........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

I use a Lachmiller I bought new (great measure)for full load rifle loading, RCBS rotating drum type (don't recall model) for pistol, Lyman 55 for cast bullet rifle loads. Then there are the 4 Dillon measures for the 550 and 650. AS I said in the post below, I started with the B&M, then went to the RCBS etc.

Still using an RCBS for rifle. All my handgun and my high volume rifle (.223) is on a Dillon.

Dillon on the progressive. Hollowed out deer antlers for Great Plains .54 and the Mountain .50. For bp cartridge I use a glass bowl for the goex, dip the case in to fill and give a little thump. Bench mounted RCBS powder flow and then trickle for rifle. Still have the set of Lee plastic dippers I cut my teeth on.

I have a set, and yeah, those were the first measures I ever used!

How could I forget that?

Otony

Just to 'one up you', I have 2 sets of Lee powder scoops, the original and the later version, they differ; I continue to use the Herters scale I bout when I returned from SEA in '71! And an RCBS measure for which I really need the pistol powder drum.
bob

What is the difference between "old" and "new" dippers, Bob?

Otony

and never upgraded. However, I have been thinking about some sort of change in that arena and find it interesting to hear opinions.

I seem to use a lot of stick powders and the Lee seems, umm, only OK with them. Lately, I've set it light and trickled up rather than spending 10-15 rounds tweaking the spindle. For a short run of 20-30 rounds, it's about a horse apiece time-wise.

It also doesn't much care for H110/W296. I have to back off the drum screw to keep it from binding and then powder spills out the sides.

Oh yeah, almost forgot I recently started using an Auto-Disc on a Lee turret. I have only loaded a bit on that so the jury's still out. I think it wants to be used only with ball powders...had a bit of varying with flake type. We'll see.

I have two (maybe three but off the top of my head I think it's two) standard Uniflow measures with the large drum. They don't work well for stick powders but do great with everything else. I tend to set them for a specific charge, lock it down and leave it...like 13.5, 18.5 and 21 grains of 2400 and label them as such. I later bought the Redding bench rest measure (I don't remember what the model is but it's the good one) and it actually does well with stick powders (not perfect, but pretty good, especially the short cut stuff). It has a micrometer adjustent that's very repeatable and covers my rifle loads pretty well. Then, I added a Uniflow with a small drum and micrometer hoping it would work well with smaller charges of Unique and such (it's more consistent than the large drum) and take care of odd and end jobs like working up pistol loads and such where I can record a setting and come back to it. It's worked out great for that. But I have a strong hankering for a Hornady or RCBS Chargemaster where I can just dump the powder in, tell it what to throw and hit charge and eventually, Lord willing, I'm gonna scratch that itch:) I also have a Lyman like you mentioned and long ago locked it down for 4.5 grains Unique for my 38 Speacial loads.

I was very happy with the improvement the small drum makes over the large one in a Uniflow for small pistol charges like 6 grains of Unique and Red Dot. It meters more consistent and and you can get the charges down where you want them, where the large drum has a limit before the rod starts to hit the inside of the measure and bind it.

Have the same issues. Lee has a new measure out now but I forget the name. It works with their pass through neck sizing dies and is supposed to resolves all those issues. Go to YouTube, search Fortune Cookie 45LC and he recently bought on and has videos using it with several different powders from ball, to flake, to stick and it doesn't leak like the other and seems to run within .1-.2 grains in consistency. If you're using the Lee Turret press it might be a great way for you to go.

I recently bought a Lee Pro 1000 in .223. I've been so busy o barely took itnoutmofnthe box but it did have a more standard, Uniflow type of powder measure attached to it. My older Pro 1000 had the auto disk on it. It looked to be made of cast metal and plastic, so hopefully it holds up to use. I'll try and get it set up soon and give a review on how it works.

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Fortune Cookie 45 sure seemed impressed with that for certain. I may have to check it out.

My turret is to be used only for higher volume pistol rounds. Confining myself to ball powders isn't much of a handicap there. I have yet to try it with Unique though. If that powder fails, it will have an impact.