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Chargemaster or beam scale? Your opinions...

Do you care to elaborate on this

There are numerous threads about the driftiness and slow to respond to trickling and not weighing the same thing with the same value twice in a row...

Mine just about drove me shit silly (which could account for a lot of things) and it got sent back!

If you buy one, I truly wish you the best of luck, just be sure of your return policy. Some folks have had great results with them, unfortunately, I was not one of them.

Good luck!!
 
As far as Chargemasters go, I am and have been really liking mine, but I will never trust most digital scales without a good beam scale to cross reference with.

And get some check weights, for some reason they make life a little easier...
 
Chargemaster or beam scale? Your opinions...

I still verify about 1 in 10 charges on a beam scale.
 
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And get some check weights, for some reason they make life a little easier...
If you don't have a set of check weights you aren't weighing, you're guessing.
I bought the RCBS deluxe set which goes up to 510.5gn.
So I can replicate whatever the weight I'm looking for to within 0.5gn and ensure my scale is weighing accurately and with repeatable results.
 
I own a chargemaster but it now sits while I use a Lee perfect powder measure and my beam scale plus and omega auto trickler. Very nearly as fast and accurate to the kernel. Also cheaper to acquire.
 
I own a chargemaster but it now sits while I use a Lee perfect powder measure and my beam scale plus and omega auto trickler. Very nearly as fast and accurate to the kernel. Also cheaper to acquire.

Thats the setup up I have to. I couldn't remember it's an omega trickler. Great setup. Love mine and I also agree it's almost as fast.
 
For my match grade ammo I set my charge master to a half grain or so short, pour that into my balance beam and trickle in the rest. I'm loading that on a single stage press, yes it takes more time but for me it's worth it to get each load as close as possible. For pistol, bulk 5.56 & 7.62 I load on either my dillon 550 or 650 progressive with the case feeder it goes fast. Just my 2 cents!
 
Beam scale.

Wait, no.

Chargemaster baby! Seriously, best piece of kit on the bench. I don't even use all the programming features, just punch in my weight and let 'er rip.
 
Just my $0.02 as I've been using a CM for a couple of years. Only loaded pistol for the past several months and it is the powder that causes overthrows on my machine. Small ball powder, never an overthrow; large flakes (800X) lots. Rifle powder is about 10% pitched back. It is not the machine, but what you are loading that is the problem. It is still better for my usage than a scale, for anything but plinking fodder, then I just use the RCBS dispenser than came with the kit so long (and so many dollars) ago...
 
I got my Chargemaster back in 07. First on died in a few months. Replaced by RCBS at no cost. This one has ben almost perfect. I use mostly W748 and 4895. I found leaving the CM on keeps the charges thrown pretty constant with about 5% +/- 0.1 grain error . Less with W748. One thing as noted previously wait until the final weight is shown after it goes thru the round count to see the actual weight dropped. Still much faster than using my 10-10.
 
For load development, the CM is indispensable to me. A beam scale will always have a place in the reloading tool kit though. I keep a beam scale on the bench next to the CM zeroed with the pan from the CM, easy enough to quick check the CM if I get suspicious.
 
I'd have a hard time going back to pre-Chargemaster. I've used a trickler and a Lee Perfect powder measure, but the CM is fast and easy. Accuracy has been great every time I've checked it. The straw mod and reprogramming are needed for best results.

No power conditioner on mine, although I thought I'd need one. You've been in my shop, I thought the florescent lights would cause a problem but they haven't so far.
 
I posted earlier in this thread about using the CM AND a beam but after reading all of the posts about "satisfied" users that rely strictly on the CM, I decided to load straight from the machine and let the rifle give me the results. Well the results are in. I loaded 50 rounds of .223 with 24.8 grains of Varget and headed to the range today.

The loads gave normal groupings for this factory rifle (5/8") and chronoed at 2922 fps ave with an ES of 36 and SD of 10. Don't know that I could have done any better loading the old way but with the energy saved and the performance of my loads using the CM only, I am now a believer in the CM's ability to turn out a decent load while saving time.
 
I posted earlier in this thread about using the CM AND a beam but after reading all of the posts about "satisfied" users that rely strictly on the CM, I decided to load straight from the machine and let the rifle give me the results. Well the results are in. I loaded 50 rounds of .223 with 24.8 grains of Varget and headed to the range today.

The loads gave normal groupings for this factory rifle (5/8") and chronoed at 2922 fps ave with an ES of 36 and SD of 10. Don't know that I could have done any better loading the old way but with the energy saved and the performance of my loads using the CM only, I am now a believer in the CM's ability to turn out a decent load while saving time.

+1 converted!!
 
I will tell u in two weeks for my .308. I have shot out to 725 with my long range ar and with the right dope was all over a 1.5 moa target when I did my part.
 
I use a chargemaster and purposely undershoot and fine tune with a balance. Since I have noticed some discrepancies in the chargemaster. This way I keep up speed and accuracy.