Powder dispensers

[Josh89]

Looking for some feedback about them.was mainly looking at the lyman and hornaday.the rcbs was a about 75 bucks more.mostly doing pistol rounds right now but plan on going up to rifle rounds soon.right now I'm using the Lee scale that came with my kit it works good and gets the job done but would like something a little quicker.any info will be appreciated.

 

[Dyjital]

Looking for some feedback about them.was mainly looking at the lyman and hornaday.the rcbs was a about 75 bucks more.mostly doing pistol rounds right now but plan on going up to rifle rounds soon.right now I'm using the Lee scale that came with my kit it works good and gets the job done but would like something a little quicker.any info will be appreciated.

Depending on costs and what you want to spend... I have Lee perfect powder measure. It works and works and works. When I used to do Precision rounds I'd dump a bulk amount that's 1-2gr short of target then trickle up to that amount. (I may have a trickler here I could add to "the box").

I used to have a few of those powder drops, now I'm down to one I think. If I have a second I'll add it to the care package (no promises if I still have an extra).

Someday I'll change to the Lee drum powder drop that's like the perfect powder measure. Exact name escapes me. I personally see no need on a bulk drum drop to have a $80+ powder drop. I'm a huge fan of use what works not what looks good on your bench and often that puts me at extreme odds with many people.

Lee powder drops suck for stick powder. Then and ONLY then I've wished I had a metal drum to cut the grains easier. Those times are rare.

 

[Josh89]

Depending on costs and what you want to spend... I have Lee perfect powder measure. It works and works and works. When I used to do Precision rounds I'd dump a bulk amount that's 1-2gr short of target then trickle up to that amount. (I may have a trickler here I could add to "the box").

I used to have a few of those powder drops, now I'm down to one I think. If I have a second I'll add it to the care package (no promises if I still have an extra).

Someday I'll change to the Lee drum powder drop that's like the perfect powder measure. Exact name escapes me. I personally see no need on a bulk drum drop to have a $80+ powder drop. I'm a huge fan of use what works not what looks good on your bench and often that puts me at extreme odds with many people.

Lee powder drops suck for stick powder. Then and ONLY then I've wished I had a metal drum to cut the grains easier. Those times are rare.

Do you still find it nessicary to weigh every charge with the perfect powder measure?i watched a video on it and like the way it works.

 

[Dyjital]

Do you still find it nessicary to weigh every charge with the perfect powder measure?i watched a video on it and like the way it works.

No.

Doing the same routine every time..

• Throw lever down
• Tap, tap, tap with my index finger (I tap on the body not the hopper)- the key is the same thing every time. Powder settles a little every tap so too many (10) is a denser charge than 0.
• Throw lever up
• Insert case

Repeat..

The same process yields .2gr variances depending on powder. Non-stick powder does amazingly well. Say... verify every 5th charge?

A loading block is good too. You charge a bunch of cases, with them in the block you use a light and shine in every case at an angle. If a charge is extra high or low it's easy to spot.

Remember that factory ammo can be 10-15% varied in powder weight. You can beat that with a powder throw, pen light and loading block.

Maybe I'll whip up a video tomorrow after church and share a link to you about the speed of doing it that way.

You are shooting faster than you can reload eh?

(If I ever find a killer deal on an all metal powder throw I may get it, but not that I need it.)


Reloading bulk is the law of averages. I'll dump 10 charges in a pan and weigh. Then divide by 10 to get my average over those throws. I'll do that three times to ensure my average across all three are within 0.0-0.3gr. If they aren't I'll tap one more time per throw. I have one powder throw for .38 Special that throws 18.1gr over three, my target was 6gr per throw. Typically I use 10 throws though, it's more accurate and telling (x3 times).


My progression over the years started with the Lee, moved then to a Lee + trickler for larger loads and Precision then I went to a Lee + RCBS digital scale, then from RCBS scale to a Hornady electronic powder throw. I still keep the manual stuff around because it's important to have something that doesn't require power. I also have a set of Lee powder dippers with their chart that holds powders and weights per dipper. I have a hand press that I can take on the go and make rounds anywhere... without power or the need for it. K.I.S.S. when you start out and expand as needed.

