I have about had it with electronic powder dispensers

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10-30-2020, 05:27 PM
LittleLebowski

I have about had it with electronic powder dispensers

Hornady Lock’n’Load worked great with Varget, did terrible with H4350. Gifting to my shooting buddy whom is a PF member. New Frankford Intellidropper is easy to use and meters consistently .5 grain high with H4350. I opened up a support ticket with Frankford on Tuesday Oct 27th, still no response.

So, what now? Just throw low charges manually with my Lee Perfect Powder Measure and trickle up? I’m afraid to drop the coin on a Chargemaster and get disappointed all over again. Maybe Frankford will get in touch with me and fix this?
10-30-2020, 05:57 PM
daved20319

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleLebowski

Hornady Lock’n’Load worked great with Varget, did terrible with H4350. Gifting to my shooting buddy whom is a PF member. New Frankford Intellidropper is easy to use and meters consistently .5 grain high with H4350. I opened up a support ticket with Frankford on Tuesday Oct 27th, still no response.

So, what now? Just throw low charges manually with my Lee Perfect Powder Measure and trickle up? I’m afraid to drop the coin on a Chargemaster and get disappointed all over again. Maybe Frankford will get in touch with me and fix this?

My FA consistently throws .1 gr. light on loads under about 30 gr., with a variety of powders, but it IS totally consistent. Since most of my loading has been handguns and .223, I just add .1 gr. to whatever charge weight I'm throwing and it's right on. I talked to FA about this when I first go my dispenser, they know it's an issue with some scales, and are hoping to fix it in a future firmware upgrade. Other than that, I've been completely happy with mine, it'll be interesting to see how it goes when I start throwing heavier charges loading for the 6.5 Creedmoor. Later.

Dave
10-30-2020, 06:02 PM
SecondsCount

I have the Chargemaster but I think anything in that $300 price range is mediocre. It works okay but I did the straw trick to it and let it warm up for at least 15 minutes before I start using it. Most of the time I am running 8208 and RL16 through it. I'm not as big of a Varget fan as a lot of others so I haven't even tried it.

The Lee measure works pretty damn good with short extruded powders and ball powder but it will throw a wild one here and there. I did a test with the Deluxe model a few years ago with 8208. As long as I kept the hopper level around the midpoint, filling it every 15 rounds to the same level, it threw 50 charges with 48 being +/- .1 grains and two that were .2 and .3 grains off. You have to be very consistent in how you throw that lever.

Sometimes if I am not worried about ultimate precision, say a 500 yard 223 load, I will throw them by hand. Throwing the load by hand and not confirming will definitely give you some velocity variation that can be seen at 500 but not enough to miss a 6" plate.
10-31-2020, 04:04 AM
Wise_A

1 Attachment(s)

I've had outstanding results with the Chargemaster, completely unmodified. Using primarily H4350 and RL16, but have also loaded .223 on it with Varget and Benchmark. On my last run with the chronograph, I tested 25 rounds of 6.5CM with RL16 under a 144-grain Sierra Matchking (purchased a bulk of 500 as I discovered I'd opened couple boxes of 140-grain ELD-Ms that I thought were full). I verified the LabRadar positioning and settings with a couple groups of the ELD-Ms, and got about the velocity and SD/ES I was expecting (7-8 SD per 5-round group). The five different loadings of SMKs ranged from an SD of 9 for the worst, all the way down to an ES of 4fps and an SD of 1.5. Yes--the top-end group was probably both very good and very lucky. But all 25 loadings were extremely consistent.

The Chargemaster is magic. And I swore I'd never own one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondsCount

It works okay but I did the straw trick to it and let it warm up for at least 15 minutes before I start using it.

Any electronic scale needs to be warmed up and then calibrated before use.

I've thought about the straw trick, but honestly, mine only fudges five or six charges out of 50. It's not a big deal to pour them back in and let it run again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleLebowski

So, what now? Just throw low charges manually with my Lee Perfect Powder Measure and trickle up? I’m afraid to drop the coin on a Chargemaster and get disappointed all over again.

I know how much you spent on your rifle.

Attachment 62479

And I would stop reloading before I went back to hand-trickling.
08-23-2021, 04:51 PM
LittleLebowski

FYI, I’m extremely pleased with my Intellidropper and 4350. Well below sub .5MOA groups.

These are on sale at Amazon and it’s a great deal, $30 below Brownells.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GFWXT7
08-24-2021, 10:25 AM
entropy

I have a Lyman which has been pretty accurate overall. If I want to get real ridiculous, I’ll go .1 under, and dribble up using a GemPro.

The only thing I CANNOT STAND is that damn buzzer. One of these days, I’m going to if it apart and kill that little bugger...
08-24-2021, 10:33 AM
awp_101

Quote:

Originally Posted by LittleLebowski

FYI, I’m extremely pleased with my Intellidropper and 4350. Well below sub .5MOA groups.

These are on sale at Amazon and it’s a great deal, $30 below Brownells.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GFWXT7

Did they ever get back to you or otherwise resolve the issue you initially posted about?
08-24-2021, 05:01 PM
Hambo

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wise_A

I've had outstanding results with the Chargemaster, completely unmodified.

And I would stop reloading before I went back to hand-trickling.

Just off the top of my head, I've used the Chargemaster to dump Universal and Clays for shotgun (yeah, I don't use the bushings in my press); H110, 4227, Unique in pistol; 4350, 7828, 748 in rifles. I've had almost no problems with it and I dread the day it will die.

I used to use Lee scoops to get close, then trickle the last grain or so. All I can say is, fuck that shit. You can't keep them down on the farm once they've seen the Karl Hungus Chargemaster.
08-25-2021, 05:06 AM
Hambo

I should add that mine is the old school 1500. It has to be at least ten years old.
09-03-2021, 05:01 AM
Jager

Another fan of the Chargemaster. I used mine for years without any issues at all.

That said, the Chargemaster utilizes a strain gauge load cell to do its thing. It's made in China. And its build quality is so-so.

If you want to put questions of charge weight behind you for good... I'd suggest you look at a laboratory-grade balance, utilizing a magnetic force restoration load cell. And if you pair it with Adam MacDonald's AutoTrickler system, you'll never again doubt what is going into that piece of brass.

https://ceproducts.shop/products/fx-...nt=41172916742

https://autotrickler.com/pages/autotrickler

There are even more expensive lab scales available, like the Sartorius. But the A&D FX-120i linked above is the one used most often by handloaders.