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In looking for different ways to speed up the production of ammo for the start of the hunting season, I picked up one of the powder measure kits manufactured by Lee Precision. I wanted to see how usable it was to increase the loads per hour that I can do and still keep them within the specifications for my 'most accurate' loads. I have heard very little first hand experience in the reloading circles about using the dippers, so I wanted to find out for myself.  

The kit comes with 15 small, plastic scoops that range in size from .3cc to 4.3cc and a sliding  cardboard scale that shows the amount of powder that each of the scoops hold. The sliding scale pretty much covers all of the currently manufactured powders from the major powder makers. Easy enough, let's get to testing it out!

Ok now, I have to admit that I have always been leery of using a dipper to measure smokeless powder. I imagine it's from almost every load book that I know of telling you that you MUST carefully weigh your charges to make sure they are within the safe limits of the cartridge. But, if you look how commercial ammunition is loaded, it is loaded not by weight, but by volume. You don't often hear of commercial ammunition blowing up guns. But on the flip side it is pretty rare to grab a box of commercial ammunition off the shelf and have it shoot as good as hand loaded ammunition.

The first loading that I wanted to try was a 95JHP load using AA#5 for my Makarov. I prepped the brass, got the bullets and the seating die ready to go and set up a can of power.

By the data listed on the sliding scale the .3cc dipper should give me 4.8 grains of AA#5, which is .1 grains higher then the starting load listed in the manual. I followed the directions on the box and dipped the dipper once through the powder, carefully tapped it to level it off and dumped in onto the scale. The scale read 4.7 grains. Pretty darn close as there are usually density variations from lot to lot. The big thing was, how does it shoot? Will this be a usable load for my pistol?

I loaded up 20 rounds and headed to the range. It ended up being a very accurate and mild load. Something that I would totally feel comfortable teaching someone the basics of handgunning 101 with. 

Getting back to the loading bench, I wanted to also see how much charge variation I was able to get with the dippers using different scooping techniques and powder types. I first tested the AA#5 powder using the .3cc measure I had already used for the Makarov loadings. I wanted to see how much powder the measure would hold, even if I used poor scooping and leveling techniques. Even with double scooping and leaving the powder heaped up on the top of the scoop the highest charge I was able to measure was 5.4 grains, well under the 6 grain max listed load. 

The next load I wanted to test was one for my AR15 using BLC2 powder. My most accurate load that I've developed for it uses 25 grains of powder. Now, looking at the chart the dipper that comes the closest to that is the 1.6cc. that should by the chart give me a 24.8grain charge. Using the same technique as before I carefully filled and weighed a charge on the scale. The scale read 24.9 grains. Still pretty close to what the chart said.

I also tested the 1.6 dipper to see how much powder I could cram into it by using bad dipping techniques. The highest charge that I could get with the 1.6cc dipper was 26.2 grains and that was with a totally heaped load in the dipper. Still within the safe 28.5 grain loading limits for the round.

I loaded up another 20 rounds of rifle ammunition using just the dipper and headed out to the range again. Shooting at 100 yards I could tell no difference between my normal load weighed load and the loads thrown with the Lee Powder Measure dippers.

Overall the Lee Powder Measure kit is a really good deal if your loads are close or right on a load that a scoop can measure out. If not it will take a little use of a powder trickler to get you up to where you want to be. They are also much easier and faster to setup then the full blown powder measure for some quickly needed loads. As for price I have seen the kit range from about $6 to $8 and for what you get I feel that it is a really good deal. 

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