Early B-Day present for myself

[J.Baker]

Getting tired of always having to adjust my old Lyman No. 55 powder measure for different loads/powders/cartridges, so I decided to try my luck with another electronic powder dispenser . I'd purchased a RCBS Chargemaster 8-10 years ago or so and used it for a bit, but even after doing the McD's straw trick, recalibrating it with custom settings, etc. it would still only throw one accurate charge for every five or six it dispensed. Sold that one and just went back to a simple measure and beam scale, but dispensing and weighting every charge manually gets mind numbingly tedious in short order. So I did a little research and it seems the new Hornady Auto Charge Pro has come out on top or in 2nd place in multiple shootouts with similar dispensers from all the other brands so I decided to order one for myself. It was waiting for me on the back porch this afternoon when I returned from the range, so fingers crossed it's more accurate and less aggravating than the old RCBS unit.

[Blue Avenger]

Slow! You need 3 of them. That's why I had 3 RCBS digital dispensers.
The Lyman tools were very sloppy. Never kept any of them I tried.

[pdog06]

Let us know how you like it. I have been thinking of upgrading as well.
I have an electronic but it’s an old Pact(same as RCBS) Powdermaster with the PowerPro scale. It actually still works really well but is slow compared to some of the ones on the market today. I’ve had it since about 2003 or so.

[Dave Hoback]

Nice. I still use a scale. But at least it’s a digital, LOL! I don’t mind the slowness. But then, everything I do is slow. And I’m only loading 260 & 223, & not high volume..so there’s that. Still, I find reloading very relaxing. What you call mind numbing, to me is quite soothing. But I get it. And I understand for those who are busy all the time it can be a huge help time wise.

I hope it works well for you & gets the efficiency you’re looking for.

[Rocketvapor]

I like the profile, narrow and tall, of that one.
I bought a used Lyman Gen 5 that comes close to 0.1 grain, except when it doesn't.
I use it to get close then transfer to a digital scale and pinch up or down to get closer than I can see on target.

See if your new device uses some type of proprietary shaft seals and order a FEW spares.
When they upgrade the model you might not be able to find parts.
The Lyman will catch a granule of fine powder in the seal/bearing and slow down or stop. Can't seem to find seals so I might take them down and homebrew replacements.

[J.Baker]

I have loaded up 120 rounds with it so far between last night and this morning and so far I'm really liking it. Basically took it out of the box, plugged it in, let it warm up for about 10 minutes, calibrated the scale and went to town. Started off by loaded up 50 rounds of 6x47 Lapua with 39.0gr IMR-4350 and only had two throws that were over - both by 0.2gr., and both as a result of just having a few more kernels stacked up at the mouth of the spout on that last trickle bump. I then loaded up 70 rounds of .250 Savage AI with 40.0 grains of Varget topped with either 85gr Nosler BT's (57rds) or 100gr Nosler Partitions (13rds). For this 70 rounds I had three over charges, and again all by only 0.2ga



Speed wise, I can't really comment on that yet as I haven't played around with the speed settings at all. One of the big reasons I chose the Hornady was because it offers three different speed options (slow, med. and fast), which of course have corresponding degrees of reduced accuracy as the speed goes up. By default it's set on slow and that's all I've used to this point, but it's actually about perfect at that speed as by the time I have seated my bullet and put that finished round in the tray the powder measure is already trickling the last couple tenths of a grain so I'm only having to wait a few seconds.

The one thing I did play with was the auto or manual option. By default it's in manual mode meaning you have to depress the Dispense button every time to start measuring out a new charge. In auto mode it automatically starts up a second or two after your replace the pan on the scale. The auto function works well, but you do have to rush a bit if you want to get the draft guard back into place before it starts up. Not sure if there's a way to increase the startup delay in the settings or not, but would be nice to make it a second or two longer.

Probably what surprised me the most about this unit is just how quiet it is. With the draft guard in place, the only thing you'll hear out of it is the first bit of kernels hitting the pan. There's no discernable motor noise to speak of which was one of my big complaints with the RCBS unit I had back in the day.

The one thing I don't like so far, and it may be adjustable in the settings, is that when it finishes dispensing a charge it only shows the final charge weight for a second before changing over to displaying the total number of charges that have been dispensed. Yes it will beep and display "OVER" if it's an overcharge, but I just like the added piece of mind of being able to see the final charge weight before dumping it into a case. Not a problem if you're waiting and watching it to finish dispensing the load which is another reason the slow speed has been working well for me.

I do plan on testing to see how much increasing the speed affects the accuracy. Hornady claims +/-0.1gr accuracy on the slow setting which is pretty much what I've seen (over charge warnings at 0.2gr over). This is perfectly acceptable to me for target/match loads, so if the accuracy doesn't drop off much with the speed increase I could presume that medium speed might be plenty accurate for hunting loads and allow you to dispense charges a bit faster. Guess we'll see...

