Lee / Red Dot question

[noelephant]

Hi Everyone,

I'm brand new to the wonderful world of reloading and I have a question:

The paper that came with my Lee Pro 1000 said that autodisk slot 43 should dispense 3 grains of Alliant Red Dot. (It may have been 3.1 grains I don't recall exactly.) It also said that it could vary and you need to double check.

I tested the press with the Alliant Red dot using slot 43 and according to my scale it weighed 2.7 grains. I tried slot 45 and it weighed 3.0 grains.

Is this discrepancy something to be concerned about? Should I call lee and ask them about it? Could Alliant have changed their Red Dot powder?

Thanks.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

I had previously reported this issue with the LEE.
I had contacted John Lee, and his response was that they are right, and everyone else is wrong. HUH? The impression that I got was that the Lee Pro 1000 is about the bottom of their profit margin (retailing for $140.), and that caveat emptor ( for those in East Boston, it means "Buyer beware")should prevail.

Here's what is important, noelephant...........
Make sure you put the right WEIGHT in the case.
I'll repeat that for the sake of clarity: Don't go by volume, go by weight.

So, choose whatever WEIGHT of Red Dot you need, and select a disk hole that gives you a weighed result that matches.

NEVER EVER just PRESUME that any Lee chart is accurate.

BTW, I bumped into this when their chart gave me a COMPRESSED LOAD result when none was expected. The weight was off, and the volume was off. Lee didn't care, and wasn't going to reprint all the charts.

 

[Jamie]

Everything stated above by Duke, and make sure you check your information against at least 2 other sources. I prefer to err on the side of caution and own 6 currentreloading books, plus I check loads at the powder manufacturer, the bullet manufacturer, and a few other online resources as well.

 

[Mike_Diako]

i found the disks are "optomistic" to say the least

 

[Bugs100]

I really like Red Dot for 38's and 357 cast loads. Luckily Red Dot always pours consistently through my Hornady powder measure. I agree with every one else that it's, Lee that's off.

Red Dot like every powder has a range that you have to stay in. But that's not supposed to be used as a safety factor.

I would use what ever gave the accurate load consistently and just keep checking it as you go along.


158gr LSWC 3.1 gr Red Dot 835 fps 1.42" Fed 100 Alliant
Suggested starting load: 2.8 gr Pressure: 15,800

148gr. LWC 2.3 gr Red Dot 730 fps 1.18" Fed 100 Alliant
Suggested starting load: 2.1 gr Pressure: 14,800

148gr. LWC 2.5 gr Red Dot 750 fps 1.18" Fed 100 Alliant
Suggested starting load: 2.3 gr

 

[DukeInFlorida]

Oh, and as was posted somewhere by someone else.....

Here's the best way to check the accuracy of the loads:

Dump ten individual loads, and test each. If you think you are getting accurate loads, proceed to the next step. If not, then adjust until you get something that you think is accurate, from one to another for ten loads.

If you think you are getting accurate from one to another, then dump ten loads onto the scale (the sum of ten loads) and weigh that. It should equal 10X the individual weight you were shooting for.

Keep in mind that if you are using a FIXED volume system, like the Lee powder measure disks, what you get is what you get.

If you're using a powder measure system with a micrometer type adjustment, then adjust until you get the ten dump totals equal to 10X the individual.

Hope you can follow that.

What this does is confirm to an accuracy of 1/10th the target load. For plinking, that's pretty good.

 

[swampy]

Verify the accuracy of your scale also. There are a lot of cheap cheap cheap electronic scales of questionable quality out there. Beam scales need to be checked and calibrated every time the scale is moved. Dirt and dust on a beam scale can effect accuracy.

Some powders and powder measure combinations will throw a different weight charge depending on how full the powder hopper is and how many bumps and shakes the powder measure gets between throws etc.

The Lee Autodisk powder measure might throw the labeled weight for your powder when it is on a 4 station turret press making 4 bump and run movements around the turret for each shell while it gets called on to throw a charge for each bump on a Pro1000 or Loadmaster. The powder isn't packing down as much on the progressive presses because it isn't getting bumped as much. Lee is probably right with their measurement in general for use on one of their presses but when dealing with 1/10ths of a grain there are going to be variables and variations. If you are loading quantities for target shooting then slight variations shouldn't be much of a problem. If you are loading for absolute precision shooting or going for maximum velocity/pressures then you'll want a more sophisticated powder measuring system.