Experience is no substitute for diligence

[rodell]

I was cranking away loading .223 for my next prairie poodle hunt. I use 26.5 grains of H4895 which is a full case. It was one of those days where powder is spilling, cases are tipping, and primers are doing whatever the hell they want.

While tending to other stuff I managed to run out of powder. I said it would never happen and I sure don't need any of those fancy powder dies for a full case. Huh-huh.

For my lack of diligence I got to individually weight 750 cartridges to find the three that had no powder.

NOW I don't need any fancy powder checker!

As an aside, I switched to CCi BR-4's and they misbehaved in the primer system far more than the normal small rifle CCi's I usually use. I flipped about ten in 500 rounds, far more than I ever had before.

Some days one should just not bother.

I am going to try a phenolic or delrin detent ball to try to reduce spillage, as well as run the case just a smidgen tighter into the powder die. I got full travel of the bar but still some leakage when dropping the charge.

Edited August 7, 2014 by rodell

[Service Desk]

Some days are diamonds.....some days are stone.

[dillon]

Try slowing the speed of your handle downstroke. It should take one full second to move the powder bar over. Most powder spillage is likely coming from powder logjamming in the funnel. This is common with extruded powders in small calibers.

[rodell]

Great advice, as usual. I didn't think about it and it wasn't as much of a problem the last time I loaded this particular charge. However, it was a different lot of powder. I am in no particular hurry - I will just need to be conscious of the speed.

My haunted machine is flipping primers now, about 3-4 out of 100. It didn't do that before so I pulled everything apart, cleaned it, and put it back together. I also cleaned up the chamfer on the holes on the primer disc. They were a little chewed up.