Dillon Powder Measure Accuracy

[bubbapug1]

The powder measure is volumetric, and vibration between drops will affect the density of the powder - REGARDLESS OF WHAT POWDER.

Yes, some powder densities remain more uniform than others in the powder hopper, and drop more uniformly, but all volumetric fillers have the same problem when working with materials which can pack variably (nesting). That's why it says "this product was filled by weight and may have compacted during shipment" on cereal boxes. To let you know you didn't get a short fill, but a weighed fill.

The ONLY way to work around the issue is to avoid as much excess vibration as possible on the machine, or vibrate the heck out of the machine with a vibration device to insure a maximum compaction each stroke.

I find you can load a variance of 0.1 grains +/- (0.2 grain spread) if you are careful with a powder like TAC, but with a stick powder its more like 0.4 grains. I am not talking 3 cases, I am talking a full powder hopper of cases, like 150.

I have taken random samples from a loading session (223 and 308) and removed the bullets to weigh the charges, so this is not my opinion, this is an empirical experiment on dillons. I did the experiment to test a vibrator on the hopper and to determine if I could reliably load for 1000 yards using the dillon powder measure.

The charge master shows up today from midway...whats that tell you???

I am sure some of the other answers are well meaning, but I sold packaging fillers for powders for many years, and you can't escape nesting...most high end fillers use load cells and drop the powders into a fill chute to dispense with volumetric loading all together...thats a whole two digits to the left on cost however.

So keep the vibration uniform, and realize as the hopper gets hit each load, the powders will nest, and the specific density of the column will increase. The dillon bridge on the hopper helps a bit, but its there more for bridging issues to keep weight off the infeed manifold. We do the same thing on powder transfer systems for high bridging materials.

good luck.

[elemenope]

The powder measure is volumetric, and vibration between drops will affect the density of the powder - REGARDLESS OF WHAT POWDER.

Yes, some powder densities remain more uniform than others in the powder hopper, and drop more uniformly, but all volumetric fillers have the same problem when working with materials which can pack variably (nesting). That's why it says "this product was filled by weight and may have compacted during shipment" on cereal boxes. To let you know you didn't get a short fill, but a weighed fill.

The ONLY way to work around the issue is to avoid as much excess vibration as possible on the machine, or vibrate the heck out of the machine with a vibration device to insure a maximum compaction each stroke.

I find you can load a variance of 0.1 grains +/- (0.2 grain spread) if you are careful with a powder like TAC, but with a stick powder its more like 0.4 grains. I am not talking 3 cases, I am talking a full powder hopper of cases, like 150.

I have taken random samples from a loading session (223 and 308) and removed the bullets to weigh the charges, so this is not my opinion, this is an empirical experiment on dillons. I did the experiment to test a vibrator on the hopper and to determine if I could reliably load for 1000 yards using the dillon powder measure.

The charge master shows up today from midway...whats that tell you???

I am sure some of the other answers are well meaning, but I sold packaging fillers for powders for many years, and you can't escape nesting...most high end fillers use load cells and drop the powders into a fill chute to dispense with volumetric loading all together...thats a whole two digits to the left on cost however.

So keep the vibration uniform, and realize as the hopper gets hit each load, the powders will nest, and the specific density of the column will increase. The dillon bridge on the hopper helps a bit, but its there more for bridging issues to keep weight off the infeed manifold. We do the same thing on powder transfer systems for high bridging materials.

good luck.

This and other responses tells me that for volume loads, aka range plinking, the variance I'm seeing should be acceptable as long as I'm not looking at doing max loads.

I also discovered that the shellplate (and thereby me) is responsible for some of the powder spill when it auto indexes roughly. Originally i thought the flying grains of powder were coming from the charger die.

[Davisje011]

I also discovered that the shellplate (and thereby me) is responsible for some of the powder spill when it auto indexes roughly. Originally i thought the flying grains of powder were coming from the charger die.

You'll have to trim a ring or so off the spring under the indexing ball. This reduces the "snap" caused by the ball slamming up into the detent.

Just trim the spring and test til the plate glides into place.

[Calplinker]

You could so just back off some of the tension on the large hex head bolt holding the shell plate. It should rotate smoothly with little effort. The detent ball will still snap it into proper position.

[Davisje011]

You could so just back off some of the tension on the large hex head bolt holding the shell plate. It should rotate smoothly with little effort. The detent ball will still snap it into proper position.

Problem I found with that is wobbly brass. The tighter the plate is, the less it wobbles.

I tighten till its rubbing the ram, then back it off a smidge so it glides. Also, adding a little graphite powder (no oil!) lubes it up enough to be a little tighter but still glide.

[Pauliedad]

Why no oil?
I use the friction to deal with the splash factor.
Balistol sits on my bench and I love it!

[Revoman]

I saw on another forum that there is a plastic or rubber ball that helps somewhat for this purpose. Not a total fix, but a help....

Dillon XL 650 SL 900 Performance Improvements Shell Plate Detent Buffer Ball | eBay

Although it sez 650, 550 ball should be the same diameter IIRC. So, this along with the roller bearing plate and snipping the spring by 1/2 coil is supposed to do the trick. I can't comment on these as I don't have this problem.

[Davisje011]

no oil because powder sticks to oil, and the plate gets gummed up. graphite lubes, but is dry.