 

[Josh89]

Do you reload much pistol ammo with it to,really thinking i might go with it.you haven't steered me wrong yet.

The way my schedule has been I don't think I'll ever be able to reload more then I shoot.but it's still fun and relaxing just to flip on some tunes and play around for a bit.

 

[Dyjital]

Do you reload much pistol ammo with it to,really thinking i might go with it.you haven't steered me wrong yet.

The way my schedule has been I don't think I'll ever be able to reload more then I shoot.but it's still fun and relaxing just to flip on some tunes and play around for a bit.

I don't anymore because I have the discs (same principle) on all of my turret heads now.

The last batch of pistol rounds I loaded were .38 Special and that was about two months ago. I was using IMR-PB and it's a nasty metering crap and it was consistent to .3gr which is good enough for practice ammo. I made my load average in the middle of the powder weight range and gave it hell.

Before I had 6 Auto Disc Pro's I would skip the charge and do them in bulk with the Lee powder measure. I'd charge 50, then seat and crimp... charge another, seat and crimp. Really fast and efficient but the back and forth... sucks.

 

[DizzyJ]

For pistol, the powder throws often do a great job, especially with the ball or flake type powders.

For rifle, I may still use the powder throw if using ball type powders. For extruded powders, the powder throws are less accurate. The RCBS charge master is one of the best electronic dispensers you can buy. For rifle, so far, I always verify charge with a GemPro digital scale regardless of how the charge is thrown.

I'm a little more anal when it comes to my rifle loads.

Good luck regardless of which way you go!

 

[Crohnos01]

This is kind of funny... I feel like I am following Dizzyj around and liking his posts like I am his fan club or something because I just seconded his opinion on another thread as well. But when you're right your right.... +1 to Dizzyj 's post above.

 

[DizzyJ]

This is kind of funny... I feel like I am following Dizzyj around and liking his posts like I am his fan club or something because I just seconded his opinion on another thread as well. But when you're right your right.... +1 to Dizzyj 's post above.

Lmao. Once in awhile someone agrees with me.

 

[bbbass]

+2 DizzyJ!

I charge by powder measure for pistol loads (after setting up and verifying adjustible setting with two scales. With auto-disk it is what it is but I would still measure to see where it is at. I read that auto disk is not exacting for small loads) and by dippers/scale/trickler for rifle. If I was shooting a lot of .223 for plinking or competition, I'd probably powder drop, but for now I just buy cheapo ammo for dat.

 

[Papercidal]

No need to weigh every charge when using a powder measure especially for pistol with small ball powders with my Dillon powder measure (and my Lee measures before that) my charges varied less than the resolution of my Dillon digital scale i.e. Two charges that weigh 3.5 separately weigh either 6.9 or 7.1 together meaning that the actual weight is either a few hundredths high or low but less than 1 tenth either way. Unique and other harder to measure powders where always within 1 tenth either way.
For rifle I have found that a powder measure can be more than accurate enough when using something small like 335 or ram shot tac or xterminator
(I hand trickle each charge while doing load development And stuff I load in bulk on the progressive press using the Dillon measure after finding my load are often a bit more consistent than the hand trickled loads) I have yet to have any luck with any of my measures and stick powder but I understand that drum type measures do better here.
When charging pisto cases I weigh the first ten them pick one out at random every time I stop (to fill the primer magazine,case feeder or bullet collator)

 

[DirectDrive]

If I could only have one powder measure, it would be the "rotating drum" type.
This is the age-old, tried and true design.
That price disparity was probably a standard model against a bench rest type.
The bench rest type will have a micrometer adjuster.
They usually come with a pistol drum and a rifle drum.
RCBS, Lyman, Redding, Hornady all offer them.

 

[ageingstudent]

Looking for some feedback about them.was mainly looking at the lyman and hornaday.the rcbs was a about 75 bucks more.mostly doing pistol rounds right now but plan on going up to rifle rounds soon.right now I'm using the Lee scale that came with my kit it works good and gets the job done but would like something a little quicker.any info will be appreciated.

