Dillon 550 questions

[bootcamp]

Hi All,

I'm coming from the world of single stage. I like to separate headstamps for accuracy. I like to powder check every 10th or 20th round for powder measure consistency. 10 rounds if i'm not comfortable with the powder drop (Unique) or 20 rounds if I am comfortable (W231).

I just aquired a 550...

I get completely torn and clustered when I pull that 10th round from station 2 and pour it into the scale. It breaks that nice cycle of just placing a projectile in station 3 and putting a new brass in station 1. I don't like pouring the powder that I just weighed back into the live brass because sometimes not all the powder falls back into it. So after I pull that brass, there is an "break" in the "system"

Do you set aside the live brass and complete it at the end of the session? Or you pour the powder back into the brass from the scale bowl? Or do you just load 500 rounds and only check once or twice?

[Antihero47]

I believe your best option is to either get a powder check die and set your third station up as a powder check and then use a seater die that can crimp and remove belling or going through the motions and loading up about 20 cases and weight them all and get a average of what range your going to be dropping. It might be +/-.1 grain. Once you have that measurement I would load about 150 rounds and do the check again or when switch powders.

[oddjob]

Dillon 550

I check every 100-200 rds or so. And then I just pour the powder back into the case. I have several Dillon machines and powder weight is never a problem. The only problem I have is the seating & crimping dies work lose at times ("times" being defined as every 2-3k rds). Get a small funnel dedicated to pouring the powder back & you should be set.

[bootcamp]

I check every 100-200 rds or so. And then I just pour the powder back into the case. I have several Dillon machines and powder weight is never a problem. The only problem I have is the seating & crimping dies work lose at times ("times" being defined as every 2-3k rds). Get a small funnel dedicated to pouring the powder back & you should be set.

Ah ok, i'm still building my confidence with this powder measure. I am used to the uniflow and had a hell of a time with Unique powder so I am cautious. Bullseye however, seems to be metering pretty damn good in this Dillon Pow. Measure. And yes, now that I think of it I do have a dedicated powder funnel that I can use.

Stopping and resuming it quite a learning curve. As a precaution, when I resume, I pull station one's brass to check if it has a live or dead primer... before pulling the handle again.

[bootcamp]

I believe your best option is to either get a powder check die and set your third station up as a powder check and then use a seater die that can crimp and remove belling or going through the motions and loading up about 20 cases and weight them all and get a average of what range your going to be dropping. It might be +/-.1 grain. Once you have that measurement I would load about 150 rounds and do the check again or when switch powders.

Does the powder check die check the level you set it to? I'll have to get on their site and see what exactly it does. Might be a good option if it can tell me i'm accurately dumping 4.4gr of Bullseye or whatever powder.

[Antihero47]

Dillons check die comes with a buzzer. You set it to the level of powder that you want and if it goes down into a double charge or non charged case it will buzz and alert you. I do believe that it will alert you within a grain over or under but you should go onto dillons website and check the manual you can download and it will tell you all about it.

[Mstnpete]

I pour the powder back in the bottle.

[bootcamp]

Well, i'm a stooge... I called Dillon and the tech recommended that if I DON'T want to pour the powder back into the live primed case, that I should NOT load a brass in station one, put the empty live primed case back into station 2 and recharge it without anything in station 1.

I'm a stooge, I was under the impression that the live primer coming from the magazine absolutely had to be primed so I thought I absolutely needed to have a fresh brass in station 1 because I thought the primer bar would continue withdrawing primers causing a potential blockage.... that is not the case. I can breath easier now! whew! If the live primer is not used, it will not continue withdrawing primers!

Now I will just do the first AND last of the 50 cases as soon as I get the 100% confidence with Bullseye powder metering in this measure. It's all about the confidence!

I may still look into the powder check die, but from what I saw it's for the 650xl.

[Chief-7700]

I reload on a Dillon XL-650 same powder measure that is on your RL-550B. The best powder are ball powders like Bullseye, Win-231 and Titegroup. Unique is a flake powder and does not meter well.

After I have set the powder measure up by weighting the first 10 powder drops,
will check one every 100-200 rounds.

[rockman]

I have the 550 and I check the powder measure every 100 rounds as I have to stop and refill the primer tube. This way no brass is in any station. I take a piece of brass that has not been deprimed and set in in station 2 and check the powder drop 3-4 times.

[cdrxls]

the Dillon powder checker does not check the accuracy of the powder dropped, it only checks for gross under-charged or over-charged rounds, it is best used with the 650 or 1050.
on the 550, as mentioned on the early thread, you'd have to put it in the 3rd station, and then the 4th station would be a seat, crimp die.

Check every 50 rounds and pour the powder back, use the live round as a backup for the next empty station2.

Hope this helps

[FieldsofFire]

I just pour that powder back into the powder reservoir and set that case aside to finish later after I run out of primers. It only interrupts the cycle very briefly and the cycle is going again smoothly after another couple pulls of the handle. Above all, I just make sure I don't double-charge any cases.

[Antihero47]

From what I see on this youtube vid of it in action it looks like if you use a powder with a good fill ratio then you would be able to dial in the die to buzz if over loaded a grain or under a grain. I may be wrong...

In 2:00 of the RCBS Pro 2000 video below ultimate reloader descibes RCBS powder check die as well, this should get everything. You would have to visually check the die every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eARLctiS6OE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srR1lNQoLFE

[huckberry668]

I carefully remove the pin to take the charged brass out and pour the powder out to measure it. If it checks out, I pour it back into the brass then put the charged brass back to be loaded. And why not? Isn't that how we do single stage reloading? The key is to not disturb the press/components at all.

I believe if you leave the 2nd stage empty, you're breaking the rhythm and may cause the next charge to be off. I pull the lever as close to 'exactly the same as last pull' as possible with every station filled so the powder drop would remain consistantly accurate.