Hornady lnl powder drop varies day to day.

S

Schnitzjr

New member
I loaded 200 .45 last night on my LNL using 4.5 gr Titegroup.
Tonight, I sat down to load some more and my powder drop threw 4.8-4.9 20 in a row. I had to add a 1/4 turn on the meter to get 4.5 consistently.
All I did last session is dump the powder and work the lever arm a few times to get the remaining powder out of the hopper.

I'm new to the LNL so perhaps I'm missing something but I am yet to get this thing to throw the same amount of powder day to day.
It will stay consistent when I spot check though.

I know most complaints are inconsistent drops but in my case the drops are fine, I just can't seem to get them to stay day to day.

Any ideas? My Lee disk drop was good to go from day one, this new one not so much.
 
I am pretty new to the lnl too but here is my experience fwiw. I agree that the powder drops are consistent. My experience from one session to the next though is that they stay the same. However, I don't empty the measure between sessions, unless I'm changing powders.
When I first got it I sprinkled some graphite in it and ran that through. Then I just cycled a good bit of powder through also. I believe it takes a really good bit of powder going through any measure before it gets coated with graphite and everything starts flowing freely and consistently. Have you ran a lot of powder through it yet. Maybe that's part of the problem. Just guessing though. Maybe a more experienced user can add more.
 
Do you have the baffle in? I was dropping 4.6 grains Unique 2 weeks ago and went back today and it was still 4.6. Tite group should be more consista than than Unique.
 
I have loaded 2 or 3 days in a row and it never changed. And then there are times when it changes overnight or later that day...I just put that in the " stuff happens " category. That's why we check powder drops when we star loading
 
Same here, snakeye. When it first happened, I fretted over it until I discovered that it's more productive to just make the adjustment and get on with it.
 
Minor changes in powder drop are most often caused by powder settling over time. Usually it will settle out after dropping some charges to "shake" things up again. Other than that, I would suspect your powder scale, not the measure as being the culprit. I know that even though I leave my mechanical powder scale set at zero, when I come back a few days later, it's not unusual to see that it's changed a .1gr or 2 in the interim. Changes to temp., humidity, static or my bench is the culprit.
 
Two things
1. baffle
2. You have to be consistent in how you are handling the lever. You have to double tap the handle on both the up and down strokes. One to drop the powder completely into the measure and then the second time to make certain all of the powder drops out. You have to be consistent each time you move that handle/lever.
 
Even with the baffle in mine will drop even on the same day by a grain or so. I just weigh and adjust every couple dozen rounds.
 
Once the powder settles to the bottom a 1.0 grain variance would be crazy.

I discard the first couple of throws when dumping in a new powder. After that there is never much of a variance. Maybe .1 or .2 grains. Anything beyond that and there is a problem. Maybe the first couple of dumps will be .2 higher due to settling if I let it sit for a while.
 
I load handgun rounds with Titegroup, single stage press, using a Lee "Perfect Powder Measure" and a Lee balance weight. I also have noticed a day-to-day variation of powder drop weight. Not much, maybe 0.1 grains from one day to the next. I never leave powder in the hopper over night, so it can't be absorbing moisture, or on the other side, drying any. I have no idea why it changes, but I adjust accordingly.
 
1) It happens with all powder measures
2) If you are a newbie, verify that you have the pistol (small hole) rotor installed. I can't tell you how many "problems" folks report with powder measures has been from the wrong rotor
 
I have a powder measure micrometer on my LNL. There is a slight tendency to rotate (change the setting slightly) over 500 rounds or so. to prevent this I use a small piece of masking tape to prevent any change in setting. Other than that I can load thousands of rounds over 2-3 days with absolutely no change using VV N320.
 
I used the baffle and ptx stop and had fairly consistent drops not including extruded on my lnl. Extruded "log jams or chopping" pile up differently so to speak, so therefore the grain weight may vary. I have since switched over the the Lee Auto Drum measure. It too thorws decently and is much easier to clean up and store w/o worry of corrosion (in high humid areas over a cold winter). I set a drum to desired weight for that caliber and it never is changed. I just buy a different drum for a different caliber and so on. It has been just as precise as the lnl and has no chopping action of extruded.
 
I've only had to make tiny adjustments my last two reloading sessions. I've been filling the hopper with much more powder than needed and tapping it down a bit.
 
When new clean hopper and body with either rubbing alcohol or Hornady one shot. Then run some powder graphite through the powder measure. After I did that never had an issue with powder measure not dropping consistently.
I do this all the time between reloading as well.
 
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