Dillon 1050 with mark 7 Autodrive spilling powder

[Casper]

I’m very new to reloading, and found myself trading a gun for a super 1050 with an auto drive and all the bells and whistles. I’m loading 9 Major with 9 grains 3n38. The thing is spilling powder like crazy. Running it on the lowest settings but it still seems too fast. Anyone have any tips to help with the spillage?

[RickT]

how full is the case with this load?  At 900 rounds/hour, the lowest setting, the press is moving in slow motion.  I take is the spillage is occurring when the case stops at the bullet feeder station or is it spilling when the rotation starts?.  As I recall the gap between the shellplate and the frame should be 0.019".  A larger gap might permit the case to wobble.

 

I'm sure you will get additional answers, but the Dillon or non-Dillon sub-forums might be a better fit for this question.  Might be you have a Dillon setup issue exacerbated by the dynamics of the Mark VII.  As an aside as a new reloaded verify your loads carefully when loading major (I don't load major since I primarily shoot steel challenge).

Edited August 23 by RickT

[Casper]

31 minutes ago, RickT said:

how full is the case with this load?  At 900 rounds/hour, the lowest setting, the press is moving in slow motion.  I take is the spillage is occurring when the case stops at the bullet feeder station or is it spilling when the rotation starts?.  As I recall the gap between the shellplate and the frame should be 0.019".  A larger gap might permit the case to wobble.

 

I'm sure you will get additional answers, but the Dillon or non-Dillon sub-forums might be a better fit for this question.  Might be you have a Dillon setup issue exacerbated by the dynamics of the Mark VII.  As an aside as a new reloaded verify your loads carefully when loading major (I don't load major since I primarily shoot steel challenge).

 

It’s quite full. Like almost full. Spillage happens when it stops at the bullet feed station. Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place.. if I did can someone move it or something?

[ddc]

I would strongly suggest that you learn how to reload a basic 9mm load (9mm minor) before you do anything else. In manual mode, no Mk7.

 

Once you understand your machine thoroughly and are comfortable with the basics of reloading you can progress to 9mm Major. Again manual only.

 

Then and only then hook up your Mk7 drive. At this point go back to 9mm Minor and perfect your man-machine-drive process. Do not be surprised if it takes a while.

 

Once you've got this all under control introduce 9mm Major into the equation.

 

Diving into reloading, automation and 9mm Major all at the same time is asking for trouble, frustration and may be a bit dangerous to boot... 

 

Just my 2 cents worth... good luck.

[Braxton1]

9Major is a bear to do automated.  Small case + large powder volume = spillage.

 

In the CONTROLS console of the Mark7, you can adjust the Index Speed of the shellplate.  Even though, like others have said, the press is in slo-motion at 900 rph, this control will slow that particular motion down a bit.

 

I'd also check the Detent Ball and its spring.  If it's a little stiff, the plate will snap into position at the last little bit even though the plate was turning slowly.  That tiny snap can sling powder.  If you have a spare spring, try clipping the original to take some of that snap out...

[caspian guy]

If you are going to load 9mm major on an automated press you should probably look at using Aa7 or Ramshot Silhouette instead as both are denser than 3n38 and will leave the case less full as a consequence, which should lead to less powder slinging.

[Maximis228]

Going from not reloading to reloading on a 1050 with an autodrive is a really bad idea. Especially starting with 9 major. 

 

I highly encourage you to take the autodrive off and load manually for a little bit. You need to be able to load with minor powder spillage and a very low rejection rate (Under 1%). 

 

I'm able to load 9 major on my 1050's with Mark 7 auto drives at a rate of 1850/hr. I use WAC which is a less full case when loading (7.1 of WAC under a 124 1.165 OAL 172 PF). When I load HS6 or even AA7 I can still run the machine around the 1500 RPH range. I use mixed range brass, rollsize, and pre process my brass before loading. This significantly reduces my waste (.164% failure rate out of 102K+ loaded rounds in the last 12 months). 

 

Here is an active thread of my case gauge results and process over the last year - 

 

[Casper]

Thank you guys for the input. Main takeaway - remove the auto drive for now. I’ll do that before I do anymore reloading. I’ve loaded about 5000 rounds on a 750 at a buddy’s house who has years of experience with it. So I think going manual would be better for now anyway. I would love to switch powders to something more dense but when I got the machine it came with 30 lbs of 3n38 so it feels wrong to not use it. I’ll switch to manual and see how we do. Thanks for the help everyone really appreciate the input.