looking for new powder hopper

[SonnyCrockett]

For my 550B I hate the hopper it came with,sitting at a press adjusting knobs every time I want to reload

is a drag.....I find myself using me Lee hopper with its discs pretty much all the time

I can drop in a disc,confirm the recipe from my records and rock on......however Lees stuff is limited

by the discs them selves,,,,,if I want 6.2G on a recipe often a disc can give me 5.9 or 6.5 depending on

orifice size.......is there any other hoppers out there that have some sort of number system that I can record

and file for reuse like a disc can but with more precision than a Lee ?

[Skydiver]

I've been very happy with my Micrometer bar from Uniquetek: http://www.uniquetek...6/product/T1231

Edited July 30, 2011 by Skydiver

[ryanncass]

lee also makes an adjustable bar.

http://leeprecision.com/xcart/ADJ-CHARGE-BAR.html

[Skydiver]

And at $10 vs $50 the choice maybe quite clear.

[Derek Wallace]

There is a reason Lee's is cheap. It's made of plastic. If you have a quality press why put a cheap component in it?

[Skydiver]

There is a reason Lee's is cheap. It's made of plastic. If you have a quality press why put a cheap component in it?

The Arredondo powder drop slide is made of plastic and it ain't cheap by any means. http://www.arredondoaccessories.com/category.cfm?cid=1005,2023&PID=fc25l4901dqgdu&gid=PD

He! He! He! Just razzing you. :-)

Anyway, I've found that Arredondo powder slide in combination with the micrometer works great with my 650XL. I could have stuck with the Dillon metal one since I didn't load with Vectan, but when I started using Silhouette for some loads, the Arredondo slide turned out to be very useful.

[SonnyCrockett]

Lee charge bar is junk,so is most of his stuff...but the Autodisc works fine

and its repeatable - The uniquetek looks possible,they should have made that a digital micrometer and

they would have something a reloader could put in his numbers and rock and roll-

Honestly compared to the rest of the world of MFGing bullet reloading is in the stone age

thx guys ill get by

[Skydiver]

Lee charge bar is junk,so is most of his stuff...but the Autodisc works fine

and its repeatable - The uniquetek looks possible,they should have made that a digital micrometer and

they would have something a reloader could put in his numbers and rock and roll-

Honestly compared to the rest of the world of MFGing bullet reloading is in the stone age

thx guys ill get by

With my Micrometer, I just go through the calibration steps to build up a graph in Excel, and then I just crank the micrometer to the target drop weight and I'm never off by more than 0.03gn. It's the best since I let my roommate use my press and he can just set the dial to his load and crank and go, and I do the same. (I also have the Redding seating die which also has a micrometer, which is also set to the appropriate seating depth depending on my or my roommate's recipe.)

Here's a snapshot of my drop weights graph for .40S&W with Ramshot Competition:

Edited July 31, 2011 by Skydiver

[noylj]

Seems to me by appearance alone, that there are plastic parts in the Dillon, too.

Even with spending a "fortune" for the UniTek, you will still be doing the same dialing, you'll just be able to hopfully return to the "same" setting later. For most, we work up a load and place a label on the measure for the cartridge, powder, and charge weight--thus having lots of powder measures. You might consider pricing just the powder charge bar so you can store each one with a label for cartridge, powder, and charge weight.

If you used the Hornady L-N-L powder measure, you could simply store the $10 charge assembly (with a note of cartridge, powder, and charge weight). This is an almost instant swap-out--just press a button, pull out the old charge assembly and slide in the new one.

I have not found that my guns are particularly sensitive to charges not covered by Lee's disks and I have never gotten the ACB to work with two different Pro Auto-Disks. You can always buy extra disc and enlarge the cavity to fine-tune your charge (again, you can label that cavity with the information. You should see my 1050s with the Lee PAD attached. Works though.

[WyrTwister]

For my 550B I hate the hopper it came with,sitting at a press adjusting knobs every time I want to reload

is a drag.....I find myself using me Lee hopper with its discs pretty much all the time

I can drop in a disc,confirm the recipe from my records and rock on......however Lees stuff is limited

by the discs them selves,,,,,if I want 6.2G on a recipe often a disc can give me 5.9 or 6.5 depending on

orifice size.......is there any other hoppers out there that have some sort of number system that I can record

and file for reuse like a disc can but with more precision than a Lee ?

Lee makes a micro disk , but I have not used it .

Also an adjustable disk , I am using it for 21.0 grains of WC846 & .223 . But I read it is not as good at the small charge levels ?

I often use the double disk kit to " fine tune " the charge weight , but do not know if 2 disks will work that well for that small of charge ?

Order another set of 4 disks or a double disk . For a charge you often use , slowly ream the closest disk to what you want until you get it on the money . MARK IT !

The spare disks are not very expensive .

God bless

Wyr