Speaking of powder measures........

by Otony, Monday, January 18, 2016, 16:02 (3235 days ago)

........what do you fellows use? I started out with am RCBS, as I imagine most of us may have done. I sold it and upgraded to a Redding, which seemed to be very similar to the RCBS but made a bit more nicely. Also seemed a trifle easier to set, and probably more accurate although mine was not a Match version.

It went down the road when a young friend expressed interest in reloading. I wanted to encourage him, so I gifted it and a Lyman press as part of a "starter kit". I picked up a Forster Benchrest powder measure (once known as a Bonanza) and hey presto, what a very nice piece of equipment! I like it so much I bought another, slightly used, off eBay as a backup.

Somewhere along the line I found a couple of Belding & Mull measures, which are a bit more of an effort to use, but very repeatable, and great for stick powders, no problems with cutting. The Forster seems to be a clever riff on the B&M in the manner in which it measures and drops a charge.

I also have an older Lyman measure which I've never used. It appears to be an early model, NIB, and has brass internals. I found it at a great price and thought I might use it for black powder, but I've never gotten around to trying it out. It and one of my Belding & Mulls is now on Gunbroker, which should have left me with 2 Forsters and a single B&M but I was tempted to try out a C-H 502 based on the suggestion of a friend. Haven't tried it out yet, but egads, what a GIANT piece of equipment. It is easily half again as big as an RCBS!

Obviously I like measures. There is something faintly steampunk about them that I find curiously entrancing. Using one always seems like an exercise in Victorian alchemy. There's a lot to be said for making the hobby interesting I guess.

Otony