Greetings! I'm putting together a travel press so I can be productive during down time this summer, potentially sizing a supply of homemade PC bullets and loading some 38 & 44 Specials.

I had contemplated using my old Hornady/Pacific Pistol Powder Measure (with bushings), but I am having some second thoughts. Does anyone have any experience with the Lee Perfect Powder Measure, especially with respect to the consistency of the thrown powder charges?

As always, thanks in advance for your help!

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Judge control not gun control!

I have one, and use it sometimes. It's very consistent. In my portable set-up I use an RCBS Lil' Dandy. It's the most compact powder measure. A few extra rotors don't take up much space. It is also designed to be used hand-held so you don't need a stand.

Not directly relevant, but this winter I filled an old hard-shell attache case with a Lee hand press, small digital scale, a set of dies, and moderate amounts of supplies. Turned out to be a really convenient and portable way to reload small quantities on the road.

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Uvidíme se později, aligátore.

I bought a Lee measure years ago, probably not long after they were available. It worked surprisingly well, despite the cheap, flimsy appearance. If you can get past the looks, buy one.

I have the Lee Perfect, red bin with black
metal stand. I haven’t used it in years.
It’s ok for what I do. I don’t reload huge
batches of cases.

The thing I found is that I could weigh
each charge on a scale faster than setting
up a Powder Drop Measurement.

By the time all is setup I could be done
individually weighing my powder charges.
Keep mind I reload under 50 cases of
whatever usually.

The Best to you and your Endeavors.

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SD social distanc'n since 1889

Keep a notebook with you to write down the micrometer settings for each load. I back the lock nut and stem out far enough to see them when I use mine.

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Front sight and squeeze

For my "traveling Reloading" setup ... I use homemade powder scoops .
Scoops are not glamorous but they take up little space , are rugged and mostly fool-proof . Travel well , set up fast and don't get knocked outta whack . A dozen scoops will measure anything I need ... and if you are careful , not much is more consistent ... I load a lot of "Flakey" old Unique and scoops are my choice when I don't have my Lyman 55 to use .
A dozen scoops fit into a small plastic utility box ...1"deep X 1.5" wide X 2 3/4" long ... That is pretty danged compact !
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

I have three Lee brand powder measures, including the Lee Perfect, which was my first and only for quite a while. I had zero problems with it - ever. It makes trips back and forth to the ranch where it is used to handload "on-site" for tweaking load development for fodder mostly coming from my home bench. Sure travels well.

The Deluxe Perfect has pretty much replaced the Perfect on the home bench and generally gets used for rifle load development but occasionally for handgun cartridges as well. The third Lee measure is attached to my turret press and it functions very well also though it can be a slightly larger pain to adjust/calibrate.

Like every careful handloader random, and fairly frequent, checks with a good balance ensures your measure's consistency for thrown charge weights.

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Ordnung muss sein
SWHF #789

The Lee Perfect is very poorly named.

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Common sense isn't so common.

The Lee perfect has some real positives. It's light, fairly durable, and very cheap. I don't like it though because I'm prejudiced against all that plastic. I much prefer the RCBS Little Dandy, or the discontinued Lyman Accu-Measure or Pacific Pistol Powder Measure, all of which have metal bodies and use brass rotors. They are heavier than the Lee unit of course, but I don't take mine back packing! Truth to tell, the Lee will probably do what you want, and as others have said, you could probably just as well with a few appropriate dippers.
Froggie

Mine feels flimsy but it throws more consistent charges than my RCBS measure. Also, the RCBS "catches" and the Lee doesn't.
However, if I could only have one it would be the RCBS because it is more robust.

I have an Auto-drum with various disks, long checked, calibrated, and put away for various loads. It has remained consistent for several years.

Long ago, when disco reigned, I was loading 38, 357, and 44 spl and mag with a RCBS. I owned more drums than fingers and toes, and more good recipes than I needed.

The fixed powder measures work well. Powder volume and weight of popular brands hasn't changed much in 40 years. I still check loads with my scale.

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Heavily armed old man.

I have several Lee powder measures, A Lyman, RCBS Little Dandy. The lee Perfect powder measure gets more use than any of the other ones. I used the Little Dandy once, not a fan. The Lyman gets used on small charges.

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S&WHF #946
S&WCA #3824

I've had great luck with the Auto disc powder measure, it's pretty much all I have ever used to load from way back in 1986. In excess of 100,000 thousand rounds. I have a couple of them.

I load all my handgun rounds with a Lee Auto Disc powder measure. I modified it so it can be used as a handheld. I put 50 rounds of primed brass in a loading block, hold the measure on each case and flip the lever.

Please show your mods!

