Powderfunnels.com universal powder-through expander Part II

Recently, I posted an overview of the powderfunnels.com universal powder through expander. In this post, I’ve created a video (thanks everyone for the suggestion) showing how it is installed in the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP powder measure, and briefly showing it in use to load 44 Magnum. The setup is basically the same regardless of whether you’re loading 44 Magnum, 45 ACP, 9mm Parabellum, or other pistol cartridges.

I have not personally used this product with the Hornady bullet feeder, but my friend Steve Herndon has, and it has worked well for him. Hope you enjoy this video!

Thanks,
Gavin

16 thoughts on “Powderfunnels.com universal powder-through expander Part II”

  1. Gavin, will you be trying the Universal Powder Through Expander with your bullet feeder? I’m quite interested to see if it will work.

    1. If you need to have a lot of case mouth expansion (for lead bullets in some cases for instance) you can literally get as much as you want. That’s really where it works better. The other case is when the PTX expander binds because of excess friction.

  2. Gavin,

    It wasn’t clear to me from your video whether you adjust the case mouth expansion depth by adjusting the stop screw on the rectangular linkage bracket or whether you need to change the height of the powder measure by screwing it up or down in the bushing.

    1. The adjustment via the linkage is the same as with Hornady’s PTX expander. You lower the powder measure via 7/8 x 14 threads until the metering insert is close to “bottoming out”, then fine tune with the linkage. It works quite well, and makes adjusting case mouth expansion very easy…

  3. Hey Gavin,

    As usual, great informational video. Thank you.

    The one question I have isn’t regarding anything in the video. That s, anything you covered. But it was something I saw.

    What is inside the powder dispenser? And what does it help or do? And do you use it with all powders or only certain ones?

    Thanks in advance.

  4. I have found that this powder through expander will not cut it when using the Hornady bullet feeder. It flares the case mouth very well but does not expand it much, leading to tipping bullets.

  5. I’ve owned my LnL AP press for about a year and a half and have used the Powderfunnel most of that time and have been very happy with it. I don’t use an automatic bullet feeder.

    A couple of weeks ago, as an experiment, I bought a PTX expander in .40 cal and a the PTX Powder Measure Stop. (the linkage piece referred to above) I loaded about 200 rounds using my new acquisitions and I must say that I was a little disappointed with the PTX expander. Although it did a decent job of flaring/expanding the case mouths, the expander seriously binded (sic?) in the shell and the extra force needed to withdraw the expanded shell occasionally caused minor powder spills from the expanded cases. The PTX Powder Measure Stop worked well and I was able to easily make minor adjustments to the amount of expansion. Due to the binding issue, I will no longer use the PTX expander. The powder measure stop is a winner though.

  6. Gavin, My press is about 4 years old and did not come with the stop adjustment linkage for the powder funnel. I use the powder funnel. However, it looks like the linkage will interfere with my powder cop located after the powder drop. How do you get around that. If I try to turn the powder drop one more position to the left, the pin sticking out of the rotating drum hits the primer tube.

    Dave

  7. I purchased a RCBS tube pistol feeder die for 9mm & 40S&W. It has plastic fingers that hold the bullets “back” in the tube. When the belled case enters the fingers it expands the fingers allowing the bullet to drop into the case. For 40 S&W the case need to be expanded to .43 inches (.030 over bullet diameter). Using a Lee expander will not expand that much until the shell contacts the more flat area above the neck. Case length determines success or not. The bullet drop die works great (after cleaning the plastic fingers up with a razor). My question about the powderfunnel? The measure is raised by the shell contacting the funnel. Does the amount of expansion change as the measure gets “dirty” with powder around the drop tube or funnel? I will probably buy one for my new Hornady AP. It seems to me the more weight of the powder measure it it’s full would cause it to expand the case more. Then as the measure got lighter it would expand less. Kind of like a wedge into the case. Am i overthinking this?

    P.S. RCBS sells the tube bullet drop by caliber or a set for their electric bullet feeder. The caliber comes with plastic tubes to fill with bullets.

  8. Hi Gavin,
    I found you video of the powderfunnels ptx on youtube. I tried finding their site to order one but I cant find it. do you know if they went out of business?

  9. Gavin,
    I too found your video of the powderfunnels ptx on youtube. I also tried finding their site to order one but I cant find it. Do you have an alternate web address than powderfunnels.com ?

  10. Gavin, is there another similar universal ptx die available? My Hornady ptx is destroying a lot of case mouths and also binding

  11. Good news! UniqeTek’s PTX solved this problem for me!
    I was having all the mentioned issues with the Hornady PTX die. I was loading .38 special with lead wad cutter bullets. If I adjusted the die to expand the case mouth enough to accept a bullet deep enough to prevent tipping, the case would get stuck on the expander causing a lot of binding. If I backed off the expander enough so it wouldn’t bind, I was getting almost no case mouth expansion. No amount of case lube seemed to help.
    After a little research I decided to try the UniqeTek PTX. It is made of much better steel and I have had no binding problems whatsoever. There is no problem at all with powder getting hung up inside the die either. I highly recommend this PTX to anyone having problems with the Hornady PTX.

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