When I first saw the RCBS ChargeMaster Lite I thought it would be nice to have another powder dispenser in my shop for loading the things that don't require +/- a kernel precision. My 19 Calhoon Hornet, some .223 blasting ammo, stuff like that. No climate control out there. Fluorescent and LED lights everywhere, an overhead door that doesn't close all that tight and other less than ideal environmentals.
I have the typical setup in the loading room: Original Chargemaster, A&D FX-120i, and Omega trickler all sitting on a heavy table on top of an 18X18 granite block that's 3" thick, all powered by an APC UPS. The down side is I load a number of rifle cartridges that use small powder charges - some as small as 12 grains. The Chargemaster has to be reprogrammed to do these or it runs in trickle mode only which takes forever. I also have a Harrell's Schuetzen measure but I'm not good enough with it to keep the charges to less than +/- 0.1 gns so I thought perhaps the Chargemaster Lite would work.
Was online shopping at Natchez SS and had a $5 item in my cart. They hit me with an ad for the Chargemaster Lite for less than $200 and a $20 instant rebate so two days later it was on my porch for $194. I took this morning off to play with the thing.
First impression: It's really light and feels "cheap" compared to the original ChargeMaster. The clear powder reservoir fits pretty tight and pulling it off to get the few kernels of remaining powder out lifts the whole unit off the table. Re-level and go through the calibration process again. The leveling process itself is a bit of a pain because the nut that's used doesn't stick out beyond the base so I had to lift the unit up to turn them which isn't the quickest way to level something. All this can be fixed I guess.
The real good news/bad news depends on the powder.
I tried H4350 first because there was some in an old jar on the bench that was on its way to becoming fertilizer. Despite the environmentals (I did close the overhead door) it did quite well. With a target charge of 30.0 gns for ten rounds it managed +/- 0.08 gns, average of 30.06 gns. Dispensing took about 20 seconds per charge with accuracy better than RCBS promises.
H4198 was next. Accuracy was better for the 10 rounds. Shooting for 19.9 gns it did +/- 0.06 gns with an average of 19.91. The bad news is it took what seemed like forever. Painfully, mind-numbing slow. It would throw the first 19.5 in about nine seconds then spend another 40 seconds or more on the last 0.4 gns.
Last was H335. If you use this powder this dispenser is for you. With the dispenser set for 23.5 gns it threw ten charges within +/- 0.03 gns. The average was 23.48 with a low of 23.44 and a high (four of them actually) at 23.50. It dropped the first 23.2 gns in about 8 seconds then another 15 or so to get to 23.5 so it seemed reasonably fast.
That's all I know except fig Newtons were named after a town in Massachusetts, not the scientist.
Spreadsheet attached if I can cram Open Office Calc into this thing....
I have the typical setup in the loading room: Original Chargemaster, A&D FX-120i, and Omega trickler all sitting on a heavy table on top of an 18X18 granite block that's 3" thick, all powered by an APC UPS. The down side is I load a number of rifle cartridges that use small powder charges - some as small as 12 grains. The Chargemaster has to be reprogrammed to do these or it runs in trickle mode only which takes forever. I also have a Harrell's Schuetzen measure but I'm not good enough with it to keep the charges to less than +/- 0.1 gns so I thought perhaps the Chargemaster Lite would work.
Was online shopping at Natchez SS and had a $5 item in my cart. They hit me with an ad for the Chargemaster Lite for less than $200 and a $20 instant rebate so two days later it was on my porch for $194. I took this morning off to play with the thing.
First impression: It's really light and feels "cheap" compared to the original ChargeMaster. The clear powder reservoir fits pretty tight and pulling it off to get the few kernels of remaining powder out lifts the whole unit off the table. Re-level and go through the calibration process again. The leveling process itself is a bit of a pain because the nut that's used doesn't stick out beyond the base so I had to lift the unit up to turn them which isn't the quickest way to level something. All this can be fixed I guess.
The real good news/bad news depends on the powder.
I tried H4350 first because there was some in an old jar on the bench that was on its way to becoming fertilizer. Despite the environmentals (I did close the overhead door) it did quite well. With a target charge of 30.0 gns for ten rounds it managed +/- 0.08 gns, average of 30.06 gns. Dispensing took about 20 seconds per charge with accuracy better than RCBS promises.
H4198 was next. Accuracy was better for the 10 rounds. Shooting for 19.9 gns it did +/- 0.06 gns with an average of 19.91. The bad news is it took what seemed like forever. Painfully, mind-numbing slow. It would throw the first 19.5 in about nine seconds then spend another 40 seconds or more on the last 0.4 gns.
Last was H335. If you use this powder this dispenser is for you. With the dispenser set for 23.5 gns it threw ten charges within +/- 0.03 gns. The average was 23.48 with a low of 23.44 and a high (four of them actually) at 23.50. It dropped the first 23.2 gns in about 8 seconds then another 15 or so to get to 23.5 so it seemed reasonably fast.
That's all I know except fig Newtons were named after a town in Massachusetts, not the scientist.
Spreadsheet attached if I can cram Open Office Calc into this thing....
Last edited:
