Automatic powder dispensing/scale

floriosean1

floriosean1

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uxbridge
I've noticed that lyman, hornady, and rcbs all offer a form of scale/ Automatic powder dispensing and they are all 300$+ . My cheap Hornady gs-1500 i started out with has decided it not longer wants to be reliable and accurate. Does anyone have experience with these higher end scales/dispensers? All thoughts feelings and opinions are welcome
 
I use a Lyman Gen-6 and it's been just great. Some people complain that theirs drifted by several grains unless they let it warm up for 1-2 hours but I've never encountered this. I've verified check weights and charges on other scales and it's always spot on. The RCBS Chargemaster is the most common but you will find occasional negative reviews on it as well from people who got a lemon. All the major brands have excellent warranties but, again, you will find reports from people who had serious issues getting warranty work done by every manufacturer. I've heard negative reports even about RCBS and Dillon warranty service.

For me the Lyman was the choice over the RCBS because it has a smaller foot-print (I have limited desk space) and it was around $200 less at the time of purchase.

I've also heard complaints that the Lyman is unbelievably slow and extremely difficult to change powder with compared to the RCBS. I can drain and clean out a stick powder in under 1 minute and a fine ball powder in under 2 so I'm not sure what these other people are doing wrong. It's pretty much just as fast as an RCBS.
 
stubblejumper said:
I have two Chargemasters, and I have had no issues at all with them.
Click to expand...

I also have 2 Chargemasters [RCBS] and am very pleased with them.

There is a fellow on here [laurencen], who makes a small bushing to insert
into the dispenser tube. This reduces the .1 grain overthrows to zero in my experience.
I just loaded 50 rounds of 308 Norma Magnum ammo and did not have one error
in the lot. Dave.
 
I've looked online and it appears the charge master is upwards of 500$ which is a pretty good price difference, anyone know a good place to buy one?
 
The Chargemaster is a beautiful thing but you should also consider the Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto Charge Powder Dispenser. It's what I use and I find it more than adequate to my needs. I've verified its measurements against both digital and analog and it has never come up lacking.
 
Eagleye said:
I also have 2 Chargemasters [RCBS] and am very pleased with them.

There is a fellow on here [laurencen], who makes a small bushing to insert
into the dispenser tube. This reduces the .1 grain overthrows to zero in my experience.
I just loaded 50 rounds of 308 Norma Magnum ammo and did not have one error
in the lot. Dave.
Click to expand...

I added one of those and Varget measures quite well now
 
Is the small bushing worthwhile compared to the McD straw that seem every 5th or so the clump on the tip collapse and falls.
Eagleye said:
I also have 2 Chargemasters [RCBS] and am very pleased with them.

There is a fellow on here [laurencen], who makes a small bushing to insert
into the dispenser tube. This reduces the .1 grain overthrows to zero in my experience.
I just loaded 50 rounds of 308 Norma Magnum ammo and did not have one error
in the lot. Dave.
Click to expand...
 
I use an RCBS chargemaster and with he McDonald's straw trick it hardly ever overthrows a charge and even though I didn't need to I also reprogrammed it and now it's faster than it was originally.
I have no experience with the other units but since this is the internet I guarantee you can find negative reviews on all of them.
It has definitely sped up my reloading :)
 
burnaby said:
Is the small bushing worthwhile compared to the McD straw that seem every 5th or so the clump on the tip collapse and falls.
Click to expand...

I was using the McD straw trick previously. It would overthrow about every 8th to 12th charge with certain powders. [Never with sphericals]

So far with the new bushing, I have had one overthrow [.1 gr.] in 225 rounds loaded with extruded powders....very good performance.

What you should know is.....the bushing slows down the dispensing somewhat. For large powder charges, this means waiting for
the next charge for a few extra seconds.

I have 2 Chargemasters, so if loading large cases, I use both at the same time....waiting becomes a non-issue. Dave.
 
Had a chargemaster, sold it (slow and unprecise)
I use a gempro, but the constant need to re-zero and drift, plus it's slow.

I'm buying a FX120I with the autotrickler this month probably.

The fx120i with autotrickler reports the weight 20 times a second to the trickler and it trickles the load to +-.02 in just a few seconds.
Cant beat that, but it's approx 1000$ for the kit.
 
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