So did you get an Auto-drum or Auto-disk with your kit besides the perfect powder measure?

 

[Josh89]

So did you get an Auto-drum or Auto-disk with your kit besides the perfect powder measure?

I did get the auto drum and forgot about it till this morning because i had been using rcbs dies but I rembered it today so I set it up with my 9mm Lee dies.it does work pretty good.havent had a single charge over.just a hair under

 

[ageingstudent]

I did get the auto drum and forgot about it till this morning because i had been using rcbs dies but I rembered it today so I set it up with my 9mm Lee dies.it does work pretty good.havent had a single charge over.just a hair under

Yes one of the advantages of the Lee dies and measure is that they work with that turret to make things truck right along. I'm even using the auto-index for .223 now and it works fine for your garden variety shoot'em ammo, check scaling every 5th or tenth load.

For my .22-250 accuracy loads I weigh out my charges on a Hornady gs1500 and using the perfect powder measure and trickle up. I'm not trying to win any gold medals. I will probably get a better scale next, but the Lee Safety scale and my Hornady digital agree when I check them against each other, so I'm reasonably confident my charges are close enough.

 

[Dyjital]

To show the theory of tapping. 10 throws of powder.

Equipment: Lee Perfect Powder Measure
Powder: CFE-Pistol (meters really well)
Powder type: Flake
Target weight: None.

Set to 1 cc on the powder measure for volume.
CFE Pistol has a VMD of .07537 meaning I should have needed approximately .90cc to hit 12gr of powder. My 1cc could have been off, but either way I'm close, which is why you always weigh charges not go by volume. Volume gets you close, scale makes you accurate. Lee volume references will often give me less than the mathematically calculated load in my personal experience. I have yet to have Lee powder measures, discs etc measure out precisely. The same happens on the Lee Powder Dipper set. The smaller the dipper, the less % off from target I am. They are accurate, just not precise.​

Scale used: Hornady Lock-N-Load Powder Measure.

Powder measure was turned on 5 minutes prior to weighing cases to warm up and zeroed. Was not calibrated as this was a comparison of different weights, not finding an absolute weight. The hopper was kept at 70% for consistent pressure/weight down on all accounts.​

All "tapping" was done when the lever was up and the drum was filling unless noted otherwise. Tapping consisted of using my right index finger and tapping on the body of the drum (not the base, not the arm and not the hopper). Tapping the drum right where the powder was settling. The attempt was to make this as consistent as a reloader could be without going overboard.

Test #1:

• One throw: 11.4gr
• 10x No tap - 116.1gr
• Average of 10 throws: 11.6gr. .2gr variance vs single throws.

Test #2:

1. One throw - 12.0gr
2. 10x One tap - 121.5gr
3. Average of 10 throws: 12.1gr. .1gr variance vs single throws.

Test #3:

• One throw - 12.4gr (3 taps when lever is up when drum is filling, 3 taps when powder is dropped into bin. This was an abnormal to show that if you tap when drum fills, and empties, keep doing it the same every time. Extra powder will empty into your case when the drum empties.)
• One throw - 12.2gr (3 taps when lever is up and drum is filling)
• 10x Three taps - 121.8
• Average of 10 throws: 12.1gr when only tapping when filling, a .1gr variance on single throw.

Consistent. Do the same thing every time and your results will remain identical.

 

[Josh89]

Yep,I think I got it down pretty well,pull lever tap three times then lower.works pretty good,been checking every fifth round and it's either right on or just close enough that I don't feel it matters and am comfortable with using it.

 

[Josh89]

Yep,I think I got it down pretty well,pull lever tap three times then lower.works pretty good,been checking every fifth round and it's either right on or just close enough that I don't feel it matters and am comfortable with using it.

 

[Dyjital]

Yep,I think I got it down pretty well,pull lever tap three times then lower.works pretty good,been checking every fifth round and it's either right on or just close enough that I don't feel it matters and am comfortable with using it.

Assuming the reloading speed has increased as well?

 

[Josh89]

Yea busted out 100 9mm or so also got a couple hundred primed and sized.probably in 2 hours or so