Lee Loader

Sometimes you have a powder load that will coincide perfectly with the dipper's capacity. But mostly not. For example. A die set for 44 spl comes with a 7 dipper which yields 6.3 grains of Unique. But the starting load is 6.7 grains. So the dipper now becomes a trickler, and works very well for that purpose. I generally only use a dipper and a scale. The dipper to get me close, and the scale to get it exact.

I was only allowed to use dippers that my dad made some 62 years ago. Each dipper was labeled for the powder / gun combo. Wish I had kept them. If you think about it mechanical powder measure are just fancy adjustable dippers. Never had a problem with dippers. Since then I've made a few with coat hangers and cut down cases and of course solder.

I use them when I am working up a new load. Dipper to get close, then trickle to get exact.

There are tons of ways to change the charge from a Lee dipper. First, the method used can vary the charge, for me, up to one full grain. Pushing the dipper backwards through the powder then "striking" the top level, backwards w/o striking, pushing through mouth first once, or pushing through twice, dipping speed, using a deep container will give different charges, and .4 grain more is really easily obtained. Experiment and practice and you can customize a charge. Also the dippers themselves can me customized; removal of material from the open end will lower the charge. Making the cavity volume smaller will lower the charge (I have dropped epoxy in the cavity, I have epoxied BBs in the cavity). The charges can be made larger by increasing the dipper volume like reaming the ID, and I have drilled the bottom of the dipper slightly to increase the charge. I've made quite a few dippers and often "tweek" the charges with the previous methods...

bluetick wrote:Sometimes you have a powder load that will coincide perfectly with the dipper's capacity. But mostly not. For example. A die set for 44 spl comes with a 7 dipper which yields 6.3 grains of Unique. But the starting load is 6.7 grains. So the dipper now becomes a trickler, and works very well for that purpose. I generally only use a dipper and a scale. The dipper to get me close, and the scale to get it exact.

orerancher wrote:

bluetick wrote:Sometimes you have a powder load that will coincide perfectly with the dipper's capacity. But mostly not. For example. A die set for 44 spl comes with a 7 dipper which yields 6.3 grains of Unique. But the starting load is 6.7 grains. So the dipper now becomes a trickler, and works very well for that purpose. I generally only use a dipper and a scale. The dipper to get me close, and the scale to get it exact.

I used to trickle with an empty case. As I got older my trickling became more trembling complete with frequent resultant expletives so now I just rely on an RCBS trickler.

I use a single stage and take my sweet time and I also use dippers to start my load on my scale then I trickle to top it off. I love the dippers they save me time.

I used dippers and had little cardboard wads that I would insert to get my powder right. 410 nitro cards and fiber wads were pretty close