Varget on a dillon 750, occasional spill

[engineerjet]

So I've been having powder throw issues on my 750 loading 223. Every once in a while, like 1 out of 30-40 throws, powder gets hung up in the measure channel somehow and on the downstroke itll dump everything for that particular throw (when the case has already been lowered) and then powder gets EVERYWHERE. Is it due to the size of the powder causing a blockage? Has anyone else had this issue?

[BJB]

Yes, this is fairly common with the larger grain extruded powders like Varget when having to funnel down to a small case mouth like a .223.  

[HesedTech]

On 5/30/2023 at 7:09 AM, engineerjet said:

Has anyone else had this issue?

Yes. Tried to run it on the powder drop just once. Never again!

Use a ball powder for progressive presses. A lot of good choices out there.

[PhotoRecon]

I tried Varget in both my Dillon and RCBS uniflow but the variance from drop to drop was quite a bit.

[m700]

I also metered poorly with varget on a dillon.  I use it a bunch in 6.5 and 308 but only by hand.

[mmc45414]

My experience was that with the Dillon powder measure on a 550 (no powder check) I have a bunch of rounds that really cannot be trusted for anything but plinking.  No squibs, but several that were sketchy. 

 

With a Hornady measure on a 650, and using a powder check it was not so bad, if you got a low charge from a bridge the alarm went off and you caught it.

 

All in all, not an optimal combination.  For anything you want to load on a progressive with thrown charges one of the balls, like H355 or CFE223, are vastly better. 

[RGA]

I had good luck after polishing the inside of the Dillon powder funnel. No more powder bridging with Varget or N140/N540.

 

Another issue is that you should give the charge enough time to drop through the powder funnel by adding a little dwell time.

[mlmiller1]

Tap powder canister when brass is in the up position.  Knuckle rap.  Might help....

[B767capt]

I use this on my 750 with no issues.

 

https://www.doublealpha.biz/us/daa-fast-flow-powder-funnel

[jejb]

On 10/25/2023 at 7:09 AM, B767capt said:

I use this on my 750 with no issues.

 

https://www.doublealpha.biz/us/daa-fast-flow-powder-funnel

Nice! Thanks. It would be nice to be able to run some of those stick powders in a progressive.

Edited November 22, 2023 by jejb

[fbzero]

The longer extruded powders can create a bridge in the powder funnel, very frustrating when it happens.  The ones with shorter sticks like 8208 XBR don't seem to do it in my experience, but still don't seem to meter well out of my Dillon powder drops.  Currently experimenting with a Hornady Auto Drum and seeing promising results.  Have heard it works very good in the past, but as cheap as it seems to be built, took a while to warm up to the idea of giving it a go...