Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Best Automatic Powder Measure

I appreciate the vast knowledge here and I’m tapping into the collective brain trust once again.

I want to upgrade my powder system and looking for something accurate and quick. What is the best, or the best for the price, automatic powder dispenser and scale combo? Something that is user friendly and fairly idiot proof? Hornady? Lee? RCBS? Others?

I will be using it for standard and magnum rifles and handgun.

Thanks in advance. 👍

RCBS Chargemaster for me. Have been using mine for 10 years and it's been flawless. Used also for Standard and Mag cartridges.

RCBS Chargemaster for me too!
I ran the "speed-up" program on it, and it moves fast and accurate :-)

My son in law got one of the Frankford automatics and he says it works good.

He said that it weighed the large log powders to with in what the company said it would.

When i checked they were about 200 +- but were out of stock but could backorder.

Might get one when they get them back.

Thanks for the input gentlemen. I’ll do some homework first but I like RCBS and their customer service is always first rate. 👍

Another vote for the RCBS Chargemaster.

RCBS MATCH MASTER , believe me it’s worth it

It could very well be worth it to a select few. But it's not like the regular ChargeMaster fails to weigh powder accurately........

RCBS Chargemaster

I have a Lyman Gen 5 that I am very happy with. Accurate and easy to use.

Not sure what your price range is but side by side the FX120 with AutoThrow and trickler V3 made my chargemaster look slow even with the speed up program. accurate to 0.02 grains, bluetooth set up and change of charges.

I have the Hornady Lock and Load. I have finally gotten it to where I do not get the over throws on extruded powder like it’s know for. If I was buying again, it would be RCBS charge master or even the Lite version.

Not the Hornady.

I just recently purchased a Chargemaster. I have dropped 2 to 3 hundred charges. I have no issues or complaints. I am very happy with it.

I have both the Chargemaster 1500 and the Chargemaster Lite. Both work very nicely and are accurate. I use them for rifle loads, preferring to use my Uniflo powder measure for handgun ammo. I've been using the CM1500 for over 10 years and it's still going strong.
Paul B.

I agree with your entire post, when loading handgun ammo neither my Harrell's or my Chargemaster will throw an accurate charge of HS6 so I have to break out the old Uniflo

Aces, I had a Chargemaster back in '07 or so, and sold it a few months later because I thought I had too much money tied up in it. I had no performance complaints, really, other than the typical overcharge. After a while I started missing the convenience of it and bought a Hornady to save a few bucks. I used it for a few months, but after observing its operation for a while I decided I was not at all impressed with the scale portion of the machine. I got the distinct impression that the software was tweaked to decide if the throw error was within someone else's idea of acceptable, it would show you what you wanted to see. In other words, I told it to throw me a charge of 58.0 grains, and it would get to spinning and not stop before I saw 58.2 on the display, then it would pause and show me 58.0 grains. I can't prove that the software actually does this but I sure got a very distinct impression that it did. That was long enough ago that I do not recall crosschecking this with my 5-10 scale, but that is something I am likely to have done. I sent that one down the road and waited for a decent deal on another Chargemaster which I've been using for about the last ten years or so. I added the restrictor device for the drop tube and played with the software hacks and it works fine. Occasionally it throws a bit too much powder, but not often at all.

I always put my phone in another room when I'm using it to avoid RF noise which could adversely affect its performance (I've detected the effects of RF interference in the past). I have no issues with fluorescent lighting that I am aware of, but some guys do report the problem and I certainly do not discount their observations. Easy enough to deal with at any rate.

One thing to bear in mind with the strain gauge scales these machines use, and most other digital reloading scales on the market also, they are subject to drift. I punch the "zero" button on mine about every fifth charge, and I believe that negates the effect of the drift.

Try one and implement the known improvements...I bet you'll like it.

Thanks for all the replies and advice guys!

I think I’ve settled on the Chargemaster. 👍

I really appreciate all of your input.

Chargemaster

When I started shopping for one, the reviews favored the CM Lite over the CM, so that’s what I bought. Completely satisfied with it. It’s made loading more enjoyable and go faster.