RCBS Chargemaster Combo vs Lyman 1200 DPS 3

Eagleye

Eagleye

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Well, I have one of each of these at present, and just thought I would share my impressions of each.
Pros and Cons, as I see them.

RCBS - Pros:
Very easy and quick to empty and clean up after use, or when changing from one powder to the next.
Larger hopper, allows one to load plenty before replenishing.
Quick warmup time [10 mins or so]
Memory very easy to program.
Generous size powder pan.

Cons:
Without modification, will throw a slightly heavy charge [.1 - .2 gr] once in a while, particularly with coarse powders.
Hopper is not removable.
Without reprogramming, tends to be a bit slower to dispense charges.
Calibration takes a bit of time.
Needs to be re-zeroed if left inactive but "on" for a time.


Lyman - Pros:
Very fast to dispense charges.
Hopper is removable.
Has an on/off button for repeat charges.
Memory easy to program in.
Quick to calibrate.

Cons:
Occasionally will throw a charge .1 grain over, even with the supplied restrictor.
Prolonged warmup. [30 mins]
A real pain to clean up after use....requires partial disassembly of the unit.
The removable hopper is not particularly snug in the base, and could easily be dislodged. If this happened with the hopper full of powder...disaster!!
Noisier than my RCBS unit while dispensing.
Smallish powder pan....not really an issue unless one is loading the big 50, though.

I think they are both quality units that are worth having. But if I had to pick one, it would be the RCBS, mainly due to the cleanup ease.
Keep in mind, this is just one man's opinion. :)

Regards, Dave.
 
Without modification, will throw a slightly heavy charge [.1 - .2 gr] once in a while, particularly with coarse powders.
Click to expand...

So I have the RCBS Chargemaster and will be using it for the first time tomorrow night. What modification improves this behaviour?

Thanks!
 
Obtain a soda drink straw from MacDonald's Restaurant. [They are slightly larger than the others use]
Cut off a 2 - 2½" length and insert it into your delivery tube, allowing it to stick out about ½"

It will reduce your "overweight" charges practically to zero.

Regards, Dave.
 
Eagleye said:
Obtain a soda drink straw from MacDonald's Restaurant. [They are slightly larger than the others use]
Cut off a 2 - 2½" length and insert it into your delivery tube, allowing it to stick out about ½"

It will reduce your "overweight" charges practically to zero.

Regards, Dave.
Click to expand...

OK, cool. Thanks.
 
Interesting (and cheap) mod. So the smooth soda straw is actually better than the engineered grooves in the aluminum tube. GO FIGURE :)

Pretty happy with the CM combo.

Only bad part is can't resist fatty fries whilst inside McD.
Eagleye said:
Obtain a soda drink straw from MacDonald's Restaurant. [They are slightly larger than the others use]
Cut off a 2 - 2½" length and insert it into your delivery tube, allowing it to stick out about ½"

It will reduce your "overweight" charges practically to zero.

Regards, Dave.
Click to expand...
 
burnaby said:
Interesting (and cheap) mod. So the smooth soda straw is actually better than the engineered grooves in the aluminum tube. GO FIGURE :)

Pretty happy with the CM combo.

Only bad part is can't resist fatty fries whilst inside McD.
Click to expand...

BTW there are also software parameter updates that can apparently improve the speed of dispensing.
 
A couple of comments.

I had the Lyman and sent it back due to the inability to maintain zero even after a prolonged warmup.

I replaced it with the Chargemaster and never looked back.
I keep it plugged in 24/7 and use RCBS check weights before loading every time and it is dead on between 5 and 100 gr.

As for the McDonalds straw the end of it should be cut in a sawtooth pattern like a crown for best results.
 
This refreshingly unbiased review otta be stickied IMHO. It would be of real value to anyone contemplating such a purchase. Kudos Eagleye !
 
Eagleye

You must be single to be able to afford both units, I've been married 38 years and was lucky to get the RCBS Chargemaster. My wife said we are saving to go on a European river cruise and said I should shoot my Daisy BB gun more. :bangHead:

ear-money_zpsc80a5b7e.jpg


Just kidding, last year for Xmas my wife went together with my youngest son and bought my Charge master. :bigHug:
 
BigedP51; Nope, married to my second wife for 22 years!! But have a good job, no big debts, and don't always buy new. :)

We try to visit the Philippines every other year. [I don't work June to Sept.]
We are not wealthy, but do fine. Reasoning is, we can't take it with us anyway, lol.

