Trouble with Lee universal rifle charging die

[Grandpa Shooter]

I decided back aways to start reloading for 30-30. I have successfully loaded .308 and 30.06 in the past. I always trickled my charges previously. Since I wanted the 30-30 to be more fun I ordered dies and a universal charging die from Midway and Lee. Today I finished sizing, trimming and priming all my brass and went to set up the Lee 3 hole turret press with the dies I purchased.

Now here is the problem. As you can see below in the picture, (If this works you can thank Mal H for tutoring me) there is the standard piece to use if you were dipping or dumping a load, the die body and another piece they call the universal funnel. If you install this loading die into the turret, the only way for the shell casing to lift the powder measure is for the mouth of the case to push up on the small end and smash the mouth of the case. In any of my Dillon dies there is a belling insert that bells and actuates the powder measure. This thing from Lee is apparently just a fancy way to dump powder into anything from .2 up to cannon loads. As far as I can determine it is useless on a turret press.

Anybody want to help with this one?

 

[RustyFN]

Put the one piece back inside and leave the funnel off. Screw your auto disk into the die, if you are using the safety prime then and the riser. Set the die up so that when the ram is at the top of the stroke the disk cavity is just above the drop hole. Your brass should be OK and not smash set up like this. When I first started loading 223 I had the die set to low and smashed a few.
Rusty

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

Rusty,

After I had some of the elixir of life (no, not that stuff---some coffee) I went back into the man cave and thought it through. I was screwing the die body in too far and trying to lift the powder measure too early in the stroke, so I had too much force behind it. After I unscrewed it quite a bit I could lift the powder measure at the end of the stroke and not crush the mouth of the case.

I also had to devise some shims to lift the powder measure up and stabilize it after adding a second powder measure disk to get the throw I needed. I found 2 longer bolts out in my treasure shed and cut the bottom off 2 empty .22 shells (remember not to cut too close to the primer material with your dremel cut off wheel---scared the stuff out of myself when one went off) and then ground down the barrels created to the length I needed to space the powder measure properly above the two disks.

Set everything else up and cranked out 2 rounds. The powder measure seems to vary .2 grains with this set up. I am using some Accurate 2460 I had sitting around.

Thanks for your feed back,

Gramps

 

[strat81]

Forgive me if this is too obvious, but with the rifle charging die you are throwing larger loads compared to pistol cases. So, be sure to leave the case in the die for a second or two longer so there is enough time for all of the powder to drop from the disk to the case.

When I first started using the rifle charging die, I had a lot of powder leakage. Turned out it was because I was moving too quickly and lowering the ram before all of the powder drained into the case.

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

Forgive me if this is too obvious, but with the rifle charging die you are throwing larger loads compared to pistol cases. So, be sure to leave the case in the die for a second or two longer so there is enough time for all of the powder to drop from the disk to the case.

When I first started using the rifle charging die, I had a lot of powder leakage. Turned out it was because I was moving too quickly and lowering the ram before all of the powder drained into the case.

Good thought. The Lee instructions actually suggest tapping on the powder container with a pencil to convince it to flow better. I sure wouldn't use this setup with extruded powder unless it was short cut stuff. I can just see it sitting in the measure like a log jam.

Thanks for being helpful.