Well, I broke down about a month ago and picked one of these up. I unboxed it and did all the tricks I have read about first thing. This involved sticking a McDonalds straw in the dispensing tube to prevent overcharges. When using long stick powders like Varget, the computer trickles the charge and because of the threaded interior of the dispensing shaft, it will dump clumps at a time and give you overcharges

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1210390&gonew=1#UNREAD

Next I changed some of the parameters of the computer to speed up the throw time.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=749573&Searchpage=1&Main=69594&Words=straw&Search=true#Post749573

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1063428&Searchpage=1&Main=97130&Words=straw&Search=true#Post1063428

I switched to a Lyman funnel pan to skip a step and have to use a separate funnel.

Lastly, I pulled a baby wipe over every surface I could find including the entire interior because baby wipes get rid of static.

Ready to rock. This thing is so stupid simple to use. It gets calibrated like every other electronic scale, which takes about 30 seconds. I dropped in half a pound of varget and went to town. The sweetest thing about this system, is that you just type in how many grains you want and press dispense and it runs it out. It goes fast to begin and then slows at the end and trickles itself until it hits the target charge and then it beeps to let you know it's done.

452225

Low, high or whatever, if it's not what you want, you can dump the charge, hit dispense and it rolls out a new charge. If it's low, you just hit the trickle button until you get what you need. You can set it up to dispense a charge automatically every time you set the pan on the thing.

452226


The Chargemaster also has a memory that you can set and label each powder so that you can punch a few keys and have it pulled right up. The little knob on the right hand side is a powder drain. You set something underneath to catch the powder and open it up and all the powder inside flows right out. Make sure you close the drain before pouring new powder in the top, not that I've made this mistake once or three times.
I did a bunch of ladder testing last night and it's so simple to just type in a new charge and pump out fifty rounds each with a slightly higher charge. I checked a charge or two on a beam scale to make sure they are right and they are dead on. Doing this helped me put out three round groups this morning with single digit extreme spreads in .308. That's impressive.
Does this speed up your reloading? I have only reloaded by dropping each charge in to the pan, measuring the charge, trickling up or down and then dropping it in the case. So for me this is faster. If you have been using a beam scale and you are a wizard then maybe not so much. But it's far simpler than any other process for getting exact charges, in any amount. Punch the numbers, punch dispense, pour it in the case and go.
The chargemaster runs about $300 but I think it's worth it. There is just no faster way, that's this accurate, to turn out match grade ammo.

i usually want to through mine out the window it pisses me off so much. i just loaded up 50 rounds this morning for practice today and only had one over charge. i leave my unit turned on all the time and that seemed to help some. i have also done the straw trick and wipe everything down with dryer sheets (are you sure that isn't what you meant? baby wipes are for later in the day when you eat off the roach coach.)

my house is old and i think the majority of my problems i have are because of the house. anything going on in the other rooms probably vibrates and causes over charges when it is trying to trickle the last granule.

I have babies but no dryer sheets. I gave the wipeys a shot and it worked great.
I loaded about 200 rounds of .22 and .308 in the last three days and only had about three overages. I also leave mine on all the time. Mine seems to be really accurate. I was really surprised when looking at my extreme spreads yesterday.

Good to know. I was planning on buying one but was afraid it was too good to be true.

Let us know how you like it after reloading a few times.


looks like you beat me by one minute.

In one of the threads you linked, someone threw out the idea of mounting a powder measure next to it, and fabbing a tube to drop it's powder onto the RCBS pan. That seems like it would be a hell of an idea: Dump 40 grains of Varget onto the thing, and let it fuss about the last 5-point-whatever grains.

Of course, you'd have to be hovering over it to hand-cycle the powder measure, which takes away the ability to seat and crimp one round, while it dispenses powder for another. But it could speed things up greatly.

How long do you think it takes to dispense a charge?
Do you find yourself waiting on it?

I haven't seen a post where you or 300sniper mention that actual press you load your precision rifle ammo on. What are you using? I'm sure it's some flavor of turret or single-stage, but I haven't seen you mention it.

In one of the threads you linked, someone threw out the idea of mounting a powder measure next to it, and fabbing a tube to drop it's powder onto the RCBS pan. That seems like it would be a hell of an idea: Dump 40 grains of Varget onto the thing, and let it fuss about the last 5-point-whatever grains.

Of course, you'd have to be hovering over it to hand-cycle the powder measure, which takes away the ability to seat and crimp one round, while it dispenses powder for another. But it could speed things up greatly.

How long do you think it takes to dispense a charge?
Do you find yourself waiting on it?

I haven't seen a post where you or 300sniper mention that actual press you load your precision rifle ammo on. What are you using? I'm sure it's some flavor of turret or single-stage, but I haven't seen you mention it.I think it would be just as slow, maybe slower to do it that way. 25 grains is about 12 seconds, 50 is maybe 20 seconds. I do have to wait on it a little, but still, at least you're not waiting for your beam scale to stabilize or whatever. Plus it's just one step.
I use a Lee Turret. Right now I am turning out groups around .6 and smaller so I think the press is ok, but I'm looking for a single stage for my rifle stuff. I take the center bar out of the Lee when loading rifle so it's a single stage for all intents and purposes, but there is some play in the head I'd like to get rid of.

