Tired of weighing every charge! I'm looking at a Forster and Redding Model 3BR. I want one that can charge .45/.38/9mm and .223 rem and .308 win, and do the pistol rounds accurately enough for bullseye (.45) and rifle rounds accurately enough for highpower competition. The Redding looks most promising because I can get it with two metering chambers; one for pistol and one for rifle. But, are they precise enough for serious accuracy? The Forster Benchrest seems to be able to cover the entire charging range, and it costs a little less. Any comments on either of those?

I suppose I could spring for two, and get the competition Reddings for pistol and rifle, but that seems excessive. Any comments are most welcome at this point!

I have an old RCBS Uniflow I received as a Christmas present back in the mid-70's, and it has two metering chambers, one for large rifle charges and one for smaller handgun charges, has worked great all these years, and if forced to use it only from here on out, well, so be it. It is a good measure.

Too, I also have the Redding BR-3 that I purchased for $15 at a yard-sale many years ago, it didn't have a lid for the powder hopper, so bought it cheap. Can't complain about this one either, as it delivers superbly uniform powder charges year after year.

So long as you are looking at quality equipment, I doubt that you could go wrong with any of the currently available machined steel powder measures!

Select one that suits your needs in specifications and the pocketbook! Then be sure to check-weigh powder charges periodically, even with the very best of powder measures to insure the uniformity of your charges and to make sure nothing has become mis-adjusted. It's just a good safety rule to follow with any powder-measure-thrown charges.

God Bless,

There have been a few articles on this subject in some of the gun magazines recently. One article in particular dealt with accuracy. They compared several top models including the Herrell (I think that's spelled right). The Herrell cost about twice what the others did (Redding Forster etc.) but didn't prove to be any more accurate. The big difference was the type of powder being metered. All did really well with the ball powders and powders that were small diameter short cut. None did really well with the coarse powders.

I have the Redding 3BR. I'm pleased with it but I still find myself weighing each charge if I'm looking to get meaningful load data. I have weighed hundreds of charges thrown by the measure just to see if it was doing what I thought it should. I found the same results as the magazine article. Accuracy depends a great deal on the powder being used. Those that are large granules get sheared and when the throw action is interrupted inconsistency can occur. I have about 6 different Hodgdon powders, 2 Alliant powders, and 1 Winchester powder. I can't complain about what happens with any of them going through my Redding measure but I can say - whatever measure you buy, check it out every time before you use it. I have had two occassions where a small spider made a web inside the drop tube next to the chamber. That was in two different states! Freak thing I know but both times it took me awhile to figure out what was wrong. Now I check it every time.

By the way, the repeatability of the setting on the micrometer adjust works really well. I used some very fine powdered teflon as a lubricant on mine and that made a positive difference.

Krowe - Where in central Florida are you located? I'm in Palm Bay.

Only time I use a measure is when loading handgun ammo, so the powder is usually ball or small stick. As Flashhole and others have said, these readily flow through the measure.

My confession - I use the Lee Perfect Measure. Lots of folk call them POS, however, mine has worked quite well and is every bit as accurate as the Redding measure I had years and years ago.

Have recently acquired a selection of rotors for a brand new Lyman Accumeasure that's been sitting on the shelf for some years. Now, with the availibility of the new rotors, (each has pre-drilled cavities and a conversion chart for various powders) it will probably get used as well.

Krowe - Where in central Florida are you located? I'm in Palm Bay.

I live just west of Orlando.

I'm glad to hear the results of the accuracy testing in the magazine article you read. I'd actually considered buying a Herrell, but just couldn't justify the price. Now I know my instinct was correct! The BR3 is shipping with two cylinders from Midway today. Also picked up the stand and a dozen Forster split lock rings for my dies.

I too will mostly use this for my handgun rounds. Seems I shoot about 4 handgun rounds to every rifle round, so I don't mind weighing the rifle charges so much.

I currently have the Redding 3BR and used it for many years for bench competition. I also use it for charges as low as 5gn bullseye without changing it over. Marshall, a common plastic cap off a grease gun cartridge works well for the cap on the redding. Take care and have fun. Swany

Krowe
I don't use one, but a friend of mine has the new RCBS electronic scale and powder measure. Once set it drops exactly the same charge every time. It's kind of pricey in the 300 dollar plus range.

He is a stickler about each charge. I on the other hand find my old Lee and RCBS uniflow do well enough. Neither one of us can outshoot our rifles.

Might ask some of the fellas using these new electronic units how well they do.

I have two old RCBS Uniflows, one with the small rotor, and one with the large. I load very little pistol, but much rifle, and use the small rotor for things like H335, etc, and the large one for things like IMR 4350. I'm personally still not convinced about thrown charges versus weighed (especially since i see lots of benchrest shooters throwing their charges), but i do throw my charges with stick powder just a tad light and trickle the rest.