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Dillon 650 powder charge variance is wack!


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Received my first Dillon 650 a few weeks back. Set up was a breeze. Started loading 45ACP 200 gr cast over 4.7 gr WST. everything was perfect, powder charge was +/- .2 grs, rounds functioned and fed well in my 1911.

Just for kicks i decided id reduce the charge to 4.4 (maybe a lighter kick...blah blah)

adjusted screw on the back of powder bar and now i cant get the thing to throw a consistant charge at all!

Tonight i turned the blue wingnut on the bottom of safety rod 2 full turns more to compress spring even more (as told to by dillon)

powder hopper is 3/4 full , powder bar is traveling complete. after i adjusted everything i dumped 10 charges to "settle powder" before measuring each charge for variance

any sugesstions?

Heres my charge number variances i am getting in order

4.3

4.5

4.3

4.4

4.4

4.3

4.2

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.4

4.7

4.5

4.3

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Were these drops done with the shell plate full each time? Was all the brass the same head stamp and a different case with each drop? If you used the same case for all 14 of those, the case mouth was already belled after the first few and may have changed how the powder drop happened in later drops. Consistent handle stroke each time? Any or all of those could affect the powder drop.

I use WST as you do and haven't run into that problem, so I'll be interested if you find the culprit here! :cheers:

Alan~^~

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Were these drops done with the shell plate full each time? Was all the brass the same head stamp and a different case with each drop? If you used the same case for all 14 of those, the case mouth was already belled after the first few and may have changed how the powder drop happened in later drops. Consistent handle stroke each time? Any or all of those could affect the powder drop.

I use WST as you do and haven't run into that problem, so I'll be interested if you find the culprit here! :cheers:

Alan~^~

No they were done using a single piece of brass. Im going to use a new case for each charge tonight. Handle stroke is smooth. When you say shell plate full each time do you place an empty piece of brass in the last station so your not flipping out a case with powder in it?

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Were these drops done with the shell plate full each time? Was all the brass the same head stamp and a different case with each drop? If you used the same case for all 14 of those, the case mouth was already belled after the first few and may have changed how the powder drop happened in later drops. Consistent handle stroke each time? Any or all of those could affect the powder drop.

I use WST as you do and haven't run into that problem, so I'll be interested if you find the culprit here! :cheers:

Alan~^~

No they were done using a single piece of brass. Im going to use a new case for each charge tonight. Handle stroke is smooth. When you say shell plate full each time do you place an empty piece of brass in the last station so your not flipping out a case with powder in it?

You need to have the shell plate full, with brass in each position loading rounds. That's probably why you are getting the variablility.

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I'm curious about this now... when I set my powder charge, I have been disconnecting the fail safe rod, then I use a common piece of brass that I push up against the powder measure by hand. I dump this case out into a funnel, and repeat until I have 10 cases worth to measure on the scale.

When I first started reloading, I measured each case full each time, and from memory it varied by +/- 0.1gr, which I took to be as much in the scale as anything. So thought the technique was ok...

Am I being a bad reloader?

To the OP, I know whenever I adjust the powder drop, I turn the adjuster the same way each time. So if I overshoot the charge slightly, I back it off more than I need and bring it back up again. I figure that way the threads on the slider are the same each time.

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Same way I do it and I hadn't much of a variance. My loads are generally within 0.1 grains of each other when using Bullseye or H335. It varies a little more using ARComp.

I have not noticed a difference when I actuate it by hand with the FS rod off versus running thru the shell plate and I always check it many times.

Richard

I'm curious about this now... when I set my powder charge, I have been disconnecting the fail safe rod, then I use a common piece of brass that I push up against the powder measure by hand. I dump this case out into a funnel, and repeat until I have 10 cases worth to measure on the scale.

When I first started reloading, I measured each case full each time, and from memory it varied by +/- 0.1gr, which I took to be as much in the scale as anything. So thought the technique was ok...

Am I being a bad reloader?

To the OP, I know whenever I adjust the powder drop, I turn the adjuster the same way each time. So if I overshoot the charge slightly, I back it off more than I need and bring it back up again. I figure that way the threads on the slider are the same each time.

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The cause of variance like you are getting is usually caused by varied stroke, loose shell plate, shell plate not full and in some cases the wrong powder bar. What type of scale are you using ? If you are loading indoors is the AC blowing on the scale? That can cause different readings on your scale also.

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Learn me something, with a handgun case, the case pushes the powder funnel all the way up until the powder bar runs out of stroke (fully open), then once the powder bar is wide open and doesn't move anymore then the powder funnel expands the case mouth some depending how you have it set. If he is flaring the mouth at all then you know the powder bar made it's full stroke, open. Knowing that, I do not see how having a loaded shell plate makes any difference. It hasn't made a difference anytime I manually pushed a case up on the powder die by hand.

On a rifle case where you just adjust the powder die down until the bar makes a full stroke then I could see where it might make a difference.

Am I understanding this incorrectly?

Richard

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My bet is you measured the first ones when your heat/ac system was off. The others were while there were air currents flowing around because it was on.

I am with Richard on this one, back before I built a brass sorter I had my powder measure set so it wouldn't drop a charge on a 380 case but would on a 9mm, so I caught 380's at the powder check station, before the bullet. A lot bigger difference than a full shell plate.

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