

I’ve seen it listed in some of their period advertising as a “Pistol Powder Measure” and I have a set of the factory marked 2400 rotors (apparently there were only 3.) Since the largest cavity was for 16.0 gr, which would of course be lighter than a 44 Mag, I would have to say it’s designed for pistols only.

Froggie

[Green Frog]

PS to last: the largest cavity (in a factory marked rotor) I’ve found so far for Bullseye is 5 gr. and the largest one for Unique was for 10 gr. IIRC. Several of my colleagues at ARTCA have been helping me look for listings, but we’re still finding new info but catalogs from the end of the era when Pacific and Bair were making these measures seem a little sparse in our circles.

Froggie