RCBS Chargemaster

[45R]

My work bench is getting fuller and I've been thinking about picking up a RCBS ChargeMaster to help clear some of the clutter and speed things up a little. From all the reviews that I have read, this is one of the few items that RCBS does not warranty. How long/often do you guys use your Chargemasters? I mainly want it for throwing IMR 4064 charges.

Edit to add: It'll probably throw 100-200 rounds per session. Using this mostly for my precision rifle loads.

[mskochinski]

Tagging. I'm in the same boat.


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[bender152]

I bought mine in mid-2012. I use it mainly for loading .308, so it's only got a few thousand rounds on it tops. I use it maybe every 2 or 3 months. Just used it yesterday to load ~200 rounds.

I'm sure others have a lot more on theirs.

Also, RCBS has a $75 rebate when you spend $300 on more on their products. Double-check the fine print, but when I bought my Chargemaster, I also bought several other RCBS products (items were purchased across different stores) to get me over the $300 hump and they honored my rebate.

http://www.rcbs.com/whatsnew/Promotions.aspx

['ol shooter]

I use mine infrequently compared to when I first got it. It works fine, but for handgun loading, my manual dispenser is much faster, and within a tenth or so, which is good enough for plinking ammo. I use the scale part when I use the manual one, so I can check the accuracy of what I am throwing. It's my go to for rifle and precision handgun loading. Overall satisfied with it.

[TAS]

I haven't reloaded much recently but I use mine all the time when doing hand loads on my single stage. Even without some of the mods I've read about to speed it up, I think it dispenses at a good pace. If I want speed & volume, I'll do to my Dillon. For me, it works well - no buyers remorse.

BTW - after I calibrate it (before each use), I still end up using my 5-0-5 scale to check against it. Point being, I end up keeping this on the bench too.

[bazineta]

I have the Lyman (Gen 5) version of that product, and TBH, a thrower seems to be much faster and just as accurate. As with TAS, I find that I also keep a 10-10 scale on the bench, as, having experienced the electronics drifting, I don't fully trust them. Gravity, on the other hand, has never let me down.

[castgold]

I use mine every time I reload, and I calibrate it every time. I get within about ~30 fps on my chrono for the same charges.

[tanks]

I have had mine for a couple of years now. I use it for rifle religiously for dispensing and for control of my 550B pistol powder dispenser. It has a prominent place on my bench. Now, it does get tedious when dispensing 98 grains of powder or so, a friend of mine that shoots a lot of big bore rifles at his personal 50 yard indoor range actually bought another one so he can alternate between the two and not wait so long.

[Paseclipse]

Chargemasters take about 30 seconds to accurately dispense a rifle charge (I’m usually loading up 40-45 grains of stick powder) and with programming mods you can get that down to 20-25 seconds. While waiting for it to dispense powder between loads there’s enough time to seat your bullet, run it through a gauge, measure OAL, and do a visual inspection. The metering isn’t bad though with stick powders they can sometimes overcharge a little bit.

They’re great if you want spot on accuracy between every round but they’re hardly “fast” when compared to using a powder dispenser. I tend to use mine when loading up 50-100 rounds, anything above this I’ll use my Redding 3BR Powder Dispenser.

[Divernhunter]

I have the Lyman unit(3rd Gen) and would get the RCBS unit next time.
I do not believe that any of this type have a long term war.
I like mine.

[Fjold]

I've had mine for at least 5 years and use it every time I'm throwing more than test loads. All my match rifle and varmint loading is done on it and I've run at least 40 -50 Lbs of powder through it.

[phdo]

I've been using mine for all stick powders (4064, Varget, etc). I've been using it for a little over a year now and I love it. No complaints. The McDonald's straw is a must for this unit. You can also tweak it out so it charges faster but I actually like the factory speed.

[bsumoba]

I had a chargemaster for about a year. I outgrew it when I wanted to start weighing charges to the +/- 0.02 gr range. The chargemaster will weigh to the +/- 0.1gr, which is perfect for most shooting, but when it comes to precision shooting, 0.1gr is to loose of a tolerance.

If you decide to get into more precise shooting, I would opt for a digital scale that at minimum, reads to the 0.02 gr range such as a GemPro250, which is the next step up, or a A&D FX120i, which is another step above the GemPro250 and what I use and is, IMO, the best scale in the $400-$600 dollar range.

For your powder dumping, just buy a whole bunch of Lee Perfect Powder Measures (as of 3.7.16, was $23 dollars each on amazon), dedicated one to each powder and set it to a certain powder range and now you do not have to do changeovers. I undercharge each one (usually about 0.1-0.3 gr under), then trickle up by hand on the electronic scale. I will have only one powder measure filled with powder so I do not accidentally use another powder. Now, you don't have to worry about powder residue mixing with other powders (because there is a residue/fine dust), you now get a dedicated powder measure for each powder so no changeovers needed on the CM, and you get a more precise measurement because you are using a higher end scale. I was averaging about 13 seconds per powder dump with this set up just this past weekend.

[waveslayer]

I think it's good to get you going . I use it for precision and then verify it using a Gempro250. it's off almost 96% of the time by a little. enough to bother me so I check powder charges on the 250 while it's dumping the next. speeds up the process

[mycrstuff]

I love my Chargemaster. The only thing I don't like about it is it beeps after the charge is measured. After a hour of constant beeps I can't take it anymore.