electronic powder despenser's

[saitek]

doe's any body have a like or dislike from experance with electronic poowder mesure dispenser's good or bad .
i use a pact elec scale and powder trickler ,lee perfect powder measure now ,no problem's.just looking at a little bit more speed and ease with the way my hands shake any more .
was kinda wanting to stay with pact as that is what scale i have ,it is the cheaper way to go ,but have heard many different reveiw's both way's pro and con ,any idea's would be apprecieated ,thanks.

 

[hueyville]

I don't use any of the reloading company solutions. I was at an auction when a local defense contractor that built cruise missles auctioned off their equipment. Bought a scale.out of their lab that sells for 8,000 bucks. Ordered the chip to convert it to grains and now I know my measurements are as precise as possible for loading purposes. I use the little Lee dippers and trickle the last little bit with my Lyman trickler. If I am that obsessed about weight of each charge convenience is not as important as accuracy. Most of my powders get metered anyway.

 

[Romeo 33 Delta]

I've used a PACT (sold under the RCSB brand), scale separate from the dispenser unit for years and I LOVE IT!. I have a second electronic scale and my method is to take the load dispensed and dump it into the second scale, put the pan back and hit "Dispense" while I finess the load on the second scale if I need to (rarely). I can do about a round per minute or better. This depends on the number of grains I need it to throw, fewer grains shortens the time considerably.

Mine is an older unit and I understand PACT has upped the dispensing speed of the unit. I haven't really felt the need to upgrade mine ... the speed is more than acceptable.

 

[Patocazador]

I have both a Lyman and a PACT dispenser and both take too long for me. Both of mine are over 12 years old so they may be quicker now.
I've found that it's faster to just manually dump out the charge until I get within .3 of a grain from my target weight and then go with a manual RCBS dribbler.
If you have neuromuscular problems or Parkinson's then the automatic versions would probably be a great aid.

 

[kelbro]

I have been using my RCBS Chargemaster 1500 for a few years now. Got my money's worth many times over with this one.

 

[209jones]

I bought a Chargemaster, fiddled around with it once so far. Takes a lot of setup time initially, you are supposed to let it warm up for 1/2hr, it has to be levelled, it has to be calibrated, and recalibrated. Then it threw 1/2gr heavy.
In the time I spent setting it up, I could have done what I was doing, using Lee dippers and the old Hornady beam scale. I haven't given up on it, I will give it another try, but it appears I will have to redo the whole setup, to get it working properly. I have a suspicion it has to do with the levelling of it.
I'm not convinced it is really much faster, if any, on small batches of ammo.
And I'm not convinced that the weight is that accurate, that it's really worth a 300.00 bill to buy one vs setting up a thrower and using volume to do the job. It is still a tossup in my mind.

 

[saitek]

yeah i have MS it make's it fun , i might just deal with it as i am going now ,or i might get at wild hair in my ass and just try the pact dispenser . it]s only money

 

[joed]

I bought a Chargemaster, fiddled around with it once so far. Takes a lot of setup time initially, you are supposed to let it warm up for 1/2hr, it has to be levelled, it has to be calibrated, and recalibrated. Then it threw 1/2gr heavy.
In the time I spent setting it up, I could have done what I was doing, using Lee dippers and the old Hornady beam scale. I haven't given up on it, I will give it another try, but it appears I will have to redo the whole setup, to get it working properly. I have a suspicion it has to do with the levelling of it.
I'm not convinced it is really much faster, if any, on small batches of ammo.
And I'm not convinced that the weight is that accurate, that it's really worth a 300.00 bill to buy one vs setting up a thrower and using volume to do the job. It is still a tossup in my mind.

Thank you for putting that into perspective. I was going to buy the RCBS dispenser so that I could have the next charge ready by the time I poured the previous into the case.

I now see no time savings.

 

[kelbro]

It does work that way. It throws a charge while I am seating the bullet in the previous cartridge. Setup is a one-time thing. I leave mine on 99% of the time. Fill full of powder, calibrate and go. Yes, it is better for larger lots. Checked hundreds of drops against my 10-10 beam and it's always right on. Cuts work time in about half if you're doing 50 or more.

Not as fast as my Dillons but plenty quick for me.

 

[P-32]

I would go to Midway USA and read the reviews. It seems like the elec throws got too cheap a few years ago and it appears people are having good luck with them again. If I were to buy a new one today I would look at the Hornaday.

I have an old Lyman DPS 1200 I use for loading match ammo. It's a bit more cranky now but still saves me a bunch of time over the 100 round run. The finshed ammo shoots well to.

I use the Uniflow to throw a charge a few grains under and use the DPS to finish it off. Seems to work better than running the entire charge through the DPS.

Not worth the set up or clean up time for small runs IMHO.

 

[hueyville]

Leveling is over half the battle in most things of mechanical accuracy. A lathe or any machine shop equipment has to be leveled and let settle, then releveled again. A machinists level that is used for this purpose is a serious investment. I check my level once a year on all equipment. My reloading scales once leveled do not get moved. I mark their location on the bench with a sharpie marker. Their is a reason for leveling screws on scales. I bring my machinists level home a few times a year to verify my level on benches, scales, etc. It really does help.

 

[Reloadron]

With a birthday in a few weeks I also have been looking at the RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 Powder Scale and Dispenser Combo.

Despite progressive presses I mostly load on my ancient RCBS Rock Chucker and never even in a hurry to load. Mostly rifle in .223, .308 and 30-06 with others tossed in.

I generally use my RCBS Uniflow with a baffle and throw light then trickle using my balance beam or sometimes an old RCBS digital I have. Since when I load I have all the time in the world (and more when I retire soon) round count in a given time period is not a factor. Loading good consistent ammunition is.

I like reading what the guys here in the forum have to say that are actually using these models.

Ron

 

[Ken70]

My current Handloading magazine has an article about EPD's. IF you're shooting 600 yards or more; makes a little bit of difference you could see. Anything less than 600 yards; use a regular powder measure and throw the charges. Like the Benchrest guys.

I could never figure out why people buy EPD's, $300 for something that's no better than a regular powder measure.

 

[kelbro]

I use mine a lot for load development. 5 loads each at .2 or .3gr increments for 8 or ten steps. Once I find a load that really works, if there's a +/- .1gr range where the load performs equally well, I switch to the Lyman 55 powder measure.

 

[kingmt]

I have the Smart Reloader & it is ready to setup. It is accurate & faster then me. It had the next charge ready before I can seat a bullet.