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Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

toddconley

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 16, 2007
1,002
1
49
Kentucky
How make the most accurate powder drop/measure? Is it good enough for loading to long range in volume? Powders like h4350 h4831sc and h 1000 is all I use.
Thanks in advance,
T
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

People that own Dillons say they can make pretty good match grade ammo with their measure and press with the right powder. The charge master by RCBS is a good consensus on what most people use for accurate ammo..with the really expensivE powder measure escaping me. As the cats pajamas.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

For the powders you mention, I don't think any bench mount powder drop, thrower, or whatever you call them will be accurate without throwing low and trickling, then weigh.
So a chargemaster would be an execellnt choice.
Now finer powders, or ball powders are a different story, any brand will probably work.
I like Redding's, I have a 10x comp pistol one, and a BR-30 for .223. But I also have a RCBS uniflow with micrometer that is equally as accurate.
I think it just boils down to brand prefference.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Iamironman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Harrell makes a very good powder drop. </div></div>
Well for what they charge, they better be good.
OP, if your budget can stand to pay for the best out there, by all means go for it. If not, just buy something of quality and it will last you a lifetime. Yes, we all upgrade as our needs and wants progress, buying something as a status symbol??????
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

Todd, pick up a Harrell culver measure from Sinclair or elsewhere. Been using mine for years, well worth the investment.

Dave
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: milo-2</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Iamironman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Harrell makes a very good powder drop. </div></div>
Well for what they charge, they better be good.
OP, if your budget can stand to pay for the best out there, by all means go for it. If not, just buy something of quality and it will last you a lifetime. Yes, we all upgrade as our needs and wants progress, buying something as a status symbol??????</div></div>

Excellent advice for a beginner.

OP is a top level competitor who can take advantage of the quality afforded by a Harrell.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

Do not waste $350.00 when the redding is a better powder unit .
The Harrells have all kinds of static issues that effect them

Best of luck
Bill

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: milo-2</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Iamironman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Harrell makes a very good powder drop. </div></div>
Well for what they charge, they better be good.
OP, if your budget can stand to pay for the best out there, by all means go for it. If not, just buy something of quality and it will last you a lifetime. Yes, we all upgrade as our needs and wants progress, buying something as a status symbol?????? </div></div>
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

No dog in the hunt. I have both. Harrell is a substantially better made, more precision unit hands down. Worth the $ IMHO.

Many thousands of precision rounds loaded with my Harrell. No problems ever experienced. Ultra precise, repeatable drops and adjustments with powders from 2230 to Retumbo and many in between.

Make the best choice for your budget and needs.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

All powder measures are volume tools, how consistant they drop depends on the skill of the user and the powder itself - they all do good with ball powder, none are very good with coarse tubular powders.

If any one had any statistical advantage over the others it would blow the competition out of the market - there really isn't much difference by brand or model.

The ONLY thing the very costly 'competition' powder measures bring to the bench is a highly repeatable chamber adjustment system that will set the chamber to the same size without fail. That's quite helpful when reloading on the line without a scale during matches but it hardly matters in our home shops. How consistant the charges they may drop is dependant on exactly the same variables as the inexpensive little Lee Perfect Powder Measure - which isn't perfect but it may well be the most consistant available for dropping coarse powders because of the internal 'wiper' it has to reduce kernel cutting/binding.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: aloreman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I polished my rcbs uniflo and it works great. If you're in the middle of your accuracy node you will never out shoot a powder measure </div></div>

Can someone be more specific please.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Stangfish</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: aloreman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I polished my rcbs uniflo and it works great. If you're in the middle of your accuracy node you will never out shoot a powder measure </div></div>

Can someone be more specific please.
</div></div>

In order to make some powder measures more consistent, one can polish the powder chamber. It definitely helps with Dillon, RCBS etc measures but not necessary on quality units.

Paraphrase: a quality powder measure will last you a lifetime with minimal maintainence
and no modification.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

I tend to disagree somewhat about out shooting your measure. At 100 yds you may be right but at 1100 or 1200 yds I think the variation in .4 to .5 gr is going to be signicant in velocity to make your verticle hard to predict. I am trying to prove my dope as far as I can find a place to do it as to minimize the closer data variations both actually and electronically. Drop then trickling is slow as hell. But my RCBS is showing about .2-.5 incinsistancy in the drop. I know there is a drop gizmo that you put the case in and push up somehow and it opens up the chamber and fills it then drops somehow? I dont know the name but it is suposed to be somewhat more acurrate. Just looking for options.
Thanks,
T

 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: aloreman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I assure you that if your measure is throwing .5 grains off it is not the measures fault </div></div>

How can I do a better job with my operation of said device. I move the handle up and it fills. I move it down and it drops? I would love to make it work better I just dont know how?
T
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

The Redding well throw perfect charges, spend some time throwing charges and weighing them, when you bring the handle up tap it good at the top. you can even tap twice (I usually do). you'll get a rhythm and be able to throw perfect charges.

If I havn't loaded in a while I throw and weigh 10-20 then start loading.

good luck!
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MTyotehunter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Redding well throw perfect charges, spend some time throwing charges and weighing them, when you bring the handle up tap it good at the top. you can even tap twice (I usually do). you'll get a rhythm and be able to throw perfect charges.

If I havn't loaded in a while I throw and weigh 10-20 then start loading.

good luck!</div></div>

Yes, when you play around with tapping, you can sometimes fine tune a dump so that you will almost never have to trickle at all. If you are just a smidgeon low, tap and extra time, and the powder settles a little more next time, making a more precise dump. With a bit of work, you can figure out what to do to trickle less.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

I've played with a Redding BR30, a RCBS Uniflow and Dillon's powder measure. With the standard deviation on all three, it looked almost like each was the same over 100 throws. All of them would vary +/- .4gr (.8gr total swing). Try getting low standard velocity deviation with .8gr swing?

I've tried tapping, slow and steady. every way I could possible imagine.

For me, and from the data I gathered, I weigh for any precision loads.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

It depends a lot on the type of powder being dropped. Heavy grain stuff does not meter as well as finer grain stuff .
I run a jar of graphite through my measure now and then to keep it running smooth and fight static.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: aloreman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">benchresters throw there charges </div></div>

100/200 BR is mostly thrown charges, 600/1000 is a different story, every single charge is weighed to the kernal of powder, in order to be the most consistent at distance over thousands of rounds single digit spreads are required, big cases like are not as sensitive to small variations in charge weights as smaller cases, ie 338 large, 6xc small. I spent a great deal of money on a Gen2 Prometheus, had I not been so lucky to get one I would be using a GD503 to weigh my charges.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

I have a Hornady LNL, a RCBS Uniflow, and a Redding BR-30. I only use them for throws between 22 and 46 grains, and the Redding is consistently off by no more than .2 grains. In my last big reload session, I weighed 40 of 160 throws and had a maximum deviation of .2 (3 high, 2 low), 16 were off by .1 grains, and 19 were exact on target. The average deviation was just over .05 grains, and the widest spread was .4 from high to low, or roughly 28 FPS when using CFE in a 155 grain 308 26 inch barrel.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

Just checking but do you have the metal baffle plate in the hopper. My older uniflows didn't have the powder baffle and adding it really helped. I really recommend an electronic scale trickler combo like the chargemaster.
 
Re: Powder drops/measures. Which is most accurate?

Google in Uncle nicks powder baffle templates
He has templates to fit powder measures and it is free.

You can polish ID of powder measure which can be found online