Chargemaster 1500

[DirtySteve]

Would any one recommend a Chargemaster make me happy? Loading for F-Class???

 

[Fotheringill]

As with most electronic and beam scale, they have a +/- error factor of 1/10 grain, which means one charge may be dead on, one tenth or two tenths off.

Before purchasing, please do yourself a favor and check out the warranty.

 

[Big Mc]

Would any one recommend a Chargemaster make me happy? Loading for F-Class???

Had mine for years. Should it die. I will get another one. +/- 0.01 if you can live with that go for it. My guess is you wont be sorry. Just my two cents. Tommy Mc

 

[kelbro]

Had mine for years. Should it die. I will get another one. +/- 0.01 if you can live with that go for it. My guess is you wont be sorry. Just my two cents. Tommy Mc

Same here.

 

[divingin]

Had mine for years. Should it die. I will get another one. +/- 0.01 if you can live with that go for it. My guess is you wont be sorry. Just my two cents. Tommy Mc

+/- 0.01 grains? Do you have an extra zero in there?

The scale on the CM has a minimum displayed resolution of 0.1 grains (well, mine does, anyway.) My real-world accuracy using the CM is within a tenth of a grain maybe 60% of the time, with worst throws being up to 4 to 5 tenths over, perhaps 2 or 3 percent of the time. For me, it's not that big a deal, as I end up checking and adjusting the throw on a scientific scale prior to charging cases.

 

[M-61]

I've mine for 5 or 6 years. Took quite some time for me to trust it but it has always been correct when checked against my beam scale. (Number of times I have checked against the beam scale has decreased as the years increased.)
I have followed RCBS instructions to the letter since day one.

 

[JimSC]

Had mine for years. Should it die. I will get another one. +/- 0.01 if you can live with that go for it. My guess is you wont be sorry. Just my two cents. Tommy Mc

same here, mine was bought in 2010. I use it as a poor mans autothrow, double checking the weight on my A&D 120 and tweaking to within .02 gns by hand. This morning I threw 50 rounds of H322. Just guessing here but 90% were .02 to .06 low. Three or four maybe .02 to .04 high. A few were dead on and one or two wes off by as much as .1 gns.

I keep waiting for mine to die so I can justify buying a Autothrow but it just keeps on working

 

[Straightshooter1]

+/- 0.01 grains? Do you have an extra zero in there?

The scale on the CM has a minimum displayed resolution of 0.1 grains (well, mine does, anyway.) My real-world accuracy using the CM is within a tenth of a grain maybe 60% of the time, with worst throws being up to 4 to 5 tenths over, perhaps 2 or 3 percent of the time. For me, it's not that big a deal, as I end up checking and adjusting the throw on a scientific scale prior to charging cases.

That's my experience as well with my CM, except . . . my worst throws tend to be .07 to .08 high or low ( that's about .15 variance, even after doing all the tuning). And I think that 60% figure for being within a tenth is about right for me. And likewise, I adjust the throw on another scale to filter out those worst throws.

Generally, I feel the CM does a pretty good job, especially for most shooting disciplines.

 

[Fotheringill]

Divingin-

What is a decimal point between fellow posters? My mistake.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Most people with problems on CMs not throwing correct charge weights don’t know how to set them up properly. I have two different CMs and both throw extremely accurate charges. The CM scale is reading much more accurately than the resolution on the display.

Here’s a video I put together a while back to show how accurate a CM “can” be if you know how to set them up correctly.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

The other key thing I mention in the video that I think people forget about is that if you know how to tune a load to a rifle properly, then even if your charge weight is off by .1gr it shouldn’t make any difference on your point of impact on target.
Folks who can see a noticeable difference on paper when a charge is off by .06-.1gr need to understand that their rifle is out of tune with that load.

My CM throws about a .04-.06gr ES on charge weights with most extruded powders. With ball or spherical powders, the ES on throws might only be .02gr.

You also need to understand that powders have a lot of different density levels. If I’m throwing RL16 for instance, that is a very light powder for the size of the extruded kernels which offers great case fill on lighter charge weights. A single kernel is around .02gr-.04gr. Pretty easy to land it right on the target weight.
Now with Vithavouri N570, that is a very dense powder with each individual kernel weighing between .08gr to .12gr. Very difficult to throw the dense powders right on the target weight. An example would be; say if I am up to 89.6gr of N570 on my scale with a target weight of 90gr and I drop one single kernel in the pan, now I’m overthrown by .04gr or more. There’s things I do like cutting kernels in half to stay within +/- .02gr with N570, but it’s a pain to land that powder right on the money and that’s just the way it is now matter what scale or method you are using.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Most people with problems on CMs not throwing correct charge weights don’t know how to set them up properly. I have two different CMs and both throw extremely accurate charges. The CM scale is reading much more accurately than the resolution on the display.

