Problem with powder coated loads

[Ian]

Bill, Hodgdon has always sourced powder from wherever it was available, and the sources were/are changing.

Remember me commenting on the new Universal being purple? Come to find out ADI doesn't make it anymore, and it's made by a new process, in a new plant, in Canada. The density is noticeably different, too. 231 hasn't been 231 in 20-25 years, grab an old bottle of it and see.

 

[fiver]

part of the powder shortage a few years back was the ADI plant having a fire, and their production switching to Canada.
I seen a few powders go through a change.
I have a jug of 2400 that is straight black and is denser.
it shoots the same, I just have to change my powder drop setting.
not only 2400 changed [and I think changed back] but I have newer red-dot and green-dot that i had to change 'settings' to match my older powders weights.
pain in the ass when you have about 70 bushings and they all suddenly move over 2 places after 30 years [closer to 40 now] of memorizing the drops for the most used ones.

international changed when universal changed too.
I have been shooting 14.5grs. of it in my 20's for years, now 14.0grs. is a maximum load.
probably just change to green-dot and find a new bushing in the box when I run out of it.

 

[popper]

Was pulling some BO rnds that I loaded a tad too hot. 142gr PB. Cooked correctly, smoke's red, heat treated. Noticed the base drive band edge doesn't have PC anymore. This is the high pressure area when seating. Some were dark, some were lead. Looked at the neck inside, pretty shiny but very rough (converted 223). Most were neck turned so may have caused the roughness. Anyway, the wrong place to be missing PC I think. PC was tumbled and cooked base down. Don't pull many but not noticed this before. Something to be aware of.

 

[Reloader762]

I bought a lb. of Titegroup a few years ago but I never liked it with cast lead bullets so I gave it to a friend who shoot plated and jacketed bullets. I picked up an unopened 4 lb. jug of Power Pistol not long after that at a sale for $30 so thats what I've been using with my 9mm and 45 ACP powder coated loads and I've had no issues with ammo that was loaded over a year ago.

I use both Smokes and Eastwood powders with the bullets baked at 400 degrees for 20 min. after powder flowout and haven't had any powder/ coating related issues with bullet that are air cooled or water quenched after coating. Guess I'm going to have to buy me another jug of Power Pistol before long as I'm down to about a lb.

 

[popper]

Pulled some 145gr PB coated with Smoke's red this morning. 30/30 with unique - somehow were 312 vs 311 that fit. Unique attached to base of each one. These were about 2 wks after loading, stored nose down. Under 20x loope, don't see any damage to the PC.

 

[Tomme boy]

I think I figured out what my problem was. On my Lee auto disc measure I had the hopper turned 180, off and the adjustable charge bar would not go back far enough to get a complete fill. I replaced it with a auto drum and have not had any more problems.

I sat and watched every case to make sure that there was powder in it. But with such a low volume of powder that TG throws it looked like everyone was the proper amount. Then I went to the range and still had squibs. So I was looking over the powder measure really close and noticed it was not going back far enough. Well it was but the hopper is farther back one way more than the other. I have not had any more problems but already had the new measure on order. I have since replaced it with the Autodrum

 

[Ian]

Yeah, you have to get the hopper on the correct direction to make the Autodisk Pro work. I was loading .308 with mine the other night and re-did my whole setup, going back to the Classic Cast Turret with the big ram and giving up on the newfangled 4-hole progressive for that caliber. On the turret I like to use a PTE die and Autodisk when I can and since I made an expander/charging spud for the rifle charging die I went ahead and tried it with the double-disk setup. I threw about 15-18 charges, indexing the turret to all four stations each time to ensure repeatable powder settling and my results varied by less than a tenth of a grain using RX-7. I have always had better consistency with the Autodisk Pro than any other measure I own except my B&M and except Hodgdon Clays powder (will bridge in the Pro) ever since Lee started making them with the Teflon coating and silicone wiper.

 

[Tomme boy]

I also got the other Lee auto drum working for the 223. I have to have the tension just right and on the 4 hole turret it has to make a complete cycle and it is throwing around a 0.1 gr variance with rl10x. That is fine for the load I am using. It will shoot the same size of group with the variance it is showing. Not sure if I am going to get a shell plate for the auto breech lock pro or not. With the measure making a cycle for each throw it does not keep that 0.1gr difference. It can be up to 1.1gr from what I did a sample of. I weighed every charge for 50 pulls of the handle set up on my single stage to check how the measure would be. But using the other one for my 9mm now it is showing an exact charge every throw so?????