And just like that... confidence is shaken.

[bootsnthejeep]

I've had a Dillon Square Deal B for about 10 years now. With the exception of some small runs on my Rockchucker, I've loaded ALL my handgun ammo on it, and that's been quite a bit.

I'm low on 45 ACP. Going shooting this weekend with some friends who are good operators so I need to get my gear wired tight. Machine is still set up for 45 from my last run of ammo a month or so ago. So I set to dialing it back in.

First I was getting inconsistent overall length. Ok, cheap Remington ball j-words (for my Glock), I suppose, maybe. Take the seating stem out, clean it thoroughly. Fixes it for a while, still here and there. Not a lot, a few thou, I shouldn't even worry.

Then powder charge. Adjust how I always have. 6 grains of Unique for my ACPs. Glock loves it. Throw ten charges, check, everything fine, still spot on. Get ready to start running. Load a few rounds, and then check the powder charge.

.4 over. Huh? Powder knob still in the same spot. What the hey? Clear the shellplate. Pull down the few rounds I'd loaded. Ranged from -.1 to +.4. The hell?

Adjusted again. Same result. Took the powder measure off, disassemble, alcohol cleaning, reassemble, readjust. Throws 10 charges, check. Good. Throw five charges. Check. Good again, maybe a touch light. 10 more charges. Right on the money. Ok, must have just been dirty.

Getting ready to run again. Now I'm paranoid. Start loading the shell plate and seat my first bullet, and I hesitate. Let's weigh it.

+.4 again. You gotta be kidding me.

I've re-zeroed my Dillon beam scale a dozen times. That's not it. Can't find anything overtly wrong with the powder measure. I'm doing everything the way I've always done it, to the best of my knowledge. And in the past, this has always been rock solid reliable. Now, I don't know what the heck to think.

I hate when I previously reliable machine fails you and you lose all confidence in it. It's not fair, it had to fail sometime, but now I sit thinking about all the reloads I've shot and more reloads I have sitting around, and quietly wondering if I've got a bomb hiding somewhere.

I mean, the Lyman reloading manual shows a swing of about .8 of a grain in ACP loads for Unique between start and max, I'm getting almost that much swing in this measure.

And it's so DAMN consistently inconsistent. All the "test" charges all come out dead even, and then when I'm ready to start loading, it's at +.4...

<sigh> I'm too frustrated now to tear down the machine for a rebuild. Maybe it's time to just mail it back to Dillon for the solid going-over and refurb. I haven't given it a solid rebuild in years, I suppose it's due and trying to tell me.

Boy, it's against my principles to BUY ammo, I just bought a bunch for my AR and now I've got buy HANDGUN ammo? I can't even REMEMBER the last time I did that!

Ugh. Progressives.

[PS Paul]

One of the other members I've been dealing with asked me today "why I've used a single stage for so long". My answer was paraphrased in YOUR experience above.

[bootsnthejeep]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The primer feeder quit too. I swear, the whole rig is on strike.

[waksupi]

One of the other members I've been dealing with asked me today "why I've used a single stage for so long". My answer was paraphrased in YOUR experience above.

ditto!

[Wal']

Pretty hard to wear out an single stage press............what is there, two moving parts. ram & handle

My progressive has been chugging away for at least twenty years, not a Dillon but Hornadys Pro-Jector.

Just a cleanup & lube from time to time & one replacement part, case kicker bent, my fault......abuse with oversize rim-cases.

Would have hated loading those many tens of thousands of pistol reloads on a single stage.

The right tool for each job.

[lhead71]

Call Dillon, thay are great with customer service and know their machines. They may be able to give you some insight. My primer feed stopped working for some reason and they walked me through it, and then sent me some new parts just in case.

[Lizard333]

Call Dillon. We all have bad days.

Here's my thought. When you were checking your powder drop was that the only thing you were doing? Sometimes you get different movement in the powder dispenser when there is a shell in the sizing die. Might be your problem. Size a piece of brass while checking the powder.

I've been using a 550 and an rcbs press for nearly fifteen years. They both have there uses. For 45 and other auto loading pistols, those of that are not retired, a progressive is the only way to go. I can comfortable do a couple hundred 45 rounds in about 20 minutes on my 550. That would take me two hours on a single stage.

Check if out and let us know what you find.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ZigZagMarquis]

Pretty hard to wear out an single stage press............what is there, two moving parts. ram & handle

Three moving parts... if you count yourself.

[bootsnthejeep]

Oh, I'm a big fan of Dillon's customer service already. Like when my housemate managed to snap the SDB handle in half after I taught him to use the press. I loaded his ammo for him after that.

