RCBS Chargemaster Combo user's must read.

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cr5

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Not sure if this has been posted before but I came across a video on youtube describing how to reprogram the chargemaster and a cheap mod to do to it to make it more accurate.

McDonald's straw mod.
Cut 1 inch from a McDonald's straw and stick it into the dispenser tube. I did this to mine and am very impressed. I just loaded 100 rounds of 300BLK with LIL'Gun and my chargemaster used to dispense between .1gr and .3gr too much powder fairly regularly and now out of the 100 loads I just did I had one charge that was .1gr over and one charge that was .1gr under.
This is a significant improvement and greatly speeds up reloading when you don't have to use tweezers to throw a couple granules back into the hopper every 4-5 charges.

The youtube vid shows how to replrogram the dispenser to run faster closer to the programmed charge weight which also speeds up the process.
I'd attach the link but I'm on my phone right now and it's a pain in the butt.

Sorry if this is a repeat since I only went to page 2 looking for it but figured anyone using this machine would appreciate the free improvement in performance.
 
Welcome to 2+ years ago haha but thanks for sharing , I'm sure there is a lot of new users that are not aware of these little tricks..

If one is useing a lot more extruded powder , I found that 2.5+ " of straw was actually working better then 1"
 
Just finished another 50 rounds. This time I did .223 and used CFE223, one charge was 0.1gr over, all others were bang on.

Thanks U_M, I'll try a longer straw with extruded if I find that it's having issues. Does the longer straw still work well with ball and small grain powders?

Has anyone else reprogrammed their's? I haven't noticed much difference with these small charges but think it may help with cartridges like my 338 Lapua.
 
Thanks for sharing. Im new to reloading and have the chargemaster combo for reloading my rifle ammo.
Would this straw trick work well with 4895?
 
The straw trick works well for any powder you notice clumps together in a giant ball which eventually dumps all at once into the pan while the machine's doing the tick-tick-tick movements towards the end, leaving you with a massive over-charge. Essentially the powder slides better across the plastic instead of binding like it does in the metal and threads, so it stays in more of a straight line of individual granules.
 
I found that flake powders bung up and dump for an overcharge too, but out of the 100 44mag I reloaded last night only two charges did so: Powder was IMR 4227 so no surprise almost "spherical" shaped. I'll try the straw adaptation, as I often found myself wondering why RCBS bothered threading the tube.
 
New Camper said:
I found that flake powders bung up and dump for an overcharge too, but out of the 100 44mag I reloaded last night only two charges did so: Powder was IMR 4227 so no surprise almost "spherical" shaped. I'll try the straw adaptation, as I often found myself wondering why RCBS bothered threading the tube.
Click to expand...

I think they did it so it acts like an auger, they should have machined it smooth for the last inch and a half though.
 
I picked up 2 straws from McDonald's the other day, should be good for around 10 pieces, factoring in my driving and the labour to cut them I'll sell them for $5 each plus shipping, custom lengths available ;) JK

Funny how a little piece of McDonald's straw inspired me to load up 150 rounds yesterday. If I didn't have to go to Costco with the wife today and stop at P&D for 6.8SPC reloading supplies then pick up my daughter at 5ish I'd probably be downstairs in the gun room today as well.
Maybe tomorrow I'll throw together some 6.8 :D
 
Something else I learned about the chargemaster is there is only a 1 year warranty. They wanted 200 bucks plus shipping both ways(to the USA) to fix it. I can order a new one for close to that. And have a new one not a refurbished one.
 
MadMarty said:
CFE223 is known by rcbs to kill the chargemaster. Be careful! I won't use it in mine since it killed my last one a few charges in
Click to expand...

please enlighten me as to how this particular powder effects the chargemaster?? I use a DPS III so I am good lol
 
Loaded up another 100 rounds of .223 yesterday. 50 with Varget and 50 with H335. I replaced the 1 inch piece of straw with a piece about 2 inches long and it metered perfectly for all rounds, I think I had one charge over what I was asking for :)
I also set it to run faster closer to the trickle setpoint as well.
 
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