best automatic powder dispemser?

[Blacklab]

Charge master here w/o problems. Over the years I broke 2 bullet pullers. They replaced them within 10 days. Also have a rcbs prep station. Just stopped working one day. RCBS said send it back and they'll replace it With in two weeks had another. RCBS customer service is some of the best I have encountered.

[MikeGideon]

The Chargemaster IS slow. If I'm trying to make time, I'll seat the bullet while it's throwing the next charge. I don't use my manual powder dispensers for anything. I'm either in single stage persnickety mode with the Chargemaster, or moving fast with an auto-indexing turret press. All my pistol and blaster rifle stuff is done on the turret.

[NugginFutz]

Here's a very informative comparison on the subject.

http://www.6mmbr.com/powderdispensers02.html#ChargeMaster

As far as the Chargemaster being slow, yes they are. But you can very easily improve their drop speeds, as I have, by following the instructions detailed here"

http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/speed-up-your-rcbs-chargemaster/

My drop times were quite literally reduced by half.

[bigbear_98]

Here's a very informative comparison on the subject.

http://www.6mmbr.com/powderdispensers02.html#ChargeMaster

As far as the Chargemaster being slow, yes they are. But you can very easily improve their drop speeds, as I have, by following the instructions detailed here"

http://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/speed-up-your-rcbs-chargemaster/

My drop times were quite literally reduced by half.

Has it affected your quality? I had thought about doing the mod but was worried about that. I set mine to 44.2 and can actually see when it is going to be a heavy drop. It doesn't happen very often but if it reads 44.1 and drops more than 3 kernels of varget, it is going to be over.

[NugginFutz]

Has it affected your quality? I had thought about doing the mod but was worried about that. I set mine to 44.2 and can actually see when it is going to be a heavy drop. It doesn't happen very often but if it reads 44.1 and drops more than 3 kernels of varget, it is going to be over.

Not in the slightest. I'd previously applied the "McD's soda straw" modification, which settled down any over throws, and the speed mod simply made it faster. Essentially, you tweak the settings which determine how long it stays in High Speed before dropping to Low Speed, and Low Speed before dropping to Trickle. I used the numbers offered by the author, without experimentation, and was quite happy. IIRC, my average drops, start to finish, are now well under 30 seconds.

[Klem]

Chargemaster.

A friend took his into the High School where he works to test it against their $10K digital scales in the labs. There was no difference. He said the school now wants to buy Chargemasters.

[NugginFutz]

Klem - while I knew mine was pretty stable and accurate, I was quite surprised to read this. My scale always stays in the environment where it will be used, so that helps with temperature stabilization issues. No warm up time, to speak of, has ever been needed, either. I weigh the slugs and, if needed, recalibrate then. Not needed, very often, though.

[bwaites]

Klem - while I knew mine was pretty stable and accurate, I was quite surprised to read this. My scale always stays in the environment where it will be used, so that helps with temperature stabilization issues. No warm up time, to speak of, has ever been needed, either. I weigh the slugs and, if needed, recalibrate then. Not needed, very often, though.

That's my experience. I've thrown charges then weighed them on expensive scales, and it's always been the same to .1 grain, the limit of the machine.

[GMinor]

I can't settle for +/- .1 grain. My scale resolves to +/- .02 grains allegedly. In all actuality it is +/- .02-.04 grains. I think if I ever get a charge master, I would relegate its use to very weight tolerant loads like my .30-06, and .223 loads and .308 loads.

The 6.5's I have are precision machines and those charges get weighed to the +/- .02-.04 range.

[Klem]

I can't settle for +/- .1 grain. My scale resolves to +/- .02 grains allegedly. In all actuality it is +/- .02-.04 grains. I think if I ever get a charge master, I would relegate its use to very weight tolerant loads like my .30-06, and .223 loads and .308 loads.

The 6.5's I have are precision machines and those charges get weighed to the +/- .02-.04 range.

Respectfully, I think there is a point beyond which precision in weighing is subsumed by other variables that contribute to the group size on a particular day. I will also say that just because a digital meter displays numbers implying a degree of precision to (for example) 0.01 there is no guarantee the machine is giving you that precision.

For example, Chrony chronographs acknowledge a 5% potential error in their literature yet display velocities under 1,000fps to one decimal place. Is the 983.7 fps on the display really XXX.7fps?, unlikely.

[explorecaves]

I always employ the 4:1 accuracy process. If I need it to resolve to .01" then the device measuring it needs to be accurate to .0025". Thus if your scale measures to 0.2 grains, expact your variance to be as much as .8 grains from actual.

[MikeGideon]

I can't settle for +/- .1 grain. My scale resolves to +/- .02 grains allegedly. In all actuality it is +/- .02-.04 grains. I think if I ever get a charge master, I would relegate its use to very weight tolerant loads like my .30-06, and .223 loads and .308 loads.

The 6.5's I have are precision machines and those charges get weighed to the +/- .02-.04 range.

Bear in mind that the Chargemaster trickles up to a preset weight. So, even though the scale resolution is in tenths, the accuracy is probably much better. I had a buddy get on a high resolution scale kick, so I got into Quickload and worked out the vertical spread at 1000 yards for a +/- .1 grain charge weight. I felt like it was insignificant, given all the other variables. Anyway, I'm still using the Chargemaster and he bought the scale. He was shooting 6mm Dasher, so I think the charge weight was bigger than the grendel.

[GMinor]

Respectfully, I think there is a point beyond which precision in weighing is subsumed by other variables that contribute to the group size on a particular day. I will also say that just because a digital meter displays numbers implying a degree of precision to (for example) 0.01 there is no guarantee the machine is giving you that precision.

For example, Chrony chronographs acknowledge a 5% potential error in their literature yet display velocities under 1,000fps to one decimal place. Is the 983.7 fps on the display really XXX.7fps?, unlikely.

I fully understand that train of thought. However, don't you want to eliminate the most amount of variables possible?

Having highly accurate charges leads to extremely low ES/SD's. Keeping more good shots honest.

[GMinor]

As far as the chrony goes, that is just to get a ball park # for ballistics software, so proving my real world numbers is easier to do.

Also which, with the results of the real world results I can true the ballistic software and come up with reliable numbers for intermediate ranges that I haven't proven and taken note of.

[Klem]

I fully understand that train of thought. However, don't you want to eliminate the most amount of variables possible?

Having highly accurate charges leads to extremely low ES/SD's. Keeping more good shots honest.

Sure, no argument there. That's what we do, and wouldn't it be great if we knew exactly by how much each variable influences the group size.

How much do the individual kernels of your powders weigh? If they are heavier than your 0.02gr standard then it's a lot of faffing around re-throwing in order to achieve this. And hopefully that precision makes a difference.