Lee loader technical issues.

[pathdoc]

Just loaded the first 20 "live" rounds with the Lee Loader (.303 British) tonight. It all went sweet except for one thing. In many of the youtube videos I've seen, including the one in which Richard Lee himself seems to be the demonstrator, the user pours the charge straight down the throat of the die before seating the bullet.

When I tried this, a little bit of the powder did not go into the case & some of it spilled around the case. Not very much, probably only 0.1 - 0.2 grains by eyeball, but enough to be a bloody nuisance. FYI, I'm using Varget (which I bought new & sealed from the store myself). I ran cleaning patches through the die to get the powder granules out.

Thinking it might be because I had the seating collar wound out too far the first time, I tried again a few bullets later when I had the seating depth right (I used my RCBS funnel for all the others) and it happened again. So I cleaned up once more and went back to the funnel for the rest.

What, if anything, am I doing wrong?

 

[jeffreyulatan]

This will always happen with the lee loaders. It always happened to me when I used it for 223 at the range.

You can try using a dryers lint cloth to discharge the static or use one of them fancy anti-static funnels.

 

[wogpotter]

Varget is a very fine grained powder & thats part of the problem. If you try the older stick powders like IMR 3031 Or IMR 4895 the problem will lessen a lot.
In the interim try this:
Get a spare powder funnel. glue a short (2" or so) piece of large bore soda straw (Make sure the straw you use will slide inside the case neck.) to the inside of the tapered bottom section, taking care to ONLY get the glue on the outside of the straw. I do this by pushing the straw in & then applying glue into the "crack" between the inside of the tapered funnel base & the outside of the straw. To drop powder just slide the straw down inside the die & case, drop the powder into the funnel & raise slowly allowing the powder to drop inside the case.

 

[mikld]

I haven't had the same problem with my Lee Loaders, but mebbe the case wasn't deep enough in the tool? If you're talking about the spillage around the outside of the die, just use a funnel (I made one from paper...).

I started with a Lee Loader in '69 and loaded up a bunch of good shooting ammo. I really like them and even now, with 3 presses, I'll use my .38 Special or 30-30 Lee Loader...

 

[pathdoc]

There's certainly quite the mixed bag of solutions! Thanks all who've replied so far.

Shall try a pass-through with a dryer cloth the next time I try this (which will hopefully make my ammo smell sweet too, LOL ). If that doesn't work, we'll see what comes next.

Switching away from Varget may or may not be an option depending on what sorts of results I get out of it (it's usable for all my middle to heavy weight bullets), but it's interesting to know that it may be part of the problem!!