g56

There are so many variables it makes it difficult to make generalizations, but from what I have read BLC2 is probably the most temperature sensitive powder available to reloaders. Hodgdon claims that their H4895 is substantially more temperature stable than IMR4895, personally I find that a bit hard to believe.

Each brand of dies can have their own variations on bullet seaters, the best one is the one that fits. Its very common to have a bullet seater that isn't just right, particularly when you get away from wadcutters or semi wadcutters, but generally a round nose seating plug will probably do the best job, short of having a seating plug custom made for that bullet. Some people say to use wax to make the seating plug fit better, but IMHO that won't last very long before it crumbles. I've never tried it but someone could probably use JB Weld to customize a seating plug, but you could ruin the die, so I wouldn't do that personally.

As mentioned there are tons of variables, generalizations can be confusing. I will give you one generalization you can count on, most of those stories you hear about a powder being particularly dirty...the main cause is lead bullets and their lube, same powder and load with a jacketed or plated bullet is far cleaner.

You might find this article interesting: Pressure Factors: How Temperature, Powder, and Primer Affect Pressure http://www.shootingsoftware.com/ftp/Pressure%20Factors.pdf I know this question was on 308, but the following is worth noting: In Glen Zediker's book "The Competitive AR15" he points out BLC2 for particular attention, unfortunately it isn't a recommendation, in the entire book he only warns against one powder for 223, and that's BLC2, he calls it "spooky under the sun", not exactly a glowing recommendation! http://fulton-armory.com/thecompetitivear-15byzediker.aspx

Home Depot has big knobs too

I have one knob I got a few years after those first knobs, looks just like yours except for color.

I've reloaded close to 100,000 rounds of 38 special on my old 550, those were for practice and competition in PPC, my custom PPC Revolver is set up to use Federal primers only, and won't reliably fire any other brand of primer. Every single round has been loaded with Federal primers with no issues at all.

I've reloaded thousands of rounds of 223/5.56 on my Dillon 550 using standard Dillon dies over the last several years and never had the slightest problem, and one of my AR's is chambered in 223 instead of 5.56. Unless someone has an incredibly tight chamber in their rifle I see no need for a small base resizing die.

If you use a round nose bullet you wouldn't see any advantage to having the cylinder chamfered, my PPC revolver has its cylinder chamfered, but I was shooting full wadcutters, and if you want to shoot semi wadcutters you would most likely want the chamfered cylinder. With practice you could reload extremely fast with chamfered chambers even using full wadcutters, I don't really see any particular speed advantage with round nose compared to semi wadcutters.

This information is a couple of years old, but they probably still use the same numbers. The knobs are in the Nuts and Bolts isle of Home Depot in the specialty area where all the Specialty cap screws and such are in the pull out box drawers. These knobs are above the drawers in little plastic drop down pull boxes. There are several shapes and colors. They cost around .85 cents each. The package calls them KNOB_TEE 5/16"...UPC # 0 3069978178 2. There are also round knobs in various colors. SKU # 562-514 Not sure why you have a problem with powder measure consistency, the Dillon is probably the most consistent powder measure I've ever used, you might want to try a different powder. For comparison I have a Redding powder measure, and the Dillon is more consistent than the Redding. The most common cause of variance in OAL is inconsistent bullet shape, at least in rifle calibers, you might want to try a different seating plug and see what happens.

I make dummy rounds to check feeding, when I make them I don't have any primer at all in it, leave the primer pocket empty. Some people will drill holes in the case to mark their dummies.

Mineral spirits is funny/odd stuff, it will attack and totally destroy some plastics, but others are completely safe, and these days mineral spirits are often sold in plastic bottles. As mentioned, it does attack some kinds of plastics, so you have to be careful what you use it around, and the extent of damage can vary from slight to severe, some plastics will be instantly and visibly damaged, others the effects might not show up till later. I get a build up of residue, media additive, powder residue etc sometimes building up in my tumbler bowl, adding some clean walnut shell will remove it over time, but of course this is just moving it from the bowl to the media, so your media is worn out faster. From time to time I use mineral spirits in my bowl to remove those deposits, and on my OLD Lyman I have seen no damage, but your bowl could be made of a completely different material, so its possible the mineral spirits could have damaged it. Your situation could have just been a bad batch of plastic, or the mineral spirits might have damaged it, its hard to say. I use Flitz Media Additive, and I have some Dillon polish, both work well and you wouldn't have to worry about damage to the bowl.

After all the testing I did on accuracy, and considering a lot of variables, I ended up choosing AA2460, it meters perfectly and just as accurate as Varget IN MY AR-15, your results may vary.

