Thread: Electronic scales

How many here use the likes of Chargemaster , the Lyman equivalent or etc for your reloading
I'm still tapping out each charge from a teaspoon on to a small electronic scale then checking with the balance beam every 5 loads

With the amount of calibres I have now I'm thinking there has to be a better way

Do those that use these devices such as the Chargemaster find them accurate and reliable?
Any problems I should look out for ? and of course finally, which one would you buy or recommend for someone to buy.
Thanks.

I’ve been looking into this for the same reason. Looking at various forums and reviews the charge master seems the most accurate and repeatable although there is a common mod required using a drinking straw I think. The Lyman gets poor reviews

Ive got a Lyman Gen6. It throws about 0.1gr light most of the time as that seems to be within its tolerance. For most loading, I dump a scoop of powder about 75% of the charge weight in tray first then let it do the rest, as this is faster than letting the machine do it all. I like it and dont plan on going back to scales & a trickler.

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I’m using the hornady one, works for me, blaser hasn’t exploded so must be semi accurate

Got the chargemaster lite myself, did my first loads and was stunned by the chrono when I had half my rounds with the exact same MV, certainly made sighting in work easy.
No way will I be going back to the old way of doing things.

My personal belief is now to just use a very good powder thrower, and a balance beam. A good powder thrower should be +/- 0.1 grain charge to charge.
Check with the beam every once in a while.
If you are doing load developement, still use the beam to get that 0.001 result you want. For most hunting, and medium range target shooting a thrower is good enough.
The accuracy loss is negligible on 0.1 grain and is more likely to be less than by a seating /neck tension anomaly.
And the cost compared to an electronic charge churner is slightly less too.
Of course this is all just what I think, and hey I already have the thrower, if you are starting out and bought a good quality E scale system, you wouldnt need a manual thrower and beam scale untill the E one goes on the blink.

Lyman gen 5, love it.

I use a chargemaster.

Results may vary depending on the powder type you use and how much powder but I use only one powder AR2208 and two similar loads (.303 and 7mm08) and find it repeatable for that.

4 throws out of 5 are the exact same weight eg 43.0 gr for me. I allow +0.1 but reject 0.2 if I see it. About every tenth throw is +0.2gr.
Once it has dispensed the charge it beeps then takes 5-10 sec to stabilise and display the checked weight, which shows if its out or exact. I only wait and let it check every 5th load so some overloads will get through. However, I have confidence from hundreds of loads checked that very few are +0.3 or worse.

I also weigh my standard machine nut a couple of times each session and it always comes out at 44.3gr. So it holds calibration within sessions and between sessions to better than 0.1 gr.

Tips / superstitions for use:
Check the flush out tap is closed before pouring powder into the hopper. So it doesn't spill out all over the bench ...
Don't let powder grains fall into the hole where the load cell is (directly under the dispensing tube if you take off the black plastic doolacki.
I don't run the radio or anything else off the same power point.
Shed door is closed to keep out draughts.
Don't try to do anything else like seating bullets while dispensing all the powder. Any bump on the bench can give an out of whack weight.
I use a big MacDonalds Cream Freeze straw ( 0.308" dia) in the dispense tube which improves speed and consistency.
I've adjusted the dispense rate (goes in 3 steps) according to instructions posted by Spanners so search for that. The optimal weight breakpoints to slow down the dispensing will depend on your powder type and the total weight required so experimentation is needed.
The time needed to dispense a load varies a lot for me. The slower ones tend to be more accurate and the very quick ones are sometimes overthrows.

I'm loading ammo for short range hunting and for gongs out to 500m, its not long long range nor bench rest.

I can also get quick and accurate charges using a Lee loader plastic dipper followed by hand trickling into the electronic scales pan and if you don't have the money just now for the full setup that would be very good, just buy the RCBS scales part. I'm not sure the chargemaster is hugely quicker than a beam balance but its much less stress and frustration - just a period of "zoning out" towards the end of a session before the sweet job of seating the projectiles. I would say if you load more that 200-300 rounds a year its probably worth the money.

Charge master, I will never go back to spoons unless there's a power cut and zombies are coming.
I use the straw.
I use the check weights/calibrate every time, before starting.
Have tweezers ready to take out the odd kernal. Or dump back in the hopper.
Heaps quicker! Pour powder, seat, measure, pour powder.

At WBC 14 a very wise man told me that the chargemaster I was using at the time really wasn't up to the task.

Quite a few Guys were using them & he was quite correct.

It will show 51.5 for instance constantly but when checked with a proper scale they certainly aren't all 51.5 they can easily be .2-.3 either way.

Depending on the powder, powder throwers, even very good ones, will have the same sort of variance, the coarser the powder the worse it gets.

Not that I think it makes any difference, especially on big cartridges, would do on something like a 22 Hornet or subsonic rounds.

I have to hornady auto chargers that work mint.
I seat the projectiles as it's spinning out the next charge which makes for dam quick reloading.

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I use a Lyman gen6. Had it for around 6 yrs. Had a pact system before that which was OK.

There are a few tricks to get gen 6 to work well and accurately but they're pretty easy.

They also over time and use, require a bit of simple maintenance especially if you use different corded or fine ball powders.

My K Hornet has an average ES of 17fps depending on the day and projectile.
My 260 and 223 are around or under 12fps.

ES is not solely reliant on an accurate charge weight, but it is a good start.

I rarely shoot the 223 or K Hornet at ranges that I would even worry about a half grain fluctuation. But I never have that issue as it never throws a charge more than .1 out with any powders I have used.

By the time I seat a projectile the next charge has been thrown.
I have 2 separate check weights that have been verified on other devices and use them to check the scale before, after and sometimes during a session and it has never been out that I recall.
They are plasticy and tinny but for the money they're not bad. I would never go back to beam scales and would happily buy another if the one I have dies.






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I have a Lyman gen 6 also, I seat projectile while it drops the next charge and even me wobbling the bench around with the press doesnt seem to phase it.
It does like a decent warm up time tho but if warmed up throws .1 under or bang on 99% of the time.
As to the actual accuracy of the scales I cant comment as I have nothing of known accuracy to check them against but a cursory check of a few loads on my beam scales when I first got it showed it to be pretty bloody consistent.

Yup gen6 like these guys, also had some jewellery scales that were super accurate that I would check against randomly throughout a session.

I also keep my cellphone, fluorescent lights, WiFi devices etc away from them. Most newer ones are shielded but still I try keep things that'll interfere away from it as I've seen other models thrown out in the past.

+1 for the Hornady despenser.
Once I tweaked the programming (which is simple) I hardly ever get over charges.
I use to check every 5th one on my balance scales but dont bother anymore