Lee Perfect Powder Measure or other???

[Blindstitch]

I've been trying to think of a way to speed up my reloading process without sacrificing accuracy or safety. I usually do pretty good at measuring powder while reloading and probably average about 50 cartridges in an hour.

But I've been looking at these powder measures and they seem to speed up the process even with weighing every 5 or 10 throws. I wouldn't even mind every other.

Do you have any suggestions for an inexpensive accurate model?

This probably comes from watching my friend reload 12 gauge on his Mec reloader. After a few pulls every extra is a loaded round. He let me use it and I probably did 2 boxes before I knew of it. Of course I'm talking about doing rifle shells.

 

[saitek]

mesure

the lee perfect powder measure is a lot of measure for the buck !i have one and i still use a powder tickler to get it exact ,mine will sometimes throw it exact but on average it will throw within 2-3 tenth's which aint bad ! depends how close you want to get .

 

[Heavy Metal 1]

The Lee I have is way more accurate than my RCBS (I bought that first) which is much more expensive and is annoying as heck "cutting" stick powders like the IMR series. Use the Lee. Their products are underrated. When it comes to Lee people say "oh, it's cheap plastic", but when it is on a Dillon it is a "high tech polymer."

 

[1Victor30]

I use my Lee Perfect Powder a lot. Sure it is cheap, but mine is very consistent. I weigh about every 15th load and it is usually right on the mark. If it is not, then many times it is because I did not use the same rhythm. If I notice that, I re-do it. If not, then the load is not off by that much. One of the best buys I have made.

 

[Onward Allusion]

I guess it depends on how OCD one is. For higher grain weights, it should be fine. For smaller loads or fast burning powders, I would weigh every one instead.

 

[Blindstitch]

Good to hear you guys like the Lee.

I only have lee stuff besides my Lyman scale and one set of RCBS dies.

I like to be as precise as I can but plus or minus a tenth isn't bad. I have several rifles just for plinking and those ones tend to eat up a lot of time making fun rounds.

Right now I only reload for 6.5 jap, 30-40 krag and 30-30.

For the 30-30 I have 3 different load work ups for hunting, targets and low recoil plinking. Looking at 500 pieces of brass for it and it's almost overwhelming.

I also have dies in 7.62x39, 444 marlin, 30-06 and a few others but I don't shoot them often or in the case of the sks ammo is cheap.

 

[hartcreek]

lyman 55

If you purchase a Lyman 55 you will need no other powder measure. The reason is how it is constructed. It has three micrometer adjustments and unlike the RCBS powder measure which drops the powder endo into the slot on the 55 it drops sideways which makes it much more accurate with any grain size of powder.

 

[Pond James Pond]

I like my Lee PPM a lot. I'm very pleased with it and prefer it to the Auto-disk that I had bought when first getting reloading gear.

I, too, bought it to speed things up. However, a word of caution: check what kind of powder you have: I really only have VihtaVuori powder which is a short stick extruded powder. As happy as I am with the powders' performance, it has never been easy to meter with anything other than a dipper.

I now tend to use the PPM as a means of dumping 90% of the charge in one go, then topping up with a trickler.

Because of the margin for error using the stick powder metering for rifles is easier as a few .1s of a grain to meter is a smaller % of the charge than pistol charges so I don't use it for my .38s and .44s

If I end up using another powder such as Hodgdon powders, then I may revisit that.

All the same, for the money, with the right powder, it is a fantastic piece of kit. With a stick powder it drops to only "excellent"!

 

[Blindstitch]

I use IMR 3031 and 4064 regularly and Red dot for my low recoil load.

Probably wouldn't use it for the red dot since it's a 7 grain load for the 30-30. I have a dipper made from a cut down 357 case and I'm sure I could do a triple charge if I wasn't careful.

 

[1stmar]

If money is not a concern get one of the digital auto dispensers, hornady auto charge, rcbs charge master or Lyman. Well worth the money. I have a lee ppm, it worked ok but was slow and challenging to make charge changes. So much trial and error. You'll love the electronic powder dispensers.

 

[David Bachelder]

I've owned a RCBS Uniflow and a Hornady LNL. Both performed well, however there always is trouble with stick powder like Varget. I have never owned or used a Lee Perfect Powder Measure, I have read several complaints about poor performance.

In that case I use the RCBS Chargemaster 1500.

Works for me.

 

[madmo44mag]

I've been using Lee powder dispensers for years.
Work great but some extruded powders can be a challenge.
Lee's micro measure bars are great for fast burning low charge weight powders.

 

[totaldla]

The Lee Perfect will leak with fine ball powders and you'll get a little cutting with long-stick stuff like 3031. But it will dispense with more than enough accuracy for your rifle loads. You'll have to try it with Red Dot to see if it is accurate enough for your 30-30 plinkers.

The elastomer wiper is supposedly replaceable and supposedly you can polish the rotor interface to make it leak-free with ball powders - neither of which I have experience with.

I use one and like it.

 

[mikld]

I think it depends on the choice of powder. I have a Lee PPM, a C-H 502, a Hornady Pistol Powder Measure, and a bunch of home made dippers. Each tool/measure has it's preferences. My Lee will hold less than .1 grain with W231, my C-H is accurate with most powders I use and will keep IMR 4064 drops to less than .2 gr., but I can feel/hear the drum cutting the mini-logs. My Lee doesn't like WC820 as sometimes a fine powder leaks from around the drum.

