Brass and RCBS Chargemaster Combo

[JDBraddy]

I shoot service rifle and have always just used mixed range brass I pick up from the ground at my local range. I literally have several five gallon buckets of it. Then I load on a Dillon 550b progressive.

First, all the books I read talk about sorting brass by lot, then weighing each case, using water to measure case volume etc...etc... I've always assumed this might make some minute difference to a bench rest shooter, but was probably just a lot of work, with very little practical return for HP shooters. As always, l'm looking for a little more accuracy, so now, I'm curious, and wanted to ask some of the more experienced shooters here who actually do some of this stuff, how much difference do you find that all this really make for you in practical accuracy? I spent most of last night sorting one five gallon bucket of polished, resized/deprimed and trimmed .223 range brass, into nine one gallon buckets sorted by brand Winchester, Remington, Federal, Lake City, PMC, etc.... I'm planning to load up about a hundred or so of my favorite accuracy load, which will shoot sub-MOA using mixed range brass, using all the same brand of brass, and see if I notice any real difference.

Second, I know the Dillon powder measure probably isn't the most accurate for rifle, Was considering getting one of those dispenser/scale combo's like the RCBS Chargemaster. Does anybody who uses these think they're worth the price of admission?

 

[Taildrag15X]

I've shot PALMA, Service Rifle XTC & High Power for years.......maybe my up bringing by a Benchrest Shooter, but all empty cases were weight sorted, prepped and each and every charge saw the scale, unless it was a DCM HAD TO USE THEIR AMMO MATCH.

Don't know if it got me more points or not but I sure tried to make them count cause it took so long to make 'em!

 

[Sully2]

The Chargemaster is worth a LOT MORE than its costs. I love mine to death.

As far as all the doo-dahs one can do to ammo when reloading.....when I can put 3 shots into the same hole at 100 yards...I'll switch to doing all of that stuff. At present, in a hapless method of only using the same BRAND of casings...my best is 3 shots I can cover up with a dime at 100 yards. Thats good enough for me.

 

[kelbro]

Don't discount the capabilities of the Dillon powder measures if you are using ball powders. Mine are very doggone consistent.

 

[Bulseyetom]

I have used my Chargemaster combo for several years and I think it is great. You have to recalibrate periodically while you use it but that takes all of 30 seconds. I have never tweaked the factory settings and it is somewhat slow compared to throwing a charge but what the heck is the hurry. This is my hobby and if it takes me 30 seconds to precisely throw a charge versus 10 seconds for a somewhat precise thrown charge, what have I lost? With that said, my Chargemaster is currently on the disabled list. I went to turn it on yesterday and no go. I called RCBS and even though it is out of warranty they are sending me a new transformer to see if that is the problem and if it is not, they will fix or replace it for $45 flat fee. That is great customer service in my humble opinion. This is the only problem I have had in the 5 years I have had it and I load every kind of rifle powder know to man it seems. Tom

 

[Steve Wilson]

Bulseytom,

I had a similar problem with mine awhile back. It had been plugged in but turned off for a couple of weeks. I turned it on while I was resizing some brass. It came alive just fine, went through its typical start up sequence and beeped that it was ready. I happened to glance over at it when I was finishing up with repriming and saw that the screen had gone blank. Mashed around on the buttons....nothing. Then I used a multimeter to check for voltage at the Chargemaster end to see if the adapter was working. Yup, got the right amount of juice.

I phoned the nice people RCBS Customer Service and was told the same as you. I also told them that I would take my unit with me to the range and stop off at Graf's and plug it into the adapter for their display unit; to see if it was the charger or the unit. Which they thought was a fine idea. Graf's adapter made no difference. I phoned RCBS back and told them about trying the other adapter. They told me to just pack the whole thing up and send it in for the $45 replacement, which comes with a new one year warranty. Mine was out of warranty.

It took about 3 weeks for the replacement to arrive to me in Missouri. Almost a week of that was UPS dragging it to them in California. RCBS sent it back by second day air, at their expense. I was happy with the service.