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I normally produce plinking ammo on a Dillon XL650. Just bought a Labradar and I'm trying to get ready for my next range session.
Last night I tried my hand at doing a ladder load for .223. 55gr Montana Gold FMJs (bought years before they had their issues flying apart) with Ramshot X-Terminator.
I loaded up 30 rounds in 0.2gr increments, but at the end I got tired, hit 24.0gr with a max of 24.5 (Speer data), and just loaded the rest at 24.0gr.
Is this always a pain in the butt on a progressive? It felt like I spent too much time chasing the powder measure. I also managed to decap a live primer, without the noise and flash.
I was checking out the finished product, and just wasn't happy. I'm going to pull them down and re-do this. I've got a micrometer adjustable powder bar from Uniquetek on order, just to save my sanity. I was thinking about buying this years ago, and should have.
I have start/stop 'buttons' on the 650 for the primer feed and the case feed, and this helped a lot. I'm going to switch out the decapper in station one with a Dillon universal decapper I have lying around. This will allow me just to pull out the clip and unscrew the decapping pin, and not continue to stoopid.
Any other tips? Aside from getting a single stage (which is what I was thinking after last night). Or am I expecting too much with a progressive and it's powder system at 0.2gr increments?
Last night I tried my hand at doing a ladder load for .223. 55gr Montana Gold FMJs (bought years before they had their issues flying apart) with Ramshot X-Terminator.
I loaded up 30 rounds in 0.2gr increments, but at the end I got tired, hit 24.0gr with a max of 24.5 (Speer data), and just loaded the rest at 24.0gr.
Is this always a pain in the butt on a progressive? It felt like I spent too much time chasing the powder measure. I also managed to decap a live primer, without the noise and flash.
I was checking out the finished product, and just wasn't happy. I'm going to pull them down and re-do this. I've got a micrometer adjustable powder bar from Uniquetek on order, just to save my sanity. I was thinking about buying this years ago, and should have.
I have start/stop 'buttons' on the 650 for the primer feed and the case feed, and this helped a lot. I'm going to switch out the decapper in station one with a Dillon universal decapper I have lying around. This will allow me just to pull out the clip and unscrew the decapping pin, and not continue to stoopid.
Any other tips? Aside from getting a single stage (which is what I was thinking after last night). Or am I expecting too much with a progressive and it's powder system at 0.2gr increments?
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