how accurate are Harrels powder measures??

[DickHowell]

kaferhaus;
I hear ya.

Dick

 

[StephenPerry]

Dick
I think you should use a straw and and a stop watch to drop 133. Cut one of the upper deck guys refreshment cans in half to catch the overflow. Who knows you might shoot another record. See you in 3 weeks.
Stephen Perry

 

[DickHowell]

Steve;
You should think about coming up to Sacramento & shooting the
SW Regionals with us. Sporter on Sat. & lv on Sun. We don't have a upper deck, but there are still plenty of adult beverages.
btw; only girlymen use straws. Real men use 16" drop tubes.

Dick

 

[StephenPerry]

Dick
Where do you guys stay when shooting Folsom?
Stephen

 

[DickHowell]

Steve; I live about 35 miles from the range, so I stay at my house. Tom Sakai stays at a motel on hwy 50 & Sunrise blvd. You
might email Mellor & see where he stays. There might be a map
on sacvalleyshootingcenter.com. I think Greg Wilson stays at a motel in Plymouth.

Dick

 

[Stonewall]

I have a Lyman 55 with a Culver conversion-I use a Hornaday plastic baffel in this.I can throw very uniform charges with stick powders such as 4198 that I use in 6PPC.One night I pre-loaded 60 rds. and checked each with a good scale before loading just to see how uniform the charges were.My results were so much better than your reports-I re threw 5 charges that varied by .1. That was the best result I've ever seen. Most times I can throw 72 gr 4350 with in 2/10 .

I find it's important to develop a consistant technique operating the measure .I top it off with powder to keep the powder level with in 2 1/2" from the top. The way you mount your measure will also influence the results a lot. I bought my Culver for $165 CDN around 1982 and have not found anything better in the following years but I have not had the chance to properly test the latest measures after 1995 .
I will be very interested to any results of testing done on the latest products -I appreciate the time and effort by every one concerned.
Glenn

 

[DickHowell]

Glenn; Your results throwing powder with a measure are almost
too good to be true, what scale are you using?

Dick

 

[StephenPerry]

Glenn
Very impressed with your results. Most the guys reading this Board have never seen a Culver and don't even know his first name was Homer.
I bought my Culver back in 1977 from Fred Sinclair. Truth of the matter mine doesn't have the Culver name on it. Story goes Culver made his powder drums about a 100 at a time. Using the Lyman 55 exclusively he modified the 55 for the drum checked for backlash and sent them out like doves at the Olympics. The lucky few that still have them use them at every BR Shoot I go to including yours truly. To get back to what happened to mine Sinclair said Culver was sick and let his close friend Geza Nagy assemble and sell what drums he had left. Don't know if Culver made any more drums. My Culver is a grey Lyman 55. I used it all weekend last week.
I also have a Custom Products Lyman 55. Made by Neil Jones it works like a Culver. A Culver in good shape wood sell for $200 a bargain for a life time of good powder throwing. Thanks for sharing your Culver.
Stephen Perry

 

[Stonewall]

I use a Ohaus 304 scale that I check with known check weights on each set up-I'm sure it was accurate. I need to replace this with a new scale and have no idea what to get as Ohaus dropped this scale around 2000 and has no repair parts aparently .I transported this scale in a car over rough roads and damaged a knife edge - nuff said!
The Culver came from Hart in 1982-it's grey .There is H.L. CULVER stamped filled with red paint on the insert. I bought it from Al Mirdoch in Calgary -he had 2 in at the time-don't remember any more after this. Thanks for more info on these. I was using Nobel H-4198 @ 24.8 gr. I find using the knocker hard once each time I move the handle works well for me contrary to what I've read others doing. The Hornaday red plastic baffle was added-it works great in this application. A clear Sinclair drop tube replaced the Lyman parts. I also used it a lot with 72.5 gr Imr-4350 and weighing every charge .You do cut powder grains but if you do the same each time the charges don't vary I find .The trick is to do everthing the same each time-a skill that needs much pratice. While I do not use scales at the range the results prove that there was no difference in accuracy loading at a match or the range.
The Culver conversion is like the Co-Ax press, Siebert Leupold 32X scope and Berger 6mm 65 gr bullets -they work so well I see no need to change any thing .

I thought the results the night I did the test were so good that I checked the scales about 4 times while doing it.My thought was that I was not testing the measure -it was testing my technique. I used a candle to check for drafts-dead calm.
Some where in the older Precision Shooting magazines is a picture of Homer Culver touching up the leade in his barrel between matches with special tooling that he made for this. That impressed me then and still does!
Then there was a calibrated seating die that noboby could figure how he made it in another issue.

Glenn

 

[StephenPerry]

Glenn
You are an occupational hazard to the shooting industry. You are happy with your equipment. If the industry had more people like you there would be less companies. The other side of the equation Culver didn't make enough measures for all of us. I have mine and a Jones of similar design and I'm not selling.
That kind of performance in your measure can only be matched not beaten. Glen if you want to stay with a balance beam look at a RCBS 1010. If you want digital look at Post on the Competition Edge Dynamic.
My motto is let the other guy do the looking I'd rather be shooting. Where do you shoot mostly.
Stephen Perry