Good evening fellow gunners
I am about to start my journey of reloading and have acquired the following pieces of equipment thus far:
Lee challenger press
Lee Carbide dies
Lee beam scale
Lee auto prime
In order for me to get started and eliminate any form of human error I want to get a Lee Auto drum
I am keen to get your thoughts in terms of acquiring a powder measure, what should I be looking for and what's the pro's and cons of getting the auto drum or ay other powder measure(please suggest a decently priced option)
What are you reloading for ?
Quote from: 414gates on May 24, 2022, 09:16 PMWhat are you reloading for ?
Sorry for not mentioning its 9mm
I am very happy to use every other Lee product, the Lee Powder measures being the exception, only Lee offering I do not like. That said I can not list a fault with proof, so I guess it's just opinion, and that I reload for rifles needing more precise measurements. Works well for me on the larger handguns .44 and 357.
If you reloading for handguns, the Lee will serve you very well, more than accurate enough, especially in regard to ease of use.
I must add my Lee Powder Measures are all 10, 15 years old ;D - perhaps I would like the latest model more.
Can not beat Lee in regard to what you pay and what you get.
Put the Lee Bench Primer on your next "to get list" really a great tool to me, I have a few other makes and the Lee Bench Primer is my first choice.
If you look on the site you will find Duane Wessel - 480 BC, he is the LEE Man in South Africa, if you need to fix, "how too" or any Lee need, he can and will give you personal attention and advice + supply the parts.
Quote from: Treeman on May 24, 2022, 09:40 PMI am very happy to use every other Lee product, the Lee Powder measures being the exception, only Lee offering I do not like. That said I can not list a fault with proof, so I guess it's just opinion, and that I reload for rifles needing more precise measurements. Works well for me on the larger handguns .44 and 357.
If you reloading for handguns, the Lee will serve you very well, more than accurate enough, especially in regard to ease of use.
I must add my Lee Powder Measures are all 10, 15 years old ;D - perhaps I would like the latest model more.
Can not beat Lee in regard to what you pay and what you get.
Put the Lee Bench Primer on your next "to get list" really a great tool to me, I have a few other makes and the Lee Bench Primer is my first choice.
If you look on the site you will find Duane Wessel - 480 BC, he is the LEE Man in South Africa, if you need to fix, "how too" or any Lee need, he can and will give you personal attention and advice + supply the parts.
Thank you very much for the advise and insight, strangely enough spoke to Duane yesterday about making a purchase, but am still undecided. As much as Lee will serve me good, what will be the differentiating factor between say the Lee Auto drum and the Rcbs uniflow or one of the Lyman options on the market
https://youtu.be/ojTC6gyNH_A
As much as Lee will serve me good, what will be the differentiating factor between say the Lee Auto drum and the Rcbs uniflow or one of the Lyman options on the market
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Considerably more cost for not as much gain, I guess there will be those that shoot handguns on a different level and may need that last 5 % betterment, but in my limited experience opinion, you and I will do just fine with a Lee Measure for handguns.
I may just learn something here now, perhaps there are different findings in regard to use for rifles.
I have found that Lee really makes affordable reloading equipment that have very few and if any faults.
Quote... what will be the differentiating factor between say the Lee Auto drum and the Rcbs uniflow or one of the Lyman options on the market
For pistol, no difference.
All powder measures work exactly the same - they contain a cavity that fills with powder, which gets dispensed.
The difference between measures is the amount of powder they can dispense, and the mechanism they employ to dispense.
Some are case activated, others are manual.
Going back to your question, there are pistol powder measures and rifle powder measures.
The Lyman measure is a rifle measure, It is very difficult to adjust it down for pistol powder volumes, and make incremental changes.
The RCBS uniflow is one I've never owned, just make sure the rotor is for pistol, not rifle.
The old Lee auto disk is all you need for pistol reloading. Get an adjustable charge bar for it, and it's as good as anything on the market, with the added benefit of it being case activated.
Either that, or the newer model.
If you want to spend more money on it, the Hornady powder measure with pistol rotor and case activated linkage is excellent.
Buy the Auto Drum.
Been using one for 9mmp since they came out. Very consistent, easy to set up.
Lee has been only selling them with the Pro4000 and the new Pro6000 will only come with the Auto Drum. Should tell you something.
Thanks very much, considering that for a while I will only being doing pistol loads I am almost convinced the Lee will be great, will it be just as good to load. 357 Mangum and. 22LR loads also?
357 Magnum won't be a problem...22LR?
Quote from: DuaneWessels on May 25, 2022, 12:54 PM357 Magnum won't be a problem...22LR?
That 22 LR may present some challenges.
Do you think that. 22 charges are too small to be thrown successfully?
