I recently upgraded from a hand press to a Lee Turret press. I love the ease of and speed of reloading with the turret, but have noticed that the auto disc powder measure isn't terribly consistent. For instance, I shot 16 rounds of 45 ACP today through my chrono and had a 199 fps spread. The load was 5.5 grains of Unique behind a 230gr plated bullet. While most of them were in the 700-750FPS range, in the group of 16 I had one dip as low as 615FPS and one jump as high as 814...for a std dev of 52.37! While I know these ranges are all safe, and function the gun reliably, I'd like to figure out how to get a little more consistency. And I'm guessing the powder is the culprit, since all of the samples I picked out were pretty consistently at a 1.255 COL. I manually weigh the powder charge every 10 rounds or so, and it seems to be throwing within .2-.3 grains. I try to be careful to cycle the handle fully for each stroke.
My .357 was a little better, but still all over the place. 15.5 grains of h110 behind a 158 grain plated bullet gave me an average of about 1100FPS. But they chrono'd from 1000 fps to 1140 for a std dev of approx 31.
For comparison, my buddy shot some federal factory 9mm, and the std dev was only 16 ish, and last time I shot factory .45, the std dev was only 12ish with WWB.
Any tips on making the Lee Auto Disc more consistent?
Or is there a better powder measure system?
My .357 was a little better, but still all over the place. 15.5 grains of h110 behind a 158 grain plated bullet gave me an average of about 1100FPS. But they chrono'd from 1000 fps to 1140 for a std dev of approx 31.
For comparison, my buddy shot some federal factory 9mm, and the std dev was only 16 ish, and last time I shot factory .45, the std dev was only 12ish with WWB.
Any tips on making the Lee Auto Disc more consistent?
Or is there a better powder measure system?