Powder Measure - Which One?

Been looking over several.  Forster Benchrest, Redding BR, Lyman 55, and others.... all very similar and will probably all do the exact same thing.  Anyone use a measure like this (volume) and have a suggestion as to the best one as far as user friendlyness? 

Redding BR.

I was leaning towards that one but then found the Forsters and it has an equal following but I've never used any of their stuff.

I cant complain about my hornady. It is very consistent

Had all of them.

I have only used the RCBS. I have had it for thirty years and it throws charges of H4831 reliably. I still weigh every fifth round of the long cut powders, regardless.

I have RCBS, Hornady, and Redding.  All get the job done.  Don't know which is my favorite, and haven't seen any noticeable difference in charge consistency between brands.  All seem to provide about +/- 0.2 gr fluctuation between charges with ball and short cut powders measuring the most consistently.  A friend of mine has the Lyman measure Mike refers to, and I've used it during mass loading sessions for pd shooting trips.  It seems to work about as well as the others I've used. 

Just recently bought the Hornady "Lock-N-Load" auto charge measure a couple weeks ago, but haven't even opened the box yet. 

Thanks for the info all.  Ted, why do you have so many? Different uses?

Because I've broken/lost parts on a couple of them during moves, my father-in-law gave me one, I inherited one from my dad's reloading gear, and I bought the L-N-L auto charge because I usually load up 2000 - 4000 rounds every time I go shoot pd's.  I've got multiples of half my reloading tools -- presses, scales, dies, measures, calipers...

If I had a bunch of money to spare on one I'd get one of those fancy ones, but have found my RCBS works fine, esp. after adding one of those powder baffles.

Some expensive models will thread right onto a factory powder canister (like a 1 lb container of IMR4831) which is handy and repeatable micro adjusters can also be handy, but all measures seem to throw with about the same amount of precision, if they have a powder baffle.
A powder baffle effectively re- creates the old B&M 2nd powder chamber and isolates a consistent volume of powder from the varying weight of the column of powder in the hopper, making for precise, consistent throws.
Whatever you get, make sure to get a baffle with it, or make your own.
A plastic flip- up lid from a Kraft Mayo jar is a perfect drop- in fit on a Lee Pro Auto Disc measure, for instance.

My old beaten RCBS Uniflow is almost 40 yrs old and with baffle in place, it never varies as much as 1/10th grain and most throws are exact, once it settles in after a few throws... provided I don't let the hopper get too empty.

If you  want to get something trick, find an old Belding & Mull that's in good shape... they can be spendy, but not as much as many benchrest models.

Crosswire wrote: I think that's true, there's very little practical difference in application, IMHO.  They all do well with ball powder, all are squirrely with stick powder, all tend to bind on flake powder; just the nature of a rotary volume dispensing tool with different powder forms.  I have an old Redding Master, forerunner to today's Redding models, and have used most others.  I really fell there is no marked advantage to any one of them after the user develops a 'feel' for operating with the powder he's using; that takes experimentation for the best method and practice for highest consistancy of operation.

I agree. 

I've adopted my own technique that I believe has improved charge consistency with all powders, especially the more problematic stick powders.  On the "up" (fill) stroke of the handle, I bump the handle a couple times against the stop to "jolt" the powder down into the fill chamber, then again on the down (dispense) stroke, I tap the handle against the stop again a couple times to ensure all grains exit.  I'm essentially duplicating (or attempting to duplicate) the same function that Lyman's "knocker" is intended to perform.  After 1000's of repetitions of this, I've managed to do the same thing pretty consistently, and get essentially the same results regardless of which manual measure I'm using at the time.

I started reloading about 10yrs ago and bought the rcbs and have had no complaint with it.