Lee Loader

The Dawn is only for the plastic hopper.

Right.
Got it.

GasGuzzler: Just noticed your additional comment about running powder through the powder measure. The Auto Drum is case activated only. If you find another way, let me know. I could find no other way. A puff of powdered graphite was just way easier. I think that's why Lee lists graphite as the alternative to conditioning.

Makes sense from an efficiency standpoint but I'm not buying graphite online and I'm pretty sure there's none here unless I go rogue on some pencils.

Got out the instruction booklet that came with it. There's lots of little pieces that don't come assembled but I'll do all that after the washing part. I got two drums with the measure and four more in one package. The two that came with the measure have a rough finish, the other four are shiny. While the stuff dries I'll go find the calculator for the charge weight.

OK....all the extra stuff doesn't have to be installed, it's extra safety stuff. Got it all mocked up but no powder dropped. Dumped the hopper and made sure I had it in the ON position. Yep. Drum wasn't rotating far enough to dump. Rifle charging die was adjusted all the way down.

Then I remembered someone mentioning Lee redesigning the rifle charging dies by splitting them into "short" and "long" versions to replace the old single part. I just so happen to have one of the old ones on the turret for 5.56X45 so I swapped them. The 5.56X45 case should be just long enough to operate the new style long rifle charging die.

I'm not sure if I used the calculator correctly or not but I got within three turns of 26.0 grains. It's probably how I started a little off.

Sounds like you have it going!

My eight year old helped me grease the gears.

GasGuzzler, unless you're keeping your cases at the maximum length of 1.76", you will definitely need the short rifle charging die. The auto drum will not function properly at a shorter trim length without the shorter die.

I hope you have very good service from your AD. Someone said 80% of the folks that have them like them. I think that 80% number is low, more like 95% from what I've seen. That said, I'm one of the lower percentile that didn't have good luck with mine. I did send it back to Lee and they did "something" to it but to no avail. One day it would be good,the next time I used it, it would be erratic with no rhyme nor reason. I did not trust it. Got a refund. I doubt I'll try another one. I have a couple case activated Uniflows and "clunky" as the case activation system is, they just work. You don't have to tap, shake, sit in the same position each time you activate it, hold your mouth just so or any other "gyrations". The reason I mention this is because I've had several people ask me "did you activate it the same way each time?" Yeah, I did, I pulled the handle on the press all the way down and back up. So maybe I missed something in the operating instructions (by the way I really dislike that question, it intimates I'm an idiot and can't operate a simple powder measure)..... And, evidently I'm in the minority in another area because I really like the old Pro Disk measure much better. Not as handy for charges but they have always been accurate for me. I do use the charge bar with mine though. Changed my mind. I'm gonna' get another AD and see whether the one I had was just a "bad" example or that I just haven't got the "touch" for one. No, I'm not in a bad mood, actually I'm elated today, I got my truck running. New MAP sensor.