I searched on eBay and bought an old Lee Safety Disk powder measure, which is the hand operated precursor to the Lee Safety Disk and Autodisk. It uses the disks, but you operate it with a throw lever by hand. Perfect for a travel loading kit and very repeatable.

Here is a an eBay listing (not mine) that includes the now rare Lee Safety Disk (it is the small powder throw on the left) and a Perfect Powder measure. I wrote to Lee asking for an updated version of the small Safety Disk but they ignored my email.

Lot of 2 Lee Powder Measures "Safety Disk" & "Perfect" for Ammunition Reloading | eBay

Once upon a time there was a comparison test of several brands of powder measure. Don't recall when/where. All the measures in the test had "issues" with certain (and different) types or examples of powders.

So, just because a measure did well with stick powders, didn't mean it did well with ball or flake powders.

Have an old Hornady/Pacific bushing type measure I use for pistol loads. Love it because I can easily make up custom bushings for specific needs. However, it really doesn't like ball powder. The tolerances let the stuff interfere with slide movement.

Unless you really like the darn thing for loading small amounts of ammo use dippers checked with the powders you use...or use the fixed rotor powder measures. I have a L'il Dandy...there is a fellow on Cast Boolits who makes an adj rotor for it...Once set it is good but I use the Lee Powder scoops and homemade ones even on a Dillon 550 at times. Dillon has a powder die with a funnel specifically for that purpose.

I've had one for about 25-30 tears and it did well for me. I eventually turned to a Lyman Brass Smith because, depending on the powder, the Lee leaked powder all over the bench. The Lee worked well otherwise.
I still have the Lee and will use it for rifle cartridges.
The Lyman is really awkward to empty once you're done loading however.

I've been putting a Lee 6 pack pro through it's paces.
the press kit employs their auto drum measure.
If there were a way to adapt it to manual use, it'd be my mobile measure.

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it just needs more voltage

... I thought it too flimsy and replaced it with an RCBS uni-flow. But for a 'portable' set up I'd probably use it. I would try the Little Dandy.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

The mods I did to it are really simple. I drilled and tapped a hole in the front to hold a small aluminum tab. This stops the travel of the disc. Loosen the screw and rotate the tab out of the way to change the disc.





I drilled a couple of holes in the throw lever so I could install a piece of wood to operate it.



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I used a piece of silicon tubing to attach the drop tube. This came off of another powder measure but I don't remember what brand.





I hold it in my right hand, sit it on the case in the loading block and flip the lever with my left hand. It only take a few seconds to charge each case. I've loaded thousands of rounds with it.

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I have to wonder if any of the above giving positive reviews have ever tried to use one of these with Accurate # 5 or H110? Because if that had they would not be giving the Junk a positive review. With a fine grained powder they leak horribly and will also jam solid. First time I tried one with Accurate #5 it jammed after 5 powder throws and the only way to clear it was to take it apart. Note, if it was due to a "bad Sample" make it 3 "bad Samples" because I had 3 because getting them set was so damned fiddly it actually made some send to purchase more.

What I did was toss them in the trash and purchase a RCBS Competition Powder Measure. Which doesn't leak or jam with a fine powder, it's very easy to set, and works perfectly.

I will also note that I'm a Manufacturing Engineer who has been using Statistical Process Control methods since 1982 so I have run 30 piece Capability Studies for every single powder I use. Truth, there is not one single volume based powder measure that is truly consistent. However the granule size and shape can have a huge influence on the Standard Deviation for thrown charges. If it looks like Unique in structure the SD will be 0.17 grains no matter what brand of measure you use. If it's fine like H110 or Accurate # 5 the Standard Deviation is 0.034 grains. If you are loading with a rifle powder like Varget use a trickler or electronic measure, because a SD of 0.4 allows too much variation in thrown charges.

Finally I will state that "runs" are meaningless, they are actually statistically predictable. If you don't believe that take your "run of 10" powder and throw 50 charges and weigh every one of them. All those "fliers" you see are not "fliers", they are part of the statistical sample group and why using Statistics is so useful.

I have one, use it mostly for CFE Pistol and Blue Dot powders.

I do check weighs every 25 rounds or so; works absolutely fine.

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Richard

The source of many complaints about the Lee Perfect Powder Measure do stem from its leakage with fine grain powder. The usual response to the leakage is to tighten the screw holding the drum in. This usually makes the leak worse, as it is too easy to over-tighten and warp the plastic cone-shaped drum.

If it leaks, try removing the drum and lap it to its recess with some sort of abrasive paste. This usually helps a lot more than just trying to tighten the screw. You really have to feel your way when tightening the screw that holds it in. Not a task for honor graduates from the Bigger Hammer School of Technology.