Inconsistent Powder Drop Dillon 550b

[HK Dave]

Hey folks was hoping to pick your brains.

New to progressive reloading and am setting up my Dillon 550b for 223rem.

I've dropped powder about 50 times and weighed... i'm getting between 23.5 and 24.6 grain weights.

Is it supposed to be this inconsistent? I hope i'm just doing something wrong here, because seems terrible to me.

I'm also finding powder is spilling in small amounts here and there onto the press. Everything seems locked down correctly. Maybe I'm not waiting long enough? Or the powder bar isn't setup correctly or needs to be lubed or something.

The manual really left me wanting.

If I could get it to .1 grain consistency, this would be the cats meow.

Any ideas?

[Bill Steele]

What powder?

[McGuiver]

What powder? My Dillon 450 powder drop is right on the money with ball powder. Stick powder is another story.


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[jericho89]

it has to do with the way you are operating your press. You must be consistent with how you throw the lever on the press.

[HK Dave]

H335

Oh I did not realize there's user skill involved. How interesting.

[dwalker]

Some people have switched to the Lee Auto-Drum powder dispenser over thier Dillon because it works with all types of powder and is very consistent.

[jericho89]

My Dillon works with all kinds of powder. But it works best when the powder is agitated with the motion of the press. Also you either need to do all of your drops with a light hand or a heavy hand.

[Citadelgrad87]

Afaik, you need to bump the stops, take the arm full travel, the same way every time. Also keep the powder hopper at least 1/4 full.

Mine drops very consistently.

[tokenr]

I polish out the powder bowl along with the top and inside of the powder bar. Helped me get my Varget sticks down to about 0.1-0.3 grains in variation.

[kmr007]

The powder hopper needs to be seasoned. Run a full lb and keep a used dryer sheet in the powder container when not in use. Prevents powder from sticking to the powder measure. This helped a lot when I first set up the 550B. Whenever I got a new powder measure for it, I kept a dry sheet sitting in there for 24hrs prior to use.

[noylj]

Did you clean the measure before use?
I unscrew and remove the hopper and spray Hornady One Shot CLEANER and DRY LUBE over the powder bars and pot-metal parts of the measure as I cycled the bars and I DON'T wipe it off (leaving behind any invisible dry lube). Likewise, you need to completely clean the "powder funnel" of any anti-corrosion oils, inside and out.
When you add powder, do you shake the measure to settle the powder? If not, it could take 50 throws or more to settle the powder.
Do you always throw at least 10 charges (and return them to the hopper) before you ever weigh a charge?
If you change the charge setting, do you always throw at least 5 charges (and return them to the hopper) before you ever weigh a charge?
Do you have the correct powder bar installed for the charge weight you are trying to throw? There are the extra small, small, large, and magnum. In most cases, the small takes care of normal pistol cartridges and the large takes care of normal rifle cartridges. If you have the wrong one installed, you'll have problems.
Finally, if you could, throw away the safety bar and get the old spring-activated system (powder measuring plug and Dillon springs). I find it is a bit more consistent than the "failsafe" rod.
Even in the best of cases, the Dillon is really just a Lee Auto-Disk with an Adjustable Charge Bar. For rifles, unless you are into long-range precision rifle at over 600 yards, even +/- 0.2gn will give accurate ammunition (the whole basis of the "optimum charge weight").
I find the Hornady L-N-L and the Lee PPM to be a bit more consistent.

[liber]

Also helps to rub a dryer softener sheet inside the measure tube to get rid of any static.

[HK Dave]

This is great stuff guys, had no idea progressive loading entailed all this. I'm going to try most of what I've read so far.

[Bill Steele]

I polish out the powder bowl along with the top and inside of the powder bar. Helped me get my Varget sticks down to about 0.1-0.3 grains in variation.

I agree with this advice, a polished bowl really helps with some powders, although I have never had Varget throw within .1gr in any powder drop I have ever had..

With ball powders like H335, definitely it is a technique issue as any drop should consistently meter this powder.

[MrElectric03]

As others have said there is a lot in how you run it. If you are consistent in how you operate the lever the press will be consistent. I've never used varget, I've been reloading for four years and this year was the first time I've ever seen any on a shelf. I use IMR 3031 for .223 and it's always within a tenth.

Powder spillage happens. After reading some of these other posts I'm thinking about polishing my powder drops to see if that helps.