Who is loading precision rifle on Dillon 550 / 650?

[garandman]

I'v heard of people doing it with good results. Now that I'll be running 6.5CM and 224 Valkyrie, loading more rounds faster seems like a necessity.

The two critical areas seem to me to be powder charge weight and seating depth.

Any one got any words of wisdom for me?

(I'm also scanning thru some older posts, here)

 

[243BR]

The thing that has kept me from shooting Dillon loaded ammo in competition is, as you stated, the powder charge. The Dillon 650 is a wonderful machine, but I do get slight variations, 0.1 - 0.2 grains, in the powder charge. So far the seating depth has been spot on.

 

[AckleymanII]

Use quality dies

adapt a Redding br 30 powder measure or throw and weigh charges separately with a powder die

If you full length size every time, you may want to do that in a separate step

Accuracy is relative to your individual wants/needs along with time you have to devote to the hobby.

Good luck!

 

[F Class John]

Heck yeah. Love it too. I use an Area419 funnel on a Dillon adapter on a 550, Whidden locked toolheads and of course good dies.

I’d bet dollars to donuts that more people are doing this than many realize or are willing to admit. There’s been a stigma that comes with precision shooting that says you MUST torture yourself in the reloading process by making it as complicated as possible if you’re going to be taken seriously but those times are changing.

Keep searching the forums, look especially for articles by Scott Harris.

 

[1lnbrdg]

I reload on a Dillon but not progressively per sie. When we moved 3 months ago, I set up the RCBS press but for the life of me, can't remember the last time I've used it.

 

[Nature Boy]

David Tubb loads on a 550

John Widden loads on a 650

I load on a 650 but for some reason I’m not as good as those guys. Still trying to figure out why that is

 

[memilanuk]

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/updated-dillon-550-reloading-whitepaper.3982389/

 

[garandman]

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/updated-dillon-550-reloading-whitepaper.3982389/

That rocks. Thanx.

 

[memilanuk]

There are a number of threads on this forum about doing this... as well as on other sites.

 

[snowpro440]

I know some shooters that dont weigh but the initial charge .

 

[F Class John]

@milanuk Thanks for finding the link to Scott’s white page. I had it saved somewhere but couldn’t find it to post in my reply earlier.

 

[DirtySteve]

I run though in a progressive manner. When a charge is thrown( I set it to throw a light charge), I dump it trickle it to what I want, put it back in the machine and continue on.

 

[Rsadams]

I never found a reason to set up my Dillon for large rifle since there's only two dies and your not even crimping the rounds... But there are some real good shooters loading on the 550 , plenty of you tube stuff out there... Mainly because of all the work you do to brass besides just resizing , I use a scoop and trickle up for powder then of course seating die is last... For an automatic like .223 that's a different story but I do all the resizing on my single stage plus all the brass prep then use the Dillon to drop powder , seat bullets and crimp.... For something like that the Dillon is a real time saver...

 

[Zero333]

I load some 308win and 223rem on a 650 but only with ball powders because if I gotta weight every charge I rather use a single stage.

I use the 650 for gas guns and pistols.

Rifle ball powder meters precisely. But if I stop loading for longer than 15 minutes the next charge is a little high, like 0.1 or 0.2 gr.
And when I leave it overnight, the next drop is at least 0.5 gr high.

Figuring out the limitations of the machine is not hard, but you gotta pay attention quite a bit when starting a loading session.

 

[Irritant]

This is all for 308 Palma loads. I have done the route with powder measures. I have tested most of them to find out that none of them are any good except for pistol loads. In all my testing I still find the Lee "perfect powder measure" to be the best but still not good enough. The Dillon measure is the worst I tested. Zero333 commented on letting a measure sit and finding the first out to be high, exactly my findings as well. I guess if I only had 600 I would use ball powder and the Lee measure would be good enough.

I have now gone to the Auto Trickler. It is awesome when we are talking ES in the 1/100's of a grain!

 

[Twdmar]

I use a 650. I size etc in a separate step. 223 I have a universal decap die in station 1, size, trim, etc also. Then remove the lube and load and crimp.
For long range highpower, I size separately and then charge the powder with the auto trickler and I use the seating die in station 4. Put the case into the shellplate and put a bullet in. I tried the funnel but if I had a brain fart and the ram on the press was down i dumped powder everywhere.
Tuning up the dillon powder measure, even with a stick powder like reloder 15 will give good results even in a small case like 223. I dont shoot benchrest so my accuracy requirement is different and I choose to spend more time practicing my hold rather than loading.

 

[memilanuk]

I tried the funnel but if I had a brain fart and the ram on the press was down i dumped powder everywhere.

Trust me, you're not the first, nor the last, to do that

The good news is, you learn to *not* do that fairly quickly

Also avoid letting anyone interrupt you in mid-sequence.

 

[rox]

I do on a 1050 - does that count?

 

[memilanuk]

I do on a 1050 - does that count?

Precision rifle? And by that I mean, not ball powder, with high quality match bullets, etc.?

 

[rox]

Precision rifle? And by that I mean, not ball powder, with high quality match bullets, etc.?

Yes, not ball powder. Bullets like Berger 155.5, Lapua Scenar, Sierra 2156, 2200, Optimus HBC etc.