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I have always been careful with the powder choice in my 550 sticking mainly with Win 231 because of its great metering ability. I'm down to 3 lbs of Unique, has anybody tried running this flake powder using a Dillon, my concern of course is with bridging and throwing inconsistent charges. Has anybody and experience using this press setup and this Unique.
Been there, done that, got the (Dillon) hat!! (1) If your powder reservoir doesn't a baffle, make one out of .030-.040 plastic sheet and put it in. (2) Take a Sharpie, draw a line on your powder reservoir about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom, then never let your powder level drop below that line. (3) "Settle" the powder in your measure before you start loading. (I use an old electric razor...just turn it on and touch it to the base for measure for a few seconds to vibrate the powder down) (4) Remove the charge bar from your Dillon measure, clean it thoroughly, dust it inside and out with powdered graphite, blow off any excess graphite, and reassemble your measure.
This process worked quite well on both my Dillon measures. I check my powder weight every 50 rounds or so and variance is less than +/- .1 grain. Other possible fixes are to replace the Dillon measure with a Lee Auto Disc measure (requires a Lee expander die for each caliber) or to make up fixed cavity charge bars for you Dillon from aluminum bar stock (I did this many years ago when I was loading a lot of 'softball' .45 ACP for bullseye competition using 700X.)
Bill
Contrary to what others have experienced, I get good results with my Dillon 550B and Unique powder. I've checked and checked with an electronic scale and the variance between throws is insignificant and in fact (probably due to the shaking and settling of the powder each stroke) is more uniform than my expensive measures.
Every winter I load enough handgun ammo to last most of the upcoming year. In the 357 and 41 calibres, Unique through the Dillon is the ticket.
I've never had an issue with Unique in my 550. I'll check every 15-20 rounds with a scale to be safe, but then again I do this reguardless of the powder.
I've loaded thousands of rounds of .38 ammo with Unique on the 550 . Always had good accuracy and never had a problem .
Jack
Thanks to all of you for your responses and links, I think I will proceed re-weighing a lot of the charges until I work up confidence in the equipment.
Here is something you need to look at. The Dillon powder measure and how it works. Look from the side as you load a case with powder. You see the powder bar move back and forth as you pull the handle down and the up. If you look in the powder hopper, empty of course from the top you can see the powder bar move back and forth also. Make sure the powder bar area that holds the powder moves far enough to go completly over the hole to drop the powder into the case. If it is not you will get inconsitant meatering of the powder. I have made a mark with a sharpie on the powder bar to make sure it goes far enough to drop the powder in the hole to get to the case. long way around the barn but hope it helps. Been loading Unique for 40 years and love it. My go to pistol and cast rifle powder.
Jon
I have loaded tons of 45 colt and 38spl with unique on my 550. I started out weighing every 5th and then every 10th one. The difference was so small that I now check the first few to ensure it is measuring my weight and then get after it.
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I don't use a progressive to load, but when I hear about loading inconsistencies with Alliant Unique, I wonder:
1.) If a powder baffle is missing or would be advisable and
2.) If the charge weight is under 4.0 grains.
The FEW times I've seen Unique give people headaches, one or the other condition was present, and usually both. PERSONALLY, I think the error involved in loading Unique in charges 3.5 gr. or heavier is miniscule, and almost never translates to detectable results on the firing range. I generally specify 4.0 gr. to err on the side of caution (because I'm a poster child for Murphy's law). In almost all situations (I estimate I've seen 3 exceptions in thousands of loading sessions) in which ONLY ONE of the above conditions was present, it was not enough to adversely affect performance or accuracy.
If shooters don't LIKE Alliant Unique, there are other perfectly good powders available for the same tasks that usually burn cleaner and meter better. If these issues are THAT egregious to people making such observations, they should trade away their opened bottle of Unique for something else. When I hear "doesn't meter well", "burns like flaming dirt", and other disparaging comments, it is almost always traceable to too-light powder charges, insufficient crimp, or a reloader who is just out of the gate on the learning curve.
If you do not trust it try Herco. I have had just as good luck with it and it meters better.