Recommend a powder dispenser

[Deviant]

I have a Gen 6 Lyman I bought a few years ago, the scale has been going downhill quick. It has been off by nearly 1.5 grain even after repeated calibration and will hunt up and down by a few as it fills. Warranty looks to be non existent.

How does a chargemaster or the lite version compare for dropping automated loads for quick reloading, and accurate ones for precision reloads.

I have tried nearly all brands of digital powder dispensers and all except for the auto trickler v3 have been junk. Just spend the extra coin 1 time and it will save you in the long run.

 

[cdherman]

My lite seems to go over a kernel or two most of the time..
Set it for a .1gr under and trickle to finish...
I know a lot of guys shrug at touching powder with bare fingers....but if I set for what I want..i grab a few kernels out and feed back in by kernel to first showing of weight i want.....

Then i grab a big steak bare handed and chew on it all at the same time...

I use my Chargemaster to throw 0.3 grains under and the A&D FX 120 and Little dandy trickler to bring up to weight. I got 2 plastic powder measure/funnels and trimmed one until both were exactly even in weight. Can do 2-3 measures per minute. Measures down to a single powder "kernel". Not as cool looking as the Auto-thrower combo but my mad money is saving up for the Kestrel 5700 bundle and a new and un-needed varmint rifle build right now.

Until you use a charge master along with the A&D you don't realize how inaccurate they are. +/- 0.15 grain vs 0.02 grains is no contest. The charge master weight wanders all over. Mine does just what you are describing. cal weights are all over the place on the RCBS and has never been anything but the same exact weight on the A&D every time.

These two quotes are interesting to me.

First, my god man, there is a powder "trickler" out there that is free and far better than your fingers: dump 50 gr of powder you are using in a empty shotgun shell. I like my archaic 12g blue colored Federal from 1972. You tip and tap and a grain of powder or two fly out into the pan. I started doing this as a 17 year old out of necessity and being poor, relatively. Works great. Try it fellas, its quick too.

Second, quote. Man, you are genius. I need to trim my chargemaster pan and my beam scale pan to be identical in weight. I will file on them till they match. Folks, what he's describing is having a workflow, so that the Chargemaster can be throwing the "base" charge, while the A&D perfects the charge. Me, I use a beam scale to "prefect" the charge, as a beam scale is my standard (and in my case, its an old, nice Ohaus/RCBS)..... But the idea of multiple matching weight pans in really something to be considered. You see, you zero your various equipment and then the pans can rotate, so that two pieces of equipment can work in tandem....... gotta do this......

 

[just_jon]

My chargemaster hit the trash can today. Upon opening the unit, I found the drive motor had come out of position. Fixed that, but then found the plastic nut that connects the feed tube to the drive motor was stripped. Fixed that, but it still stops 1.5 to 2 grains short of requested load. That, I cannot fix. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.

 

[Scott E Ames]

A better way to remove a few granules of powder with no touch is to use a small hobby model paint brush. If you touch its bristles down at the edge of the powder in the scale pan it will pick up between 1-3 granules and then just gently touch the scale pan and you can get them to drop 1 at a time back in for perfect weight. This is the one thing the charge master included cleaning brush does very well.

 

[Scott E Ames]

"But the idea of multiple matching weight pans in really something to be considered. You see, you zero your various equipment and then the pans can rotate, so that two pieces of equipment can work in tandem....... gotta do this......"

If you go with the Lyman scale pan/funnel you will speed up even more as the funnel is built into the pan. To zero your beam scale you will need to add weight to the plastic pans. RCBS metal pan weighs a little over 100 grains more than the Lyman pan. Either a length of solid core solder cut to weight or a nickel and dime taped or super glued to the bottom should be close enough to let you zero the beam scale. Fine tune the weights with Dremel.
Lyman 7752433 Powder Pal Electronic Scale Funnel Pan ; look on Amazon

 

[PatriotHenry]

I have a Gen 6 Lyman I bought a few years ago, the scale has been going downhill quick. It has been off by nearly 1.5 grain even after repeated calibration and will hunt up and down by a few as it fills. Warranty looks to be non existent.

How does a chargemaster or the lite version compare for dropping automated loads for quick reloading, and accurate ones for precision reloads.

Alaskan, I have a Lyman and it is junk. If you are looking for precision I recommend this: http://harrellsprec.com/index.php/products/custom-90-culver-measure. If you are under 90grs for what you are loading. I personally do not trust electronic ones anymore.

 

[I___K]

Everyone that's used the AutoTrickler V3 has been extremely impressed - not much in the negative feedback.

 

[nt7332]

Until u have a A&D or similar you will never see the error in the standard throwers. I use a chargemaster lite and prethrow. Then run a dandy trickler on a A&D Fx120i. It really opens your eyes to where u need to spend your money in the reloading game.

 

[cajun]

All the cheaper electronic measures use strain gauges. Just like the elcheapo digitals you see out there. It is vastly inferior to a magnetic force balance. You can argue wether that much precision is needed for long range hunting. A good tuned beam scale will register a single kernel its just slow.

 

[just_jon]

I replaced my broken Chargemaster Lite with the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper. In the first hundred rounds loaded with stick powder, I had only 2 overcharged. Best guess is the RCBS overcharged 10% of the time.

 

[alaskan9974]

I ordered a chargemaster 1500...but now that temps have dropped from the 80's to the 60's the one I have is reading spot on, and secondary weighing confirms it. Don't trust it any more will save it for bulk 5.56 reloading or something.