Dillon 550C, manual powder drop with Auto thrower/trickler?

DellaDog

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Feb 23, 2017
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I recently purchased a 550C with the intent to combine a couple steps during sizing and seating.

The plan (similar to what the 6.5 guys describe here) was to have a manual powder die in station 2, the seating die in station 3 and a Redding instant indicator in station 4. I want to load precision 223 & 6.5 rounds so I’ll use my auto thrower setup to manually charge the powder.

The problem is it’s REALLY easy to forget to ONLY pour the powder when there’s a case in the raised position, and even then, you’ve got to lower the ram nice and easy to avoid spraying kernels, particularly with compressed 223 cases.

Ideally, I’d like to find some kind of die/funnel setup that will only allow the powder to drop if the ram is up and there’s a case inserted. Some sort of case actuated manual drop system? Does something like this exist?

When it takes two hours to load 50 rounds of 223 and you spend more time cleaning up powder, pulling bullets, going backwards to prime missed cases and reseating bullets - maybe that’s a clue one ain’t cut out for progressive loading.

And to the “never vacuum spilled powder” edict, I say - screw that, it works.
 
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Oh man, I've done that a bunch too. I just vacuumed up the powder. Learned the hard way not to vacuum up the brass retaining pins too.... sigh.

I just get in a rhythm and force myself to do a mental 5 count whenever I touch the press. Prime, new brass, place bullet, advance shell holder, pull handle. Then I go back to the powder to dump another charge.

Get the hang of it and you'll be faster than 2 hours to load 50 cases though. I'm more like 35-45 minutes to do 100 cases.
 
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