I've only ever used a couple old RCBS powder throws. They work fine with any of the ball powders and are very consistent. Stick powders like IMR4350 are a different story. The cylinder tends to stick half the time and the weights are inconsistent. Are there any good, none electronic powder measures out there that are better with stick type powders?

Some here will claim the Redding BR 3 is second only to an Angel’s halo & that God himself uses one. Many worship the Lyman powder measure with the same verve. To my knowledge there is one powder drop that will reliably drop consistent stick powder charges & it is quite expensive. Can’t remember the name of it right now. But, I can dig it up if you want it. The Harrel’s measure is quite nice but it will only shear stick kernels which is less than consistent. I have tested the Harrel’s extensively. I really don’t believe any measure was designed for extruded powders.

Believe it or not, the Lee Perfect Powder Measure, Classic Powder Measure, and Deluxe Perfect Powder Measure do better with extruded powders than most. They have a rubberish wiper in the drum that wipes the powder without shearing the kernels. Still not likely to see only .1gr variances but they do much better than conventional measures.

John

The JDS QuickMeasure is very good with stick powders.

The measures mentioned above have been measuring extruded (stick) powders for decades, the shearing is just the nature of the beast. Some longer grained powders are worse in that respect than others. I have used both RCBS Uniflo and Redding BR 3 and don't see a whits worth of defference in the way either handles stick powders. Harrel's and Lyman are not that different in design and I can't see where they would be much different than the RCBS or Redding. I always throw charges a couple grains below weight and trickle up to weight no matter what kind of powder I am using. The electronic measures because most employ a trickler like mechanism are not subject to the shearing problem encountered in mechanical measures.

I agree with part of your post but the Harrell's is a different design and does work much better than a Uniflo

The Belding and Mull is slow and has it's drawbacks, but throws very accurate charges with coarse granule powders.

If I HAVE to load 4831 or 4350 I throw a few grains short with the Uniflow and trickle up. Luckily that is only for a few hunting rifle applications so lots are smaller. Cutting a few grains off won't hurt anything. For larger volumes like on the progressive press find a powder that meters better, there are usually a few options.

Lee measure, as much of plastic junk as it is, its amazing with stuff like 4064 and 4350 4831 and so on. I say that with a pair of Harrels sitting on my bench...

I use a Lee, only 'cause that's all I've ever had. I adjust it to where 2 solid bumps against the stop on the "up" stroke of each charge, gets my weights awfully damned close when measured on the Lee Safety Scale. I don't bother tricklin'. Once I get it set, I might weigh every 8th or 10th charge, to keep it honest. Rarely do I encounter one.

This is probably the point where Mickey Coleman (RIP) would chime-in & call me an, "Uncircumcised Phillistine!", for embracing so crass a procedure.

Hey, I still have all my fingers & both eyes, and I get good groups & velocities.

I'm sure there are better ways to skin this cat, but this is the method I've used to make due with what I've got. And no, I don't bother with the, "bumps" for ball powders.

FC

A few years ago, I did a statistical evaluation of a couple of powder measures and a couple of scales. As Hondo64d said, the Lee Perfect Powder Measure does a very fine job with stick powders.

That’s what I do, not that big of a deal to do.

Me too. I have a Harrell's and I still find myself mostly using the Belding&Mull I've used for 40 years now, but the Harrell's is awfully sweet though.

For those of you who weigh each measured charge- did you ever experiment with simply setting the measure and go without weighing, for a test batch, and do another test batch with charges weighed to perfection? I disabused myself of the weighing each charge nonsense long ago when I found the difference in accuracy to be trifling at worst and nonexistent at best.

Ill make note of that. Thanks for the info

I've used the same Redding #3 for 39 years. It does not like older, long grained stick powders, but does well with shorter cut powders like H4831sc and H4350. Works wonderfully with really fine grained powders like Benchmark and 8208xbr.

I've used the same Redding #3 for 39 years. It does not like older, long grained stick powders, but does well with shorter cut powders like H4831sc and H4350. Works wonderfully with really fine grained powders like Benchmark and 8208xbr.

I may give the Lee a try for the stick powders. I've avoided them in the past based on reviews and personal experience with a Lee progressive. Seems they have an issue with powder leakage with fine powders like most pistol powders, but maybe they would be worth a try for the stick stuff. FWIW I don't load near enough to justify a $200+ throw.

I have a couple of Redding’s. They are great!

I have the reddings too, they are not as good as the lee on big stick powder.

That said I would not dream of using LEE for ball or flake powder. That was a big mess...

I found my ancient uniflow back, and since I don't have a measure in Alaska its flying back with me. I swear there were some upgrades to make it better, like a concave measuring chamber and a baffle but a quick google didn't help.. LOL. Its junk, but it beats lee measure spoons all to hell.

I use the Uniflow that I started out with many years ago. It ain’t perfect, but it’s been working well enough that it’s probably the one I’ll finish up with.

I have a Redding, Lyman and the Lee Perfect Powder Measure, and ALL I use now is the Lee. It is by far the most accurate powder throw of the 3. I don’t even know where my Redding throw is any more.
Like some have said, the flake and ball powders are a bit of a problem from time to time ‘but they were also a problem in my Redding and the Lyman as well, especially flake powders like Unique.
I recently loaded several hundred rounds of stick powder and the Lee was never off more than 1/10th of a grain. Hell, I’ve found my 2 balance beam scales AND my digital electronic scale to vary more than that from day to day. Especially the electronic scale. I’ve had it vary as much as 4/10ths in 30 minutes with barometric pressure change.
But I guess some people just don’t feel right unless they spend a fortune on something.
I mean, if you don’t pay a lot of money for something, it couldn’t possibly be good, right?

