reloading .223 on a dillon

[Rexican]

Hey everybody, I had a question about powder selection for loading .223 on a Dillon. Have you found any powders that throw consistently? I'm about to set mine up, but I've heard I'm supposed to use ball powder for the dillon to meter properly. I have a batch of 55gr FMJ bullets I'm anxious to go through.
Thanks,
Rex

[GreenWolf]

Rex, reloading is fun, and I do share your obvious enthusiasm for it. But I strongly recommend that you slow down and do some basic research. This is no time to get "anxious" and be in some kind of rush. Get a hold of some reloading books, and see what their powder recommendations are.

I also heard that ball powder meters better in a Dillon. So go with a ball powder. For the .223 and 55gr bullets, look into BLC2, AA-2230, Tac, H-335, or Win748. No guarantees on how these powders will shoot in your rifle. Start low, and work up the load.

[Rocky]

A powder measures works great for fast loading, but you will not make match grade loads! You have to weigh every shot by hand, for realy accurate loads or a fancy electronic scale with a trickler built in.

Rocky

[nevada]

H335 is excellent for the 223. I actually have to slow down using it to load 223 so that all the powder gets into the case. Otherwise I get some spillage.
I was using Reloader7, but research on the net convinced me to try H335. I have a reduced gas bushing in my mini14 and the action won't work with R7, but will with H335.

[Rexican]

Thanks for the powder suggestions: I needed to pick up some H335 and BLC2 for my 7mm TCU, so I'll see how they perform in my rifles.
Perhaps I should have clarified: these are just going informal rounds to shoot out of my bushmaster. For all my precision loading I still use a single stage RCBS. I use a RCBS trickler and I never come close to published maximum loads. I've just come to find that if I'm using the single stage, I'd rather load .30 cal or TCU. The good thing about living in a single bedroom is: this is my kitchen

[Player]

that's my lamp there

[jfowl31]

I love reloading on a single stage RCBS. I've never used a progressive, nor do i really ever want to... I like loading 1 round at a time, and making sure its perfect.

A buddy of mine got an old Med scale from the hospital he works at. it about a $1500 scale, and it works awesome, but it measures in grams, so I have to convert all my loadings to the hundredth and thousandth of a gram... no biggie.

I wish I had the money to get one of those fancy trickler scales, but I don't shoot enough to make that thing pay for itself.

btw, nice kitchen... looks eerily similar to my "office".

[robocop10mm]

A powder measures works great for fast loading, but you will not make match grade loads! You have to weigh every shot by hand, for realy accurate loads or a fancy electronic scale with a trickler built in.

Rocky

I disagree. Dillon has a baffle in the bottom of the powder measure that keeps the weight of the powder from compressing the loads when full. You can get very accurate metering of powder out of a Dillon. I have checked the powder weights when full and compared to the last full charge there was not even .1 grains difference.

The "weigh each charge" adage does not apply to Dillon. Many match shooters use Dillon and do not weigh each charge. Only the most anal of reloaders weigh each charge.

On the question of powder. I use W-748 with BLC-2 as a fall back. Both are available in 8 lb kegs. Both will work well in everything from .223/5.56 up to and including .30-06. Any spherical (ball) powder should work fine. The IMR's, not so good. I use IMR-3031 for the .45-70 and drop it out of the Dillon. I have a Dillon RL-450 with the manual powder drop. I do not know how it will work on a 550.

[Rexican]

I reloaded about fifty rounds and shot this weekend. I didn't have any spherical powder on hand, and I'm particularly broke at this moment, so I used some 4064 I had on hand. I checked every tenth round on the scale, and they were all less than a tenth of a grain from my target load. My birthday is coming up, so I'll probably invest in some 748. It only took me fifteen minutes to do fifty after it was set up. I love the lifetime warranty.

[Rocky]

Now what kind of grouping did you get with the (Dillion) powder measure?
As Robocop10mm says you should be under 1" moa right with the (Dillion)
powder measure. Accuracy is one shell at a time!

Rocky (25+ years reloading)

[Rexican]

I only fired twenty rounds to sight in. I won't be able to give you an accuracy report till this weekend. I spent most of my time at the range shooting my contender. I've been spending enough time reloading for that on the single stage, that I am going to love using the dillon for .223 now. The powders I have on hand are reloader 7, 15, and 19, IMR 4064, 4350, 4895. and varget. I won't be able to pick up BLC 2, 748, or H335 until at earliest this weekend.