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Would like some opinions on the RCBS Uniflow Powder Measure vs the Hornady Lock-N-Load Powder Measure vs the RCBS Quick Change Powder Measure. Looking for something at $100 or less.

The RCBS Uniflow has a lot of side to side play in the cylinder. Will this play affect the accuracy of this measure? Also, it comes with the standard cylinder (for rifle) instead of the small cylindar (for pistol and small rifle), so I would have to buy the small cylinder because I mostly want to reload pistol, .223 and .30-06.

The RCBS Quick Change isn't much more money than the Uniflow and comes with both large and small cylinders, but I don't know much about it and/or it's quality/function etc.

The Hornady Lock-N-Load looks like it would good, but I don't know much about it either.

Advice and Opinions would be helpful. Thanks.
 
You know, this is something I've been grappling with lately, but mostly from the sales side lately, the hornady LNL operates on the same principle as the Uniflow and the quick change. I think realistically, the quick change is only better because it comes with both cylinders, other than that I doubt it's any more accurate than any of the other measures you have brought up so far.

Honestly, what I recommend, go find a used uniflow measure. It pisses me off that something so simple (and as cheaply manufactured) as these things cost more than $50.

What I will not recommend is buying one of the lee powder measures, those things tend to get jammed with powder getting stuck between the rotor and the frame.
 
I personally avoid any powder measure that uses bushings. I don't care so much about the ability to "Quick Change" as I do about being able to adjust the powder measure to exactly the charge I desire. I've had a Uniflow since about 1983 and it works great. Any "side play" in the drum has no effect on it's accuracy as it's the adjustable cavity in the drum that does the measuring.

The standard adjustments on the Uniflow are easy enough to me but some want better. There are Micrometer adjustments that can be added if desired. If you're loading only pistol or small rifle cartridges just get the one with the small drum. If loading some larger cases get both. My old Uniflow came with both but the only time I ever had to use the larger drum was when loading 30-06.

As for which is better, they're both fine. Flip a coin.
 
I recently picked up a Uniflow with both drums and it works very well. I only use the small drum and it will throw up to 45.5grains of RL-15 and 50+grains of Win 748 and down to 4gr of HS-6. It is very accurate with ball powder and only a little bumpy with extruded powder. You will probably be fine with any of your choices.
Best of luck, a thrower sure is a time saver!
 
only a little bumpy with extruded powder.

When operating the lever with extruded powders just get in the habit of running the handle fairly hard against the stop while "charging" the drum. It will give the powder a little "bounce" as it enters the drum and won't be so packed around the orifice. Just remember to do so every time you throw a charge so you get uniform weights. I use a lot of Varget and it doesn't get much worse than that for powder measure consistency. Using this method makes it close enough where I only had to trickle a few granules to finish the weight off.
 
Haven't used the RCBS units, so I can't speak to them but I find the Hornady L-N-L powder measure to be excellent. It is extremely consistent and easy to use. I prefer it to the Dillon powder measure, but my son took my Hornady powder measure when he took my L-N-L. Now, I'm stuck with just three Dillon 1050s and the Dillon powder measures.
One "feature" I like is I bought several pistol metering assemblies. When I found a load I liked, I removed the metering assembly and put a tag on it for the cartridge, bullet weight, powder, and charge weight. This way, I can always return to the exact setting I found. The assemblies are about $10 and, to me, make more sense than paying for a micrometer assembly and still having to fine-tune it each time.
Now, I have four Dillon powder measure set for pet loads and just one powder measure for playing. I might get another Hornady, but I don't know how well it would take to going up-and-down with the toolhead all the time. It is fairly tall and top heavy and wasn't designed for the 1050.
The main thing, they all will do what you want and need. Comes down to personal preference and what color you like...
 
Playing musical charge bars is a common practice in the commercial loading/reloading world, and the dillon 1050 accomplishes that task famously, however the dillon measure is designed very specifically for working with a charging die, but tends to fall down when you're loading by hand/single stage.

The LNL and the Uniflow both use a rotor/plunger type arrangement for measuring powder and have a handle on the side to turn the rotor back and forth, whereas the dillon measure uses a cam system to move the charge bar. The adaptations both hornady and rcbs have made to adapt the uniflow/LNL over to being a progressive measure sure leave a lot to be desired, both systems are huge, heavy, expensive and in my experience don't work as well as they should.
 

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