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Boogsawaste

Boogsawaste

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Just curious as to what you guys would do if you were in my shoes. With the cold weather coming in I'm doing less shooting and playing with the press more.

Right now I load on a lee classic turret. No problems with it and I can churn out more rounds per hour than I actually need. Problem is I have the regular auto disc on it and I'm just tired of it leaking fine powders. I am also getting inconsistent drops with larger flake powders like unique or herco. If I'm dropping 4.5gn unique it will be fine for a bunch and then throw less than half that weight for a throw or 2! I'm guessing it's bridging in there. I use a powder cop so I catch the offending rounds before they're completed.

On the other hand I have a uniflow mounted to the bench and it throws pretty consistently but since it's on the bench I only use if for batch loading, which I rarely do. So basically it's been sitting. I also only have the large cylinder on it so it cuts pretty bad with lower charges.

Here's what I've been juggling: Upgrade my auto disc to the pro or just buy the pro. This will supposedly help with the leakage and make changing discs easier. Or even using the adjustable charge bar might be an upgrade (heard mixed reviews). I'm not sure if this will help with flake powders though. I haven't seen one in person, but maybe it doesn't have that little "bridge" that covers the hole in the disc like mine? I was thinking that's the issue with it anyway. Or option 2 is to buy the hornady linkage, expander, and small cylinder for my uniflow and run that on the press. I just hate to spend the extra $$ and not really be better off than what I have now.

Price difference is about $30 for the pro upgrade, $45 for the auto disc pro, and $100 for the uniflow upgrades. The latter 2 I'd probably sell the old auto disc as it works good, just annoying with those seemingly known issues.

And if I upgrade my auto disc I could put the extra $$ I would have towards another gun :D I don't know...opinions?
 
I can think of a few other options I would go with. But of the three you listed I would modify the third option and put the Hornady drop on the press and manually drop the powder. I have had 2 of those powder measures over the years and think they are pretty good! I got a Dillon 450 bake in the mid 80's and the powder measure was a manual push bar set up, and I loaded 40 or 50 thousand rounds with it until I bought a case mouth actuated drop. I still have it and use it on a single stage press for medium sized batches of ammo (2 or 3 hundred)

This option should only cost you a few dollars to get a bushing to convert to 7/8-14 thread. and then sell the Lee to keep from using it in a moment of weakness. Ivan
 
Sorry, my powder measure is an RCBS uniflo. I was going to use the hornady linkage instead of the rcbs since it's about $20 cheaper. However your option was a consideration. I'd still want the small cylinder but it would be like $50 for it all. Hmmm
 
I have the classic turret press with the auto disk pro. I don't have any problem with throwing consistent charges of Unique. There is a wee bit of leakage with fine powders like Win 296. I loaded 50 rounds of 357 just a bit ago using Win296 and there was maybe a grains worth that leaked.
 
Buy the complete PRO powder measure. It works very well. Upgrading is a waste as the upgrade does NOT include the teflon coating which is what makes the big difference between the two.

It costs a whole $40 or so.;)

The upgrade is around $20.
 
Thanks Rule13, makes sense over upgrading the regular auto disk. More food for thought!
 
Search E-BAy. There is a guy selling adapters that allow mounting the RCBS Uniflow onto the Lee powder through dies. I have one and it works great. Also has one available for the Lee Perfect Powder measure to mount to their powder through dies. I also have this one and it works great too.
 
I remember seeing those at one time. I might pick one up along with a pro model auto disc. I could just swap powder measures if I'm having trouble with one not metering well for a certain charge. For instance, I could use the lee for bullseye target loads because it meters small drops perfectly, and use the uniflow for larger herco and unique loads since it seems to meter those pretty good with the large cylinder I have for it. Think I figured it out. Thanks for your opinions fellas.
 
Not the infer you're looking for but I load on a Lee Classic 4 hole turret. I have a Lee Perfect Powder Measure that works very well and drops consistent charges. I mount it directly on the Lee powder thru die as mentioned above. I'm not in to "automatic" things - just me. I recap with a universal Lee decayer on a RCBS Jr3 and hand prime with the Lee ergo hand primer. Then the brass goes to the press. I have removed the decamping pin from my Lee sizing die. I size, advance, expand and hit the Lee Perfect Powder Measure to drop a charge, advance, seat, advance and crimp in the Lee FCD.

It's plenty fast enough as far as production for me and you sound a lot like my shooting - I probably can reload more than I shoot. I do get a little powder on the press once in a while but it easily cleans off. I bought the adapter for the measure to the powder thru die on eBay - around $14 or so and I feel it's well worth the money - it works great and I can easily change the measure to my other Lee sets when I change calibers.
 
I actually have the ppm and from what I remember it was about as accurate as my rcbs. Not sure why I stopped using it but it's just sitting in its box. Wasn't a bad little measure for like $20 from what I remember.
 
I have a RCBS Competition, which is a Uniflow kitted out with the micrometer adjuster and powder baffle with BOTH drum sizes. I've also actually taken the time to do a 50 piece Capability Study using Unique and Longshot. The Standard Deviation was 0.18 grains and this means that 93 out of 100 throws will be within +/- 0.10 grain of the target. It also means that 7 out of 100 throws will EXCEED that variation and the extreme variation is 0.54 grains. Granted only about 1 in 200 throws will be one of those 1/2 grain "flyers" but for me 1 in 200 is 1 too many. Because of this I regard Unique as a fall back when I run out of any other choice and when I am loading with Longshot every single charge goes over a scale to confirm/tweak the charge. Unfortunately I have yet to find any powder that meters well that can provide the performance that Longshot can yield in the 40 S&W.