Last but not least, I much prefer the design on the hopper dump on the Hornady over the old RCBS. With the Hornady it's just a matter of rotating it 180-degrees to the downward pointing position. What's nice though is that the powder flows a lot more smoothly and faster from the Hornady than it did the RCBS. A few random kernels of powder still needed to be brushed out, but that's normal and may not even had been needed if I had remembered to wipe down the inside of the hopper with a dryer sheet before using it to eliminate any static buildup.

So overall I'm very, very pleased with the Hornady unit this far. It's much less complicated to use than the RCBS Chargemaster was, and I didn't have to do any straw tricks or reprogramming to get it to throw bulky stick powders accurately. That's a big win in my book since that's the predominant types of powders I shoot.

[Dave Hoback]

Ha! I like the obligatory handgun pic.. what’s that? Kahr PM9 it looks like?

[pdog06]

I definitely like how compact it is. I too would rather have the current charge stay on the screen longer. Like maybe till you pick up the pan?

I almost bought a chargemaster link over the weekend cause RCBS had a $40 rebate and my friend could get it with his military discount on top of that, and buying it in Delaware with no tax as well. Didn’t get it but might be buying something pretty soon. Good to hear how yours is goin so far Jim.

Btw, nice clean bench! How do you do it?..lol

[J.Baker]

Ha! I like the obligatory handgun pic.. what’s that? Kahr PM9 it looks like?

Kahr CM9, though I don't like it as well the CW40 it replaced. Want to replace it with a M&P Shield or a Kimber Ultra Carry II eventually, just haven't come across a smoking good deal on a used one yet.

[J.Baker]

Btw, nice clean bench! How do you do it?..lol

It's simple really - you just take your arm and use it to slide everything to one end of the bench so it's out of frame.

[pdog06]

That’s what I was thinking…lol

[charlie b]

I have the Lyman Gen6 and really am hooked on it. They have an automatic speed change as it dispenses the charge. Fast up to a point, then it slows down for the last several gn, then slows down again for the last gn. Still throws a heavy charge every now and then when the granules bunch up.

For precision work I throw 0.1gn low and add a granule at a time until it 'ticks over' to my tgt weight.

The scale is also very consistent. It has a factory set warm up and will 'ask' for a calibration if it senses it is off zero. I've done checks with calibrated weights and noticed no drift over loong periods of operation.

It does leave the actual weight on the screen for each load, even if in auto mode.

Sent from my SM-P613 using Tapatalk

[jeffreybehr]

I've had one for a few years and really like it.. I wish I could disable the auto-off; I like to keep it On and warm once I start using it.. After using the provided weights to quick-check calibration while reloading, I bought an inexpensive assortment of metric weights thru eBay.. The 1gm. and 2gm. weights together weigh exactly 46.297 grains, right in the middle of the weight of charges I use often, and with a number ending in '97', there's no question about how to round it.

And I never brush it clean; I remove all parts and upend its contents into a largish funnel atop the powder bottle.. Gently thump the bottom a couple times and then carefully empty the powder tube into the funnel and voila! it's empty and clean.

[Robinhood]

I thought all of those type of powder dispensers were to feed something like an A&D FX 120i with a trickle to weight.

[J.Baker]

Since I finally (after about 5 years) got a new updated brain box for my CED M2 chronograph, I decided to run some of the above mentioned handloads.

Starting out, I shot 10 rounds through my 6x47 Lapua (2x5-shot strings but forgot to save/reset the string). The load consisted of a 90gr Hornady ELD-X topping 39.0gr of IMR-43540. Bullet seating depth was unchanged from how it was setup for my 105gr Berger Hybrid load.

String 1
1) 3003.0 -83.7
2) 3086.0 -0.7
3) 3097.0 10.3
4) 3092.0 5.3
5) 3084.0 (ED)
6) 3117.0 30.3
7) 3110.0 23.3
8) 3095.0 8.3
9) 3076.0 -10.7
10) 3104.0 17.3


High: 3117.0
Low: 3003.0
E.S.: 114.0
Ave.: 3086.7
S.D.: 31.8
95%: ±27.5

Definitely not great results here with a 114fps extreme spread and 32fps standard deviation, but remember I just substituted these bullets in place of the Bergers to see how they'd shoot.

The next two strings were loaded with the 105gr Bergers with the same 39.0gr charge of IMR-4350.

