pistol powder measure ? what is best and affordable?

[Green Frog]

If you can find one, and have the opportunity, don't turn down the old Hornady Pistol measure. I bought mine 30 years ago and it's still used regularly. It's a snap to use and you can go through a loading block of cases in nothing flat. Actually, there's a recent thread here somewhere that discusses making custom bushings for it.
Semper Fi.

Avogunner,

Is yours the old style that uses rotors like smaller versions of the ones for the Little Dandy™? What rotors do you have for it? I got mine on this forum in a trade, but it only has one rotor and it seems to have been opened up to drop a 45 acp sized charge. Mine will eventually be used for little 32 S&W L "cat sneeze" charges.

Froggie

[avogunner]

Froggie,
No, my measure uses a bar and bushings just like MEC shotshell reloaders. I've got about a dozen bushings and they're made of brass. They'd be easy to open up if you needed a custom throw with a certain powder but I use mine as is.

[Clay M]

I can't say affordable, but I have the Redding BR3 with the pistol meter chamber. It is accurate.

[badbob454]

And RCBS replaced the powder hopper on mine with just a phone call.

thanks e mailed them and they will ship it to me free along with a rotor screw that was missing rcbs second time they done me good sent some primer pins a few years ago and some expanders , wanted to purchase them ,,, sent them free ...great guys there

[ROGER4314]

I have a Little Dandy powder measure but nothing will beat the Lyman 55 for consistent action. The Lyman 55 has three separate compartments from large to small and it can be adjusted very precisely.

Flash

[whomeno]

I use the Lee Perfect Powder Measure, but I weigh each load

[W.R.Buchanan]

There is a zillion answers to this question.

Bob I got that you got a little dandy. It should do what you need. However there are lots of devices that will do this job well.

All of the measures that are designed to run on Progressive Presses should work fine. Measures come in two basic types,,, Rotating Drum, and Slide operated. They come in a variety of sizes.

Of the drum type the Harrell's are the best and they should be a $250+. They are well suited (if you get the right one) to throwing small charges right down to 1 grain of powder.

As far as the slide bar style of PM there are ones that use bushings and ones like the Dillon which has an adjustable slide. The small C&H measure works really well but it uses bushings. Mind you these bushings are nothing more than a piece of 5/8 round stock with a hole drilled thru it and are pretty easy to make with any kind of hobby lathe, but if you don't have the capability to make them it is a problem. I was lucky and found a whole set of C&H Bushings from a guy for $5. but after I saw them I realized I can make them pretty easily. In fact it takes me longer to hunt the material down in my shop than to make the thing itself. Point of making the bushing is to drop a specific charge of a specific powder. There are charts that give you how much of what powder is dropped by what size bushing and you can extrapolate from there or just use trial and error til you get what you want.

The Dillon style of adjustable charge bars is the easiest to deal with and because they bump the entire measure everytime it operates, it drops consistent charges. I have several set up to drop pistol size charges and if they will do 4.8+/-.1 gr of W231 they will do smaller ones just as well. However the Dillon style measures do need to be ran atop a Dillon powder die which requires that the case be shoved up into the die to activate the measure. IE: it has to be used on a press of some type.

I personally think the Dillon style is the best way to go. I have all of the above and I don't use most of them simply because one style works best. I have ran old style Dillon Measures on single stage machines and on Semi Progressives as well, and they work perfectly. You could easily set up a Dillon Measure atop a simple Lee $25 press and use it solely to drop charges. It would effectively be a "manual powder measure" at that point. You could also use three of these presses in a row and charge, seat bullet and crimp each cartridge. This would accomplish the exact same thing as using a C&H multi station press but for 1/4 the cost of the C&H press.

My main interest in this post was to expose some different ways of using the powder measures that others may not be aware of.

Randy

[C_17A]

Here's what I did (shows everyone how cheap I am) to make a dipper that throws an exact charge of what I want:

Wanted to get a dipper to throw 3.8gr of Bullseye, since I have a Lee dipper set and that charge weight was between dipper sizes.

I took an empty 9mm case and started cutting it down, throwing 10 charges at a time (scraped level) and weighing them on a scale. Divided by 10 to get the charge weight. Kept cutting it down until 10 charges were 38 grains. Then made a handle out of a large paper clip, twisted in the extraction groove to hold it.

Very accurate, idiot-proof (you have to work at throwing a double charge or squib load), and zero cost.

This is useful for load development and if you are only going to load occasionally.

I've done this for other loads using a cut-down, empty shell.

Now you know how cheap I am.

[jmort]

Dedicated dipper user. No moving parts, static volume, and safest way to reload.

[Wayne Smith]

Randy, somewhere here there are pictures of me making an insert for my Pacific Pistol Powder Measure on my wood lathe! You are right, it would be a piece of cake with even a small, hobby metal lathe.

[Ben]

Dedicated dipper user. No moving parts, static volume, and safest way to reload.

More than a little bit of good can be said for a good reliable dipper.

I make them all the time for people.

Ben

[Ben]

If you're on a budget and want to throw powder charges without buying an expensive powder measure, this may be for you ?

