Best powder for Dillon

I have used many different powders over the years and the only one that I would say is "dangerously inconsistent" in its metering characteristics is 800X.

Dave Sinko
 
All the ball powders such as WST, W-231, WSF meter very well as do Bullseye, & Power Pistol. I have also experienced excellent results with American Select and Trail Boss in my Dillon 550. Unique provides a bit more variation and I have never tried HS-800X in my Dillon after disasterous results (in terms of exceedingly high variability) in a MEC shotgun loader.
 
I use Unique, for both .38 special and 45 ACP. I picked a safe charge that works in both so I don't have to redo the poweder setting.
However, the charges do vary considerably with Unique. I keep the charge at the lower mid range because of the inconsistency. That way, when it dumps too much powder, I am still in the safe range.

One thing though. Even though it can vary by a fairly large amount, I see little effect on accuracy. The guns group very well with my standard load.

TSQUARED said:
All the ball powders such as WST, W-231, WSF meter very well as do Bullseye, & Power Pistol. I have also experienced excellent results with American Select and Trail Boss in my Dillon 550. Unique provides a bit more variation and I have never tried HS-800X in my Dillon after disasterous results (in terms of exceedingly high variability) in a MEC shotgun loader.
Click to expand...
 
HI SKOR 700-X

WOW!!! This thread jumped back to life after a 15 month rest.

I caught it at 3AM here after reading TSQUARED feelings on 800-X have not changed lol


Anyway, I have used a RL-550B since the late 80's and fed pistol cartridges from .25ACP to .45ACP 700-X with good results.

With all Fast powders please watch for double charges!!!!

Be Safe!
 
Last edited:
tgd31968 said:
I use Unique, for both .38 special and 45 ACP. I picked a safe charge that works in both so I don't have to redo the poweder setting.
However, the charges do vary considerably with Unique. I keep the charge at the lower mid range because of the inconsistency. That way, when it dumps too much powder, I am still in the safe range.

One thing though. Even though it can vary by a fairly large amount, I see little effect on accuracy. The guns group very well with my standard load.
Click to expand...

You might try some Universal Clays. It will meter better than the Unique and has almost identical burn characteristics. You can ALMOST (but not quite) do a direct substitution of load data.
 
epj,
Have you used this powder? How does it work with cast bullets? I am wondering about making some additions to my powder shelf! hahaha

Like I don't have enough now! :)
 
smith crazy said:
epj,
Have you used this powder? How does it work with cast bullets? I am wondering about making some additions to my powder shelf! hahaha

Like I don't have enough now! :)
Click to expand...

I've used it with cast bullets in both .38 Spec +P, and in 10mm. My .38 loads have a pretty large extreme spread, but very fine accuracy. The 10's are very accurate also. It will work in everything I load, but I'm still using Clays in .45 ACP and 231/HP38 in my 9mm loads. (No particular reason)
 
faraim said:
I need to find a smooth metering powder to use for light to mid range .38 special loads out of my Dillon 550. I've used Bullseye, Unique, 231, Titegroup, and AA2 with my single stage. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Keep doing what you have been doing, they all do well.
 
For difficult powders, I use the Arredondo bar and the micrometer measure from UniqueTek in my 650 and SDB. Smoother and seems to capture the tougher powders. Accuracy and repeatability of the setting is great.

All of my Dillon measures are very accurate and repeatable within expected standard. I have one on every toolhead so I've got a few to sample.
 
Go to WallyWorld or..........and buy a $10.00 fish aerator. Attach (I use a highly specialized article-duct tape) the aerator to the side of the powder dispenser and plug her in. The constant vibration will make the difficult to meter powders behave. I wired mine through a wall switch to have the easy off-on.
 
231 or Bullseye are very clean burning. I prefer 231 ball powder. Your powder measure will dictate what powders you can use. Slide type metering bars do not like small flake powders and flake powders generally meter a little worse than ball propellant. A RCBS uniflow with cylinder volume charge metering throws more accurately than the slide measures. I swapped my Dillon powder measure on my 1050 to a RCBS measure with the Hornady auto linkage. I was loading rifle charge weights and the long slide bar was pretty bad for accuracy with stick powders. It did OK for pistol volumes charges (short bar movement).
 
Ball powders work best thru powder measures , especially in smaller doses. I've been using W-231/HP-38 for many years in my Dillon 550 for .38 and .45 ACP with totally satisfactory results.
 
I've been using W-231 for about 5 years because it is a highly rated powder for the 3 calibers that I load (.38, .45 & 9mm). I saw a friend's gun destroyed because he forgot to switch powders.
-Firm believer in the KISS principle.
Also of note, I do my reloading in the garage, down here in southern Florida, and W-231 does not give me any trouble with the humid conditions.
 
Great thread, glad it's back!

I'm a first time reloader and made my first batch of 200rds 44mag with my RL550b using IMR4227.

Being paranoid of accuracy for the powder charge, I bought the Dillon digital scale, plus some extra calibrating weights.

The 550b was difficult to measure out at .5gr increments. I was working up from 19grns to 21grns and wanted to do batches of 20 in .5gr increments. The powder measure did not like that very much and weights varied by .2 to .3

I ended up making batches with 19, 20, and 21 grns. Powder weight consistency was still +/- .2 to .3

I did like the IMR4227 in that a double charge overflowed the 44 mag cases.

I'll burn this stuff up and try another.
 
Dcx,
I think it was Red Cent that mentioned the aquarium pump for certain powders. I have never done that but Dillon clearly states that their measures aren't designed to handle long stick powders, of which is IMR4227, if I remember correctly.

If you are going to make plinking loads for the 44mag, and run them through the RL550, I would suggest either Unique, HP-38/W231, AA#7, HS-6 or even Longshot as an alternative to IMR4227!

In my experience with them and my 3 Dillon SDB and the 2 XL650's, all of the powders I mentioned will work very well in charges for mid to upper loads.

FWIW
 
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