RCBS Chargemaster 1500 Review (scale only)

[15Tango]

Reading reviews of electronic scales has always scared me away from getting one, it seemed no matter what brand or cost there would be somebody saying it wouldn't hold zero, drift or whatever and that you had to be in pretty controlled environment free of drafts, temperature changes or electronic interference.

I've always done all my reloading on a 5-0-5 beam and it's obviously slow. So slow I wasn't willing to put the time into weighing individual bullets or brass, just charges. Even with weighing charges there was always a bit of guess work involved - are the lines completely aligned or is the charge .1 of a grain too high or low? There was little doubt to me that an electronic scale would be the next needed step to up my reloading potential in regard to accuracy and speed would just happen to be another bonus.

After doing quite a bit of comparing it seemed the RCBS Chargemaster 1500 had some pretty good reviews with minimal complaints. I asked for it for Xmas and received it.

I set it up on my bench, which is a quite solid piece of 1 3/4" thick solid commercial door. I used a piece of 1/8" thick aluminum (that used to be the landing gear to a J3 Piper Cub R/C plane) and bent it into a little platform that holds my trickler and neither it or the trickler touches the scale.

I weighed out 50 charges so far to put together some pig ammunition and it worked flawlessly, never drifted and there's zero guess work about the charge weight. I also weighed out a bunch of different brass, around 200 pieces total - no drift. I also weighed out about 50 140 VLDs and it didn't drift. I weighed all those things on the same zero and it never failed to perform.

I did this all with a table lamp 2 feet away from the scale, a heat register directly above it and with a space heater w/fan running 5 feet away. I'm quite happy with it so far.

Wayne

 

[jonbearman]

Wayne ,I dont have all these crazy problems or issues with my dillon electronic scale either.Sometimes I think maybe people read way too many articles on the pro's and con's of these type's of scale's .Then ,wouldnt you know it ,they have the problem.If these scale's were as bad as they are saying ,the company's would be flooded with problem's and probably quit making them altogether.

 

[rocketron]

i have the 1500 combo and i'm happy with it.

if it starts acting up wipe it down with a dryer sheet to get rid of the static.

Wayne, did you test your beam scale skills by putting that weighed charge on the 1500 to see how consistant you were?

Ron

 

[15Tango]

if it starts acting up wipe it down with a dryer sheet to get rid of the static.

Wayne, did you test your beam scale skills by putting that weighed charge on the 1500 to see how consistant you were?

Ron,

That was the first thing I did actually - compared what a case weighed on the 1500 vs the 5-0-5 and they were right on.

Thanks for the drier sheet tip - do you wipe down the entire scale or just the little plastic pan thing?

Wayne

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I also have the charge master, but I have the whole set up, not just the scale. I absolutely love mine. I have it timed out just perfect for the amount of time it takes to throw 30ish grains of varget or H4198, so I can toss it in a case, and seat the bullet, toss the loaded round into the ammo box, and boom.... the buzzer dings telling me that the next charge is ready. Occasionally I get an over charge, but not more than 7 or 8 per 100. It's not the scales fault; it's how the kernels of powder line up in the tube. If they are high, and the thing rotates, 5-8 kernels fall out and that causes it to go over the weight usually by .1 grain. I shoot 100-200 bench rest where a few hundreds of an inch can take you completely out of contention. I feel 100% confident that my chargemaster and it's ability to throw a charge accurately. It is accurate enough that I have done pretty darn well in my first full year of shooting competition. In fact, I just won in Austin's yesterday by 4 "X" count with a 250-17x


PS... i changed out my pan to a metal pan. I did not like the one that came with it. I actually used the pan that came with my RCBS 5-5 beam scale. I just like the feel of it as well as it being made of metal. It weighs 148.7 grains. I also use that as a guide when I boot up the charge master. if it reads 148.6 or 148.8 I reboot it. Just one of the little quirky things I do. (I also tap the pan 4 times on the funnel when dumping my powder into the case.... )

 

[15Tango]

PS... i changed out my pan to a metal pan. I did not like the one that came with it. I actually used the pan that came with my RCBS 5-5 beam scale. I just like the feel of it as well as it being made of metal. It weighs 148.7 grains.

I didn't like the metal pan it came with so I already switched back to using the brass pan that came with my 5-0-5, that pan has a bigger 'dog ear' hold onto and it's what I was used to. Mine weighs 149.0 grains!

Wayne

 

[rocketron]

Wayne, i wipe down the whole thing. when i first set up my combo unit every time i put the pan near the scale you could watch the numbers move...a quick wipe down and it was fixed.

Ron