Does the powder measure just have a setting for grain amounts? How does it work?

Also why that and a scale?

Lee is an odd duck. Their powder drop drops by volume, not weight. The markings on the adjustment knob coincide with their dippers. Their recipes are in grains, but also have a "dipper" comparison. So, if you want to speed up the process and use either the dippers or the powder dropper, you need to check the weight in grains periodically. Their book has a chart in the back with just about every modern powder showing what each dipper will weigh in grains for each powder. I have that kit and just got a good digital scale.

Edited to add: The spoons from Wendy's are the best I've used for trickling powder onto the pan. I don't know what they're made of, but they will not pick up a static charge. I can pick up and drop a single granule of Varget out of the jug with one of those spoons if needed.

No offense meant but if you don't know the answer to those questions, you are probably not ready to start reloading. I am assuming the kit came with a manual. Read it first, learn how your equipment works. Your "grain amounts" are determined by load data for the cartridge and bullet you are working with. The scale is there to measure your powder charge and adjust your measure accordingly. I never used Lee dippers or any other kind for measuring powder charges. PLEASE, do some research, watch some instructional videos or better yet, find a mentor to help you learn to reload. If I misunderstood your questions and have offended you, I apologize, but loading ammunition is not something you need to jump into if you have no idea what you are doing. Be safe. Again, no offense meant.

Oh yeah, READ the first 10 chapters of the Lee loading manual. Over and over again. I'm by no means a Lee salesman, but the first 10 chapters of that book contain a wealth of knowledge whether you use their stuff or not.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're asking, so I'll toss out some basic stuff and we can go from there.
A grain is a unit of mass (1 grain = 64.79891 milligrams).
Powder dispensers like the one in the Lee kit deliver a consistent volume of powder each time. They can be adjusted to drop a smaller or larger amount of powder by reducing or enlarging the opening in the metering chamber.
The densities (mass/volume) of powders differ significantly, so the balance (scale) is used to measure the mass of that volume of that powder.

Jeff

EXACTLY. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is exactly what I am currently doing. I don't own any reloading equipment right now. I'm in the phase of research prior to buying, watching videos, etc...that's what this forum is for right? Is help and information?

This is the type of info I'm looking for. Thank you for answering my question. Much appreciated!

You are absolutely correct. Your OP did not state you had no equipment yet. I assumed, obviously incorrectly, that you had purchased the Lee kit. I apologized in advance with my post in case I misunderstood. There are a lot of knowledgeable, long time reloaders here and all of us are happy to help with questions. My post was meant to provide the help and information you are seeking, I guess you did not take it that way as you seem to be a little put out with my post. I will apologize once more and wish you luck on your path to reloading.

No no no! I'm super appreciative of any and all information I can get here. Thank you and about the time I replied I saw a great video showing how a scale and powder dumping tool work together and now it makes sense why you'd have to have both.

Next question....is their a single powder you can use with most rifle cartridges?

I have a 223/556, 243, 308, and 22-250

Some single powders may work with more than one cartridge. But usually not very well.

H335, Benchmark, H4350, IMR4064, Varget and some others are versatile in that regard. But If you're looking to stock only one powder for several different cartridges you're likely going to be disappointed with the results.

IMR4064 will do well in the 243 and 308.

Lee uses data from the powder manufactures in their manual with those manufactures permisson. They organized it for each combo by velocity.

Their powder measurers are in cubic centameters and their manual has how many CCs are for the load which gets you close for the setting but always use a powder scale to verify.

On their manual Richard Lee did a real good informative work in those first 10 chapters including the best section on bullet casting I have read

I believe it shows all the powders listed in the reloading manuals, different reloading manuals has an assortment of powders available. Check them and google online as well. Berger, Hodgdon, Alliant, Hornady, etc, websites have them as well. there are slow and fast burning powders for different bullet weights. Good luck.

There are some powders that will work for all 4 of those cartridges but will not be optimum for all four. There are some that will work very well for 223 and 308 and others that will work very well for 22-250 and 243. I could see getting very good results with couple powders for those 4 cartridge selections dependent on bullet weight for each being part of the determining factor. Some for 223 and 308 that come to mind are Varget and CFE223 among others

Near the top of this forum there is a sticky with several links that are quite useful for the new reloader and experienced as well. Link

What method do you guys use setting up your dies? I notice they are adjustable...I know with the de-priming and resizing die, you just want to lift the press all the way up and then screw the die down to where it meets it and touches, but what about bullet seating one?

The dies comes with instructions on how to adjust them. The instructions says to raise the ram all the way up and screw the die in till it touches, and screw in an eighth of a turn or so and set the screw to lock the die but its not the way to adjust for .002" shoulder bump. You need a Hornady Lock N Load Headspace kit to check and see exactly how much you need to screw in your die ( cam over) to get .002" shoulder bump back. But you can follow the instructions that came with the dies and read the basics on reloading before you will understand the more complex things about reloading.

Some very good videos on reloading are on the Sinclair International website. Here is a link to the resizing first one, watch all 3 of them.

link

Sinclair on youtube

^^^ good stuff...thanks!

Id like to know the order you guys take in reloading a previously shot casing.

Do you clean it first, then deprime / resize, charge, and then seat bullet?

I know resizing comes in there, and when resizing, do you guys have a setup that automatically makes the case the right size? Or always just measure?

thanks...I have a good feel for the process now, just trying to clear up a few more questions before I buy equip.

You want to clean it before it goes in your dies. Dirty cases will get debris in your dies and will scratch the cases and dies eventually.

I bought all my equipment before I started reading so I could see the pieces in hand like dies etc. it helped me to visualize what the manual I was reading was saying.

I tumble fired brass wipe clean with a clean towel, size and deprime in same step, wipe any sizing lube off with clean towl. Trim/champhur and debur, prime, charge(powder) and seat a bullet.

When you guys seat your bullets, do you just go by overall length in the manual...or do you specifically use a method based on the chamber and magazine of the gun?

Is it ok to just start by seating according to overall length and then measuring with digital calipers? Until your die is set correctly?

thanks

For best results you should tailor your seating depth to the type of bullet you are using and the specific size of your chamber. The magazine length will limit the max length you can feed.

Some bullets like to be close to or in the lands some don't. I would cross that bridge when you get there, there are ways to do it with no special tools.

Check this thread for a current ongoing discussion of seating depth

locating the lands and seating depth

Im guess though, to get started and until i get a good feel for reloading...I can just use overall cartridge length from manual and seat bullet to that?