Dillon 550 RL won’t drop consistent charges

david walter

david walter

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#1
My Dillon 550 RL won’t drop consistent charges

I have a Dillion rl550b. Had it for 30+ years.

As I’ve gotten more experienced reloading, I’ve noticed that stick powders (4064, RL17, etc) are infinitely harder to get to drop consistent charges. In an experiment I just did with a charge of 7-08 and RL17, a third to half of the charges were up or down .1-.2 grains.

Am I missing some obvious trick to get the powder drop to be more consistent?.

I get using ball powders should be more consistent. But I have the same issue with StaBall 6.5.
 
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#2
That is what I would consider consistent for extruded powder. Shorter stick powders like 8208 do a little better but you’re still +-.1 at best.

There are a few things you can do like polish out the thrower and add a baffle but a volumetric thrower will never be dead nuts on weight with stick powder. Search out the numerous Dillon threads, there are a lot of tricks and details there.
 
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#3
No drop measure will be "precision consistent" (to my personal level of "precision" which is +/- 0.02 grains from target) with stick powders. Period. Full stop. Even with smaller kernels (N135, 8208XBR). I won't even drop "ball" powders (H335, CFE223) for anything except bulk blaster ammo. I too use a Dillon rig.

Get a trickler, drop a tenth or two light, weigh, trickle to weight. Yes, it's slow (or expensive if you want to get an FX-120i-class autotrickler, maybe a bit iffy with Chargemaster-class autotricklers).
 
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#4
Biggest thing is to stop and really think about whether you actually *need* the charge weights to be more consistent than the stock powder measure throws, or just want them to be.

For plinking / range ammo, probably not. For hunting - at the distances most people *actually* take their game at, not what they tell their buddies online - probably not. For positional practice, most likely not. For precision shooting at extended distances... maybe yes.

As an exercise, try taking the 'same' load - 10+ rds trickled to weight, and 10+ rds thrown straight from the measure - and go shoot them side by side. Leave the chromo at home. See how much *actual* difference it makes on target, and whether or not it's worth the extra effort for the kind of shooting you want to do.
 
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#5
memilanuk,

I like that idea. I have some ammo that I know was loaded on the Dillon and I know the drop charges varied + or - a tenth or more that still shoots well out to 450 on our 1.5 MOA (minute of deer) gongs.

I just loaded 10 for my 7-08 weighing each charge.

I'll load another 10 throwing each charge and we'll see.

I'll measure group, velocity, ES and SD.
 
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#7
if it's consistently within 3 tenths you may not want to worry about it for your roughly 450 yard work.
i had bad luck with chargemasters so i went with the autotrickler v3 with fx120i. its expensive but dang its fast and accurate.
 
#8
I've mentioned this in the other Dillon threads but again: My best improvement came when I stopped resizing on the 550 while loading. That removes one of the selling points of a progressive but it also removes a lot of wiggle and vibrations caused by squishing brass into a resize die. Resize on a different press , tumble off the lube, put a universal decap die in hole 1 to make sure the flashhole is clear and run 'em through. So smooth, you wont believe the difference.

Of course, being a volume measure, I still have variances but they are smaller, as is the ES. Precision stuff goes on the single stage, everything else on the 550.

Many already do this, you may be one of them. Just a trick that helped me.

Thank you,
MrSmith
 
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#9
If stick powder is on the menu, I swap the thrower for a funnel and use charge master. Not ideal but works very well once you tune it right with the reducer in drop tube. I usually do not have to wait doe a charge of varget. Load brass and bullet and powder run handle to do it's thing and almost right on time for an other charge.

Thrower works great on the mire friendly shaped powders.
 
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#10
I use a case activated rotating drum power measure, in the 550 since the beginning, for rifle.
The Dillion powder measures are not accurate for rifle, especially extruded power. ....but excellent for pistol, with pistol powder & small charges.
I never use the Dillion measures for rifle.
 
#12
david walter said:
Tell me more
Click to expand...

RCBS makes a CAPD unit that mounts right on top of the tool head. It's got a pretty stout return spring, so it's gonna mow right thru any kernels that try to get in the way and hang up the UniFlow powder measure.

Once upon a time, I tested the UniFlow just mounted on the bench, vs. in the CAPD. Running solo, with medium extruded powder like Varget, it kinda sucked TBH. But mounted up on the 550, with the return spring making every throw exactly the same... it was surprisingly consistent. +/- 0.1 most of the time, with the occasional 0.2. Far, far better than the Dillon APM.
 
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#13
MrSmith said:
I've mentioned this in the other Dillon threads but again: My best improvement came when I stopped resizing on the 550 while loading. That removes one of the selling points of a progressive but it also removes a lot of wiggle and vibrations caused by squishing brass into a resize die. Resize on a different press , tumble off the lube, put a universal decap die in hole 1 to make sure the flashhole is clear and run 'em through. So smooth, you wont believe the difference.
Click to expand...

Or... you could take a page out of David Tubbs play book, and skip a station when putting the brass in. eg size a case, rotate the shell holder, *don't* place a new case, run the last one up to charge it, lower and rotate, put a new case in, size it, rotate (no new case), run up and charge seat together. Rinse lather repeat. The idea is that the more 'sensitive' operations (charging & seating) are directly opposite one another, and the brute force operation (sizing) is taking place on a completely separate stroke. Works well.

The next extrapolation is to have two tool heads - one set up with a sizer and a mandrel opposite each other, and the second with a decap die in station #1 to clear the flash hole (assuming you tumble the lube off), then a powder die w/ funnel in station #2 where you toss the charge from an AutoTrickler, and the seater in station #4. You can load some pretty good F-class level ammo with that set up.
 
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#14
If you already have a drum type measure Hornady and RCBS both have the case activated adapters.

If you do not have one then I'd look at the Johnson quick measure first.

Given you are having the issue even with ball powder I'd take a look at the inside of the Dillon measure for the common issues of worn plastic parts or the gap when the drop tube isn't pressed in all the way.
 
#15
david walter said:
Tell me more
Click to expand...
Here is a picture. Hornady makes the linkage to turn vertical motion into rotary motion. I have quite a few set up on Dillion tool heads.
Started using this setup around 40 yrs ago.
I used it for Varget and the 308 with Lapua 155 gr. Out to 1400 yds, 17,000 rds, before changing the recipe.
Not weighing every charge, but running the Dillion with a smooth rithum type moderate to slower speed. Any stoppage requires one to weigh the charge....I had excellent results.
 

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