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Posted: 1/15/2016 1:20:48 AM EDT
[#1]
I've had My RCBS Chargemaster for 4 years, still working awesome.
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Posted: 1/15/2016 2:55:02 AM EDT
[#2]
I've had my Chargemaster for maybe 4 years and love it. If something happened to it, I would run out and buy another. Yes, the price is steep but it kicks ass.
The Chargemaster is on sale at Brownells right now. Just saying.  |
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Posted: 1/15/2016 4:23:44 AM EDT
[#3]
I'll add another vote for the RCBS Chargemaster. Its fantastic after tweaking the speeds and using the straw "trick". I've had it 4-5 years now, I believe.
I use it for my bulk training ammo for my 5.56 and .300BLK rifles. I still use my Redding thrower along with hand trickling for my precision loads, on a beam scale. No experience with the Lyman gen6, can't help you there sir.  ETA - I'll also add that if my Chargemaster broke, I would buy another one without hesitation. |
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Posted: 1/15/2016 6:39:29 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've had my Chargemaster for maybe 4 years and love it. If something happened to it, I would run out and buy another. Yes, the price is steep but it kicks ass. The Chargemaster is on sale at Brownells right now. Just saying.
Natchez is even a little cheaper @ $289 need to add $11 to get the $75 rebate |
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Posted: 1/15/2016 9:34:57 AM EDT
[#5]
I got in early, a lyman Gen 2. Still gettin it done, and will buy another when this one dies. These thing are great.
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Posted: 1/15/2016 9:40:04 AM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Natchez is even a little cheaper @ $289 need to add $11 to get the $75 rebate Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I've had my Chargemaster for maybe 4 years and love it. If something happened to it, I would run out and buy another. Yes, the price is steep but it kicks ass. The Chargemaster is on sale at Brownells right now. Just saying.
Natchez is even a little cheaper @ $289 need to add $11 to get the $75 rebate Fair warning. Natchez doesn't have their system locked down. Lots of us got our credit cards hacked after shopping with Natchez. ETA It happened to me in December. |
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Posted: 1/15/2016 9:46:43 AM EDT
[#7]
I have the RCBS and Hornady dispensers. The RCBS seems to be a little more accurate. I weigh them on my Gempro 250 and the RCBS is normally +/- .05gr, with occasional throws .1gr low. It is really good about catching any over charges. The Hornady seems more likely to throw .1gr low.
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Posted: 1/15/2016 10:24:41 AM EDT
[#8]
If you don't have a good scale, I recommend you get one. I now consider my 5-0-5 to be indispensable.
Still, I have to admit that the RCBS Chargemaster is nice. How well it works depends a lot on what powder you're using. Bigger stick powders will introduce more variation in the actual load weights thrown, but it REALLY speeds up working up a load test. A good buddy of mine has thus far left his at my place (I have the good precision dies and a range right outside my door  ). I check it against my RCBS 5-0-5 and have had no real complaints. Loading up tests where I am changing powder charge often is pretty much the only thing I use it for, and it is definitely useful for speeding up that process.
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Posted: 1/15/2016 5:30:44 PM EDT
[#9]
Looks like RCBS has extended their rebate....perfect time to take a hard look at the Chargemaster.
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Posted: 1/15/2016 5:42:00 PM EDT
[#10]
I have a $1k lab grade scale and still wish I had the charge master.
My friend brought over his to check the accuracy versus my scale and it was always accurate to the 0.1gr it is listed for (my scale does 0.01gr). I would get the charge master and a cheap balance beam to double check your weights every now and then. |
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Posted: 1/15/2016 8:14:19 PM EDT
[#11]
Another Chargemaster 1500 user here. Probably about 5 years now. I did a slight parameter change and the McDonald's straw mod, that's it.
Oh I also bought a pan/funnel. I highly recommend it. My Lyman pan/funnel only weighs about half of what the metal pan weighs but I haven't had to modify it (make it heavier) to get good results with it. Some people glue weight like metal washers to them to make them weigh the same as the original pan. Hey, what's with the pinking shear cut on the McDonald's straw? I'm using a straight cut. Motor |
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Posted: 1/16/2016 4:39:36 AM EDT
[#12]
I had the Lyman 1200, it was an absolute PITA from day one. Had constant issues with wandering zero, wasn't consistently accurate, and made loading miserable. Ultimately had to send it back to Lyman, and eventually sold it after being factory refurb'd.
