RCBS charge master 1500 improvements

[jb]

to speed up charges and reduce or elimate over runs. use a plastic straw that fits snug in discharge tube (mc donalds) and cut it to length to cover 5/8 of the powder opening at the rear of the tube. you can pull it out some to adjust for different powders. then call RCBS teck and have them email the instructions for reprogaming dispence speeds. 25 % to 50% inprovement. enjoy and God bless

 

[dtucker]

You can go to utube and their is a video of a fellow that clearly explains how to speed it up if you want to.

 

[WindSurgeon]

I was seriously considering the purchase of a Charge Master. A freind owns one and offered to loan it to me to try before dropping the bucks on one. I thought it might make the reloading process faster and was hoping I could get consistent throws. After loading 120 rounds with Varget for practice, sighters and competition I decided the accuracy of each "throw" was not good enough. I weighed each load on my ballance scale and found that it usually threw .1-.2 grains low and I had to trickle the last tenth or so. Many of the loads were +.2 and about 8 of the loads were +4-5 grains too high. I calibrated the machine per the instructions before I started. I feel this variation is too great for competition accuracy. The high overthrows also do not make it a good stand alone option for hunting loads, not to mention if you intended max load and the overthrow caused damage to the rifle or the shooter. I also felt it slowed the entire process down since I could not get used to the idea of not weighing each throw. My normal routine is to throw slightly under weight from a RCBS Uniflow and trickle up to the intended load on my ballance scale. My normal routine is fast and ensures a consistent charge in comparison to the ChargeMaster alone. Speeding this thing up wont improve its accuracy.

I returned the ChargeMaster to my buddy today and don't plan on buying one. I now have to break the news to him at some point or watch him possibly miss the mule deer of a lifetime next fall.

 

[ridgeway]

Mine never threw Varget consistently either until I did the straw trick.

 

[Dave T]

I'd first tell your buddy that he may need to send his charge master back and get it looked at, mine has never ever been off even close to that much.
Dave T

 

[bozo699]

DaveT,
Welcome to the forum. Mine is the same story as WindSurgeon, except I don't understand the worry of a overthrow? The scale beeps when the throw is complete then it goes trough it's final cycle and your overthrow is displayed, I guess at that time you have the option of putting the overthrowed charge in your case or pull a few grains out with your tweezers. However he is right in the aspect that it can be off a few tenths either way and that's not good enough for competition. I am going back to my old beam scales myself.
Wayne.

 

[Dave T]

Thanks for the welcome to the forum, I appreciate that. Are you seeing the overthrow on your read out or are you checking with another scale? I can honestly tell you that I have had my charge master since they first came out and I can only remember once maybe twice I had an off charge of over 2 tenths and it was an isolated case. I recently loaded some 22-250 rounds with Alliant Power Pro Varmint, which is a very fine powder and out of 20 charges maybe 3 were over by 1 tenth. This is the first time this has happened, this many out of lets say 20. Now this is just my experience with my machine, I couldn't be happier with mine. Now about beam scales, that seems like going back to black and white TV to me, not being smart here, I'm just saying to me that's old technology that I found very slow and cumbersome. I just got my old RCBS 10 10 beam scale out to check out just this subject and found the same old problems I hated before, beam not settling in same place if I took pan off and just what I said above. Again these are just my experiences, I think the biggest advancement in reloading the last ten years are these new electronic powder dispensers.
Dave T

 

[bozo699]

DaveT,
Yes I have noticed 1,2,3 tenths and up to 3 or 4 full grains from time to time with my
1500 >:
I did all the modifications to the first one I had, I refused to get a macdonald straw as I hate them as bad or worst then wall-mart but I got a straw from a locally owned conservative based restaurant and it was as mentioned so I sent it back to rcbs and got another one, the one I have now, it works the same as the first one ( just a expensive powder dispenser ) I work for rcbs's parent Co. I think I will send it back and get a couple of 1010 scales, then sell them and buy a good beam scale. I don't have a very high regard for any of rcbs products. My old electronic rcbs setup a powder pro I think they called them were way more accurate then the new 1500's I have two of them, there just really slow that's all. If your having that kind of luck with yours I am very happy for you I think rcbs makes rugged equipment but I don't believe precision is paramount with any of there equipment except maybe there rockchucker press, these of course are jmo's
Good luck to you Dave and happy shooting
Wayne.