I am currently working with Unique in my 9mm and .44 Special and have a question for some of you long time reloading guru's. My Lee Auto Disk Powder Measure does not meter Unique worth a hoot. Throws are inconsistent due to the large flat flakes, so I have been weighing each charge by hand in both calibers. Has anyone found a good powder dispenser that will work with Unique, one that will throw a consistent weight each and every time? rimfirehunter
tried both the above mentioned measures, and found that neither was accurate enough for me, even though the perfect powder measure was better. I dont think you can measure unique by volume and get accurate results due to what appears to me to be differing densities between flakes. I also feel that this differnence in densities results in velocities being all over the board. Thats why I don't use Unique any more.
A couple of things to try. First make sure that the disk is returning all the way to the rear of the Auto-Disk. Also try tapping the powder hopper between cycles. I have found when mounted on a press the powder hopper wiggles enough to settle the powder into the cavity.
perfect powder measure does pretty well for me w/ unique. Due to the shape I doubt that there is much of a fix for the disk thrower.
I might pick up one of the Lee Adjustable Charge bar's and see what I can do with it. I am not too fond of the Lee Disk anyway, so right now I am doing all my powder measurements by hand weighing on my Beam Scale. rimfirehunter
heres a tip for using the lee perfect powder measure(or any other similar one) To get the best charge consistency you need to be consistant in your throw. The best method is to raise the handle(to drop powder into charge chamber), then lower the handle partway, then raise it again for a half a second or so before lowering it. I've found that going to this technique from just raise-lower has really helped my charges get more constant.
I use Unique almost exclusivly and have never had a problem with my Lees powder feeder, not sure the model, but it's the one that attaches to the press and feeds through a die or can be bench mounted and fed with a chain. Works very very good with unique.
I spent some time last night working with the Lee Auto Disk powder dispenser and my 9mm setup. Was a bit frustrating but I finally have it throwing a pretty consistent powder charge, although its .1gr over what I wanted the charge is still accurate enough for my range ammo. At least now I wont have to spend valuable time weighing each and every charge by hand on the beam scale and can spend more time loading. My reloading in 9mm is mainly for range ammo so as long as the throws are relatively consistent I can live with that. For my .44 Special I will continue to weigh each charge by hand because I demand a bit more precision in that caliber than I do in 9mm. rimfirehunter