Quote from: ARK on May 25, 2022, 09:25 PMDo you think that. 22 charges are too small to be thrown successfully?
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The .22 is a rimfire cartridge, as it has no removable primer. Reloadable cases are known as center fire cases and the have a primer that can be punched out and replaced for reloading. We play with these center fire cases in our hobby and sport.
The rimfire case has a hollow belt around the rim or shoulder inside the case. A wet priming agent is put in the case and the case is spun at a high rpm to throw the priming agent out and into the hollow in the rim where it dries. The rim is crushed when the off center firing pin or hammer hits it. Bang.
The process is neither simple or cheap and involve complexities on another level above DIY.
The bullet seating process is also another whole different story.
We as reloaders only entertain ourselves with the centrefire aspects of reloading.
Oh wow! Thank you so much for that certainly a great learning and want to express my gratitude for this forum, I have learnt more here from you guys in a few posts than I have from reading loads of websites and watching videos, nothing can discount good old experience
Quote from: ARK on May 25, 2022, 09:25 PMDo you think that. 22 charges are too small to be thrown successfully?
You can't reload that, but the smallest caliber I reloaded was a 25 ACP, and it took one grain of MP200. The only powder measure I had that could drop that small amount reliably was a very old manually operated Dillon. You can also get a micro disk set from Lee to do the same job using the auto-disk measure.
I am shooting 1.4 gr MP 200. 90 gr bullet The 25ACP or 6.35 is a tiny little thing to load.
The 6.35 ammo always intrigued me, I love those little guns but the rounds are just as pricey as 9mm rounds and the inlybway I will buy one is if I reload it myself
you can honestly get a B/Browning - dies and some ammo for 2 K on a regular basis.
The RCBS Uniflow is a great tool.
Mine is 40 years old and runs very good.
I didn't know about the different drums until this morning, which means I have been reloading handgun charges (mostly MP200 and MS200) for the last 31 years with a rifle drum.
Even so, it throws consistently enough that I only check the charges every 50 rounds. General variation is less than 0.2gr in total; mostly the charges vary less than 0.05gr.
For practice, plinking and sport shooting (38Spl, 357, 9mmP and 223) I throw directly from the Uniflow into the case.
I do not know how it compares to other brands because it is all I have.
Quote from: Ds J on Jun 04, 2022, 10:51 AMThe RCBS Uniflow is a great tool.
Mine is 40 years old and runs very good.
I didn't know about the different drums until this morning, which means I have been reloading handgun charges (mostly MP200 and MS200) for the last 31 years with a rifle drum.
Even so, it throws consistently enough that I only check the charges every 50 rounds. General variation is less than 0.2gr in total; mostly the charges vary less than 0.05gr.
For practice, plinking and sport shooting (38Spl, 357, 9mmP and 223) I throw directly from the Uniflow into the case.
I do not know how it compares to other brands because it is all I have.
That is pretty much my experience using the Lee Perfect Powder measure and the Lyman one that is decades old.
As much as I dislike the Lee measure, it is not because it throws badly, it just feels flimsy
I have a Lee Perfect and an ancient Lyman cast iron drum measure. If anything I think the lee may be just a tad more consistent but the Lyman feels like I could use it in self defence in necessary. To get the Lee to stay put on the bench I mounted it to a piece of 10mm plate as it used to feel like it would float off.
Some Lee stuff feels flimsy but i have never had a failure. Even my Load-All which looks and feels like it wants to come apart if you stare at it hard just refuses to.
So I loaded my first 30 rounds yesterday using the Lee auto drum and I must say it was a breeze to use, can comment in consistency as I only pressed 30 to set my dies
Well done Ark, your journey has begun.
Quote from: ARK on Jun 05, 2022, 04:36 PMSo I loaded my first 30 rounds yesterday using the Lee auto drum and I must say it was a breeze to use, can comment in consistency as I only pressed 30 to set my dies
Welcome! This is a very deep rabbit hole with lots of side tunnels.
Lol I figured, run into some issues already but it's so exciting trying to figure it out and get better. A really great hobby
Quote from: Treeman on Jun 05, 2022, 09:35 PMWell done Ark, your journey has begun.
thank you can't wait to see where it leads to
Quote from: ARK on Jun 06, 2022, 08:36 PMLol I figured, run into some issues already but it's so exciting trying to figure it out and get better. A really great hobby
Absolutely, I enjoy casting and reloading for my guns almost as much as I enjoy shooting them. Have endless hours of pottering about time in the workshop figuring stuff out while listening to audio books. Apart from the savings that you can achieve it's rewarding to develop loads that perform at least as well as, and sometimes better than, factory stuff.