Small powder charges with Dillon 550

[Reinhamre]

Hi,

The slide for small charges on Dillon 550b is not well constructed.

I have put in a bit of brass tube in the normal slide and filled the space around it.

6 mm brass tube gives 4 mm inner diameter for powder.

Vectan Ba 10 = 0,8 grains, works fine. Very consistent.

4,5 mm = 1,13 grain


I intend to try N310 later

Kent

[Bill Poole]

I have been struggling with 1.2gr VV N310 in my Dillon

I got the small charge bar

but the opening needed for 1.2gr is soooooooo small that sometimes powder does not fill it correctly. so I'd get a few 0.4gr charges (that's a 5 or a miss at 6:00)

I found I have better luck if I push the handle down and HOLD IT for a few seconds, to let it fill, then i continue the operation. Never had to do that with a .45.

if the inserted tube works better maybe I need to revisit that.

Hejda

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

[race1911]

What calibre and chrono speed are we talking with such small amounts of VV N310 ??

[JohnK]

I have been tempted to try to adapt the RCBS Uniflo measure to my 550B for .32 S&W Long. RCBS makes a case activated adaptor kit. The problem is it doesn't bell the case mouth. I guess it's intended for 5 station progressives.
Does anyone have any experience going this route on a 4 station press?
Thanks!
JLK

[Dennis]

Question, are you using the small powder bar or the extra small?
And does your powder measure have the newer excapement that jar's the
measure each time you pull the handle?
1.4 grains of 231 feeds just fine thru my machine.

Dennis

[Bill Poole]

32 SW Long is overwhelmingly the most often used in our CenterFire game.

light load with a wadcutter, just enough to cycle the action and poke a hole in the paper.

Poole

http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

[Reinhamre]

Question, are you using the small powder bar or the extra small?

The extra small bar has a rectangular 10 mm wide opening. Small charges require the slide to open up very little. 2 mm = 20 mm2.
A round tubular shape 5 mm = 20 mm2

The slide for extra small charges is a joke, do NOT spend money on it!

The slide within the slide should be no more than 5 mm and with slide fully closed it should be an oval shaped opening 5 X 4 mm! That slide can go for loads of .38 spec.

The Dillon 550b CAN be used to charge 0,8 grains, it HAS the potential!
I know, this is too small a load but it CAN be done.
So OK Dillon, make a slide for extra small charges that is up to it.

Kent

[JohnK]

Reinhamre,
Hmmm...
I have an extra small powder slide on my 550B and successfully load 1.3 gr VV310 for my Unique 32U.
It does take patience to set it up and this may be near it's lower limit but I wouldn't consider it a joke.
As I posted earlier I would like to experiment with a Uniflo measure on the 550 but need to figure out the mouth belling.
Good luck!
JLK

[Reinhamre]

It is sold as for the purpose of throwing extra small charges.
I do not think it does if 1.3 grain is in the lower margin if it is EASY to make a slide that can throw a charge of 0,8 grain. Then you HAVE a margin!

Dillon has not dealt with the problem in a proper way and should not say that that this slide is an answer to the problem of throwing small charges.

The 550b deserves better.

Kent

[strazzman]

hello

[Dave Coraopolis]

I have tried several approaches. The 550 small bar was inconsistent below 2.0 gr. W-231. Also, the force needed to fully actuate the bar excessively bells the case mouth. I tried a Lee micro measure with ok results. I also have used my manual measure from my Dillion 450 down to 2.0 gr. W-231. Below that, it is not accurate.

Finally ended up hand weighing 1.5 gr. charges.

Haven't tried a different, hand actuated measure, but this seems to be the next trial.

[deleted1]

Admittedly adjusting the Dillon 550B small bar is a real pain in the ace---but I get consistent 1.2 gr of VV310N for my .32 S&W rds. It's a real tortuorus adjusting period, but with persistence I think you can achieve such a small load.