Is IMR 4895 powder Dillion 550 friendly?

[rsgirdner]

Will IMR 4895 powder meter properly in the Dillion 550 progressive reloader?

[dillon]

As an extruded powder, I-4895 will not meter as smoothly as, say, W-748. However, into calibers larger than .243/6mm, it meters well enough. Expect powder throws to weigh within +/- .1-.2 grain for the most part. The only issue with using full-length extruded powders into smaller caliber cases, such as .223, is that if you cycle the handle too fast, the powder can log-jam on top of the funnel. This causes a squib load in that case, but an overflow on the next case. If you polish the upper portion of the powder funnel, and cycle the handle slowly, so that powder freely flows through the funnel, it may also be used in .22 calibers.

[twodownzero]

I wouldn't try any stick powder in a Dillon. It causes nothing but problems.

I single load/weigh all of my stick powder loads.

[rsgirdner]

Thanks, I plan on reloading 308 Win. for an Armalite AR 10(T) carbine, and a Springfield M1A, and 30-06 for a Remington 742.

[Caspian_45]

You will be fine loading 4895 with a Dillon measure. Thats what I load in my '06

I will say the the smaller the case mouth the more incosistant the powder drop. you will get bridgeing with the stick powders. If loading 6mm and up is your goal then the Dillon will do just fine.

[DMS42]

Whenever I'm loading stick powder and especially 4895 I lightly tap the handle on the full down stroke. It doesn't stop all the bridging in .223 but it does cut down the number. I even tap when loading Varget into .308.

[MARKAVELI]

So I take it when loading for rifle and use stick powder this mostly happens when usen IMR4895? and lot of people only have this problem when loading on the 550? Does this happen on the 650 also? And do most Dillon press owners use a single stage to load for rifle? I don't own a rifle or load fore one, NOT YET atleast...

[G-ManBart]

I wouldn't try any stick powder in a Dillon. It causes nothing but problems.

I single load/weigh all of my stick powder loads.

Seems the good folks at Dillon disagree with you

No, it's not going to meter as well as spherical powders, or short cut stick powders, but it won't be bad. N105 is a pretty long stick, probably not as long as 4895 or 4064, but it's still pretty long. I can throw ten charges and be within a couple of tenths (two to three max) time after time.

Edited July 22, 2010 by G-ManBart

[G-ManBart]

So I take it when loading for rifle and use stick powder this mostly happens when usen IMR4895? and lot of people only have this problem when loading on the 550? Does this happen on the 650 also? And do most Dillon press owners use a single stage to load for rifle? I don't own a rifle or load fore one, NOT YET atleast...

The powder measures are the same and it would be the same for any number of stick powders (the longer, the more of an issue it is), but even at it's worst, it's good enough for anything but really long range precision stuff. R,

Edit to add: I just compared N105 with 4895 and the stick lengths are very similar. 4895 might be slightly fatter, but it's a very small difference. I was resetting my powder measure for 10.7gr of N105 and ran off three 10-throw strings once I had it set. Those three were 107.1gr, 107.0gr and 107.2gr. With 3N38 (shorter stick) I'll often get them all within .1gr for ten throws (I use 10gr of it, so they'd be like 99.9, 100.0, 100.1 etc).

Edited July 23, 2010 by G-ManBart