Just got off the phone with Eric, where it's such an old press (with some obviously hard use) he suspects the frame might be cracked, but it could just be a stacking tolerances thing too. I'm having a bad week mechanically anyway. But regardless, I've got an RGA number and will be sending it off to the Press Spa on Monday.

[aa1911]

+1 for Dillon's customer service, had a primer issue and they gave me a suggestion to square up the decapping pin and got me back up and running. fast email response from them, very happy.

I tear mine down between every caliber change and clean the whole thing and judiciously oil and grease all moving parts except for the powder measuring area. A couple small plastic parts have worn out but it's still going hard after 12 years of heavy use/abuse (650xl btw...).

If you've cleaned it well and done everything you can, try the measure with a different powder, unique might just not meter well with that press.

see if other powders are throwing inconsistent charges. Another issue can be the height setting on your powder die, is it not quite pushing/activating the powder all the way every time?

are you visualizing the powder bar and making sure it is moving all the way each direction every time? some of your adjustments might be not pushing the bar all the way over every time resulting in different throws of powder.

I've not used a square deal B either so I might be missing a thing or two being a 650 owner but I would bet Dillon could point you in the right direction.

[Mike W1]

I don't know how much difference it'd actually make but when I set my powder measure I was doing the full loading operation, not just cycling the measure. There's a lot of vibration when you're actually loading and I'd bet that would increase the charges at least marginally. Just something to keep in mind.

[Walt]

Unique is the most aggravating powder going. If throwing a 6 grain charge and getting a .2 grain plus or minus swing with anything else I'd have a fit. With Unique I wouldn't give it a second thought, that's its nature. I hear the "new" Unique acts better than the "old" for metering.

[jmorris]

I send my SD's in every decade to be redone and get the improvements they have come up with. All it has ever cost was shipping to them.

If you have primer problems, my money is on the plastic tip of the primer tube. I swap it out with another one at the first sign of trouble (if you call and ask for one they generally send 3 or more, again for free). The same tip is on the 550 and 1050 too.

[bootsnthejeep]

I don't know how much difference it'd actually make but when I set my powder measure I was doing the full loading operation, not just cycling the measure. There's a lot of vibration when you're actually loading and I'd bet that would increase the charges at least marginally. Just something to keep in mind.

I did think of that, Mike, but a good catch. I hadn't thought of it before the aggravation of last night. I realized I was cycling the handle up and down but not fully depressing it in the "up" position. I always do a full stroke, but will hurry up a few cycles just to get the powder flowing, then do the last few cycles at regular speed to settle things out before measuring. But still wasn't actually jostling the machine like it was getting fully loaded. But fixing THAT behavior didn't seem to make a difference.

I know Unique isn't the most friendly powder to meter, but I've never had problems like this before.

But, my Uniflow doesn't seem to mind, and after a little tinkering to get it fine-tuned for my 6 grain charge, the Rockchucker swung back into service and ran out my 100 rounds in short order. Kinda fun doing single stage stuff again.

Not to say I'm not fixing the Dillon....

[Wal']

I don't know how much difference it'd actually make but when I set my powder measure I was doing the full loading operation, not just cycling the measure. There's a lot of vibration when you're actually loading and I'd bet that would increase the charges at least marginally. Just something to keep in mind.

+1

[Roundnoser]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The primer feeder quit too. I swear, the whole rig is on strike.

Hope this isn't a silly question...did you check the adjustment on the primer transfer mechanism? Mine comes out of adjustment occassionally and spits primers out onto the floor. It can be a pain. If the adjustment is correct, I would agree with Jmorris. That little plastic finger at the bottom of the primer magazine might be worn out.

As for the powder measure....You say that that is USED TO throw very consistent charges of Unique, but not anymore.-- When you operate the press handle to charge a case, how does the powder measure perform? Does the powder bar track smoothy in and out, or does it bind a little bit as it moves back and forth? When the powder slide bar moves back and forth, are you sure it moves the full length of travel back and forth?

On my SD, I had a similar problem with the powder measure binding just a little bit. The transfer bar would 'stage" a couple of times as it tracked, and I think it was causing inconsistencies in the powder charges.

[bootsnthejeep]

I thought I mentioned it, now I see I didn't. It was just the little plastic feeder clip on the bottom. I figured that out. I was just fed up by then.

So how did you fix your powder measure?

[220swiftfn]

One other thing to check if you're getting inconsistent throws is that the little plastic square is still on the bellcrank (the piece sits in the charge bar and the bellcrank has a post that rides in it) If that's gone, you'll get incomplete cycling of the bar, and it'll be jerkier too....


Dan