Repeatability with Lee dippers

[Webleyke]

If you read certain comments on the internet, it looks like committing suicide if you would take the risk to scoop powder with the Lee dippers. I am not the kind of person who believes everything he is told (the understatement of the century according to my wife). So I decided to run a test.

The powder which is the most difficult to measure and that is readily available over here in Belgium is VECTAN BA10. It has very long, irregular shaped grains mixed with short ones and some small flakes. So I decided to use this powder. According to the load- table, the 0.5 cc dipper throws 3.7 grains, however in reality it is only 3.6 grains with this batch of powder. This is a very good .38 special standard load with a 158 grains bullet.

For the test, I used my Lyman 500 scale, which I checked with a weight set before and after the test. I am not a big fan of digital scales (or other digital measuring equipment, but that is another story).

After 25 times, I still didn't found a measurable deviation, so everything was within 0.1 grains. So I had to change strategy. I threw 10 scoops every time and weighed these. Logicaly, this should be 36 grains. I repeated this 25 times. Everything stayed between 35.8 and 36.3 grains. Divided by 10, this means that I had an average of +0.03 grains/-0.02 grains.

You have to use the dippers correctly to obtain this result. I pour the powder in a Hodgdon container that is cut in half. I push in the dipper bottom first and let the powder overflow the edge. I lift the dipper straight up and tap it once. Of course one must use common sense. If you tap to hard and you drop to much powder you start over again etc....

Out of curiosity, I ran the same test with a Lee perfect powder measure, a Lee auto disk, a Lyman 55 and a RCBS little dandy. The Lyman was the most accurate, the auto disk the least, but everything stayed within 0.1 grains all the time.

Of course, this still leaves a whole lot of questions. What would be the results with rifle loads (and a bigger dipper)? How will ball powder or flakes do etc, etc..... The only conclusions are that I will not die because of the Lee dippers and that I am right not to believe the internet "experts".

[Fyodor]

Thanks for that first hand test results. They pretty much confirm my experience. I use TraiBoss powder which needs two .5cc scoops for a .38spl. That would be, according to the tables, 4.6 grain. With my batch that's actually true to the tenth of a grain. Even with the doubled error because I need to throw twice.

[akuser47]

Good info thanks for sharing