String 2
1) 2992.0 7.0
2) 2989.0 4.0
3) 2990.0 5.0
4) 2975.0 -10.0
5) 2979.0 -6.0


High: 2992.0
Low: 2975.0
E.S.: 17.0
Ave.: 2985.0
S.D.: 6.7
95%: ±10.4


String 3
1) 2989.0 1.8
2) 2983.0 -4.2
3) 2993.0 5.8
4) 2980.0 -7.2
5) 2991.0 3.8


High: 2993.0
Low: 2980.0
E.S.: 13.0
Ave.: 2987.2
S.D.: 4.9
95%: ±7.6

A little on the slow side by my chrono, but the E.S.'s and S.D's are looking really good. I ran 3 rounds of this same batch of ammo across a friends Caldwell chrono last Friday and it was reporting speeds between 3020 and 3060. Was noticeably warmer out today which made me think if anything I should have gotten higher velocities today with mine, but not the case. Guess we'll just chalk that up to the differences in the hardware/software between the two units.

Definitely going to bump this load up a half to full grain to see how it performs. Ideally I'd like to get the average velocity up into the 3040-3060fps zone as that seems to be the sweet spot for this particular bullet/cartridge combo from what I've read and been told.


Also finally chrono'd some .250 Savage AI loads I've been playing with the last year or two. These first two are a 40.0gr charge of Varget topped with a 100gr Nosler Partitions.

String 4
1) 2981.0 -11.0
2) 2991.0 -1.0
3) 3002.0 10.0
4) 2994.0 2.0


High: 3002.0
Low: 2981.0
E.S.: 21.0
Ave.: 2992.0
S.D.: 7.5
95%: ±16.0


String 5
1) 2972.0 -20.0
2) 3008.0 16.0
3) 2996.0 4.0


High: 3008.0
Low: 2972.0
E.S.: 36.0
Ave.: 2992.0
S.D.: 15.0
95%: ±55.7

Obviously the first string had much better consistency than the second even though the ammo was all the same.

This last string is 40.0gr of Varget topped with an 85gr Nosler BT. Like the Hornady bullet load for the 6x47 Lapua above, I basically just swapped out the bullet on the above 100gr Partition load to see how it would shoot.

String 6
1) 3086.0 46.3
2) 3036.0 -3.7
3) 3045.0 5.3
4) 3010.0 -29.7
5) 3076.0 36.3
6) 3035.0 -4.7
7) 2990.0 -49.7


High: 3086.0
Low: 2990.0
E.S.: 96.0
Ave.: 3039.7
S.D.: 31.3
95%: ±33.9

Obviously not the optimal combination.

[PhilC]

It's simple really - you just take your arm and use it to slide everything to one end of the bench so it's out of frame.

LOL, I do the same thing.

[pdog06]

Well Jim I was holding out buying a new dispenser but your early review and some online comparison reviews gave me the nudge I needed to go ahead and get one. My Hornady just showed up to the doorstep!.. Old Pact been going strong for 20+yrs and still works good, but it was time.
Will probably mess with it some tomorrow as I just finished trimming 200pcs of 22-250 brass this morning and still need to chamfer them.

[J.Baker]

Hope you like it! Only thing I don't like is that unlike the RCBS Chargemaster, there's no way to customize the Hornady in any way. Now I generally prefer simple over complicated which would put the Hornady right up my alley, but as noted above I would really like the option to keep the final charge weight displayed on the screen rather than having it show the # of charges dispensed.

You can tweak the speed of the trickle a little (speed button), as well as how far away from the final charge it will switch to trickling (Time button), but that's essentially it. When you enter a charge weight, it will automatically generate a default speed (mine came up as 0.7 and 0.7 for the 40gr charge of IMR-4350). So if I wanted to have it start trickling a little sooner and a little slower, I could drop both to 0.5.

The unit also has 4 memory slots where you can store charge weights and speed/time settings. That's not very many, but given how simple this unit is and how easy it is to just punch you weight in and go I really don't see a need for any built-in memory slots.

[Blue Avenger]

I never bothered to save charge date, way to easy to enter it as needed.

[pdog06]

I’ve used it a couple times now and so far I like it. Like you there’s a couple things I would like it to have, but overall it is very simple.
-Wish there was a volume button for the beep when the load is complete. I turn off the other beeps but the one at the end of a load is there to stay. Gets annoying after a while.
-same as you I would like the end amount to stay on the screen atleast till I lift the pan. It seems it does not throw a low amount so as long as you get the one beep it should be right on. Any over I have gotten is only a .2gn overage. I still re-do it but atleast it’s a consistent amount if it does it.

I still haven’t played around enough with the speeds yet. I set it to what I thought was a decent speed and loaded about 200 rounds with it. I was getting more overages than I’d like so I need to slow it down a little I think.

I like the auto setting. Not having to hit buttons for every dump makes it nice and speeds things up too.

[charlie b]

Beeping is annoying. After the warranty was up I opened up my Lyman and cut out the 'beeper'.

[pdog06]

Lol that’s one way to get rid of it… it may come to that when I start loading for next years Wyoming trip. Got 900pcs of 6br brass and 250pcs of 22-250 brass prepped, primed and ready. That’s a lot of beeps!