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Posted: 12/10/2011 6:56:46 PM EDT
| ok so i have been relaoding for aprroximately 2 months. i have used this forum among others extensively for information. anyways heres my situation/question. im using the lee perfect powder measure and unique powder. i am loading 225 gr. cast lead bullets in 45 acp. when im throwing charges they are ranging from about 5.2 to 5.8 grains. the charge weight im shooting for is 5.5 grains. my question is how critical is it to get exactly 5.5 gr? how much leeway is there up and down? the reason im asking is because i see people throwing charges directly into the cases whereas im weighing every charge. is this nessisary or am i just paranoid? if i need to make my powder measure more accurate how can i accomplich this? sorry for all the questions but again i am new to this. all help is appreciated. |
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Quoted:
ok so i have been relaoding for aprroximately 2 months. i have used this forum among others extensively for information. anyways heres my situation/question. im using the lee perfect powder measure and unique powder. i am loading 225 gr. cast lead bullets in 45 acp. when im throwing charges they are ranging from about 5.2 to 5.8 grains. the charge weight im shooting for is 5.5 grains. my question is how critical is it to get exactly 5.5 gr? how much leeway is there up and down? the reason im asking is because i see people throwing charges directly into the cases whereas im weighing every charge. is this nessisary or am i just paranoid? if i need to make my powder measure more accurate how can i accomplich this? sorry for all the questions but again i am new to this. all help is appreciated. First thing I did way to separate your post out so I could read it. A wall of text is hard to read, and you won't get many answers. (double spacing between sentences is good) First what is you reloading data's "start" load? (lowest charge weight given, don't go below this level) That will answer the low end. What is the max load given? That's for the upper end. (teaching you how to read your loading data here) So I'm looking at Lyman 49 page 382. With a 225 gr cast bullet in 45 ACP using Unique, 5.5 grs is the start load, 7.3 grs is the max load. 5.2 grs is below the "start" load and should not be used. (could stick a bullet in the barrel if you go below the "start" load) 5.7 grs is ok. The problem is that's way too much of a spread and you were correct to ask about that. I would be happy with .1 gr + or -. You need to do some troubleshooting. Sorry I don't know the tricks with Lee powder measures, but others do and I'm sure they will help. With a powder measure that throws accurate charges, I charge the cases directly and check every 50 throws. How often you check is up to you and how much you trust your equipment. One thing that will give problems to any PM is static electricity. Rub PM with a dryer sheet, may have to do that several times. If powder is sticking to the inside of the powder hopper, that's static electricity. Don't worry about asking questions, we are here to help. |
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thanks dryflash that was very helpful. ill definately have to try the dryer sheet trick. ill get a run of consistent 5.5 gr to 5.6 gr for 3 or 4 throws and then ill get some 5.2
to 5.3 so ill trickle up to 5.5. it just gets old measuring every charge. it takes long enough on a single stage press. i am getting powder sticking to the inside of the hopper so i suspect this has a lot to do with it. also thanks the the advice on double spacing. i definately see how that helps with reading. |
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Unique is usually meters very consistently through powder measures. I used it for decades before switching to WST. My loads are always withing 1/10 gr. In a pistol you want the powder to measure within .1gr to .2gr + or -. A rifle load can have a little more variation but that is a large percentage of a pistol load's powder charge. If you are loading near a max load a larger variation can cause an overcharge. This article is about a Dillon measure but it can be used on other measures. It might help you. Jim |
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I had a Lee powder measure a few years ago. For an inexpensive measure it was very accurate, sometimes. Accurate with some powders, not so accurate with others. Unique was one of those powders I had trouble with.
I know longer use Unique in my 45's, it was very dirty when loaded to low end loads. IMO, Unique runs best with upper end loads. I load my target/plinking ammo with WST and my SDpower loads with Silhouette. Both meter very well. |
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I've had inconsistent results from throwing charges of Unique, just about the same as described here the first time I loaded with it. My measure has to be absolutely static free for success, and when it is, Unique throws pretty well.
Maintaining reasonably constant height of powder in the measure is important, too. |
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Quoted:
thanks dryflash that was very helpful. ill definately have to try the dryer sheet trick. ill get a run of consistent 5.5 gr to 5.6 gr for 3 or 4 throws and then ill get some 5.2 to 5.3 so ill trickle up to 5.5. it just gets old measuring every charge. it takes long enough on a single stage press. i am getting powder sticking to the inside of the hopper so i suspect this has a lot to do with it. also thanks the the advice on double spacing. i definately see how that helps with reading. From past threads I vaguely remember people saying that the PM instructions recommend running a pound of powder through the measure to coat it with graphite from the powder. Check your instructions. Also go to utube and search Lee PM's. I understand there are a lot of video's on the subject. Glad to help. |
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Did you clean it first?
