what scale should I buy?

[Tripplebeards]

My 18 year old RCBS charge master scale finally bit the dust this morning. Its jumping from 12-44gr with a 21gr load on the pan. I noticed its been jumping around pretty bad the last couple of years. I called RCBS the other day because it got stuck on hold and would calibrate. I unplugged it four times and wiped it down with a downy cloth. The rcbs tech helped me calibrate the factory way and it was rock solid for a 50 round load session. I took those rounds to the range and my normal 1.24" groups opened up to 1.8" to 2" plus. I knew something wasnt right.

RCBS said i did good for 18 years with. They said it was just getting old and sounds like mine lasted longer than most. They recommended their combo scales or the chargemaster 2000 if I didnt want a trickler scale.

I can tell you i sure likes the looks of the Hornady scales and they are more economically priced. Their combo version is only $169 and their plain scale is around $89

Any other scales out there that do a better job and are more accurte? RCBS has taken care of me so well Id like to stick with them. To Bad their scales dont have a lifetime warranty.

I have a $130 in points I can use at cabelas so it will be less painful.

[Livin_cincy]

There are (2) leaders it seems in the electronic trickle scales at this time.
Lyman & RCBS both make similar sized versions that do not store a recipe for future use.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing the differences between the two of them.
They both have advantages over the other.

The warm up time seems to be in favor of the Lyman.

The RCBS unit has less to remove and clean when you change powder.

It seems like price is pretty similar as both units have about the same price when they are on sale.

Hornady makes their old unit and it goes on sale for much less than anything from Lyman or RCBS.
There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to get it to work better.

Your 17-18 years is an exception to the rule with most not lasting half that long.
I would say anything new will rarely last past 5 years if you use it on a regular basis.
It just seems we engineer things to be a subscription not a purchase...

[Tripplebeards]

Ive been watching videos of the hornady lock n load since its on sale for $169. I think its going to be either this one or the rcbs 2000 model with out the trickler.

[Tripplebeards]

i ordered a charge master lite.Had to stay faithful to RCBS. Bass Pro matched midway usa price of $206 and I used my $127 in cabelas points towards it.

[Grmps]

I like my charge master lite.

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[greenjoytj]

My 18 year old RCBS charge master scale finally bit the dust this morning. Its jumping from 12-44gr with a 21gr load on the pan. I noticed its been jumping around pretty bad the last couple of years.

Did you try vacuuming out that area where the tail of the pan holder sit down into a hole? I spotted granuals of powder down at the bottom of that hole on my units.
Powder gets into every nook and cranny eventually.

I have two RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 scales. One is on the dispenser the other stands alone beside the dispenser to cross check the dispensers weight. I got the extra scale as a back up, so the whole dispenser system wouldn’t become junk when a delicate scale quits.

I have noticed that during a dispensing operation the weight will not match on the other scale, it will be off by 0.1 grain. I use a bendy straw that I’ve turned into a long handle shovel to scoop up a few granuals of powder and trickle them into the light weighing scale till the weight matches the other scale. Now both scales display the same weight. It only takes 2-3 individual extra granuals to make both scales match weights.
There must be a gray zone where the scales programming makes the decision to advance to the next whole tenth weight value. With 2 scales I believe my dispensed weights are closer to the true weight. I also use a scale weight check set to confirm calibration and set weight to dispense.

[double8]

For my needs, I use the Lee Safety Powder Scale. It is always spot on. I always check every tenth thrown charge.

[Tripplebeards]

I've been manually trickle charging for years and have a RCBS powder thrower bolted to my bench and a little metal RCBS trickler that sounds like it won't be getting much use any more. It will be a little getting use to the new one does all dispenser. I almost wanted to purchase the plain old 2000 scale but doubled my money on the dispensing unit. RCBS told me the charge master 2000 scales and the charge master lite have the exact internals so one is not better than the other for precise weight accuracy. Grmps, you should have been quicker on the draw with the great discounts! It cost me $89 out of pocket after points. I'm pretty excited about it after watching the videos in it with the new improved spout. Sounds like it's the go to despensing scale right now. Man, is this going to save me a lot of time an PITA manually trickling!

[dale2242]

I have the Hornady Lock N Load scale/ dispenser.
I am happy with it.
I went to their FAQ section on line and printed the instructions for fine tuning the unit....dale

[Grmps]

I've been manually trickle charging for years and have a RCBS powder thrower bolted to my bench and a little metal RCBS trickler that sounds like it won't be getting much use any more. It will be a little getting use to the new one does all dispenser. I almost wanted to purchase the plain old 2000 scale but doubled my money on the dispensing unit. RCBS told me the charge master 2000 scales and the charge master lite have the exact internals so one is not better than the other for precise weight accuracy. Grmps, you should have been quicker on the draw with the great discounts! It cost me $89 out of pocket after points. I'm pretty excited about it after watching the videos in it with the new improved spout. Sounds like it's the go to despensing scale right now. Man, is this going to save me a lot of time an PITA manually trickling!

3 hours from the time you posted is pretty quick for someone who is not always on the computer. Maybe you should have had a little more patience before you pulled the trigger I know the feeling, you need/want something, see how well an item works on u-tube, find a way to save $ on it and get excited. $89 is a good price for that.

PS I posted about Raise gift cards many times in the past in my best deals thread.

The box the powder measure comes in is large but the powder measure hardly weighs anything. you'll find yourself just staring at it working, slowing down and dropping exactly what charge you want or changing charges by just pushing a couple of buttons.

Enjoy

[Tripplebeards]

Yep, I got too excited and wanted a new scale yesterday. Throughout the years I hated powder trickling and watching my scale fluctuate taking alot of time. If it works like ive seen on YouTube ill be pretty excited.

[robg]

Lyman 500 I've used for 30 odd years seems OK .

[Tripplebeards]

I tried my scale yesterday. It's awesome! Wish I had one years ago. I only had one overcharge in the pan with about 60 plus automatic trickles. It happened to be the first load that came out of the machine. After he first charge the trickler stopped dumping at the last 3-4 grains and slowly trickled the rest. My RCBS charge lite can spit out about 10 plus loads by the time I use to manually trickle out one on the old scale. Up until now powder measuring was the most hated task since my old charge master scale fluctuated so much. The new scale measurement is rock solid and doesn't fluctuate or move. I was a little nervous when unpacking it. The plastic over the digital display looked like there were some scratched lines on them and when I plugged it in. The lines stayed on the display after removing the stickyprotective plastic wrap and finally faded after five minutes of being plugged in. I thought the display was damaged until the lines disappeared.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I have the Hornady powder dispencer tool. It is a nice enough tool except when it is in the final trickle mode to have the final charge weight be spot on. It drops either several grain weight or more and then the ERROR message flashes on the screen. I only use it now when I am loading just several boxes of 50 rounds so I can keep resetting the error message and dump back the severally over weight charges. For other every day use it is my old RCBS 505 scale, I `trickle` using an old Tupperware spoon or an old McDonalds coffee stir spoon (remember those?).Robert

[Tripplebeards]

The charge lite is on sale for $188 at midway right now! My scale should have waited a few more weeks to buy.

[Tripplebeards]

Their back to $250 today. The 10 they had must have sold fast