Accurate powder measures

[Longfellow]

My Redding #3 throws small pistol charges with a variation of .15 grains (total potential spread of .3 gr) which the folks at Reading say is exactly what one should expect. Does anyone know of a measure that throws a smaller variation? The above results are with Bullseye.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Longfellow,

You need to remember that your powder measure is throwing a bulk measurement and the problem is in your powder.
Personally I always throw a light charge into my scales pan, then dribble it up to my desired charge.

AntiqueSledMan.

[lotech]

I've used a Redding Match Grade with the pistol insert for more than thirty years. It's plenty accurate for small charges, but I'd think the #3 would work about as well with a pistol insert.

[winelover]

Yep, the RCBS Chargemaster is what you want.

Mechanical measures don't do well with flake powders and even more finnicky with stick powders.

Winelover

[Longfellow]

How fast can one expect to reload with an electric measure? I’ve no experience.

[winelover]

They way I reload using a single stage press, is by the time I seat the bullet, the next charge is pretty much ready.......... depending on caliber. BTW, fast is not conducive to accuracy.

Winelover

[Longfellow]

That’s perfect. It seems as if the specific arm motions used when there is an electronic dispenser involved, will work well with a turret press also. You can move fairly quickly with a setup like this.
Thanks.

[Willbird]

I wonder how well the sliding cavity types of measure do. Hornady just started making a super accurate scale that might be nice to do some actual statistics on powder measure accuracy. There no doubt is a cavity dia and length ratio that works out best for a given powder. The Star loaders used a sliding cavity design and the cam that worked it had "bumps" on it to slightly rattle the slide in a portion of the stroke. Star also changed the height of the cavity for larger powder charges.

https://exhaustnotes.us/blog/index.p...der-dispenser/

[hades]

For what it's worth, in my opinion a nice powder measure is superior to an electronic dispenser. Electronics get weird, take batteries, or need to be plugged in, scale drifts, ect. I'm all about a nice balance beam, powder measure and trickler, (if weighing each charge).

The first time I watched my uncles chargemaster dispense a charge I was dumbfounded on how slow it was. I could easily throw, and trickle up faster. (Yes I know that's a head to head comparison and the chargemaster would more than beat me in the long run because it dispenses, while you go back to the press and seat)


All that being said, I could check what my older RCBS uniflow does, but with bullseye I'm thinking it would be a fair amount tighter than +/- 0.15gr. That seems like alot to me with a nice measuring powder like bullseye.

Could take the measure apart and clean and polish, might tighten up that spread some.

[dale2242]

The best set up to dispense powder, in my opinion, Is an electronic dispenser.
As far as mechanical dispensers, I prefer thee RCBS Lil Dandy for small charges of fluffy powder.
I can keep my charges within acceptable limits with the LD.

[15meter]

I'd be interested to know which chamber is being used, target weight and scale being used to check.

I never liked small charges with my 3BR with the rifle chamber. Picked up a pistol chamber for it and it made a considerable difference. I try and fit the powder measure to the job.

3BR with the small chamber for the under 10 grain loads, the BR-30 for the 10-45 grain loads and back to the 3BR with the large chamber for the big charges.

That seems to get me less variation in dropped charges.

Dropping tiny charges with a rifle chamber in either the 3BR or the BR-30 never seemed to work. Dropping almost max charges with the BR-30 didn't seem to work as well as the 3BR in it's middle range.

Some of it is dependent on powder type AND vintage. Just loaded up a hundred M1 service rounds with pre-zip code IMR-4895. I had to throw light and trickle up on every one. Could not get it to meter consistently. Same load with new 4895, I can throw with the BR-30 and get almost no variation.

Perhaps if I had done the RCBS trick of spreading the powder out in a pan and putting a 100 watt bulb over the pan to dry out the powder it may have metered better.

And I've tried Hollywood, Lyman, Hornady and RCBS powder measures to get to what works for me.

[Shawlerbrook]

If you need precise powder drops( which I strive for), like antiquesledman, I drop light and trickle to my desired charge.

[Sig]

I know my RCBS & Hornady mechanical measures do better than .15gns with the pistol rotors & stems installed.

[David2011]

The Lil Dandy is excellent. I’ve had one for over 40 years. The SAECO, long out of production, is the best full size dispenser I’ve used. If you find one, buy it and if it was expensive, worry about the cost later. It’s far more consistent than the RCBS Uniflow and after a while you’ll realize it was a bargain.

The Dillon progressive measures are surprisingly consistent as well.

[stubshaft]

For small charges of Bullseye I still use my Bonanza Pistol measure with their rotors. Putting an internal baffle in the reservoir to insure that the powder column is consistent helps too.

[kungfustyle]

I get great results from my Uniflow with a pistol drum and micro-meter. I believe the heft of the powder measure has a great deal to do with it. Most of the time the measure is right on. Consistency is the key, if you do some thing different, it will show up in the powder weight. One trick is to keep a funnel with powder in the powder tube so there is always the same weight/amount of powder in the tube.

[pworley1]

For charges under 5 grains I use one of the pistol measures, Little Dandy Pacific Hornady etc, that has the rotor for the charge I want.

[Shawlerbrook]

Ditto on one of the Pistol measures for small charges. The Lyman 55 is also good if you adjust the chambers appropriately.

[gunther]

Look at Redding's online catalog. If 25 or 30 grains of powder will do what you want to do, Their 10x or 30BR measures will work just fine.

[dankathytc]

Depends entirely on the powder. I load up to 20 calibers with approx 22 different powders. They all vary. Some are superb in my Redding BR3, some are superb in my RCBS Chargemaster. I run both depending on what my load is at the time.