All Lee stuff comes with a protective oil coating. Clean with alcohol first. Dryer sheet for static or use a antistatic spray. If you are using this on a press, lapping the plastic cones will smoothen up the rotation, and stop any leaking of powder. Use a plastic or paint polish. |
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thanks everyone for the advice. the more i use it the more accurate it seems to be getting. so im going to try to get rid of the static and run a bunch of powder
through to see how much that helps. also ill try keeping my powder at the aprroximately same level in the hopper. i checked youtube and found a bunch of videos with people saying what a pos this thing was so i sorta got discouraged. but then i checked around and a bunch of websites were sold out of the lee powder measure so i wondered if they are so crappy why are poeple buying them. even considering the cost. again i appreiciate the honest help from you guys especially since other sections of this forum people think a helpful response is " product x is a piece of sh** and you never should have bought it" well i did buy it so again thanks for the real help. and im not saying that there aint better out there than the lee but its what i got for the moment so i need to make it work. |
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Quoted:
thanks everyone for the advice. the more i use it the more accurate it seems to be getting. so im going to try to get rid of the static and run a bunch of powder through to see how much that helps. also ill try keeping my powder at the aprroximately same level in the hopper. i checked youtube and found a bunch of videos with people saying what a pos this thing was so i sorta got discouraged. but then i checked around and a bunch of websites were sold out of the lee powder measure so i wondered if they are so crappy why are poeple buying them. even considering the cost. again i appreiciate the honest help from you guys especially since other sections of this forum people think a helpful response is " product x is a piece of sh** and you never should have bought it" well i did buy it so again thanks for the real help. and im not saying that there aint better out there than the lee but its what i got for the moment so i need to make it work. Sir, the responses you've received so far are accurate as regards how to improve the consistancy of out put from your PM. Like some others I've no first hand experience with most of the Lee products but I'll address one of your comments. Judging from what I've read over the years on this and other forums people continue to buy the Lee products because they're cheaper than equivalent products from other makers. Most reloaders that stay at it for long soon realize there must be something better and once you reach that point you start looking at the better products. The consistancy of many powder measures can be improved by use of a baffle in the feed hopper. There's a thread at the top of this forum that describes how to make one and you should be able to adapt the concept to your PM. It will keep you from having to refill the hopper as often as without one. A consistant weight of powder in the hopper is the goal. One final comment as regards how much variation of charge weight is acceptable. The standard rule of thumb in this regard is plus or minus one tenth grain of powder. The truth really depends on what type of powder you're using; ie faster powders are less tolerant of larger weight fluctuations and slower burning powders powders are more tolerant. I've used Unique for many years in my .357 mag. loads and while I don't have the charge weight variation you are experiencing I will say that Unique like most pistol powders is quite fast and charge weight variations of one or two grains can easily exceed max charge weight which would represent a hazardous situation to yourself and potentially others near you. In .45 ACP such variations can easily cause weapon malfunctions which in my experience become quite tedious very quickly. Having to clear various forms of jams in a .45 ACP pistol can be annoying. HTH, 7zerp1. |
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On my Lee 1000 I dry lube the powder measure with graphite from a pencil. It stops any static cling. Just take a regular #2 pencil and draw all over the areas the powder slides thru the best you can. I haven't tried a dryer sheet since the pencil works for me so I can't comment on that.
As mentioned clean it really well with alchocal first, then scribble all over it like a little kid 
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When I used mine, I wiped it down with a dryer sheet and it worked well keeping charges more consistent. the powder was sticking everywhere.
You might also want to tighten it up a bit if a bunch is leaking out. Don't tighten it up too much or it will be hard to rotate. |
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Quoted:
On my Lee 1000 I dry lube the powder measure with graphite from a pencil. It stops any static cling. Just take a regular #2 pencil and draw all over the areas the powder slides thru the best you can. I haven't tried a dryer sheet since the pencil works for me so I can't comment on that. As mentioned clean it really well with alchocal first, then scribble all over it like a little kid i can see how this would help a bunch. i assume i need to disassemble it and do this to the rotor and so forth. i dont believe i am getting leakage since it typically throws under what i want not over. i have also tried tapping it when i throw charges and this helps a bit but then ill still get a run of inconsistent charges. but as i said the more i use it the better its getting. i assume this has a alot to do with the insides getting coated with graphite. i do plan on getting something better but at the time money does not permit this. |
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