Dillon powder measures versus drum type

[dogdoc]

I have several extra rcbs and hornady drum type measures that I will set up on a couple of my 550 and 650 tool heads along with a m die for the heck of it since I have them. My dillon measures work great with no leakage as others have reported and good accuracy with the powders I commonly use even unique. But I am curious if any others have any particular pistol powders primarily (or rifle powders) that seem to throw better through a drum type measure like hornady or rcbs?How about 800x as I a have couple of pounds I picked up during the last shortage? Thanks

Dogdoc

[Love Life]

I love 800X, but I sure wish it metered better!! If it did, I'd us it as a primary pistol powder.

To answer your OP, 800X in my experience, is so bulky/large that I still weigh each charge regardless of measure. Drum, Dillon, Lee are all inconsistent with 800X.

[Petrol & Powder]

The Dillon power measure works amazingly well but the one power that makes me nervous with it is Unique.

I do use Unique in a drum type powder measure (Redding) but it is a stand alone powder measure and is not mounted to a press. Even with that measure, I keep the loads far below maximum when using Unique.

Now before this gets out of hand, let me say that I've used the Dillon measure with Unique and, for the most part, it works. I do get greater variations in charge weights when using Unique through a Dillon measure than I do with other powders in the Dillon measure. We're talking variations of a few tenths of a grain, not 1/2 a grain or more. So for me it's a matter of not trusting the measure with Unique more than the measure not working.
I can say that with some powders like Bullseye and WSF, both the Dillon measures and the drum type measure throw charges that are incredibly uniform. I can set up the Dillon for Bullseye and pull any charged case out of the press, weigh the powder from that case and it will be spot on any time.

When loading magnum cartridges on a single stage press, I'll adjust the drum type measure to throw a powder charge just below the desired weight and use a powder trickler to bring it up to the exact weight I'm seeking. When using H110 [WW296] and a drum measure, I can set the charge weight just below the goal (like say 2/10 of a grain) and it will consistently throw that charge weight. However, H110 is probably the best powder you will find in terms of metering. It's very friendly in all measures.

[Love Life]

The lee powder measure (the sliding one with spring) works on the Dillon 550, and measures Unique more consistently than the Dillon measure. Cheaper to boot.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Large flake powders like Unique do not throw as consistently as finer powders such as ball powders or TiteGroup. I recently switched from Red Dot to TiteGroup for pistol powder as it metered much better. The smaller the charge, the larger the variation is likely to be. With a stand alone measure such as a RCBS, you can tap the measure at both the fill and dump position to get better consistently. Lyman measures have a built in "tapper". With the Dillon, you must be very consistently in every operation as any increase or decrease in vibration will result in a variation in powder thrown. I did get the extra small powder bar from UNIQUETEK, and it helps with very small charges such as 3.5 gr of TiteGroup. Made a larger difference in 3.5 gr Red Dot. I have powder baffles in the bottom of each powder measure tube. That helped also. And, keeping the powder measure between 1/3 and 2/3 also helps with consistency. There's that word again, Consistency.

[dogdoc]

I think for the most part a couple tenths variation even on maximum charges is not going to be significant . Hell, proof loads are 40 to 50 percent higher than map (maximum average pressure)for any given cartridge anyway. If maximum Sammi pressures were that close to the destructive point of a firearm, we would all have blown or stretched guns. The pressure limits are averages anyway so one that has a tenth of a grain more any may be slightly higher pressure is in insignificant in my opinion. That being said, I do not load above the max listed loads except for some like the 44 special in strong guns where I use +p data from sources like Brian Pearce and others in handloader magazine.