Clays and metering

Gang,

I started loading with Clays awhile back and this stuff just does not meter well! I can load to 3.8 one time and never touch or change a thing and come back the next day or five days later and it will meter 3.4 - 4.0 for the first 20 - 25 rounds then it will settle down and 3.8 ish again.

And I have to actually load those rounds, i tried just dropping powder and dumping back into the hopper for 20 rounds and no good it still was all over the place until I loaded 20 or so rounds. If I make an adjustment trying to change +/- .2 a minor turns does nothing and a major turn will not change for a few rounds then it will bounce all over and eventually settle.

I am using a Dillon Square Deal and Steve Bathje's metering bolt with the index marks.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Hd this problem with Unique. Two things I did that worked. first, keep the hopper on the powder measure at least two-thirds full. Second, use the powder baffle that came with the powder measure. After doing that, Unique measured much better.

Joe,

I haven't used Clays but know some guys who have very good results with it.

Could you have "bridging" across the powder measure which is caused by static electricity???

I had that problem with new powder measues.

Washing the powder measure plastic parts in Ivory dish detergent fixed that problem.

I also keep the powder measure nearly full to help with the consistency.

Art

I have picked up a Lee Pro 1000 with the auto disc measuring system and that resolved my issue with Clays not metering well. It drops 3.8gr every time, now I have to modify a disc and get it down to 3.6gr. That is my goal and I might actually get some time to work on that this week. I always wipe my powder measure with a dryer sheet to resolve the static if any.

I've always had success using Clays powder with my Dillon XL 650. To assure continued success, I now mount a small aquarium air compressor to the powder measure with a couple of rubber bands. As I load, the fine vibrations aids in providing a constant powder drop.

Norman

Using Alliant Clay Dot for .38 spl and .45 acp. also using the Lee auto disc system and find it meters exactly each time.
ClayDot is the Alliant 'clone' of Clays.

2.5 gr 148gr hbwc .38
3.4 gr 185 gr swc .45

also use it in my 12 gauge trap loads...