Lyman Gen 5 vs Gen 6 vs Hornady LockNLoad vs RCBS Chargmaster

Frew

Frew

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Im looking for an auto charge powder dispenser, and these are the way to go. But what one? with over $200 difference between them is it worth going top end for the RCBS or just grabbing a Lyman? Lyman has always made awesome stuff but iv never tried something like this. Speed matters the most to me, don't care about which one has 1000 settings

Any experience with these units?
 
Lyman has had 6 attempts to get this right. Take that how you want.

Hornady unit is newer but seems to be a good unit.

RCBS ChargeMaster has been around for quite some time and has proven itself to be a good machine.
 
Most of my equipment is Hornady.
I had a Lyman powder dispenser, I now have an RCBS Chargemaster.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the rest.
 
I just bought the Lyman Gen6 150rds charged thru it so far .I beam scale every load and trickle up a few kernels when needed very few over charges , using Varget and 4064 so far 40+ gr charges .Working with florescent lights above and cell ph on bench have no effect on scale .speed of unit is great for me by the time I transfer charge to beam scale pan and replace gen 6 pan to scale ,check charge on beam scale, trickle up (if needed)dump charge in case ,new charge is ready to go .My first 100 rds took me 1 hr to charge and empty Gen 6 (cleans up easy ). The gen 5 was bigger and had a few extra figure but I didn't need any of them so I went this way and the $$ diferent to other systems was great enough to give the gen 6 a try 320 ++
I am happy so far

Little
 
litledab said:
I just bought the Lyman Gen6 150rds charged thru it so far .I beam scale every load and trickle up a few kernels when needed very few over charges , using Varget and 4064 so far 40+ gr charges .Working with florescent lights above and cell ph on bench have no effect on scale .speed of unit is great for me by the time I transfer charge to beam scale pan and replace gen 6 pan to scale ,check charge on beam scale, trickle up (if needed)dump charge in case ,new charge is ready to go .My first 100 rds took me 1 hr to charge and empty Gen 6 (cleans up easy ). The gen 5 was bigger and had a few extra figure but I didn't need any of them so I went this way and the $$ diferent to other systems was great enough to give the gen 6 a try 320 ++
I am happy so far

Little
Click to expand...

Using your method, you would have been better off buying a cheap mechanical powder thrower.
 
If you want super accurate get a Gempro. I use my Chargemaster to get me in the ball park but I trickle in using the Gempro for final weight. I guess it depends how far you want to go with precision
 
I use a Lyman and thus far its working great, pretty quick at repeat loads, I do check about 1 in 10 and as yet no issues, mine is a year old before they introduced the touch screen version.
 
Frew said:
Im looking for an auto charge powder dispenser, and these are the way to go. But what one? with over $200 difference between them is it worth going top end for the RCBS or just grabbing a Lyman? Lyman has always made awesome stuff but iv never tried something like this. Speed matters the most to me, don't care about which one has 1000 settings

Any experience with these units?
Click to expand...
Have you eliminated other dispensers?
 
I have the hornady. Main reason was the price a local spot had it on for. It's been great for me. Not too many overcharges. I looked at the lyman and rcbs. The rcbs seems to be the standard all others are measured. I would imagine at this point they would all be fairly equal in performance. When the dollar is more reasonable, I plan to add the Chargemaster to the bench just to speed things up and really see how it is
 
PitBull1973 said:
If you want super accurate get a Gempro. I use my Chargemaster to get me in the ball park but I trickle in using the Gempro for final weight. I guess it depends how far you want to go with precision
Click to expand...

This. RCBS is fast but only accurate to =/-.2gn the gem pro is accurate to =/- .02gn = consistency I run them each out with the rcbs and dump onto the gempro then use a trickler. loading varget the gempro changes each time you add one piece of the powder with either trickler or tweezers. its that accurate.
 
ERICK TUIN said:
This. RCBS is fast but only accurate to =/-.2gn the gem pro is accurate to =/- .02gn = consistency I run them each out with the rcbs and dump onto the gempro then use a trickler. loading varget the gempro changes each time you add one piece of the powder with either trickler or tweezers. its that accurate.
Click to expand...

So I would assume that you,

Neck turn all brass to uniform thickness
sort brass by volume
trim the bullet meplat
run the bullets through a pointing die
sort your bullets by weight
Sort bullets by length to ogive
Dispense and weigh powder
Weigh and correct powder charge
Only load your Ammo a few days before use
use a force gauge when seating bullets
Check runout on each cartridge
Ensure that there is no carbon build up in the chamber area of the rifle.

Of course none of the above done in any particular order.

It got to the point, for me, that the hobby became far too much work for gains that I'm not sure were there for me.
 
the RCBS can be made very accurate by tweaking the settings in the electronics. Easy and very effective. You can also put a piece of McDonalds drink straw in the nozzle for free and literally less than a min of your time.

While I have not loaded 10's of thousands like some of you, I have loaded a few thousands and I have had 2(two) over throws, both by a tenth or two and 1(one underthrow, also by 1/10th of a grain.

Its fast, repeatable and accurate. the only thing I don't like is that you cannot have it put right into the case, but you have to put it in the pan, and then dump it in, but that's it.
 
JR Hartman said:
the RCBS can be made very accurate by tweaking the settings in the electronics. Easy and very effective. You can also put a piece of McDonalds drink straw in the nozzle for free and literally less than a min of your time.

While I have not loaded 10's of thousands like some of you, I have loaded a few thousands and I have had 2(two) over throws, both by a tenth or two and 1(one underthrow, also by 1/10th of a grain.

Its fast, repeatable and accurate. the only thing I don't like is that you cannot have it put right into the case, but you have to put it in the pan, and then dump it in, but that's it.
Click to expand...

I did the Mcdonalds straw trick and it helped huge! Went from 10% over throws down to maybe 1%
 
JR Hartman said:
the RCBS can be made very accurate by tweaking the settings in the electronics. Easy and very effective. You can also put a piece of McDonalds drink straw in the nozzle for free and literally less than a min of your time.

While I have not loaded 10's of thousands like some of you, I have loaded a few thousands and I have had 2(two) over throws, both by a tenth or two and 1(one underthrow, also by 1/10th of a grain.

Its fast, repeatable and accurate. the only thing I don't like is that you cannot have it put right into the case, but you have to put it in the pan, and then dump it in, but that's it.
Click to expand...

I had about 3 overthrows using 4064 while loading up 50 rounds, all were +0.1g.
Varget is about 1 every 50, 8208 is accurate only without a mcd's straw. I guess the small ball kernels dont like the smooth surface.
 
help me out with phrasing cus I'm new here and I'm asking opinions on the best and most practical both on my accuracy and on my wallet... can someone explain definition of overthrow an under throw?

and what is this straw trick i hear lots about?

Silverfoxdj --- the lyman and rcbs are the ones i narrowed down just because i know the RCBS is the Atlas bipod of powder dispensers and lyman because lyman has always seemed to make a good reloading product to me. Iv heard bad stuff about all hornady reloading equipment and it seemed overpriced (except their bullets and brass, thats great stuff!).. but if there is other suggestions I'm all ears.
 
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