I know what you mean. My 9000H has probably had 40K shells put through it and all of a sudden I was getting punk loads. It took a while to find out the brass washer was moving. It's only there so fine powders don't leak out. I'd rather put up with a little powder on my reloading bench than getting those shi!!y loads.

When I use the red plastic baffle I don't use any washers. The spring loaded inner tube seems to seal against the charge bar just fine. After weighing a lot of powder charges I have found the baffle to work fine for some powders but not so well with others. You just have to experiment a bit.
C.G.B.

Many like the Red baffle for what you said, but they remove the baffles inside of it so it's a straight drop. Guess they just like the sealing.

After doing a fair amount of reading on various forums there does not seem to be a clear cut solution to the problem. The mix of comments is about 50/50 but of those that have had good luck with a baffle, they seem to prefer the red plastic. Maybe because they are less expensive.

I have done a little experimenting. Probably spent too much time researching. I installed a metal baffle and to my surprise the powder charge dropped changed significantly, >1 grain. Interestingly, the change was an increase in dropped powder charge with the baffle installed. Just the opposite of what I would guess.

A friend of mine who is an ardent baffle user decided to try some E3 powder for one of his loads. The results were extremely erratic with a red baffle installed with dropped charges varying by as much as 3 grains. He was baffled!

I get it! :rotf:

The Gray baffle doesn't seal like the Red one. Personally, I don't use any baffle, just the tall bottle for shot and powder. When the 200 primer tray runs out it's time to refill everything. That way there's always plenty of powder in the bottle pushing down on the outlet.

I get better uniformity with E3 without the baffle. You just have to tinker a bit.
C.G.B.

Just got to thinking [ could be bad ] but maybe the rubber washer got stiff and the dimples on the metal washer won't grab and adhere to it. Couldn't really say how old mine was, but most people never change them. Just a possibility.

Thanks for thinking! When I switched to Clay Dot powder and first encountered the problem after loading 2000 good shells I changed the rubber grommet, the brass washer, and the rubber shot insert in the hope of solving the problem. I still have no idea why. Am waiting for a red plastic baffle to arrive so I can settle on a fix. One thing for sure is that poor shells sucks.

Thanks to all for your input.

Received my red plastic baffles and tried it on my Clays load. Loaded 100 and weighed each shell. Only .1 grain variance. Some of the most consistent loads I have ever done. So far, I'm impressed and no brass washer to worry about.