good powder measure needed

The Harrell measures, like the one you looked at, have long been popular with benchrest shooters. They have the feel Sinclair mentions. Beautiful machinery. However, testing shows the same tendency to do better with some powders than others that applies to others I've seen. Comparing it with an RCBS Uniflow, with some of the tables the Harrell did better, but not all. Ignore the percent column as that's a biased test when total charge weight difference is considered. Just look at the grains difference result.

You'll note both measures do much better with spherical powders than with stick (extruded) powders. By way of comparison, the Quick Measure does as well with stick powder as these two measures did with spherical powders.
 
I have powder measures, I have three progressive RCBS presses that use the Uniflow, I have the big Hollywood with the Micro adjust and the Visible with the drop tubes. I Have the Lyman in three different colors and I have Herter powder measure. I have Lee dippers in sets of yellow, black and red.

I also have the RCBS Little Dandy powder measures with rotors, lots of rotors. When it comes to cost the Little Dandy is quite the investment.

Point; I use the Uniflow and Little Dandy most of the time and I have tricklers, I have lots of trickelrs, if one of my trickllers was not heavy enough I would fill the base with lead or epoxies and lead shot just to give it that quality feel.

F. Guffey
 
research the sites uncle nick has a pattern for baffles for most powder measures use the baffle makes much better
 
I usually just give the hopper a good tap between each load--but I guess the "specific gravity" fades with each diminishing of volume.:)
 
I have a Hornady, it doesn't get used much, and only with fine spherical powders, because there is enough wear after all that time that my 55 starts to jam a little bit. 300MP is what I am talking about, and h110. I would not buy another Hornady, but I will buy another 55.

Back in the day the 55 ran all powders very well, the trick is to set the cavity as short and deep as you can and flip the knocker before every drop.
 
Lyman measure came in today==looks like a nice rig at an affordable price and robustly built. I also bought a Lee stand to put it on--unfortunately the stand is not threaded so I had to buy a large nut to lock it--but minor inconvenience and well worth it to since I like to move my measure around yet this stand is heavy enough and stable.

 
BTW--the instructions say first thing is to disassemble and clean--which I did mostly--but I can't figure out how to get the hopper off or the baffle out. Those of you that have experience with the 55 have any suggestions?
 
I prefer the Harrells.

The clear plastic tube that forms the reservoir on my old orange Lyman was held in by a couple of set screws, yours may be different. The baffle is just simply pressed out of the cylinder with the fingers. Reinserted the same way, though I found it easier if one pushes the pointy end in first.
 
Easy, leave the hopper on it.

If you install the baffle upside down (from the way it's installed now) it will make pouring powder out of the measure much, much easier.
 
I did a batch of 41 mags with it yesterday and it worked very well--all measured charges were very very close, with about half of them being right on. This definitely speeds up the process over my Lee measure, too bad though they didn't make the hopper easily removable, that's going to make cleaning the powders between different loads a bit of a hassle, but over-all I'm satisfied and think it's well-worth the price-point.
 
An important thing you have to learn is how to double tap on both the up and down strokes. You have to make certain that the powder consistently drops into the measure and then it all drops out. You also have to use the correct roto. Most companies make one for rifle and one for pistol. For consistent small drops I use a Little Dandy.

You should also drop the powder out of every 10th round and weigh it. I also like using a loading block before seating so that I can look into the cases and make certain that they all have an equal charge.
 
You should also drop the powder out of every 10th round and weigh it. I also like using a loading block before seating so that I can look into the cases and make certain that they all have an equal charge.
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I weigh each and every charge I load--always have, always will. After thousands of cartridges I've become fairly good at it--though with my RCBS balance beam I have on occassion accidentally bumped it pushing the leaf weight up. : )
 
Cut a straight section from a coat hanger, bend two small hooks at each end then bend in the middle, you should be able to lift out the baffle with this.

Don't try to remove the hopper, mine is glued in, but it is old.
 
Cut a straight section from a coat hanger, bend two small hooks at each end then bend in the middle, you should be able to lift out the baffle with this.

Don't try to remove the hopper, mine is glued in, but it is old.
Click to expand...
Yeah--I was going to do something like that in order to get the baffle out--thanks for the suggestion. I can rotate the hopper tube in the the measure but it just won't come out. The Lyman manual shows an optional high capacity hopper tube available, so I just figured it had to come out--but I see no screws or other means of slipping them off--and there does appear to something resembling plumber's tape at the base of the tube. Since I have a talent for ruining things I guess I should just leave it alone. :o
 
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