Thanks for the review. Still deciding between this and the lyman.

Does this plug into a PC?

Pete

I have had the PACT version for 6 or so years and it is the best thing since sliced bread. The pact version is quite a bit cheaper and comes with a NO BS lifetime warranty.

It doesn't like the super fine ball powders though as it was made for the difficult to meter long and short kernel rifle powder.

I have been using the Lyman to dispense my competition loads for a couple years now...

It KICKS ASS!!!

I have nothing bad to say about it...

What is a good scale for checking powder charges from a progressive loader? I obviously dont need a trickler, just something easy to zero that I can set a charge on real quick and then move on. I bought a Lyman Pro 1000 and it is a piece of shit. You have to shim the base with cards or something to level the beam to zero it out and since it has a 1005 grain capacity, measuring 2.5-4.0 grains for 9mm loads is a PITA.

What is a good scale for checking powder charges from a progressive loader? I obviously dont need a trickler, just something easy to zero that I can set a charge on real quick and then move on. I bought a Lyman Pro 1000 and it is a piece of shit. You have to shim the base with cards or something to level the beam to zero it out and since it has a 1005 grain capacity, measuring 2.5-4.0 grains for 9mm loads is a PITA.
I like the RCBS Rangemaster 750.

Thanks for the review. Still deciding between this and the lyman.

Does this plug into a PC?

Pete


Go with the Lyman DPS III. It is the better of the two. (my .02)

Go with the Lyman DPS III. It is the better of the two. (my .02)

what did you find was better on the lyman than the rcbs? faster charge times? more accurate charges? more consistent throws?

what did you find was better on the lyman than the rcbs? faster charge times? more accurate charges? more consistent throws?


Yes.

My shooting buddy has an rcbs, loads only for his 1000 yard gun, was over at my place to do some shooting and needed to do some loading. He didn't bring the dispenser with him and had to use my Lyman, he talked non stop about how much faster and more accurate the lyman was. So I went to Moab to do some shooting with him and I loaded some on his chargemaster, I liked the scale, negligible differences, but I still like the Lyman better. 99% of what I load has had hours spent on the brass and the load work-up, the lyman seems to put that little extra bit of desired perfection into my loading rituals. Hope this makes sense.


edit: The lyman comes with an insert for the dispensing tube that sure helps it meter finer powders more accurately. I used it with H380, liked it, and have stuck to using it with my stick powders for the consistency it affords me.
Jerod Gersch

You have to shim the base with cards or something to level the beam to zero it out and since it has a 1005 grain capacity, measuring 2.5-4.0 grains for 9mm loads is a PITA.

The left hand of the scale there is the screw for leveling up or down for whatever surface you are sitting on, all beams will be this way

For reliability and accuracy they are a great scale.

And I'm curious what you mean by 1005 grains, it is listed as 1000 grains and is the same as a 500 grain scale except that you hang a 500 grain weight off the end to get it to balance over 500 grains. SO in all confusion it really is a 500 grain scale unless you need the large capability.

The left hand of the scale there is the screw for leveling up or down for whatever surface you are sitting on, all beams will be this way

For reliability and accuracy they are a great scale.

And I'm curious what you mean by 1005 grains, it is listed as 1000 grains and is the same as a 500 grain scale except that you hang a 500 grain weight off the end to get it to balance over 500 grains. SO in all confusion it really is a 500 grain scale unless you need the large capability.

It was no where near level with the screw-adjustment foot threaded in. I had to remove it completely and use playing cards to shim the feet to get it level. I read the directions before monkeying around with it so I'm not doing anything wrong as far as I know.

Well, I went out last week to find my CM dead as a doornail with no idea why. Sent it in to RCBS and they are sending me a brand new one, no questions asked. I'm thinking a surge after a power outage last week but who knows.

Well, I went out last week to find my CM dead as a doornail with no idea why. Sent it in to RCBS and they are sending me a brand new one, no questions asked. I'm thinking a surge after a power outage last week but who knows.

i can't remember if i mentioned this here or not. a few weeks back i came home from camping all weekend and heard a whining noise when i walked in the front door. i found out the noise was my chargemaster running full speed like it was charging a round. before i left for camping i was about to load a bunch of ammo so i filled the hopper almost all the way. the chargemaster had been dispensing long enough to completely empty the hopper all over my bench and floor. my power must have gone out over the weekend since my clocks were all flashing. i have it plugged into an expensive monster-cable filter/surge protector so i thought it would be safe from things like this.

sometimes mine works fine and i may have one or two over throws in a batch of 50. other times it will over throw almost every other charge. i may call them and see if i can get it replaced to see if i have better luck with a new one.

They told me they just replace anything newer than one year with a new one.Give it a shot.