Lee Loader 223 Rem

[Milesy]

Hi All
Thought I would have a very basic go at reloading
Short story is received Lee Loader. 223 Rem
Have ADI AR2206H powder
Hornady Z Max 55 Gr Projectiles
CCI SRP No 400 Primers
Plenty of mixed once fired factory Brass
ADI website doesn't mention the ZMax projectile but has a range of 21,22 & 25gn starting loads for 55gn bullets
So what would suggest for starting load and how many grains does the Lee 1.6cc hold.
Thanks in advance
Cheers

[Milesy]

Opps
The Lee 1.6cc Dipper is what I meant to say

[bladeracer]

Hi All
Thought I would have a very basic go at reloading
Short story is received Lee Loader. 223 Rem
Have ADI AR2206H powder
Hornady Z Max 55 Gr Projectiles
CCI SRP No 400 Primers
Plenty of mixed once fired factory Brass
ADI website doesn't mention the ZMax projectile but has a range of 21,22 & 25gn starting loads for 55gn bullets
So what would suggest for starting load and how many grains does the Lee 1.6cc hold.
Thanks in advance
Cheers

For me the 1.6cc dipper holds 22.7gn of AR2206H, but not carded off. I find better consistency by letting it heap up and slump to its own level.
Have you got a case trimmer and caliper?

[Milesy]

Caliper and electronic scales on the way wasn't planning to proceed without scales but have seen Ytube reloaders just using dipper
Case trimmer not yet

[bladeracer]

Caliper and electronic scales on the way wasn't planning to proceed without scales but have seen Ytube reloaders just using dipper
Case trimmer not yet

Dippers work just fine.

[Oldbloke]

Dippers can be OK. Take 4 or 5 fired cases. Cut them off at various heights and just add a handle. I solder a piece of fencing wire or bronze welding wire for a handle .

[nightforcenxs]

im using the exact projectiles, primers just adi cases and ar2208 i run 26grains of 2208 with no signs of pressure a mate uses 2206h and only loads to the minimum that ADI states for 2206h which is 25grains of powder... ADI states for 55gr is 25grains minimum and max is 26grains

[marksman]

don't use mixed cases as the internal volume can be different and your reloads will shoot s**t if not dangerous,
throw the dippers away because you will never be 100% sure of what your powder weight is going to be and same as above your reloads will be very average if not dangerous, I know there are people out there that swear mixed cases don't mater or that powder weight does not have to be perfect but if you are asking how to go about it and want to learn then IMO if you use mixed cases and dippers you are asking for trouble
and while I am at it IMO electronic scales are not the way to go as they can be very problematic especially for someone learning
so there you go, if I have upset anyone by what I have said I am very sorry

[Milesy]

Thanks Gents
This is why it’s called a forum all opinions respected.
Thanks for all the input.

[Rikta]

start at 23 grains, what i did, I ended up on 25gn for ppu brass and a little less for ADI brass around the 24.7 mark

[bladeracer]

don't use mixed cases as the internal volume can be different and your reloads will shoot s**t if not dangerous,
throw the dippers away because you will never be 100% sure of what your powder weight is going to be and same as above your reloads will be very average if not dangerous, I know there are people out there that swear mixed cases don't mater or that powder weight does not have to be perfect but if you are asking how to go about it and want to learn then IMO if you use mixed cases and dippers you are asking for trouble
and while I am at it IMO electronic scales are not the way to go as they can be very problematic especially for someone learning
so there you go, if I have upset anyone by what I have said I am very sorry

Mixed brass is a bad idea.
The dippers never go near maximum loads, and are certainly accurate enough. You can be 100% sure that your loads will be the same, but you would need to weigh some to confirm exactly what that weight is.
Once you start pushing velocities and pressures then you need to start looking at accurately weighing powder charges. But for loading under field conditions dippers work just fine. Millions of rounds have been, and still are being loaded with Lee Loaders.

[on_one_wheel]

Here's my complete set up that I use with the lee loader.

I get outstanding results by batching my brass by weight, measuring all my powder with scale and some attention to detail when prepping the brass.
Seating depth and load testing have also played a major part of getting sub .5" groups.

mobile 045.jpg (236.59 KiB) Viewed 4709 times

[bladeracer]

Here's my complete set up that I use with the lee loader.

I get outstanding results by batching my brass by weight, measuring all my powder with scale and some attention to detail when prepping the brass.
Seating depth and load testing have also played a major part of getting sub .5" groups.

mobile 045.jpg

Pretty much what I started with as well, except I bought the RCBS case length trimmer, RCBS plastic dial caliper, the inside/outside neck chamfering tool and the Redding beam scale to go with it. Made many, many hundreds of very good .222 Remington rounds. I still have it all.

[AusTac]

Use the wackomatic lee kits for .303, they do fine so long as you keep a handle on what your doing and the tolerances your playing with

[Oldbloke]

From another post.
I weigh every charge. I use a home made dipper/scoop. A copy of the lee. I have a few now, just make them as I need them out of empty cases. One is adjustable with a screw in the primer pocket.
Then I use my home made trickler to weigh on an old set of redding powder scales. Its slow but works for me. A trickler is very easy to make. I made mine out of a plastic pill bottle.
The trick with the scoops is to be consistant scooping and to level them with a small piece of paper by "swiping" it across the top of the scoop.

Also uploaded some pics of my dippers. Some are adjustable for volume by having a screw in the primer pocket. One is 3/16" whitworth and a couple 1/4" whitworth" I think. System seems to work.
Also home made trickler. Just a pill bottle with 2 holes drilled at the appropriate height. One slightly higher than the other. A piece of lead sheeting fixed to the base to give it some stability. The tube is a piece of hollow fiber glass from an old fishing rod but any tube about 1/4" in dia would do.(perhaps an old biro?) Insulation tape to act as a stop and a small hole drilled/ground into the tube to pick up the powder grains.
The best recommendation is to copy. So I copied Gwions tiny 22 dipper idea.

Dippers sml.jpg (321.1 KiB) Viewed 4686 times

Trickler sml.jpg (353.14 KiB) Viewed 4686 times

Trickler 2 sml.jpg (228.8 KiB) Viewed 4686 times