JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Messages
11,671
Reactions
23,700
Let me hear it...

I have two Lee plastic powder drops. (Perfect powder measure).

One is old and it's taken a turn for the worst... Today it was leaking CFE223 out of the drum sides.

I need one when the newer drop expires so I'm looking forward for the replacement.

I want one that cuts stick powder, metal base, metal drum and had easy measurements for adjusting the drum.


Suggestions.
 
Aren't there easy ways to fix/service those?.. I've never owned a PPM but seem to remember guys tweaking them back to serviceability.
I still have my first powder measure.. a Lyman #55 and I love it for non-automated stuff.. all brass, steel and cast iron bits.
 
I have used numerous powder drops I have never run one that was dot on dropping powder, so I stay a drop low and use my scale up to the fine point on critical stuff.
I have run a few that were sticky and needed cleaning more often than others.
Mostly they do not differ to much unless they have a built in knocker. You can over do that also.
I found the Dillon progressive drop to be closer than most but that is another subject.
Silver Hand
 
I use a RCBS and it works for me. I load H4831a lot which is extruded... sometimes I can tell it's chopping a stick when I pull the handle, but it isn't a big deal and the throws are pretty repeatable. I try to set it to just about a grain below the charge weight I want and finish it off with my trickle.
 
I just picked up a vintage Herter's model # 40 at an estate sale for only $2.00 along with a bunch of other vintage presses, dies and shell holders.

herter's 002.JPG
The old timer had installed a neat little clacker on the side of the base and it should keep the powder consistent.
 
Wow what a deal you obtained jebbte98 - Want to sell it for five?
Knock it the same way once or twice every time. keep your powder tube about 2/3 full after the first filling, weigh every charge every time and use the dribbler to the fine point once your best loads are developed and you will shoot whiskers off a flys tail.
If you just drop powder no measure will be the same every time, for shooting tin cans that is just fine.
Silver Hand
 
I just got a Lyman #55 and I am really impressed. All metal (brass, steel) construction, and very well designed. I went from a Lee safety measure, which I had to trickle up to my desired powder weight on every single load, to not seeing any change in powder dispersing, once dialed in, over my entire 50 round batch with the Lyman. The drum tolerances are so well matched that even when you use a powder where you feel a grain being cut, the drop weight stays the same. So far I've used it with extruded and spherical powders, from 5.7gr 9mm load to a 43gr .308 AR load, and it performs the same. I still double check my powder throws, but increasingly I can burn through loading 50 rounds in 1/4 of the time I used to. The #55 has a bench c type clamp built into the housing, which is really nice when trying to keep your work all at the same level so a few hours of sitting doesn't bust your back (as much anyways), or you can buy a mount, which you can directly attach to your bench, or it fits on top of the ram to drop powder through flow through dies. It has two drop tubes, covering the typical range of brass mouths, which are adjustable.
Anyway, I have no criticisms so far of the #55, but have only had it a month. Yet it is definitely built for accuracy and longevity, and you get Lyman customer service which is big bonus in my experience.

My 0.02
 
I have a Lyman 55 in my stash and in a single stage system it is my favorite powder drop of them all and it runs better than a RCBS of the 1970s there you knock the drop on every round with the handle once.
Don't know what if anything has changed but when you get down to dropping powder for exact weight, none of these measures are perfect from one round to the next.

If you want things to be exact with zero variation for long range or precision shooting everything is exact and without any variation or acceptable percentage of change including and most of all important is the powder.

Not just a bit low on the scale and that is perfect.
Exact, every drop is placed in a pan and brought to the divide or balance line on the scale, to the last flake, ball or sphere.

I think the Lyman 55 is is a very good choice on the bench, when things are clean the combination of brass and cast steel run together very well. The only draw back is the small powder capacity in the column so keeping the powder in the center of the hopper takes a few more moves than it does with the taller hoppers offered in other tools. By doing so, keeping the powder around the first top third or between the center line of the smaller hopper, 'in my opinion' the drops remain a bit more accurate for a full drop on a block of fifty for instance, plinking loads not being dropped into a pan and then into a weighed cartridge case.

Top off after twenty five or fifty cases depending on powder weight and then do it again.
Lyman 55 is a great powder drop you can spend a lot more money and achieve not much more in the accuracy of the drop. Just sayin.
Silver Hand
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top