I have a new RCBS chargemaster new in the box. I haven’t tried it yet. How will it work with stick powders?

I have been contemplating buying one of these for quite some time. Once you get to use it please report your thoughts. Thanks

I love the Lee perfect powder measure for stick powder, but it sucks for ball powder. I recently bought the Lee Deluxe Perfect Powder Measure and it is much better than the original on both stick and ball.

I have one works great. Holds zero really well.

I’m using the RCBS Chargemaster Lite exclusively now for extruded powders. And yes, the Lee was better than my Harrell for extruded powder, by a long shot.

Can the lee deluxe perfect powder measure handle be switched to the left hand side?

I use My Redding 3BR for ball powders and RCBS Chargemaster lite for stick powders. I've had RCBS and have still have a Lee Powder throw somewhere, but the Redding and Chargemaster lite has proven to be the most accurate for me.

I usually use my RCBS Chargemaster for longer stick powders. My Lee Perfect powder measure works better for throwing stick powders than my Harrell's measure. The Harrell's tends to cut stick powder or jam a bit while the Lee with the rubber wiper doesn't. You have to watch either one closely for powder bridging. All in all while it's slower to weigh the powder than throw it, I have more confidence in the weighed charges.
For high volume reloading I stick with ball or short stick powders and throw the charges.
I would replace my RCBS Chargemaster immediately if it went down, there's no way I would ever go back to a balance scale or hand trickling.

I'll say it again: People tend to obsess over small variations in powder charges in many situations where they don't matter.

I’m in the “dump & trickle” camp. And NO, I’m not referring to my “morning constitutional” here.💩
I’ve had a RCBS Uniflow for years and it has served me well. It does occasionally hang up and sheer with large stick powders however I don’t lose any sleep over it. I don’t rush with anything related to handloading.

After some research I’m leaning towards the chargemaster lite. Seems like the same function and time for significantly less cost.

If you are at the optimum charge weight for a load, +/- 0.2 gr won't mean doodlysquat.

Admittedly, I still throw short and trickle up . . .

I throw charges of 3031 and 4064 for several 308s good for 1/2 to 5/8 moa at 300 yards. I'm talking five shot groups. Most peoples' hunting rifles can't honestly resolve that.

Agreed. Wholeheartedly.

Im glad you said most..

There are some out there. Yesterday I was shooting a parts gun 243 that impresses me with 87 grain Vmaxes. It's a 700 action with a takeoff barrel from a gunsmith shop, all sitting in an HS Precision stock and topped off with an old M8 6x36.

The only problem is balancing the fun of shooting it against the barrel life of a 243.

I use my Hornady Lock N Load Auto Charge dispenser. While it does like to throw heavy on stick powders, I set it lower and trickle up if needed. Now that I've gotten use to it, it actually throws pretty accurately 70% of the time. I have tried the straw tip, but I can't find a straw to fit the dispensing tube correctly.

What I have found is,if you shim the dispenser with a sheet or two of paper it keeps it from throwing overcharges.To work properly,it needs to be level,if not it will drop too much powder if the tube is running down hill.By keeping the tube just a tad on the uphill side,the tube will stay full when it slows down to the final trickle mode when it dispenses the charge.Play with it a little and I think you will see it really makes a big difference.

If you think H-4350 is bad, try Vv 570.

That is such a coarse stick, it stacks up in my RCBS Uniflow. I have to remove the drop tube, drop charge in a scale pan and fine tune the load.

DF

I have 4 different ones and Lee is by far the best except as someone states about ball powders. Ed k

That doesn't sound like fun... You know what I do with my uni-flo is apply a light dusting of dry graphite to the insides periodically. It helps it to keep running very smoothly. Also, something that I have been thinking about when I was loading stuff over the last few days is the comment about dropping "3 grains light" and then trickling the rest in. Boy that sob has to be taking hours to load up his ammo... I only drop .2-.3 grains light. Charging a case and trickling in the rest only takes an average of 10 seconds. 3 grains light? Not so much.. I know it's not a race, but the hell if I'm going to be sitting there wasting my time..... Hand loading should be about enjoying your hobby. Spend too much time at the bench and then it starts feeling more like a job, than fun.....

Yeh. Three gr. would be a lot of trickling. Perhaps that was a typo. I wonder if .3 gr. might have been intended.

Vv 570 is the only one I’ve found like that.

DF

Hey BSA, just curious with all of the shooting/reloading you do you aren't doing that on a single stage are you?

Yep. I sure am... I can load my prepped 223 brass at a rate of 300 per hour. I could also load my 6.5 cm that fast, but find I get better accuracy with a dropped and trickled charge, vs just dropping the powder in and running with it.. I like shooting tiny targets at longer range though...


With this load, I generally hit a 2" steel plate at 400 yards 8 out of 10 times with my creedmoor.. Mathman is partially right about just dropping charges and going with it where plus or minus .3 gr. is good enough for 100 yard targets, but not quite as good at even a measly 400... Then at 1000 yards, better just forget about it...

That's some fine shooting!

My Lee works perfectly with ball powders. It has trouble with the flake powders like Unique. But the Redding and Lyman do too and are worse. The flake gets powder wedged in between the tumbler.