Lee Powder Measures
- Thread starter Goodwin81
- Start date
I have had the older model with the red hopper, as well as the newer model with the clear plastic bottle type hopper.
The older one had some issues running ball powder, though tightening the drum screw helped. Haven't tried ball in the new one yet. They are nearly fully plastic and look and feel cheap.
That being said, they perform very well IMO. The new one has a hopper lid that not only has a valve shut off, but fits 1 lb bottle mouths. Well though out, ugly reasonably priced, and functional. Like riding a moped or schtupping a whale. Great till your friends find out.
The older one had some issues running ball powder, though tightening the drum screw helped. Haven't tried ball in the new one yet. They are nearly fully plastic and look and feel cheap.
That being said, they perform very well IMO. The new one has a hopper lid that not only has a valve shut off, but fits 1 lb bottle mouths. Well though out, ugly reasonably priced, and functional. Like riding a moped or schtupping a whale. Great till your friends find out.
I’ve run a couple of them on my loadmaster press and I was getting pretty inconsistent results with them
If your just loading up blasting/ plinking rounds they are ok you just have to watch them as I’ve experienced a severe undercharge then followed by an overcharge which spills power out the top of the case
It didn’t happen very often but it was fairly easy to catch once you got the load that spilled over
Was always the previous round that was under charged
Never did figure out why it would do it, was like the powder was getting stuck in the measurer somewhere
If your looking for accurate powder measuring I don’t think these are consistent enough and would stick to measuring with a scale
If your just loading up blasting/ plinking rounds they are ok you just have to watch them as I’ve experienced a severe undercharge then followed by an overcharge which spills power out the top of the case
It didn’t happen very often but it was fairly easy to catch once you got the load that spilled over
Was always the previous round that was under charged
Never did figure out why it would do it, was like the powder was getting stuck in the measurer somewhere
If your looking for accurate powder measuring I don’t think these are consistent enough and would stick to measuring with a scale
Big kernels of powder bridging in a narrow channel. My Hornady does the same thing with the small nozzle and long kernels. No such issue with the larger nozzle.
I haven't used the Deluxe but the original needed to be lapped. The plastic halves were not formed properly having high and low spots. Ball powder would jam it up solid within a few throws. Lapping the surfaces flat fixed that. Running powder through it lubricates it with graphite from the powder, but a shot of graphite spray or a dusting of case neck graphite powder fixes that. Afterwards it does quite well with ball powders, H335 was the best in mine. No more than .1gr high/low which was more than good enough for cheap 55gr fmj's in 556 brass.
I have a few different types(Frankfort,Lee, RCBS,#55) but the Lee seems to be the only one that doesn't crunch stick powders.(Varget , 4895, etc.)
It seems fairly consistent,but I weigh all my charges and drop a little low, and trickle up.
It seems fairly consistent,but I weigh all my charges and drop a little low, and trickle up.
Same here, tried the big cast iron models of other manufacturers, and none were as consistent. They will hold more power but you will still be adjusting up/down per drop.
With the cheap Lee plastic unit, I get much less variation.
Kernel Panic
Regular
A bit of moly spray on the wiper will eliminate the need to run a bunch of powder through for lubrication. Smoother operation as well. I get around 1/10 grain accuracy from the red unit, which is close enough for many people.
I just got the Auto Drum about a month ago after running a pound of powder to “break in” as per Lee advise, its more consistent than my other PMs ( Vhitavouri N140, N150, Varget and H4895) and also when getting samples to weigh, run the press like you are reloading, in my case its Dillon 550 when getting your samples, again advise from Lee . I usually go to 5-7 drops before it settle down , this is when changing powder type and Charge or after emptying the hopper, btw replaced the the Lee hopper ( transparent) to Dramworx Pyrex hopper, its has lid on top and can take a pound of powder.
It runs fine for ball powder for me. Stays reasonably consistent. Like all volumetric measures, keep your stroke and tap consistent so that the powder settles consistently in the measuring tube each time. If I'm running stick powder or doing a load I care about consistency on, I set it a couple points under my charge and trickle the rest on the scale with a powder scoop. It greatly speeds up the measuring process.
I have a couple of Loadmasters and found that if I was throwing charges of bulk flake powder like Red Dot or Promo that once I got down to about three grains or less I got the odd squib charge caused by powder bridging. This did not happen with granular powders like 231 or Bullseye. Once I got above 3 grains the flake powders worked OK. I Just think that for very light charges the flake granules are too big and the powder cavities are too small to get consistent charge weights. Other than that the Lee throwers have worked fine.