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Posted: 1/16/2016 5:07:42 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I had the Lyman 1200, it was an absolute PITA from day one. Had constant issues with wandering zero, wasn't consistently accurate, and made loading miserable. Ultimately had to send it back to Lyman, and eventually sold it after being factory refurb'd. I had the Lyman and when it did work, I realized a good powder measure was better. Of course you need a decent scale to set it up, but once that 5 minute job is done you just drop charges and go, faster than one of those contraptions. |
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Posted: 1/16/2016 5:49:26 AM EDT
[#14]
I avoided buying a Charge Master because of the cost, but when it went on sale during Christmas for $274, I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, it's not accurate enough for making precision ammo, but it very often produces charges which are within 3 or 4 kernels of the target weight. That makes the charge easy to fine tune using a second, more precise scale. I use a Gem Pro 250 with a .02gr resolution.
The real problem with the Charge Master is that while it quite often comes very close to the target, it sometimes over throws by a full tenth. It may or may not produce an overcharge warning when it does this. In other words, you can't trust it if you're making premium ammo, but it is great for plinking ammo and is a real help when making precision ammo. You don't need a trickler, just a few kernels of powder on a piece of paper and tweezers to add or remove a kernel or two as necessary. |
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Posted: 1/16/2016 11:39:45 AM EDT
[#15]
That is correct there is no "Warning" of an over charge with the Chargemaster but the actual weight of the charge is displayed and there is a small indicator on the display showing that it is over the target.
Again, Are you guys waiting for the unit to switch from dispense back to scale mode before removing the pan? The advertised accuracy of the CM 1500 is +/- .1 grain. I'm sure that is the scale's accuracy and has nothing to do with dispensing. Motor |
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Posted: 1/16/2016 12:24:35 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I avoided buying a Charge Master because of the cost, but when it went on sale during Christmas for $274, I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, it's not accurate enough for making precision ammo, but it very often produces charges which are within 3 or 4 kernels of the target weight. That makes the charge easy to fine tune using a second, more precise scale. I use a Gem Pro 250 with a .02gr resolution. The real problem with the Charge Master is that while it quite often comes very close to the target, it sometimes over throws by a full tenth. It may or may not produce an overcharge warning when it does this. In other words, you can't trust it if you're making premium ammo, but it is great for plinking ammo and is a real help when making precision ammo. You don't need a trickler, just a few kernels of powder on a piece of paper and tweezers to add or remove a kernel or two as necessary. Not true IME. With ball powders, it is seldom off by much at all. Even with stick powders, it seems to do just fine - if you work up a load, you will find nodes at which variations in powder charge don't have a very strong effect on accuracy. You're talking about variations in powder charge of less than 0.2% with a ±0.1 grain accuracy in my typical .30-06 loads. If you're looking to control individual kernels of powder, you're talking about effects on the FAR sub-moa level. I ran an experiment several years ago to test trickled charges vs. thrown charges, and the effect on accuracy and muzzle velocity. I found no statistically significant difference between the two for the loads tested. There are likely other variables introducing significantly more variation than a kernel's worth of powder charge. This 5 shot group of .30-06 was loaded with a Chargemaster, before load tuning: 
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Posted: 1/16/2016 1:03:09 PM EDT
[#17]
There are extremes for everything. When I competed in highpower silhouette I used what ever powder was the best bargain. Sometimes that meant stick powder. So did a similar experiment.
I threw my IMR-4064 with the Uniflow. As most know this turns out to be about a +/- 1.0gr proposition. My Uniflow dispensed loads were only very slightly less accurate than my hand trickled match ammo. If you are concerned over a couple granules of powder you either are shooting in a very highly competitive discipline or you need to find a load better suited to your firearm because something as simple as clouds rolling in or a slight difference in atmospheric pressure or even a few degrees in temperature change is going to change your load by the equivalence of a few granules of powder. That is why ladder tests are so useful. There is nothing more pleasing to see than a group stay tight through a 3 grain span of charge weights. This lets you know that when in the middle you have a little cushion on either end for the uncontrollable things like nature. Motor |
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Posted: 1/16/2016 2:08:16 PM EDT
[#18]
I'll help you send your money - buy a Prometheus powder dispenser.