Here’s a video I put together a while back to show how accurate a CM “can” be if you know how to set them up correctly.

This is my experience. ^ if you go into it thinking its a pos then itll be a pos

 

[Dub]

I love and trust my CM. If my load is 43gr I set the CM to throw 42.8 and then use the trickle feature to bring it up to 43. Very accurate

 

[Straightshooter1]

The other key thing I mention in the video that I think people forget about is that if you know how to tune a load to a rifle properly, then even if your charge weight is off by .1gr it shouldn’t make any difference on your point of impact on target.
Folks who can see a noticeable difference on paper when a charge is off by .06-.1gr need to understand that their rifle is out of tune with that load.

My CM throws about a .04-.06gr ES on charge weights with most extruded powders. With ball or spherical powders, the ES on throws might only be .02gr.

You also need to understand that powders have a lot of different density levels. If I’m throwing RL16 for instance, that is a very light powder for the size of the extruded kernels which offers great case fill on lighter charge weights. A single kernel is around .02gr-.04gr. Pretty easy to land it right on the target weight.
Now with Vithavouri N570, that is a very dense powder with each individual kernel weighing between .08gr to .12gr. Very difficult to throw the dense powders right on the target weight. An example would be; say if I am up to 89.6gr of N570 on my scale with a target weight of 90gr and I drop one single kernel in the pan, now I’m overthrown by .04gr or more. There’s things I do like cutting kernels in half to stay within +/- .02gr with N570, but it’s a pain to land that powder right on the money and that’s just the way it is now matter what scale or method you are using.

Good points there. And I guess when we speak about the spreads we get with our CM's we should mention the powder it's related to. In my previous post above that spread of .15 for "worst throws" is with regard for IMR 4064. And I must add that with Varget, AR-Comp and H-4895 powders that I also use, the spread is less.

 

[JimSC]

Here’s a video I put together a while back to show how accurate a CM “can” be if you know how to set them up correctly.

This is a worthwhile video, I had heard of reprogramming them but did not know how. Just followed our instructions and ran a test with some H4350 checking the throws on my AnD 120. I was pleased with my 1500 before but this was quite a improvement

 

[Ledd Slinger]

This is a worthwhile video, I had heard of reprogramming them but did not know how. Just followed our instructions and ran a test with some H4350 checking the throws on my AnD 120. I was pleased with my 1500 before but this was quite a improvement

Yeah programming helps dial in the various throw speeds but the straw or some sort of smooth insert in the drop tube is the real key to accuracy on the CM. Prevents the clumping of powder sometimes created by the drop tube threads. As you can see in the video, my CM just barely bumps the tube ahead in trickle mode and literally drops only one or two extruded kernels before stopping to re-register the weight

 

[jepp2]

I ran mine like this for a couple of years before I finally got and FX120i.

Eric Cortina video

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I ran mine like this for a couple of years before I finally got and FX120i.

Eric Cortina video

I actually sold my FX-120i because in all my testing and checking it countless times, it was in no way better than my GemPro 250.
So now I just have the two CMs and my GemPro.

I don’t regret buying the FX120i because it was a great scale. Before having the FX, I really had nothing to verify the GP250 so I appreciated the FX for the year that I owned it because it helped me to gain complete confidence in my GP250. My GP would match the FX in accuracy at every step with everything I ever weighed. In fact, my GP was even better in many important ways. The GP is much smaller, more resistant to being slightly out of level, easier to calibrate, lifetime warranty, and almost never drifts from zero when sitting with no weight on it for long periods (days at a time). Same .02gr resolution on both scales. So I sold the FX and have no regrets.

 

[Willie]

I use 2 CMs, but I think of them as a manual powder throw. I set it a tenth under my target weight, then put it on the fx-120i for the Dandy to trickle to my target.

 

[Straightshooter1]

In fact, my GP was even better in many important ways. The GP is much smaller, more resistant to being slightly out of level, easier to calibrate, lifetime warranty, and almost never drifts from zero when sitting with no weight on it for long periods (days at a time). Same .02gr resolution on both scales. So I sold the FX and have no regrets.

You must have been lucky and got a really good one. My GP250 always drifts from zero over a little time (like every 15-30 min I'll need to zero it). And that's with making sure there's no active electronics (other than the CM running on battery power) around, including no highly charged neon lighting. But, with a little patients, I manage to deal with it and get good results.