When I was testing loads to find the powder I wanted to use, I tried Varget, at first I weighed every charge since I did see some variation in the weights on Varget through a powder measure. I decided to do a test, I loaded up 25 rounds of 223/5.56 weighing every charge, and another 25 rounds through a Dillon powder measure, then I took them to the range. I couldn't find any measurable differences out to 300 yards between weighing each charge and just dispensing it from the Dillon powder measure, later I ran a test through a chrono, and again found no significant difference between the two different methods. In the end I finally settled on AA2460 for my 223/5.56 loads, I found no advantage in accuracy by using Varget, so there was no reason to put up with its shortcomings.

I used to use Bullseye a long time ago, but switched to WW231, here's some chrono results. This was shot using a Kimber Match Target 1911 with a 5" bbl: 9/28/2006 70 degrees 5.0 gr WW231 Fed primer 230 gr Lead Round Nose 1 750.2-- 760.8 2 764.4-- 799.5 3 802.1-- 779.7 4 744.2-- 787.4 5 806.9-- 753.3 6 772.2-- 763.2 7 780.9-- 769.8 8 756.1-- 765.5 9 802.0-- 754.9 10 758.1-- 756.7 Average 773.0-- 769.1 High 806.9-- 799.5 Low 744.2-- 753.3 ES 62.7-- 46.2 SD 23.2-- 15.3 AD 19.4-- 12.0 10/5/2006 75 degrees 5.0 gr WW231 Fed primer 200 gr SWC 1 766.4 2 748.8 3 787.3 4 775.7 5 787.5 6 785.2 7 767.3 8 775.9 9 780.3 10 790.1 Average 781.5 High 798.8 Low 766.4 ES 31.4 SD 10.2 AD 8.3

The last time I cleaned primer pockets was before I got my Dillon in 1985, I shot competitive pistol for a number of years in the Master Class and cleaning primer pockets on pistol ammo is a complete and total waste of time. Very few shooters are capable of shooting as well as their pistol, and testing has shown no accuracy difference between cleaning or not cleaning primer pockets at normal pistol distances. At most ranges I can't see any advantage to cleaning primer pockets in rifle ammo either, now if you regularly compete in 1,000 yard rifle matches in the Master Class, it might make a difference in that situation.

When you seat primers they go in too easy, and/or they fall out after they have been seated. Actually, I've never had a problem with the Super Swage doing anything like that. However, some primer pocket reamers will ruin a primer pocket in a heartbeat!

After filling the powder measure, I'll cycle it 4 or 5 times to allow it to settle down, then run a couple checking weight, then load however many I'm loading that day. I've never had it change by itself in over 100,000 rounds, nobody around that could mess with it, and each one of my powder measures carries a label to show what powder and charge weight its set up for.

A fairly large percentage of the 40 brass I shoot was originally fired in a Glock, I reload using a standard Dillon die set and haven't had any problems at all, as long as your loads are moderate there shouldn't be a problem, if you try to max load them you could have a big problem.

A case bulge isn't unusual, the photos are so small its hard to tell how bad it is, a case gauge would help you there, but most people just take their barrel out and use that. I've never had any chambering problems using Dillon dies, I'm using Dillon dies on my M&P 40 and the pistol functions 100%.

As a former Hunter Safety Instructor and Home Firearm Safety Instructor, I feel compelled to comment on the careless firearm handling at the start of the video. The shooter has the gun in his hand as he pulls up his sleeves, the gun is pointed in the general direction of his left hand, I understand he hasn't chambered a round yet, but the gun is loaded even though there isn't one in the chamber, this is an accident waiting to happen. If you want to adjust your clothing, PUT THE GUN DOWN FIRST.

I've resized 5 or 6,000 once fired LC 5.56 cases with a Dillon 223/5.56 die with absolutely no problems, also several thousand once fired 45 acp military cases on an old Lyman 45 acp die, I have never bent or broken a decapping pin...ever.

45+ years reloading, 26 years on a Dillon RL550, 100,000+ loads on the Dillon, I have had one squib in that entire reloading history, it was before I got the Dillon, so it was loaded on a single stage press, I took all the standard precautions, loading all the cases with powder, then shining a flashlight down on the loading block to make sure that all the cases had a powder charge, but still somehow I missed it. I was shooting a compact S&W 9mm model 469, barrel about 3.5", and I got a "pop" instead of a bang, even though I'd never had it happen, I knew exactly what it was, and sure enough, the jacketed bullet was lodged about half way down the barrel. The barrel was put in a vice using wood blocks to protect it, and a brass rod was used to push the bullet out of the barrel, it was surprising how much force it took.

Let's see now...45 years reloading, the last 26 years on a Dillon RL550 (pre B model), 100,000 plus loads on the Dillon, and I'm still waiting for the "problems in the long run" to show up.

This is out of my Kimber 1911, its pretty darn close to 800 fps. 10/5/2006 75 degrees 5.0 gr WW231 200 gr Lead SWC 1 766.4 2 748.8 3 787.3 4 775.7 5 787.5 6 785.2 7 767.3 8 775.9 9 780.3 10 790.1 Average 781.5 High 798.8 Low 766.4 ES 31.4 SD 10.2 AD 8.3