captnviper wrote:I have not shot any as of yet. I wanted to make a few loads of my own to bring with and have been perfecting my use of the lee auto disk as its chart was not accurate, and I noticed how you throw the load can change it a bit. So I been playing with different disks and writing down the numbers I come up with after 10-15 throws.
If you are referring to the Powder (Type) - Disc (size) referrence chart in the back of the Lee Manual, I have found them to be "off" approximately One number in nearly ALL of my loads. I'm not currently able to see or give EXACT number (disc size) - Grain (powder weight) examples, so these are general examples, and your results may differ. But my experience has shown that if the Chart indicated you would use a .41 disc to dump a 4.3 gr charge of Bullseye, my drop would only be about 4.0gr. I have found that if the chart calls for a .41 disc, I need to move up to the next larger hole (cannot remember exact order of hole sizes (volume in cc's) to get the 4.3gr I was originally looking for. Oddly, this has held true with Power Pistol, Bullseye, and most other powfers I have thrown through the Auto Disk. It has even held true when I used a large charge such as a Double Disk charge while loading .223.
I have found that the Pro-Auto Disk measures I have, are very consistent (I have 5). I have also observed that so far, it has held consistent from powder "Lot" to "Lot". I don't know whether it is a Barometric Pressure, altitude, or simply bulk differences from my supplies and location, compared to wherever Lee did their calculations.
As just a side note, the first Pro-Auto Disk Measure and Disc's were sprayed with a Dry Graphite lubfricant ( I think it's called Blaster from Home Depot) hoping to help cut down on static charges. I found that it only made it hard to see inside the powder hopper when checking my powder level. So, as I received new setups, I have changed to only coating the very bottom of the hopper, the actual "drop tube" and also the discs with the graphite ( very light coating). I also designed and make Baffles (RCBS and others manufacture them) that I put in my hopper before I fill it with powder. I firmly believe that the combination of the graphite and the baffles, help me get extremely consistent powder distribution. While loading, I also sit in a position that allows me to visually see EVERY single powder charge in every case, before I place and seat the bullet.
I am located in Edina, and after I have recovered from this surgery, and I'm back at home, you are more than welcome to come by and I'll show you exactly, what I have and how it is setup (this goes for any other forum member as well).
I hope this helped a little,
Jim
When I'm loading pistol ammo on either my Classic Turret or my Loadmaster, I still check and verify loads (charges, dumps etc) at random points of my loading. Usually ranging from every 10-20 rounds to as many as 50 rounds and they have never varied more than 0.1 gr usually .1 lower, if any deviation at all. I did do a 100 round continuous check (checked every round) and found that I only had 7 rounds out of 100 that varied. They all varied .1gr low. This was while loading 9mm 115gr with Bullseye powder. I had a nearly identical variation while checking a 40 S&W loading using Power Pistol.
