Over on Wanted to Buy/Sell there is a thread going on that  concerns the old Pacific Pistol Powder Measures and their rotors.  I didn't want to hijack that thread so I decided it would be more appropriate to start one here.  

Under discussion is a design for a small, compact measure made of cast iron with a brass reservoir and interchangeable rotors with fixed cavities.  If this is starting to sound oddly like the RCBS Little Dandy, and the Lyman Accu-measure, just remember, there really IS nothing new under the sun.

As this discussion of the PPM progressed, I went down to the sanctum sanctorum and dug out my "collection" of Pacific and Bair Powder Measures.  I've got 4 of the old black Pacific bodies.  I also have one blue Bair in the box... it's late enough to have the plate that screws to a flat surface then has studs to connect to the measure, but important to our discussion here it has the same operational design and inherited the same rotor set.  

  From what I've been able to discover, the markings on the rotors were only for Bullseye and Unique powders.  Some were just marked with a number, some with a BE, and some with a UN.  I pulled out the MTM 20 ga tray I put my rotors in and this is what I've got; UN, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0; 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 3.5 (the first and third are actually unmarked except for number, the second and fourth are marked BE.)  Then there is a war time (steel) rotor marked 3 with an arrow and a pre-war brass rotor also marked 3 with an arrow.  These last two have a wasp waist section  between the body and the knurled section.

I've missed a couple of auction lots of rotors, "but hope springs eternal..."  Since we are interested in schuetzen techniques, I'm thinking that these little measures might throw volumes that would be appropriate for our use.  A great advantage would be the consistency of the volume of powder dropped... the rotors are fixed.

More on this later, and I'm hoping my friend marlinguy will join in to add his 2¢ as well.

Froggie

Is that an originally blued Merwin & Hulbert Pocket Army I see?

Bill Lawrence

Bill Lawrence wrote on May 2^nd, 2017 at 11:19pm:


Yes Bill, a 3rd Model Army blued. Looks almost unfired internally! It's headed to Denver with me in 2 weeks to sell.

Yes Bill, a 3rd Model Army blued. Looks almost unfired internally! It's headed to Denver with me in 2 weeks to sell. 

Whimper!

Bill Lawrence

Frank, now you're getting up to big and complicated again.  The main attraction (for me, at least) of the PPM is that it is very small and the individual rotors give you a predictable charge drop (once you've checked it with a good scale) so you can use it on the bench with minimal fuss and fixing.  I'm giving some serious thought to making a new arm for my bench stand (holds scope, powder measure and rest for between offhand shots) that will be specific for either the late Bair-type mount or more flexible to use the clamp-on Pacific mount.  If I could get a rotor that would throw a consistent 13.6 gr of 4759 or maybe 14.5 gr of 4227, I could put my Lyman 5 Micrometer on the display shelf and not have to worry about losing or damaging it. 

Froggie