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Clays and Dillon


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As long as the charge is not to light it should work fine. The thing to remember is that anyone loading on a Dillon, Hornady, Lee, or other progressive/ turret press where powder is dropped as part of the machines function is loading by volume and not weight. Some powders are dense so a small volume equals a good bit of weight. Some like Clays are fairly light meaning not very dense so you need a higher volume to get the required charge weight. When the volume of the powder measures drop cavity is below .4 CC the press will have a hard time dropping consistent charges of a flake powder like Clays. My charge of 3.9 grains of Clays requires a cavity of about .5 CC and it is very consistent. When I try to load at around .4 CC or about 3.1 grains then I start getting drops ranging from 3.1 grains down to less than 2 due to the flakes bridging inside the measures drop cavity.

I would also recommend that you refill your hopper whenever it gets close to half if you are loading a flake powder. The added weight of having a full hopper helps stop the powder from hanging up or bridging inside the hopper.

Edited by Poppa Bear
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Different machine but I'm starting to get into the lower end of Brian's numbers on my SL900 loading 18.1 grains of Clays and it's consistent day in and day out. I got on the waiting list when this machine was announced and have been using it since the late '90's.

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As long as the charge is not to light it should work fine. The thing to remember is that anyone loading on a Dillon, Hornady, Lee, or other progressive/ turret press where powder is dropped as part of the machines function is loading by volume and not weight.....the volume of the powder measures drop cavity is below .4 CC the press will have a hard time dropping consistent charges of ....drops ranging from 3.1 grains down to less than 2 due to the flakes bridging inside the measures drop cavity.

I would also recommend that you refill your hopper whenever it gets close to half if you are loading a flake powder. The added weight of having a full hopper helps stop the powder from hanging up or bridging inside the hopper.

Poppa,

I am cross-blogging..but..we were having this same discussion in another thread. ALL powder systems are affected by powder density, settling, etc...unless you hand weigh each charge. The Dillon (and Lee's) will have a few high throws after sitting or after refilling powder tube. It's just the nature of the beast.

I use Unique and in small charges you HAVE to use the Dillon X-small charge bar. The regular charge bar gets flakey (hahah..flake powder?) when at either end of it's dispensing range.

Also recommend a good cleaning and using scotch brite on the areas in the powder dispenser that can bridge powder. The "Bounty Sheet Headband" is also suggested. This cuts down on the static charge and sticking that can occur.

YMMV...this is all what I have seen...I am brand new to Dillon and haven't been reloading enough to say I am even a pro-sumer...

Undrpsi

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Clays has always metered great on my SDB.

The week before the GA state, I chronoed and everything was normal. Spreads were 10-20fps with mixed brass.

At the match chrono, they went 748, 746, and 747fps! :surprise:

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