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Posted: 1/16/2016 5:23:45 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I avoided buying a Charge Master because of the cost, but when it went on sale during Christmas for $274, I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, it's not accurate enough for making precision ammo, but it very often produces charges which are within 3 or 4 kernels of the target weight. That makes the charge easy to fine tune using a second, more precise scale. I use a Gem Pro 250 with a .02gr resolution. The real problem with the Charge Master is that while it quite often comes very close to the target, it sometimes over throws by a full tenth. It may or may not produce an overcharge warning when it does this. In other words, you can't trust it if you're making premium ammo, but it is great for plinking ammo and is a real help when making precision ammo. You don't need a trickler, just a few kernels of powder on a piece of paper and tweezers to add or remove a kernel or two as necessary. I have not found this to be true at all. Kernels? Tweezers? You are concerning yourself with things that wont make any difference. It took some tuning with a mcdonalds straw, and a brass mouth fitting, now my Chargemaster NEVER overthrows. I verify every few charges on a second scale and it is dead nuts every time. You either got a lemon, or you haven't tuned it fully. I THOUGHT I tuned mine at first, by doing then straw trick only at the mouth. This really accomplished NOTHING. Then I did the reprogramming that was popular. That was neat and fun to change the SPEED in which it filled, but it truly does nothing for accuracy. Only once I cut the section of straw and pushed it all the way to the rear of the tube, and tuning it to limit the amount of powder that can enter the tube, did I see a serious change in accuracy.... and for it to stop dribbling out 5-6 kernels at a time. So now I have the brass insert from EBAY along with a 3" section of straw material blocking the rear opening with only about 3/16" open at the back, then I reprogrammed to make up for the speed loss. It's flawless. And slow enough to allow the scale to catch up and nail the charges. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 1:59:05 PM EDT
[#20]
+1
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've had My RCBS Chargemaster for 4 years, still working awesome. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 2:03:20 PM EDT
[#21]
I loaded up 100 .308 cases yesterday with Varget on the RCBS chargemaster. 44.5gr. ZERO overthrows.
Then I loaded up 50 .223 cases with 25.5gr of Varget. I had ONE overthrow (25.6) I have programmed it optimized for 40gr+ from a speed perspective because I primarily use it for match .308 loads. If I primarily did smaller throws, I could slow down the speed toward the end and eliminate that 1 out of 50 overthrows. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 2:06:26 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I loaded up 100 .308 cases yesterday with Varget on the RCBS chargemaster. 44.5gr. ZERO overthrows. Then I loaded up 50 .223 cases with 25.5gr of Varget. I had ONE overthrow (25.6) I have programmed it optimized for 40gr+ from a speed perspective because I primarily use it for match .308 loads. If I primarily did smaller throws, I could slow down the speed toward the end and eliminate that 1 out of 50 overthrows. |
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Posted: 1/19/2016 2:28:21 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
What bullet are you pushing with 25.5gr of Varget? I normally use 23.5gr Varget with my 75's and 77's. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I loaded up 100 .308 cases yesterday with Varget on the RCBS chargemaster. 44.5gr. ZERO overthrows. Then I loaded up 50 .223 cases with 25.5gr of Varget. I had ONE overthrow (25.6) I have programmed it optimized for 40gr+ from a speed perspective because I primarily use it for match .308 loads. If I primarily did smaller throws, I could slow down the speed toward the end and eliminate that 1 out of 50 overthrows. Good catch. But remember - Varget is unique in that it often runs out of space in the case before you actually reach pressure signs... and many loads are already compressed. My 75-77gr load was also 23.5-24.5, but my 69SMK load is actually 25.9gr. Interesting, it was originally 25.0gr with 69SMK, but I bumped it up to match a fellow competitor I travel with so we can share ammo with the exact same recipe, and there was almost negligible difference in velocity nor accuracy.... Varget seems to run out of steam once you reach compression. However, this specific load was for testing some new Wolf M193 projectiles so I just picked a nice middle of the road load for those at 25.5. |
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Posted: 1/20/2016 1:45:31 PM EDT
[#24]
$309 with free ship from Brownells plus Brownells "Forever 100% Satisfaction Guarantee", a long with the $75 rebate is making it hard not to buy,
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Posted: 1/20/2016 6:11:10 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
$309 with free ship from Brownells plus Brownells "Forever 100% Satisfaction Guarantee", a long with the $75 rebate is making it hard not to buy, I went for it, been wanting one a long time now. |
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Posted: 1/20/2016 6:11:19 PM EDT
[#26]
yet another chargemaster user here.
I won't ever go back to anything else. |
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Posted: 1/20/2016 6:55:41 PM EDT
[#27]
Hey Heads Up, if you are looking for a good deal on the Chargemaster, Cabelas has them for 260'ish right now, which is 100 dollars off of the regular price, plus RCBS has a rebate going, if you spend over 300 on RCBS gear you get a 75 Dollar rebate.
I bought a Chargemaster for 264, and a hand priming tool and went just over 300 to qualify for the rebate. So I'll get a ChargeMaster and a hand primer for 240'ish out the door after tax and the rebates. |
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Posted: 1/20/2016 7:57:41 PM EDT
[#28]
Link?
