Dillon Powder Measure Tips

Here is what I have done to make my Dillon powder measures throw more consistent charges with all powders. Not just coarse grained powders like Varget, 4198, ect…

First remove the plastic hopper from the measure. If its yellow and cracked, order a new one.

If you look inside you see how rough the inside of the measure is. Its just a aluminum casting.

I start by hitting the inside with some 440 wet/dry sandpaper to take off the high spots. I also break the edge where the hole is in the bottom. Then I fire up the Foredom (AKA Dremel) and start polishing. I use a small Scrotchbrite wheel for the majority of the work. After it starts looking better, I start up with the felt tips and polishing rouge. Once it looks like a good mirror finished feed ramp, I apply some car polish. Several coats just to make sure it stays pretty and more importantly, slick.

It is a royal pain to get inside the track where the adjustment bar slides, but it seems to help. Using a piece of flatbar, I just knock off the highspots with some 440 sandpaper. Then using a large diameter felt wheel, I polish the bottom and left (side away from lever linkage) side. Just polish, don’t remove any metal. Try as I might, my camera wont focus that close.

A big part of adjustment repeatability is the addition of the Uniquetek adjustment knob. With absolutely zero backlash, turning it to X.XX on the dial equals what it did the last time you used it there. Before installing the Uniquetek, I polish the powder bar also. I lightly break the sharp edges on the corners. Try not to remove much metal. Just get it slick. Don’t forget to polish the little notch where the square plastic washer rides. Once installed, consider adding a *very* small amount of grease on the backside of the washer. Probably cant hurt, might help. Here is what the measure looks like with the Uniquetek installed.

I have a grounding wire running from my 1050s to an outlet to keep the whole machine grounded. I also keep anti static spray close by if I see powder sticking to the side of the measure. Some guys tape a static cling sheet to the outside of the powder hopper, but then I cant see how much powder I have left…

I also polish the inside of the powder funnel that rides inside the powder die and also where the powder flows through the measure itself. If it is for 223 or another case where compressed charges are likely, I heavily polish the hole and make it as much of a taper as I possibly can. This allows the powder go in the case faster and keeps spilling down to a dull roar. With a good taper and polish job, I can throw 27.0 gns of Varget in a Lake City 223 case without occasional spilling. Before, 26.6-ish was about it.

Don’t forget to grease the outside rear of the measure where it rides up and down. That is the only place where grease/oil/beeswax *should* be used.

After doing all this, I can throw 10 charges of Varget and only have a 0.2 (0.3 on a bad day) variance, 0.1 either side of the desired weight.

As a technique, I pull the handle down somewhat fast and smooth, stopping abruptly at the bottom of the stroke. Every time. This keeps the powder settled so even amounts get dropped. I go up much slower as I am using an auto indexing machine.

I don’t use any graphite or other dry lubes on the powder bars. It can build up and make the powder bar bind. Gunpowder has enough graphite-ish stuff in it to keep things moving.

Don’t leave powder in your hoppers, it attracts moisture and can klump up leading to powder “jams.” Fine grained pistol powders are really bad about this. Ask me how I know.

Lastly, I hate the Dillon low powder sensors and powder check dies and don’t recommend them.

pretty neat idea.... one of those "now why didnt I think of that?" things

My problem with my Dillon is frequently spilling powder when I run out of primers or otherwise get out of synch and then having to take the machine apart to clean under the plate, then get synched starting up again - probably just need more practice like reloading a 1000 or so 5.56 now that I've got a XCR to feed. But first I need to empty 1000 or so 5.56 cases - now how should I go about that - I know - shoot at something. [postal]

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Originally Posted by SigsRule

My problem with my Dillon is frequently spilling powder when I run out of primers

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Doesent your 550 have a low primer buzzer?

I have a 650 and yes it has the low primer buzzer. I misspoke, my problem is getting it set up. I haven't found an efficient way to do it yet because I haven't used it enough yet and not at all since I moved.

How do you adjust the powder measure. When starting out I was doing it by running one cartridge through it and at the station where the powder check is taking the cartridge out and measuring the amount of powder dropped, then adjusting the measure, and feeding the cartridge back through until the measure was throwing the right volume. Then you have to make sure the measure doesn't drop any powder until the first cartridge gets there.

Okay, I have to admit that I haven't played with my Dillon since the move about a year and a half ago, so I'm hazy on what my problem was. When I start up again, I'll go through the manual and set up procedures from the start.

I just remember that when I first got the press, I either ran out of primers or cases or some combination that caused power to be spilled which then necessitated taking the shell plate off to clean the powder up under it. It was a pain in the neck and only occured when switching calibers and setting up the powder measure to drop the right volume. I now have two powder measures and plan to dedicate one to .223 and the other to whichever pistol cartridge I'm shooting the most at the moment. I also plan to get one of those non-hysteresis adjusters for the powder measures - I assume they are now on Dillon's website (I haven't hit it since long before the move either).

Wow, I just checked the prices from Dillon for Carbide .223 dies so I can start reloading for my XCR. I was originally planning to get another die stand, caliber conversion kit, and carbide dies for my XL but the tab came to well over $200. Sticker shock! A good bit of the difference was in the carbide versus regular dies.