I have 4 grown kids, youngest is 34. Also have a 12YO at home, but he's an easy guy to take care of.

I certainly have no reason to complain about my life....even if it ended tomorrow, I have had a great time!!

Regards, Dave.
 
Just get the chargemaster, put a straw in the tube and reprogram it... not like it's hard.
turn it on the day before you plan to use it. It needs to be warmed up or it will drift.
When turned on the day before it will almost not drift. otherwise it drifts alot.
 
Good review.

The warm up time is the only drawback to the Lyman imo, and can be frustrating if you accidentally shut it off when recalibrating.It insists on another warm up period regardless of how long it was on. I also find it sensitive to drafts and have to turn off the fan in my reloading room for it to maintain accuracy. The odd time it throws an incorrect charge I just dump it back in the hopper. I do however find it easy to clean. My hopper clicks in and out nicely and removing the tube is no chore. Drop the chute, open the gate and use the supplied brush.
I opted for the Lyman over the RCBS after using my Uncles CMCombo a few times.
Although feature rich, the RCBS was notorious for throwing off charges. Although it was stock and hadn't had a straw inserted to make it function properly. For the price I think they should supply the straw :p
As Eagleye stated there are pros and cons to both, but either is better than neither.
I would hate to go back to the dump and trickle method.
 
Without modification, will throw a slightly heavy charge [.1 - .2 gr] once in a while, particularly with coarse powders.
Click to expand...

So I'm been working up ladder tests using my RCBS Chargemaster for the first time last night and today. I'm using IMR 3031, which is chunky as hell, and it definitely does seem to throw heavy once in a while. I can even usually see why-- when it's in the slowest mode just before finishing the charge, a clump of grains will occasionally fall all at once.

I've been sanity checking it with my GemPro 250, which is supposed to be accurate to within 1/50th of a grain, and calibrating each scale after every 5th round (basically at the start of each group in my ladder test). Overall the Chargemaster is quite good. Definitely within the +/- .1 gn tolerance as advertised, although it tends to throw heavy much more often than it does light.

For my ladder tests I'm trickling in grain by grain to get an exact charge, but I can see myself trusting the Chargemaster, and dispensing with the GemPro, once I have a little more experience with it. Particularly when I start reloading .308 (soon), I won't care as much about the minor variances, since the overall charge size is much larger.

In terms of speed, I'm not overly concerned, although I'm only loading .223 at the moment. I set the auto dispense feature on and dump the powder into a case, replace the pan on the scale and seat a bullet while the powder is dispensing. Usually the powder is dispensed by the time I return to the Chargemaster.

Next up I definitely need to try the McDonald's straw thing but that's sort of a problem for me because I'm supposed to be dieting ;)

Overall, a great little unit. I can see it speeding up my loading process, without sacrificing much measurement precision, which is exactly what I was hoping it would do.
 
reprogramming it takes 2 minutes and makes it twice as fast. and you need the straw for extruded powder, or you get overthrows because of the clumps

Mine is also within +-.1
 
So I tried the straw trick and it works very well. I noticed a distinct improvement in accuracy. As some have suggested, I cut the end of the straw in a serrated pattern and noticed that it made a difference in terms of the size of the chunks that drop during slow trickling.

I tested all the charges the Chargemaster dropped on my GemPro 250 scale, which is accurate enough to detect the difference of a single flake of powder. The Chargemaster still throws a bit high or a bit low (usually a bit high) about half the time, but the amount it's out was much smaller than before and way inside the stated +/- .1 gn margin of error.

It looks like this (although I pushed the straw in a little too far before I took the picture).

W2rjHl8.jpg
 
I was experimenting with both my units last evening, and here is what I observed.

First, I was dropping 46 grains of IMR4320.
RCBS took about 1 minute longer overall to drop 10 charges.
With the MacDonald's straw mod, all charges dropped were 46.0 grains.

The Lyman unit, with restrictor in place, dropped 3 charges at 46.1 grains, the rest were 46.0
I noted, that, with my units here, the Lyman was slightly louder while dispensing than was the RCBS.

Then I dropped 57.5 grains of W760
Again, the Lyman was a bit faster overall than was the RCBS [ I had reprogrammed the RCBS to reduce time]
The RCBS unit dropped all charges at 57.5 grains.
The Lyman also dropped all charges at 57.5 grains.

As I already noted, both are decent units, and it boils down to personal choice.
I'll keep both mine, since if both are running, I can load magnums about as fast as I can seat bullets.

Regards, Dave.
 
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