Dillon Powder measure and the powder check die?

[Canuck223]

So what's the feeling among Dillon users? Is the checker needed, or just a frill?

[Sarge]

I personally have my press set up with lots of light shining right into the case after the powder drop. I just eyeball it before seating a bullet. Of course on a 550 I would be limited anyway.

[Modoc]

I had to add another in that I have had a problem, but do not really want the powder check die. My problem was that the small white poly cube on the powder bar wore out and fell off and I ended up with some real random loads from zero powder to a double charge . I am still running a 550B with plenty of light and at the start of each session, I do a check of everything first. The not want comes from a 550B only having 4 stations and I am not in the position of buying and retooling for a 650 just to have a powder check station.

[Skydiver]

It's pretty funny that I started off without a powder checker the first year I was reloading on my 650. I was loading 9mm and .45.

Towards the end of that first year, I was getting light loads on my 9mm. Not significantly lighter but enough to be 3 power factor lower at times. I wasn't too worried about a double charge since I look in my cases anyway and I would notice a double charge easily.

I bought powder checkers for the 9mm and .45 toolheads. After using them for about two months, I stopped using them because:

1) I've got more of a mess of powder than usual on my shell plate because Titegroup occasionally seems to stick to the powder check rod that goes into the case;

2) The jam nut at the end of the die push rod keeps coming lose in the middle of a big reloading batch giving me false alarms;

3) If I get a machine jam, there yet one more part to take off the press if I don't want to be annoying by beeping; and

4) The system doesn't really warn me of light loads where the load is off by .2 or .3 grains.

So now as I load .40 and with my powder measure in position 3, and my Lee U die sitting in position 2, I don't even have a slot for a powder check die.

I recommend saving your $70, and getting a micrometer powder measure kit ($50) and a powder baffle ($5) from UniqueTek instead.

I recently performed an experiment last week where I put a lot of powder in the hopper and also when the powder level at bottom of the hopper. I got amazingly consistent powder drops between the two extremes.

[dillon]

I have never personally had the powder measure drop a powder charge off enough to activate the powder check. However, on several occasions, I had it go off. The cause was always something stuck in the case, such as a smaller case or a piece of gravel.Nothing I wanted to launch out of my barrel.

[CSEMARTIN]

It's cheap insurance.

[freakshow10mm]

I was born with two powder checkers which cost me nothing. I don't see the need for a mechanical one. Be aware of what you're doing and go on with life.

[EEH]

To each his or her own but I love mine,,I don't run my reloader without it,,thats just me

Edited May 28, 2010 by EEH

[98sr20ve]

Favorite line from a guy with a squib "I don't know how it happened, I have a powder check die on my 650".

[Skydiver]

Are batteries fresh? Is the powder check rod installed? Did the jam nut on the dip push rod come loose? Did the right piece of brass go into the right shell plate slot after a jam?

[98sr20ve]

Are batteries fresh? Is the powder check rod installed? Did the jam nut on the dip push rod come loose? Did the right piece of brass go into the right shell plate slot after a jam?

It wasn't me who said it. It was someone at a match who had a squib in the middle of a COF. But, your helping me make my point. It's just another mechanical device that can fail or be set up wrong. It's not something I can trust. I would use one in a heart beat on .223 but if I can easily see the powder I don't really see the point of having it. Thats my personal opinion of course.

[anm2_man]

The real question of this poll is "will a Dillon powder checker save your butt" ? Three months ago I would say NO !. Been reloading .223 for my Mini-14 and my AC556 for years (More than I care to talk about). Well this last spring - I had a KABOOM !!! It blew the bolt of the AC556 in 3 pieces (PS I was in Semi). A subsequent round did a KABOOM in my MINI-14. The bolt was fine, but had a major case separation.

So the question is "Why did this happen" ? After pulling 200 of those rounds and finding nothing bad (I still have 800 of them left) I tried figure out what happened. First off, a .223 loaded with 24.8 grn of H335 - you can not have a double charge with out seeing it (it will overflow all over the place). So I ruled out double charge. But a couple of years ago I experimented with several different corn cob sizes for cleaning rounds from case lube. The attempt was to improve the quality of cleaning brass that had been sized + trimmed to remove the case lube. After trying the larger size corn cob's I noticed that there was a lot of jamming inside the cartridge where the large kernels of cob were jammed into the .223 brass. So I expect that I missed one or more cases that had residual cob left in the case. So if this is the case - when I went to reload those cases and a large particle of Corn cob remaining in the case, I now have a High Pressure situation which Caused the KABOOM ! Would the Dillon Powder Checker catch this ? You bet - I now have a Dillon Powder checker for all rounds that I reload.

[Skydiver]

Good point about the debris inside the case situation that a powder checker will probably notice, but eyeballs may not notice.

[GunslingerDK]

I have loaded around 20.000 rounds on my 650, without the powder check. I never had a squib. I only load 9mm and .38 special on it. When loading the 9 I can se see powder, which is not possible when doing .38 special. At first i was a little nervous by the fact that I was unable to see if there's powder in the case or not.

A powder check die is $150 here in Denmark, so i think I will continue living without one!

[JayWord]

I have never personally had the powder measure drop a powder charge off enough to activate the powder check. However, on several occasions, I had it go off. The cause was always something stuck in the case, such as a smaller case or a piece of gravel.Nothing I wanted to launch out of my barrel.

I had a rash of squibs in 9mm. I am a very careful loader and never had any issues before. It turned ou the pivot arm for the powder bar was coming loose and randomly not dropping a load. I locktited the nuts and bought a powder checker. I ended up pulling 500+ 9mm bullets with about a 3-5% squib rate in that group. None since. I also locktited the rest of my powder measures, 45, 40 and super.

BTW: A spider web also will trip the checker, found one in a 9mm case the other day.

Jay