With the GA state long range championship less than two days out, it was time to load my ammo. The task of loading 180 rounds on my 5 year old 5-0-5 was too much for me to bear today, as a pinched nerve in my back is making life miserable. So, I deceided to buck up and buy a Chargemaster today. A call to MidSouth Shooter Supply at 8:05AM and at 10AM I had it in my truck on the way back to Nashville.
Overall, I am pretty impressed. I don't know that it is going to be any more accurate than my 5-0-5, but is was a bit faster. I won't be able to give you guys the kind of .001gr accuracy some of you get with your high speed scales have come to expect, as the 5-0-5 was all I had to check it against, but I'm pretty sure the little 5-0-5 was good enough to let me know when something was out enough to deserve re-checking.
I loaded two loads today. The first was 48.6gr H4350x80, and the second was 48.4gr H4350x97. The 48.6gr load was pretty consistant. After about 20 rounds, I recalibrated and noticed about a .1gr difference. The 48.4gr load showed 48.3 consistantly on the 5-0-5, but was spot on at 48.4 when re-weighed on the chargemaster. A + .2gr difference was noticable enough that it got re-dumped a few times, but all in all, I'd say it was < 95% for the day. I re-dumped less than 25 rounds for sure, and some were just to check.
I picked the pan up and set it back down about 50 times. FWIW, all but twice, the charge weight was spot on. I don't know if the drift some were talking about is fixed, or if they just made the thing less sensitive.
One thing I took note of. It is vital to NOT get ahead of myself. A few times I caught heavy loads with the 5-0-5, and eventually realized I was hitting the dispense button before the scale went to 0.0. So, I was .1 to .2 over on about 10 of those I re-dumped.
I also found that I was starting to just grab the pan off the scale, without checking the dispensed weight. A few times it bit me, as it threw a couple grains high, and since the beep doesn't denote a high charge, I missed it. Had I not re-weighed all 180 charges before I sent them into the case, I would have has some elevation shots for my lack of attension to detail.
Both these are problems are the result of me not paying attension, but it was caught so,, no harm no foul.
Each charge took about 25 seconds to throw. Loading 10 rounds took 5:40. Twenty rounds took 11:55. 97 rounds took 69 minutes. That's about a 15 to 20 minute savings in time per 100. Not bad.
The sales lady said that this shippment was delivered to MidSouth in March. I'm not sure if it's new or not, but it seemed to work pretty good.
Tomorrow afternoon I head out for Ft. Benning. I'm gonna hold off final praise on this until I see what kind of elevation I can hold at 1000y. Afterall, the proof isn't in the pudding,,, it's in the eating. I'll say, if it holds elevation as well as the 5-0-5 does, it's a keeper.
Chris...
Overall, I am pretty impressed. I don't know that it is going to be any more accurate than my 5-0-5, but is was a bit faster. I won't be able to give you guys the kind of .001gr accuracy some of you get with your high speed scales have come to expect, as the 5-0-5 was all I had to check it against, but I'm pretty sure the little 5-0-5 was good enough to let me know when something was out enough to deserve re-checking.
I loaded two loads today. The first was 48.6gr H4350x80, and the second was 48.4gr H4350x97. The 48.6gr load was pretty consistant. After about 20 rounds, I recalibrated and noticed about a .1gr difference. The 48.4gr load showed 48.3 consistantly on the 5-0-5, but was spot on at 48.4 when re-weighed on the chargemaster. A + .2gr difference was noticable enough that it got re-dumped a few times, but all in all, I'd say it was < 95% for the day. I re-dumped less than 25 rounds for sure, and some were just to check.
I picked the pan up and set it back down about 50 times. FWIW, all but twice, the charge weight was spot on. I don't know if the drift some were talking about is fixed, or if they just made the thing less sensitive.
One thing I took note of. It is vital to NOT get ahead of myself. A few times I caught heavy loads with the 5-0-5, and eventually realized I was hitting the dispense button before the scale went to 0.0. So, I was .1 to .2 over on about 10 of those I re-dumped.
I also found that I was starting to just grab the pan off the scale, without checking the dispensed weight. A few times it bit me, as it threw a couple grains high, and since the beep doesn't denote a high charge, I missed it. Had I not re-weighed all 180 charges before I sent them into the case, I would have has some elevation shots for my lack of attension to detail.
Both these are problems are the result of me not paying attension, but it was caught so,, no harm no foul.
Each charge took about 25 seconds to throw. Loading 10 rounds took 5:40. Twenty rounds took 11:55. 97 rounds took 69 minutes. That's about a 15 to 20 minute savings in time per 100. Not bad.
The sales lady said that this shippment was delivered to MidSouth in March. I'm not sure if it's new or not, but it seemed to work pretty good.
Tomorrow afternoon I head out for Ft. Benning. I'm gonna hold off final praise on this until I see what kind of elevation I can hold at 1000y. Afterall, the proof isn't in the pudding,,, it's in the eating. I'll say, if it holds elevation as well as the 5-0-5 does, it's a keeper.
Chris...
