RCBS CHARGEMASTER issues please help

J_flyer

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HI guys I have a question, I recently purchased a new rcbs chargemaster and started testing it against my rcbs beam scale. I have some concerns as I do long range precision shooting. They advertise it being accurate to .1 gn but I am getting .5 grain swings either way and it never seems to be consistent I have done the straw mod and reprogrammed the unit to be more accurate but same thing. At ranges of 1000 yards and hopefully greater soon I would imagine this would drastically affect POI, I'm wondering do I have a faulty unit or is this normal. I've always considered beam scales to be more accurate than electronic but am I wrong in thinking this? Secondly is the lyman gen 5 or gen 6 any better, based on reviews read online the rcbs is supposed to be the most accurate but with my experience so far I'm not finding that to be the case. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you
 
If your looking for consistency for long range you must eliminate the electronics as most have a .1gr+ variance which changes as it's cold or hot.
Use the chargemaster first if you must then reweigh on a proper beam scale.
I use a cheapo powder drop to get me .1/.05grain short than manually add in granules of powder on a beam scale to give me a perfect drop. Takes time but you quickly pickup pace when you get the hang of dropping the right amount of granules to get your weight.
Takes time, but gives me super consistent FPS along with all the other quality componants that i use

Unless you setup a nice tall hit area to account for the fps changes.
Don't trust things that make other things Easy. Long range accuracy isn't easy and it shouldn't be!
 
J_flyer

You need to allow the ChargeMaster to warm up for several hours or more to stabilize. Florescent lighting, static electricity, etc can adversely effect the unit. I have been on a mass loading binge loading for my AR15s using H335 and have been getting very good results. I would recommend asking your same question at http://www.accurateshooter.com/ reloading forum as many competitive shooters use the ChargeMaster. If you can't get to the bottom of the problem then you should contact RCBS and have them look at the unit and or replace it.

10 Commandments for Electronic Scales
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/reloading/ten-commandments-for-electronic-scales/

Line Noise Filter for Reloading Scales
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/reloading/line-noise-filter-helps-reduce-scale-drift/

Digital Powder Dispensers Part One
Electronic Powder Measure Comparison Test
http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/digital-powder-dispensers-part-one/

Digital Powder Dispensers Part Two
Unit-by-Unit Function Tests of RCBS, Lyman, and PACT Dispensers
http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/digital-powder-dispensers-part-two/
 
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Google the straw trick. also google hacking the chargemaster. lots of info to improve it but you'll never get world champion benchrest precison and accuracy out of it.

when i actually care about perfect loads, I use the chargemaster to get me most of the way there than trickle to perfection in a gempro.
 
I purchased a custom brass tip for the unit added a insulator for the power cord and leave it on a minimum of 1/2 hr before loading ..so far extremely good.
 
I used the straw trick, I let mine warm up for 30 minutes, and I have no issues with consistency. I do still get the odd overcharge to .2gr at most, but the scale shows the overcharge, and I just pour a bit off, and trickle it up if necessary. I have tried weighing the same bullet dozens of times in a row, and the scale usually reads exactly the same from start to finish. I don't shoot past 500m, but I get satisfactory accuracy at that distance using the Chargemaster. If your table isn't solid, or if the Chargemaster isn't set up with all of the legs bearing on the table, it can rock around and cause issues, and drafts can also cause issues, but if you set up properly, you shouldn't have issues.
 
I recently picked one up as well as my other digital scale died. I haven't played with it too much yet, but my initial tests with it seem pretty good. It would seem my 505 balance is off though.

Weighed a bunch of charges that were done on my lab grade digital, they were bang on with the Chargemaster. My 2, 5, 50 and 100 gram check weights were all bang on. The 505 is definitely off from what I can tell. Need to do more tests but that is what it is looking like so far.
 
J_Flyer, lightly rub the pan support piece and the surrounding plastic with a dryer sheet. They might be charged with static electricity.
 
I have a Chargemaster, and get very consistent results.

Most of the issues have already been mentioned here.

I do shoot 1000 yards, and have not seen fps variations because of using my Chargemaster.

Regards, Dave.
 
My Chargemaster generally drops (9.5 times/10) within .1grn +/- but will occasionally go over that based on the fact that the trickle function can make powder pile up even in a straw. I also have my settings tweaked on the machine itself.

It also depends on what powder you are using as to how much it will go over in these cases. (i.e. Varget - 5 Kernels = .1grn, H4831SC - 3 Kernels = .1grn)

I load for F-Class shooting so I use my Chargemaster to pour the initial load and I tweak it on my A&D FX-120i.
 
If I understand his post correctly he's not worried about those odd throws where the chargemaster reads 0.1 high or low after it dispenses a charge but that the scale shows 45gr every time but when he weighs those same charges on the beam scale the numbers are not 45gr each time. In those cases the straw mod etc will do nothing to help.

I've found the RCBS unit to be less sensitive to outside interference than my old Lyman scale but I still follow the same rules I made up while using the Lyman.
Most important rule is to take your cellphone out of your pocket and leave it in another room or at least far from the scale. After that watch for proximity to fluorescent lights, power cords to other appliances etc.

I turn mine on when I'm setting up to reload and calibrate it before starting. I don't bother comparing to a beam scale and I'm surely not going to start double weighing every charge. I may as well go back to a volumetric and trickler if I'm going to do that as it would be faster.
For my long range shooting 0.1-0.2gr isn't a huge deal since my long range rig is a 338 Lapua and when you're throwing 95+ grains a variance 0.1 isn't the end of the world. I don't compete and as long as I can ring a gong most shots I write off the misses to me screwing up the shot. I rarely shoot 1000 yards though and if I did I may need to look into ways to be more accurate if consistency was suffering.
A buddy of mine reloads solely with his chargemaster and his 338 Lapua was giving him fairly consistent 1/4moa performance last time he showed me targets so I'm not going to worry too much about it.
 
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I can attest to the Lyman gen 5 being .1 accurate, are you waiting for the trickle cycle and the beep?.. I personally still like the chargemaster better, I have used both extensively, and found the chargemaster to be dead on more times on average than my Gen 5. Lots of good advice here on possible issues.
 
So are you chargemaster users mostly weighing in grains or grams? I am accustomed to grams so it takes a while to get used to. I did the straw mod and weighing in grains every load seemed to be bang on.
 
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