So, what is the point of this post.

1) You really need to use Statistics to determine the capability of any powder measure you choose to use. Because a simple 10 round test run can produce deceiving results. Note that according to Statistics my tests indicated that 93 out of 100 would be within 0.10 grain.

2) Unique, and Longshot, meter like Dog Poop. It doesn't matter what powder measure you try, if you do a Statistical Study you will find that volume based measures will allow variations in excess of 1/2 grain. IMO the only options with these two powders is to weigh every single charge thrown, either by hand or by using one of those expensive automated digital trickler systems.

3) I would advise you find an alternate to Unique. Personally I've found that Accurate #5 is an excellent alternate to Unique in most calibers and it meters wonderfully. However, Accurate # 5 is one of those powders that will leak from a Leaky Lee powder measure, which is the exact powder that drove me to purchase my dual drum Uniflow Competition. Other powders that meter wonderfully are any of the Accurate Handgun powders (2, 5, 7, & 9), Vihtavouri 3N37, Hodgdon CFE Pistol, IMR SR 7625, Hodgdon H110 and likely many others I have yet to try. BTW, all of the above powders feature a Standard Deviation of 0.05 grain or less out of my Uniflow Competition.
 
Scooter123, thanks for your info. I'd like to find an alternative but as you're aware, kind of taking whatever components I can get at the moment. There's a show coming up in December, hoping can find something, even if it's priced a little higher than if I found it on a shelf.

When I was batch loading with the rcbs I was weighing every single round of unique and herco. I was mostly getting about .2 swing both ways. Not the most consistent but live able since I was loading middle of the load table plinking rounds. I have been having great success with good old dippers and trickling them up for loads near max. It's not the fastest but it works with the system I've been using.

As far as loading on my turret I've been able to catch loads that are off with my powder cop. As long as I've been consistent with how I pull the handle the powder isn't settling in the shell and I've been consistently catching .1 difference. I've hand weighed charges .2 over what I have the cop set at and shaken them, tapped them down, etc and I can still see a difference on the powder cop. So any that look over/under get thrown on the scale to verify.
 
Boogsawaste said:
Thanks Rule13, makes sense over upgrading the regular auto disk. More food for thought!
Click to expand...
The upgrade is not as good as the real Pro Auto-Disk. IMO it's well worth buying one new. Besides, you can probably get $15 for your old standard Auto-Disk to help offset the cost.
 
scooter123 said:
Granted only about 1 in 200 throws will be one of those 1/2 grain "flyers" but for me 1 in 200 is 1 too many. Because of this I regard Unique as a fall back when I run out of any other choice and when I am loading with Longshot every single charge goes over a scale to confirm/tweak the charge. Unfortunately I have yet to find any powder that meters well that can provide the performance that Longshot can yield in the 40 S&W.

So, what is the point of this post.

2) Unique, and Longshot, meter like Dog Poop. It doesn't matter what powder measure you try, if you do a Statistical Study you will find that volume based measures will allow variations in excess of 1/2 grain. IMO the only options with these two powders is to weigh every single charge thrown, either by hand or by using one of those expensive automated digital trickler systems.

3) I would advise you find an alternate to Unique. Personally I've found that Accurate #5 is an excellent alternate to Unique in most calibers and it meters wonderfully. However, Accurate # 5 is one of those powders that will leak from a Leaky Lee powder measure, which is the exact powder that drove me to purchase my dual drum Uniflow Competition. Other powders that meter wonderfully are any of the Accurate Handgun powders (2, 5, 7, & 9), Vihtavouri 3N37, Hodgdon CFE Pistol, IMR SR 7625, Hodgdon H110 and likely many others I have yet to try. BTW, all of the above powders feature a Standard Deviation of 0.05 grain or less out of my Uniflow Competition.
Click to expand...
Accuracy of any powder measure will vary quite a bit with technique & whether the measure I set up properly. I agree, Unique & other sim flake powders are tougher to measure, but get your technique right, 1/10gr accuracy isn't diff. The only powders that I have every approached 1/2gr variations with are some stick powders & the really course flake like 800X. Those get hand weighed. A good alternate to Unique is WSF, almost identical but meters really well.
 
Last edited:
fredj338 said:
Accuracy of any powder measure will vary quite a bit with technique & whether the measure I set up properly. I agree, Unique & other sim flake powders are tougher to measure, but get your technique right, 1/10gr accuracy isn't diff. The only powders that I have every approached 1/2gr variations with are some stick powders & the really course flake like 800X. Those get hand weighed. A good alternate to Unique is WSF, almost identical but meters really well.
Click to expand...

Have to done a 50 piece Capability Study? If you haven't you really cannot claim that holding to 1/10 grain isn't that difficult. I am a very meticulous individual and my studies indicated that 1 in 200 throws with Unique would vary by 1/2 grain, 7 out of 100 would exceed 1/10 grain, and 93 out of 100 would be within 1/10 grain. That is the power of Statistics, it can reveal deviations that you would not see unless you take the time to throw and hand weigh 500 or more charges.
 
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