[alzo]

What types of things would all of a sudden make a powder that has always metered just fine, clog up in the powder die ? I have a Dillon RL550B and was loading some 124gr 9mm with 5.4gr of N340 yesterday. I have used this powder for years and never had a problem. Yesterday, in the course of loading 100 rounds, it clogged 3 times. The first one that caught my eye was completely empty. And I also noticed some loose powder grains scattered on the shell plate. I am pretty sure I don't have any primer-only rounds, but I am worried that some of them may have been short charged before I noticed.

[Caspian_45]

moisture. The powder has become wet. pitch it.

[rick t]

I was loading 45acp with Win. 231 and it happened to me. There was a piece of paper in the powder! Called Win. they wanted the lot number then and sent a UPS pickup for the powder and paper (it had been in the powder a long time by the looks of it). A couple weeks later I got a letter of apology with a check in it for a replacement can.

[alzo]

I always empty the powder hopper after each reloading session and return the powder to its original container with the lid tightly closed. I know it's possible it has become wet, but it seems unlikely. After emptying, I checked inside the hopper and powder bar for any obstruction and didn't see any. I also didn't see any clumping in the powder. It poured easily and evenly into and out of the hopper.

[alzo]

Well, I pulled the hopper off and looked into the powder bar and saw nothing. I reassembled it and loaded another 100 rounds today with no problem whatsoever. I guess the gremlins were out yesterday. I hate unexplained gremlins.

[stiles]

Do you use one shot on the expander? I've hand one shot leach up into the powder funnel and cause clogging and bridging.

[whatmeworry]

stiles, on Sep 28 2009, 03:37 PM, said:

Do you use one shot on the expander? I've hand one shot leach up into the powder funnel and cause clogging and bridging.

Interesting. I've been using One Shot for years and have never had any problems such as this. In fact, that's the reason I switched from another brass lube. The lanolin in the lube would transfer to the expander(as any lube will) and cause powder to stick to it. The longer the reloading session the more powder would gum up the expander die. I never had a complete stoppage but light loads were a real problem.
Adios,
Pat

[stiles]

Yea it was from me spraying the expander directly not from lube migrating from the cases to the powder funnel part of the expander. More of an application error if you will.

[alzo]

No, I don't use One Shot for anything, not even on my brass. It gunked up my sizing die.