YellowLab said:
Don't EVER try to use a flake or ball powder with the PPM.. major leaks-ville. But with extruded its leak free and great to use.
Actually, I use a PPM for both flake and ball powders with very little trouble...
This includes .45ACP and 9x19mmP with Bullseye, and many rifle cartridges with H335/WC852/AA2230C/H414... For 5.56x45mm alone, I've loaded in the tens of thousands of rounds using the PPM and the quicker rifle powders just mentioned.
I also load .357 Mag and .44 Mag with the PPM using H110, and H110 is the only powder that I have experienced some problems with in this measure (since the H110 "balls" are so tiny in size compared to other ball/spherical powders).
The key to keeping the seepage through the cylinder to a minimum is to keep the drum relatively tight. If you keep it snug, you'll be able to use even H110 while, at the same time, retain enough smoothness of operation to travel consistently from stop to stop (which, as YellowLab says, is very important for consistency).
I even load .380ACP (using 3.0gr Bullseye) with the PPM, but I check the loads much more often than with ball powder loads in rifle cases.
With the flake powders in small weights, I find that flicking the drop spout with my finger after I've thrown the charge into the case and have removed the case to the loading block keeps the small charges quite consistent. I let the few grains of powder that fall out when this is done just fall on a clean sheet of paper under the spout and dump them back into the powder container after I finish loading the several hundred rounds. If you do this, you
must remember to do it every time. Consistency is everything. Personally, I wouldn't trust the PPM in a progressive machine with the tiny flake powder loads. The flake powders tend to cling a little too much in the drop tube...
That's my experience...
Forrest