Finally loaded on my Dillon 650

[Youngeyes]

I never had a squib until I went to the 650. I was in the habit that if something didn't seem right, I would stop. With the 550 that happened sometimes when I had just started to raise the ram. I would drop it back without the shellplate advancing. I wasn't used to the auto indexing yet.I let a case go by without powder, after I had partially raised, then lowered the ram. The next case had the bullet drop in because it hadn't been resized. I pulled that one and went on, thinking that was the only problem. Ooops....

Note to Intel6...Hi Neal. Nice to see you in the post. Happy Thanksgiving.

[Jimk60]

Sorry to report, but it is perfectly possible to do a double-charge and a squib on a progressive machine.

It is pretty much impossible as long as things are going right. But strange things do happen, and to clear some jams, etc. you have to sometimes move things manually.

Read: create a room for errors.

With good discipline it is safe, but you have to REALLY concentrate on what you are doing.

In my many years of loading on progressive presses I had one or two double charges, and also made about 100 squibs.

AVOID DISRUPTIONS LIKE SYPHILIS!

In my year and a half of reloading on my 650, I have had 1 over, not double charge. Thankfully no damage to me or the firearm.

I have had about 3 squibs in my 1911. The result being, the slide locked up and would not cycle. Had to drive the bullet back into the case

All of these, the overcharge, and squibs happened because of one thing.

I was building up new loads, weighing each powder load, pouring back into the case, and replacing back into the shell plate. Occasionally, I would keep a case out for various reasons.

So I overcharged one, and replaced empty stations with a case with no powder a few times.

So they were all 'DAUE's *Dumb A$$ User Error). Not paying enough attention when handling cases outside the normal process.

Needless to say, I am much more careful when developing loads, or checking powder weight now, and never have more than one case out of the shell plate on the left side of the press.

If I need to keep one out for some reason, it goes on the right side of the press.

[Hi-Power Jack]

it is possible to double-charge and a squib on a progressive machine.

they were all 'DAUE's *Dumb A$$ User Error). Not paying enough attention when handling cases outside the normal process.

I loaded 300 rounds with 20% squibs due not to a DAUE ....

A piece on my SDB was going bad and I didn't realize it until

it broke. By that time, I have loaded 300 rounds of 9mm major

and Some of Them didn't have much powder in them

So, it's DAUE plus possible broken parts ....

Best approach - I bought an In-Line light, and LOOK into

each case as I'm loading ...

No more DAUE's or broken part errors (BPE's).

[Jimk60]

Installed Lite Tech lite on my 650 yesterday (11/28). It's fabulous.

Since I wet needle clean, the inside of my cases sparkle, and I can see into them extremely well before inserting a bullet.

Any over charges or squibs, for me, will be a DAUE.

[AzShooter]

Which Lite Tech are you using?

[texasref]

One thing that I believe I read here is this:

If for any reason you are distracted or called away from your machine, leave the handle down and the cases up in the dies.

This way when you come back you'll know exactly where you are in the process.

[Jollymon32]

Question from a noob:

Disclosure: I have loaded a total of 40 rounds (4 batches of different grains, for chrono purposes) on a Dillon 550.

I am weighing each round and in the process had one that was 3.5 grains off the others in its batch. Upon inspection, I realized it had no primer.

I believe weighing each round (or a batch of them) would mitigate the possibility of missing or double loads as well as primers missing, but is this feasible when trying to load 1000 rounds?

[BeerBaron]

I've tried a couple and seen many more used by others. the best in my opinion is this one:

http://inlinefabrication.com/collections/lighting/products/skylighttm-led-lighting-kit-for-the-dillon-650

yes it costs $40 and yes you can probably do it cheaper but it has a few nice things:

very nice central pod that fits neatly in the centre hole of both my dillon and my whidden 650 toolheads.

has neat wiring and connectors

has a nice 4inch LED strip that goes on the inside of the front of the frame

comes with mains power supply (no batteries) and a convenient on/off switch you can mount on the side of your bench

try and get all those bits for under $40 and then spend time wiring and assembling it all and to me it seemed like it was worth the money.

It provides a fantastic amount of light into cases and around the shell plate in general.

[BeerBaron]

Question from a noob:

Disclosure: I have loaded a total of 40 rounds (4 batches of different grains, for chrono purposes) on a Dillon 550.

I am weighing each round and in the process had one that was 3.5 grains off the others in its batch. Upon inspection, I realized it had no primer.

I believe weighing each round (or a batch of them) would mitigate the possibility of missing or double loads as well as primers missing, but is this feasible when trying to load 1000 rounds?

nope it's in no way feasible to weigh every charge and in fact doing that (stopping and pulling cases for weighing) is most often where the double charge or squib load mistakes happen.

weigh charges (just a couple) when starting a session but after that trust in your eyes and in the equipment.

if you really want to load weighing each charge a better way would be to remove the powder measure and replace with a lee powder through expanding die with the powder funnel adapter. get a trickle scale. it'll trickle out your required load and then your dump it down the funnel when the ram is in the up position. but doing that you almost might as well just go to a single stage process.

it's worth checking the load every now and then to ensure nothing has drifted but no more than a couple of round every 300 or so. stopping and starting the process on a progressive is the danger time.

[TDA]

He was weighing each round, not each charge

Which is also basically useless, as case and bullet weights can vary leading to grossly incorrect assumptions on charge differences.

Edited November 30, 2015 by TDA

[TDA]

weigh charges (just a couple) when starting a session but after that trust in your eyes and in the equipment.

Exactly.

The Dillon powder measure doesn't make mistakes, the operator does.

[BeerBaron]

He was weighing each round, not each charge

Which is also basically useless, as case and bullet weights can vary leading to grossly incorrect assumptions on charge differences.

opps. missed that. I thought he was just weighing charged cases...

yep weighing finished rounds won't tell you anything useful. cast coated bullets are regularly +/- 1gn which obviously means 2gns from your lightest bullet to your heaviest. primers can vary a little and cases can vary by quite a lot from different makers.