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Posted: 1/21/2016 12:07:58 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Link? No link because they don't want the thread to get locked for a "where to find" thread. |
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Posted: 1/21/2016 12:07:58 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Link? No link because they don't want the thread to get locked for a "where to find" thread. |
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Posted: 1/21/2016 12:13:28 AM EDT
[#31]
Another vote for a RCBS Chargemaster. I've had one for a few years (don't remember exactly when I bought it) and I love it. It took the thing I found most annoying about reloading and made it a breeze (I grew to hate my 505 scale).
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Posted: 1/21/2016 5:08:16 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've had My RCBS Chargemaster for 4 years, still working awesome. I love my Chargemaster. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 12:11:57 AM EDT
[#33]
Just bought a chargemaster fellas.
was leaning towards the Gen6 until this thread. More money than I wanted to spend but hopefully it works out well.
I have several thousand 5.56 reloads in my future....it better work!
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Posted: 1/22/2016 12:34:04 AM EDT
[#34]
Another Chargemaster 1500 here. 5 years and still going strong.
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Posted: 1/22/2016 1:11:44 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I went for it, been wanting one a long time now. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
$309 with free ship from Brownells plus Brownells "Forever 100% Satisfaction Guarantee", a long with the $75 rebate is making it hard not to buy, I went for it, been wanting one a long time now. Me too. The box arrived yesterday and I'm going to take it out now that the temp has stabilized. Will be throwing Varget into some 556 69gr SMK loads. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 2:27:07 PM EDT
[#36]
There are a few changes in the configuration settings that you can make to your chargemaster. This will speed it up and increase accuracy. Youtube has a few videos but the best thing you can do is to put a large straw in the trickle tube.
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Posted: 1/22/2016 4:51:55 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There are a few changes in the configuration settings that you can make to your chargemaster. This will speed it up and increase accuracy. Youtube has a few videos but the best thing you can do is to put a large straw in the trickle tube. I did not find this to be true, UNLESS you pushed it all the way back into the open slot and only left a small opening for powder to enter. Controlling the powder pushing inside the tube had the biggest impact on overthrows. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 5:20:18 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There are a few changes in the configuration settings that you can make to your chargemaster. This will speed it up and increase accuracy. Youtube has a few videos but the best thing you can do is to put a large straw in the trickle tube. I'll run it "as-is" for a few batches. If fine tuning is needed I'll keep this in mind. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 5:55:32 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'll run it "as-is" for a few batches. If fine tuning is needed I'll keep this in mind. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: There are a few changes in the configuration settings that you can make to your chargemaster. This will speed it up and increase accuracy. Youtube has a few videos but the best thing you can do is to put a large straw in the trickle tube. I'll run it "as-is" for a few batches. If fine tuning is needed I'll keep this in mind. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 6:59:23 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This is what I would do. Mine must have different programming than the ones that have had overthrow issues. Mine runs fairly fast and then slows down quite a bit for the last few tenths. I haven't had an overthrow issue with mine, even with a cylindrical powder like Varget. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
There are a few changes in the configuration settings that you can make to your chargemaster. This will speed it up and increase accuracy. Youtube has a few videos but the best thing you can do is to put a large straw in the trickle tube. I'll run it "as-is" for a few batches. If fine tuning is needed I'll keep this in mind. My overthrows were hardly ever from racing at the end... which is bad programming. Even when I slowed mine way down, it was just an issue of clumping and dropping 6-7 granules all at once, which would go .1gr over my target. By limiting the opening inside the machine with the straw mod, and placing the brass insert into the mouth (or a sharp cut straw) I saw this behavior completely eliminated and each "bump" at the end would only drop 1-2 granules.... making it far more consistent. You'll see what I mean OP. Tips: 1. Turn on the machine and let it warm up for at least 20 minutes before rolling. 2. Make SURE you level the scale with the leveling feet so it is SOLID and level. This is important. 3. Place the scale somewhere NOT on the same bench as your press. This way you can load/work with the press without affecting scale operations or bouncing out powder granules accidentally. 4. Keep some dryer sheets handy. Wipe the scale body and the powder pan down with a sheet before using to remove static. This really helps when it is cold/dry. 5. Calibrate the machine before each loading session. Keep the instructions handy because you will forget the procedure. 6. Have another scale handy and check the load accuracy every once in a while. |
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Posted: 1/22/2016 9:32:40 PM EDT
[#41]
just get a gempro 250 and call it a day
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