Lee Perfect Powder Measure any good?

Suther

Suther

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Looking to buy a powder measure, and wanted some opinions on whether the Lee Perfect Powder Measure is worth buying, or if you'd save for a more expensive one? Its significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but so is most Lee stuff and I've gotten good use out of a lot of their products.

So, what's your experience with the Lee Perfect Powder measure? Have you used a different powder measure you can compare it to?

Thanks!
 
No problem with mine and I have a few of the more expensive ones to compare it with.
It's the only one I have that you don't feel a lot of powder "crunch" using large stick powder.
That being said I weigh all my charges and only load for rifle.
 
I have the RCBS manual powder drop and RCBS Balance beam. I dont use any other weighing tools. When setting a powder load, I drop from powder drop until I get the right amount confirmed by beam scale. I confirm it several times from both. Once I have the right powder drop, dropping at correct measure in grains, I start filling cases. Every 5th round, I confirm against beam scale. Finally, once all cases are loaded, I inspect each case with a flashlight to ensure all filled cases are the same volume.

10 yrs - never missed a drop or filled case...how did I end up doing this...10 yrs ago...not checking, not confirming loads (dropped by powder drop and confirmed by flashlight), one day I was out with .223 and fired a round...it sounded odd, so I stopped, unloaded and checked barrel. Sure enough it was a missed powder drop and the primer had enough force to push the 50gr VMAX into barrel, but not far. I still shudder to this day if I did not hear that squib load and glad I was on crownland, and not an active range and could hear it.

Check, double check and then triple check. I dont think I could use a turret press, or Dillion to load...I would still need to check each case visually. My two cents
 
I have 2. A baffle is a must have upgrade. They work great with ball powder like H335. Always within 0.1 grain of target weight. With extruded powder it's less accurate but same goes for all other powder throwers.

If yours is leaking ball powder, adjust the 2 screws.
 
My plan was to use the powder thrower to get me close, then trickle the rest. I might use just the thrower for plinking ammo, but not for working up a load or my hunting ammo. I have a Lee Safety Scale, need to upgrade to a better balance at some point because this thing is bloody slow to settle, but its cheap and accurate.
 
Suther said:
My plan was to use the powder thrower to get me close, then trickle the rest. I might use just the thrower for plinking ammo, but not for working up a load or my hunting ammo. I have a Lee Safety Scale, need to upgrade to a better balance at some point because this thing is bloody slow to settle, but its cheap and accurate.
Click to expand...

just build yourself a trickler and automate your Lee scale.

 
Mine works great, saved me hundreds by making me decide I don't need one of the automated droppers. It does tend to grind the longer grained rifle powders but you get used to just slicing through those. Setting up the charge can be a PITA but once it's done charging cases is a breeze. I don't mount mine, I just fill a case tray with brass and go from one to next like a bee on flowers. A tray of 50 takes just a few minutes, then weigh randomly picked samples just to make sure - never had a problem.
 
Mine works fine. as mentioned it can take a bit of finessing to get it set right, but then its a breeze. It seems to work more consistently the more you use it.
 
I have the Lee prefect powder measure, plus a RCBS (uniflow), and Lyman (ideal no55).
The only dislike I have of the Lee is the weight. I've often thought of making a heavy stand to replace the stamped factory one provided.
I noticed one of the above comments, about running two lbs of powder thru it to get it working nice. Go to John Deere dealer, buy a big bottle of graphite powder ( $5-$8 ?).
Use that to lube it up.
 
Suther said:
My plan was to use the powder thrower to get me close, then trickle the rest. I might use just the thrower for plinking ammo, but not for working up a load or my hunting ammo. I have a Lee Safety Scale, need to upgrade to a better balance at some point because this thing is bloody slow to settle, but its cheap and accurate.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I have used mine.

The new ones are a bit chintzier than the one I had a couple of years ago (along with a lot of other things from Lee). But it seems like only the hopper is affected as far as I can see, not the actual mechanism.
 
Suther said:
My plan was to use the powder thrower to get me close, then trickle the rest. I might use just the thrower for plinking ammo, but not for working up a load or my hunting ammo. I have a Lee Safety Scale, need to upgrade to a better balance at some point because this thing is bloody slow to settle, but its cheap and accurate.
Click to expand...

I use two RCBS Powder Throwers one mounted on top of the RCBS Piggyback attachment doing Handgun Ammo only, the other with the larger Cylinder Bore is for Rifle Ammo. Because Ball Powder flow so much easier I rarely need to do any trickling. When using Extruded Powder on the Powder Thrower I change the Handle out to a homemade Handle consisting of a 6" length of 1/2" Steel pipe flattened on one end for the Screw Holes and the rest of the Pipe is filled with Lead. This much heavier Handle insures fairly uniform Powder throws on extruded Powders.

Cheers
 
I like mine. It's cheap but that's because it's cheap. Like others mentioned they work extremely well with ball powder. I had to lap the tapered seat that rotates on mine to remove high and low spots. It would bind up really bad with ball powder very quickly. Once that was done it got some dry graphite spray and has been working great since. Extruded powders do not measure as consistently, it's great for dropping a little under and trickling up on a scale. It can be as much as half a grain high or low at the extreme ends and usually within a few tenths. Ball powder is .1 gr consistently. I give it 2 light taps when I raise the handle and 2 when I lower it.
 
I bought one years ago for ball powders which the original Auto-Disk was allergical to. Major problem was that the perfection did not include automation with a Turret Press or neck expansion, despite an expensive kit of dispenser dies. The instruction sheet said something about required ingenuity which I manage to gather for 1.29" cases expansion only.
 
Burton Urnie said:
I have the Lee prefect powder measure, plus a RCBS (uniflow), and Lyman (ideal no55).
The only dislike I have of the Lee is the weight. I've often thought of making a heavy stand to replace the stamped factory one provided.
I noticed one of the above comments, about running two lbs of powder thru it to get it working nice. Go to John Deere dealer, buy a big bottle of graphite powder ( $5-$8 ?).
Use that to lube it up.
Click to expand...

Yes. That's what I do.
Far easier and far faster than waiting for traces of graphite to rub off the powder to coat the inside of the powder measure.
Graphite is also available at TSC or most any farm supply store.
 
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