But, when I started reloading with a Powder Measure, the Lee PPM worked quite well...

Scroll way down for a good comparison of powder measures; http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_6-4_PowdersAnd Measures.htm

 

[Bart B.]

Thanks, Mikld, for posting that link to LASC's page listing powder measure tests.

It would also be nice to see a test of each one done by 10 people to see how much spread there is between us humans (a huge variable) using each to measure a given charge weight!!! That would probably look much like the results of a dozen people at random shooting a match rifle testing it for accuracy I observed some years ago.

Sierra Bullets, for decades, has been metering powder into unprepped cases getting a 3/10ths grain spread that produces 1/4 MOA groups at 200 yards with their best match bullets. So have many rifle competitors. Others have metered IMR4895 and Varget into new .308 Win. cases under Sierra 155's getting 1/2 MOA accuracy at 600 yards.

There's a greater spread in muzzle velocity caused by primer variances within a lot of them compared to a 2/10th grain spread in powder charge weights. But you won't see it unless the rifle's shot in total free recoil untouched by human hands while its shooting.

But it's easy to measure and see a 0.2% change in powder charge weight. But that level of component uniformity's about 19th on a list of 20 things for best accuracy. And you'll never see it until the other 18 above it are put in place.

 

[totaldla]

The technique is never mentioned - why?

I've done it wrong and I've seen others do it wrong. It is an easy "senior moment" to make.

The dispenser needs to remain in the "dump" position until the next charge is to be thrown. Otherwise vibration will cause settling and you can get a 1/2 grain variation (or more).

Also, it is important to be consistent with your cycling and knocking. And one of the biggest errors I've seen with the Lee Perfect is to tighten the rotor to the point where the entire dispenser wobbles when you work the lever.

I've had 2 Lee Perfects. The first one I thought was worn out and I threw it away before I discovered that the $1 elastomer wiper (sacrificial wear item) was easily replaceable. The second one is going strong. I dispense H335 (ball powder) with it accurately and I dont' mind the leakage.

I'm not saying the Lee Perfect is the best dispenser, but it is good enough.

 

[skizzums]

Love the ppm, I don't feel the need to spend more when what I already have works. Mine is always dead on with flake or ball. If using stick, then I use I small electric shaver to settle the powder, that keeps it consistent to .2 with 4064.

 

[pathdoc]

The Lee PPM's good enough for me. It's my first dispenser after a long period with scoops and my only regret is that I didn't get one sooner. I have been using it with Varget and IMR 3031, and though I occasionally do feel it shear the granules (contrary to advertising), it hardly ever "binds". I haven't noticed more than 0.1 to 0.2gn variation between throws, the latter only when I first started using it, and the last significant run I did (20 cases for plinking) with only occasional check weighs, they were all dead-on.

When I need guaranteed accuracy, as for load workups and for within a grain or less of maximum, I will throw short and trickle up directly onto a scale pan. I could probably trust it within half a grain of max, but that will come with time.

I love the ability to twist the powder hopper and turn the whole thing "off", then lift it out of the dispenser portion, drain the dispenser into the hopper, and then simply drop the hopper into the neck of the powder bottle and turn it "on" again to put the powder away. I can ignore it while I'm tidying other stuff up and then come back to shake out the last few granules before putting the powder away. The micrometer charge weight thingy isn't the friendliest device in the world, and I wish they'd repeat the graduations on all four sides of the sliding plunger bar, but you can get fairly close very quickly if you note down the settings you used, and I know some people make marks on theirs with fine sharpies in various colours for their "go to" loads.

I use mine for rifle reloading right now and I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. You get a lot for the money, IMO, and if you're doing this hobby on a budget then I'd say go for it.

 

[JayCee]

I bought a Lee Perfect powder measure to use with my portable range reloading setup. Quite frankly, I'm amazed at how well it works and how consistent it is. I load primarily for handguns, and it's consistently within .1 grain even with very light charges. It's also a clever design, as there is a valve between the powder hopper and the body of the unit. This allows you to remove the hopper while full and dump the powder directly into your powder container without any spillage. It leaks a few grains occasionally, but that's not a big drawback, in my opinion.

 

[jtmckinney]

totaldla said;

The dispenser needs to remain in the "dump" position until the next charge is to be thrown. Otherwise vibration will cause settling and you can get a 1/2 grain variation (or more).

Also, it is important to be consistent with your cycling and knocking. And one of the biggest errors I've seen with the Lee Perfect is to tighten the rotor to the point where the entire dispenser wobbles when you work the lever.

I second this. I have only used the Lee "Perfect Powder Measure" so I cannot compare to the others. I rotate it to the load charge position and then thump it on the drum 4 times then dump the charge in a consistent manner. I consistently get within .1 grains (including Unique) for pistols checking every 10 round or so depending on how it is dispensing. I don't load much big rifle anymore but when I do I use the PPM to get a couple grains low and trickle weighing every charge. For 223 it will dispense 25 grains H335 within .1 grains consistently enough I don't measure every charge.

H110 and AA#9 used to leak around the drum enough to be a concern and bind up the drum. That has gotten a lot better the last couple years maybe because the drum clearances are getting tighter due to wearing in and maybe me knowing how much to tighten the drum after cleaning. Probably a little of both.

800X has a deserved reputation for not metering well but I get workable results from the PPM but have to be very consistent with my throws and keep the reservoir at a consistent level around 3/4 full. The same thing goes for Unique but not a much as for 800X.