Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Electronic Powder Measurers: Lyman Vs. all Others?

I'm only asking this question because I know how expensive the RCBS is and I see that the Lyman is on sale at Cabela's.

Does anyone have any experience with the Lyman versus the RCBS?

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1530787&type=product#tabsCollection

Chad

No experience with the Lyman but I believe that RCBS is running rebates now.

I used to have a friend that owned one and it was a big POS.




Dave

That's all I need to know fellas, the RCBS it is.

I have the RCBS - cats ass. Love it.

I have Lyman vib cleaner for moly - works okay but I don't know of anyone running anything else by Lyman at all to compare.

Thanks Teal, I'm beginning to think that I've been caught trying to be a cheap a$$. LOL

RCBS it is for sure.

RCBS may cost more but you won't find better customer service. I've had one dealing with Lyman's customer service. No more Lyman products for me. Just my 2¢.

I have both Pact and RCBS. The RCBS is easier to use and about twice as fast. Hasbeen

I started out with the Lyman, could never get it to throw an accurate charge, so it went back and exchanged it for the RCBS. Been running strong with it ever since.

Save your frustration and save up a little more cash, you will be glad that you did!!

RCBS was on sale for 300 I think last time I walked into my local cabelas on Wednesday of this week.
I also own the RCBS combo and really like it. It speeds my loading up so much, I cant imagine doing it without an auto dispenser again. Yes it will miss weight once in a while. Maybe 10% of the time. if it's low a couple taps on the trickle button gets it there. If it's high, I open the top and drip a touch back into the hopper and re-weigh it. Some powders work better than others based on configuration. Basically boils down to how much powder actually drops when it's trickling on its own.
I really like it. For me, my thoughts were, buy it once and be done with it. While loading a batch, I dispense the powder charge, once it's correct, I dump into the case, and dispense the next charge while I am seating the bullet, putting that loaded cartridge in the appropriate location and getting another case ready to be filled. By then, most of the time, the powder is sitting there waiting for me at the correct level.

Had one of the first model Lyman - POS. Needed to be turned on 30 min prior to use and would drift. If I lifted the pan and set it back down it would measure a 0.2 to 0.5 grains difference. Sent it back to Lyman - not much different. Got an RCBS - problems solved.

I used to dip out of a glass jar with a tea spoon. The ChargeMaster combo is a little faster than that, but not much.

Honestly I am kind of sorry I bought it, darn thing is just so bleeding slow.

Not so bad for load development, like 5 or 10, but for 20 or 50 I set up the UniFlow.

JMHO

JC ...... you got problems with your machine or you got problems using your machine.

Neither, I think. As far as I can tell, it does just what it is supposed to do, and by god, it is accurate, well, most of the time.

It sometimes has trouble landing right on the correct weight, couple of tenths over.

Some one explained to me that they can be re programmed so that the trickle mode starts either sooner or later, but it was way over my head.

I feel sorry for it once in a while. It will stop at a tenth below, think about what it should do next, and sure enough, too much powder falls out. It beeps triumphantly, but I know it feels sorry that it threw too much.

Like saying hit me when you are holding 19.

Like I said, seems to be working fine, just a bit slow for my tastes.

Add a 2" section of a straw (McDonalds) to the powder tube and that will fix your trickling issue.

For ball powder I cut a series of about 1/2" long very narrow triangular notches in the end of the straw. Not fool proof but works pretty good for throwing consistent loads.

I could see that working for ball powders.

Yep,

The one I had was a serious POS. It would wander 1 1/2 grains over a box of 20.

If you don't care about either accuracy or pressure, go ahead and buy the Lyman.

What's the point of an electronic powder dispenser for ball powders? Seems like it would be slower, without any improvement in charge weight accuracy.

I have a lyman and like it. It's fast... for me. It can drift a hair but once you get rolling with it you get a feel for it and put the over charges back in the hopper and use the next one.