I'm certain that a high % of you guys have been doing this for years but some of these young guys that are just starting might benefit from these photos ?

Recently, I needed to load some " stiff loads " for my 454 Casull using 45 Long Colt brass to be used in my 454 Casull Super-Redhawk. I needed 15.4 grs. of A-A # 9 behind the Gould HP bullet, sized to .454".

I thought it would be a good time to make a spoon to throw this charge that has proven to be extremely accurate in my particular revolver.

Total cost is less than .10 cents. The spoon that I've made is so accurate with A/A # 9 that you'll think your scale is stuck.

An adjustable powder measure can get out of adjustment, this spoon CAN'T !

Here are some photos :













The next question is ........Can it make accurate ammo.....The answer is YES ! ! !

[Green Frog]

Well, I've now bought three of the Pacific Pistol Measures (anything worth doing is worth overdoing!) and each has a slightly different style rotor, but all work in the other bodies. I've also found enough scrap brass to make up the beginning of a set of rotors once I can get to a lathe. I think I may be able to make this system work just like I had planned and get little tiny charges of Bullseye and other fast burning powders to use in my 32 S&W Longs. Happy, happy, happy!

Froggie

[6bg6ga]

Quote:


Total cost is less than .10 cents. The spoon that I've made is so accurate with A/A # 9 that you'll think your scale is stuck.




I fail to see the logic when it would seem that you own a scale per your comment above. Sure, it will work but what happens when you want to change the load? Yet another primitive little scooper comes to life? Seems like a waste of time to me when I can throw a charge just as accurate as your scooper and if I want to change the load I dial in something different.

[Ben]

6bg6ga

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Quote:

I fail to see the logic when it would seem that you own a scale per your comment above. Sure, it will work but what happens when you want to change the load?
------------------------------------

When you're shooting groups like that, exactly WHY would you want to change the load ?

" A waste of time " is certainly a matter of perspective.

What if a reloader doesn't have the money to " dial in something different ", like you would , because he/she doesn't currently have the funds to purchase a nice powder measure like yours ?

Ben

[Char-Gar]

I use the RCBS Little Dandy quite a bit. It is a modern version (more or less) of the old Pacific Pistol measure with interchangeable rotors, and works quite well. Any measure will vary a little depending on who is using it and how it is being used. So the user needs to check the charge on a good scale to know what he is getting.

Last week I loaded some 45 Colt rounds and used #11 rotor which was stated by the chart to throw 6/Bulleye. Mind threw 6.2 and that was plenty close to what I wanted so I used it. I never use anything close to max charges.

As stated the Lyman 55 is a great measure and can be adjust to any charge. It is a PITA to adjust, but one set, there it is.

When checking the charge of any measure, I throw ten charges into the pan, weight it and divide by ten for the average of the ten charges. That makes adjustment allot easier. i.e., I threw ten charges of Bulleye with the #11 rotor and it weighted 62 grains. That make the average weight of each charge throw to be 6.2 grains.

[DougGuy]

I like the Dillon 550 if I have to have a factory measure. My son made this bar for me on CNC equipment, it's a copy of the old E.A. Brown accubar of the 1980s, and is the best and most consistent measure I have ever used, hands down.

[Kraschenbirn]

Before Dillon upgraded the design of their chargebars, I made up a set of fixed-cavity bars for my old RL450. Bars were milled from 2024 Alum bar stock (because that's what I had on hand at the time) and cavities were bored/reamed by hand to obtain precise volumes. Since I 'retired' from serious handgun competition, about the only thing I load on that Dillon these days are .44 Spl/.44 Mags and I've got dedicated 'standard load' chargebar for each caliber. If I want/need to experiment, I just swap out the Dillon powder measure for a Lee 'powder-thru-the-die' expander and charge the cases manually either by scoop or pouring a weighed charge from the scale pan.

Bill

[44Vaquero]

Is Baily Boats still making the adjustable Lil-Dandy Rotor?

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...r-Little-Dandy

[Alferd Packer]

I took the handle off my RCBS duo-measure and replaced it with a round handle from a globe water valve.
Once the measure is set and locked in, i remove it from the stand and can carry it to the loading block.
I can twirl the round handle back and forth and dump powder just like the pistol measures with the individual rotors.
I just bolted the round handle on the side of the measore using screws and appropriate washers.
The handles can be found where ever they sell plumbing supplies.
Works fine for pistol or light rifle loads.For long grain rifle powders, I can put the original lever handle back on, but I have other powder measures.
A large wooden empty thread spool from a commercial sewing machine place could also be mounted with a little Yankee ingenuity and sheet metal cut to mount it.
Got to use your imagination sometimes and it'll pay off.
The smaller diameter the handle, the less movement of the wrist, and the less leverage you have to cut thru the powder-
And , the larger the handle in diameter, the easier on your wrist, but more movement, larger arc to work the powder cylinder thru.

The large mass of the RCBS cylinder helps give you momentum to rotate and snap the measure from stop to stop, open and close, or refill and dump.

One more thing-Any rotary measure with a removable handle can be adapted the same way.
That's my way
All IMHO of course.