Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Electronic Powder Dispensers

I don't load a ton of ammo but a thousand or so rounds a year. The old powder thrower works, but is slow and not great with stick powders. So that has me thinking about trying an electronic powder dispenser. I see the RCBS Chargemaster Link on sale for $249.98. Does anyone have experience with this (or other) electronic powder dispenser? What do you think of it? Trying to get some opinions before spending the $. Thanks.

I've been using a RCBS Charge Master For many years and am very satisfied with my loads, mine is accurate and dependable. Rio7

I'm still using the Lyman PDS version III. It's an older machine, but works well. I've figured out how to deal with it sometimes less than stellar charge variation.

Mine is a Lyman DPS III and I’ve been very happy with it. I find I load a lot more ammo at a sitting with it. Its “auto repeat” mode gives you the chance to check the powder level in the case and seat the bullet while the machine is dispensing the next charge.

A while back, a few days after a nearby lightning strike knocked out the power, I went to my loading room to load some rounds and it seemed like the machine had died. The on/off button and all the other buttons wouldn’t work and I thought it had been fried. Then I had a bright idea and unplugged it for minute or so, plugged it in again and that did the trick. That’s the only “problem” I’ve had and I’ve had it over ten years.

RCBS Chargemaster for years without a hitch

I have had the RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 for about 10 years and haven't had any serious problems with it.
Keep it away from fluorescent lighting and wipe it down occasionally with a dryer sheet to kill the static electricity and it will be accurate.
The ChargeMaster Lite version offered now is what I would get if mine dies; same 1/10th grain accuracy with fewer bells and whistles.

Those are slow and a complete hunk of a schit.

If you're concerned about accuracy set your thrower a couple grains low for a respective load. Throw the charge into a pan.

Trickle manually on a traditional scale and dump pan into funnel/case.

Move funnel, repeat. It's faster and the equipment you're using will be handed down to your grandkids.

I've got a DPS II that's 15+yrs old, the last time I loaded on it the scale was wonky a couple of times. I'm thinking I've gotten my money's worth out of it and am also in the market.

have had a rcbs chargemaster for a long time,its been great.

Ed

I recently picked up a Frankford Intellidropper and like it a lot. As the Deacon mentioned, it isn't faster than a manual thrower and prolly not as accurate as you can get by using the Deacon's thrower/trickler combo (which I still use for precision loading), but I found that for big jobs the electronic powder dispensers can be a lot faster than using a manual method...because as you're dumping one measured load and seating the bullet, the dispenser, if set on auto, is already dispensing the next load. Basically no waiting time between rounds.

I had the Lyman and it went wonky on me so I picked up the RCBS Chargemaster and that was probably 10+ years ago.

Well for fu cks sake. You are giving out some good info. What has got into you? Maybe you can learn? As you describe, that takes about 6 seconds per case, when I'm doing it. That's with stick powder like IMR4350, IMR7838 etc. etc. Plenty fast enough and very accurate. Electronic scales are all going to go wonky at some point. Good luck to the fellas using them.

I've had a Lyman DPSII for something like 15-20 years. It's still going strong and works fine. I mainly use it for load development, where I need a few charges at a particular weight. Once I settle on a charge weight, I just set my JDS Quick Measure for that charge and start throwing loads directly into 50-round trays of cases. No trickling involved. I weigh every 10th charge, or so. In my limited testing, I couldn't resolve the difference in either POI variation or speed variation between QM thrown charges and carefully weighed charges using the DPSII, so I don't bother trickling or weighing each charge for high-volume loading.

I have been using the RCBS charge master witch is made by Pact. I love mine and it is very accurate. I always set mine lower than the charge I need and hand trickle the rest. I think they are very hard to beat.

If it's so accurate, why do you hand trickle the rest of the charge?

Same, but lee perfect for me. To prove it to myself I shot 20 rounds groups at 600 yards, one group with trickled charges and one group with charges thrown direct into the case , RL16. Results were the same. What a huge time saving not trickling.

Also, agree on the loading tray, don’t set it down until all 50 cases are charged. Never thought of that until I read Mule Deer describe it (and thanks for sharing the tip John). Significant time saver.

I've always given good info.

You dumb fugking Indian.

well I've had one of the Hornady original versions of the whatever they call it LNP or whatever I don't know. I've never had any issues with it at all and always check it with different scales when I start out. and check weight sets. I might be the luckiest person alive but I've never had any issues but then again I know how to read instructions and how to use a level when constructing a platform for set on..

i have a Hornady Lock and load auto charge powder dispenser that i bought about 12+/- years ago. i never had any issues with it. it was replaced by two Lyman Beam Scales.

https://www.murdochs.com/products/s...ock-n-load-auto-charge-powder-dispenser/

I've got a Charge Master but rarely use it as it's too slow. Last time I was priming cases in parallel with it to make use of the waiting time. I only do small reloading batches these days (about 20 rounds) and just use my manual powder thrower and powder scale, and avoid having to power-up and calibrate the CM.