forward observer
Member
Hi, I just got back into reloading after being away from it for 20 years. I pretty much had to start fresh since my old single stage press and dies were long gone. Consequently, I'm pretty much a noob again.
Anyway, I bought one of the Lee classic 4 hole turret press kits that comes with the auto disk powder measure, a small balance beam scale, and the Lee reloading book. A few days later, I also ordered a Lyman handbook and a digital scale, but was anxious to load a few rounds with what I had.
I started with 38 special, which I intend to shoot in a Uberti clone 1873 lever rifle--mainly for plinking and target. I had picked up some once loaded unprimed brass and 158 grn lead bullets at a gun show. The only applicable powder I could find locally was Unique.
The Lee charts in both the book and on die instruction sheet indicated a 4.1 grain starting charge of Unique for the bullet. It further indicated using the 4.3 cavity on the auto-disk. When I checked the charge on the little balance beam scale, I could never get the beam to hit the mark. It was consistant, but a bit low. This scale is not very user friendly if you know what I mean.
I finally guessed I might be a bit low on the charge, but was hesitant to use a cavity that had a higher charge volume than recommended. I went ahead and reloaded about 25 rounds and then stopped--thinking I'd wait until the Lyman book and the other scale arrived.
They arrived today, so I went to cross check things
It turns out that I was only getting 3.7 grains of powder from that disk setting--as weighed by the digital and cross checked with the balance beam scale.
To get to the min charge of 4.1 grains for Unique, I had to go all the way up to the 4.9 cavity on the Lee auto disk.
If you have taken the time to read all of this, here's my questions
1. Will it be OK to shoot the rounds I've loaded since they are only 0.4 grains under the minimum, which is about 10%
2. Is this a common issue with the Lee auto disk system, e.g., the charts listing the wrong cavities for the auto disk --at least for Unique powder anyway.
Thanks
Anyway, I bought one of the Lee classic 4 hole turret press kits that comes with the auto disk powder measure, a small balance beam scale, and the Lee reloading book. A few days later, I also ordered a Lyman handbook and a digital scale, but was anxious to load a few rounds with what I had.
I started with 38 special, which I intend to shoot in a Uberti clone 1873 lever rifle--mainly for plinking and target. I had picked up some once loaded unprimed brass and 158 grn lead bullets at a gun show. The only applicable powder I could find locally was Unique.
The Lee charts in both the book and on die instruction sheet indicated a 4.1 grain starting charge of Unique for the bullet. It further indicated using the 4.3 cavity on the auto-disk. When I checked the charge on the little balance beam scale, I could never get the beam to hit the mark. It was consistant, but a bit low. This scale is not very user friendly if you know what I mean.
I finally guessed I might be a bit low on the charge, but was hesitant to use a cavity that had a higher charge volume than recommended. I went ahead and reloaded about 25 rounds and then stopped--thinking I'd wait until the Lyman book and the other scale arrived.
They arrived today, so I went to cross check things
It turns out that I was only getting 3.7 grains of powder from that disk setting--as weighed by the digital and cross checked with the balance beam scale.
To get to the min charge of 4.1 grains for Unique, I had to go all the way up to the 4.9 cavity on the Lee auto disk.
If you have taken the time to read all of this, here's my questions
1. Will it be OK to shoot the rounds I've loaded since they are only 0.4 grains under the minimum, which is about 10%
2. Is this a common issue with the Lee auto disk system, e.g., the charts listing the wrong cavities for the auto disk --at least for Unique powder anyway.
Thanks