I use carbide dies for my pistol calibers (.44 mag, .357 mag) but haven't been into loading rifle calibers in bulk. Any comments on the value of going with carbide versus regular given the huge difference in price?

I'm sold on them for straight walled pistol cartridges but wasn't sure if they were worth the extra costs for tapered, bottle neck rifle cartridges. But the prevailing opinion is yes, so who am I to argue.

Actually I was thinking of picking up another 1000rds before starting to roll my own so I'd have a nice batch to do. The set up is painful enough to warrant doing a couple thousand just to get the hang of it. :roll:

The Dillon carbide 223 die is excellent quality. Real beefy decapping pin for getting rid of crimped in primers.

It really sizes way down towards the base of the case. If a case can get through that die and a Redding body die, it is without a doubt going to fit in the chamber.

Get a case gauge to make sure you are not bumping the shoulder back too far.

Forgot about the case gauge. I've got them for my 22-250 and 300 Weatherby. I'll also need the right die for my case trimmer. All the more reason to buy and shoot another 1000 rounds before starting up while I amass the appropriate hardware. Besides you can't ever have too much brass - unless you live in Kalifornia [poke]

And with carbide dies for rifle, you still have to use lube.

I like Hornady One-Shot for progressive and Imperial for single stage.

Thanks Hoser!~

Do you recommend that powder baffle sold by the kind folks at Uniquetec? Dude on the phone told me that it will really help with uniformity of powder charges, something that the standard Dillon fails to do, he says.

Regards.

I have loaded almost 10,000 rounds through my Dillion 650 and the powder measure does not vary more than 0.1 grain. For example I currently have it setup to drop 4.6 grains and when it varies off of that it will do a 4.5 drop once in a while but not very often. Never a 4.4 or 4.7 drop. To me this seems pretty accurate, is it not?

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Originally Posted by stubbicatt

Do you recommend that powder baffle sold by the kind folks at Uniquetec? Dude on the phone told me that it will really help with uniformity of powder charges, something that the standard Dillon fails to do, he says.

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The Dillon measure already has one built in...

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Originally Posted by CHA-LEE

I have loaded almost 10,000 rounds through my Dillion 650 and the powder measure does not vary more than 0.1 grain. For example I currently have it setup to drop 4.6 grains and when it varies off of that it will do a 4.5 drop once in a while but not very often. Never a 4.4 or 4.7 drop. To me this seems pretty accurate, is it not?

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Try loading rifle powders like Varget or H4350. Thats where the variations go all over the map.

Depending on what pistol powder you use it can also be a little quirky.

This is one of those "cant hurt, might help" things where most pistol powders are concerned.

I am using the standard Clays powder on my setup and have not tried anything else yet. I can see how the powder drop could be inconsistent if the powder granules were super fine or irregular shapes. The Clays powder seems to be pretty consistent in size and shape. Maybe that it the main reason why it runs consistent in my system?

I can post some pics later, unless Hoser has time before i do. I polish the entire bar and related components.

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Originally Posted by HBARleatherneck

Hoser, I have read your post on several forums.
I did this to some of my powder measures in the past.

Do you have any pictures of the process and exactly how the bars look after you polish? It would be easier if I could see where you polished. I have been having trouble with my powder measure, unique and getting 3.1 grains consistantly.

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I don't have pics anymore. They were hosted on the really old version of this sites servers and I can't find my originals anywhere.

Just lay some 320 or 440 on a marble slab or a chunk of glass that is flat.

Add some oil and use light pressure to take off the high spots. Once they are pretty much gone polish with a scotch brite pad.

De-grease and put back in the measure.

I finally gave up with the Dillon powder measure for Varget and bought the adapter and mounted a BR-3 Match powder measure on that station and throw by hand.......Still I check carefully. While Varget has temperature stability, H335 really meters well and I use it for my practice ammo, save the Varget for XTC Matches........... May give some of the above input a try and see if it can work........

Kinda red-neck but hey... when my kids were little they had fish tanks, which are now sitting in the basement unused. I read where someone suggested rubber banding the bubbler to the powder hopper to give it a giggle and help against bridging. Yeah, I tried that. The humming can be a bit annoying but I believe combined with everything else mentioned, including the grounding, it does help especially with Varget.

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Originally Posted by stubbicatt

Thanks Hoser!~

Do you recommend that powder baffle sold by the kind folks at Uniquetec? Dude on the phone told me that it will really help with uniformity of powder charges, something that the standard Dillon fails to do, he says.

Regards.

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I recently tried one of these and initially I had great results in that I had 10 pours in a row come out exactly at the measurement I wanted using BL-C(2). When I installed one on my tool head for 300 blk and used Accurate 1680 the powder drop was back to its usual +- 0.1 variance. I guess the answer to the question for me is that it doesn't hurt, especially for the price.

Ball and small flake powders work awesome in Dillon powder measures. When you get into big kernels like 4350/Varget is where you can see benefits from doing some polishing.

For pistol powders it really isnt worth the time. But it is a cant hurt might help kind of thing. I have a bunch of toolheads with measures. I just polish all of them, because I can.

I'll be polishing like you said just as soon as time allows. It's a great idea.

Thanks for the tips!!