Chargemaster Mod

[djskit]

Member MDM is selling these in the for sale section -

These slide into the tube of the Chargemaster and supposedly improve upon other mods, such as the McDonald's straw.

I run 2 Chargemasters and seat bullets in between throws, alternating between pans. I use the McDonald's straw trick with the jagged edge and I still get approx 20% overthrows. At $12 each ($22 for 2) I figured I'd give them a try - here is my report:

Got them last night - Pay-pay went out Monday night, shipped from Ohio Tuesday, and in Roseville, Ca. Thursday. Not bad for 1st class postage.

My plan was to install them and load up 100 rounds, but....

The first one installled in my older Chargemaster with just a bit of effort, I almost thought I ordered the wrong size, but just a little more pressure and it snapped right in.

The second needed a 90% wrap of scotch tape - a full wrap was too much.

So I dive in and start throwing a few charges of 43.3 of H4350 to see what happens.

Well....powder does dispense at a slower pace due to the narrower tube, and for some reason, the Chargemasters completly ignored it's programming and only slowed to "high" about .5 grains below target and never got to "trickle". So all charges were overthrown. I did about a dozen throws with each one, thinking maybe the scale and the dispenser needed to "talk to each other" more to sort out the new arrangement. No luck.

I went back in and re-re-programmed the timing back to factory settings and that did the trick. The next 5 throws each were dead on, one was short .1. (I don't think it really had to be re-programmed to default setting, just re-programmed in some way to re-boot the timing of the scale and dispenser.)

Dialed in, I loaded101 rounds of 6.5 Creedmore with 43.3 grains of H4350 using 2 charge masters, 50 rounds each - seating bullets in between throws (plus one mistake).

Five .1 over-thows on the left charge master, One .1 over throw on the right. Couple of those were "wobblers" dancing between 43.3 and 43.4.

Time: Just over 31 minutes including adjustments of over-throws and the extra round.

From an estimated 20% overthrow rate to 6% is a substantial improvement. Maybe some tweaking on the left on will bring that down even more.

 

[MMAJunkie]

thanks for the report. Can you tell me more about reprogramming the Timing of the charge master that you referenced

 

[SWThomas]

Cool review! I've got one on its way to me now.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Same experience here. Got my brass insert few days back. Had to use a little scotch tape--around the same as above. M

All charges were initially overthrown, but set my second adjustment back from 7.0grains to 8.6grains and third from .8 to 1.0 and all is grand. Still fast and was spot on today--loaded 100 rounds of 308 and only got 4-5 .1 over throws.

 

[djskit]

thanks for the report. Can you tell me more about reprogramming the Timing of the charge master that you referenced

Speed Up Your RCBS ChargeMaster within AccurateShooter.com

Lots of guys go into the programming and rearrange the timing of the speed intervals. Does save time.

 

[elfster1234]

I did this with my charge master with the new reprograming and i never get over throws even with varget. Its amazing. Helps if you can find the longer 1.5" rather than the shorter .75" pen inserts.

Other additional information on reloading: http://www.snipershide.com/[email protected]

I still wanted the requirement of being able to use the classic straw mod so this is what I came up with.... I took the insert out of a soft touch bic pen, wrapped enough blue painters tape around the pen insert (as in the pic) just enough so the optional insert can easily be inserted & removed as an option. I just tried it with 100 total @ 23.8grn powder drops of varget for 5.56 reloading without a single under / over throw AND THAT WAS WITH VARGET, and it usually stopped dropping powder right after 23.7 @ 23.8 on the nose. It does take about an extra 2 to 3 seconds per charge, BUT from what I've tested so far there was no need to scoop any powder out from over drops so the extra time wasted is somewhat of a wash (for lower grn powder drops like 5.56 / might not be the best for drops 40grns or more but you can test it as an option if you like)..... When you're done dropping powder, put pan in place, put finger over the plastic insert hole so powder doesn't spill, pull out the optional plastic insert as powder drops in pan, & run the chargemaster empty for storage purposes when done dropping powder. This optional insert glides in and out really easy but you need to guage the correct amount of tape that you wrap around the insert. If you like to fiddle around, give it a try and see what you think. So far, I'm really happy with it.

I took the insert out of this type of pen. The plastic pen insert is about 1-1/2" long give or take. Just an FYI, my straw mod is the same length:

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EDIT:
OK GANG!! I was able to shave off a considerable amount of time while hopefully keeping the same consistent / accurate drops by simply re-programing the unit. I have yet to do a considerable amount of drops with this new programing, but i'll let you know after I drop this next 100rounds of ammo tonight. So far, it has been looking really good! This is what I came up with for the test

Was able to get 41.5grns varget down to 25 to 26 seconds (from 33 seconds)

was able to get 24.0grns varget down to 15 to 16 seconds (from 25seconds)

1. Turn the unit on.
2. When 0.0gn is on the display, press BOTH the ENTER and the EDIT MEM keys on the dispenser at the same time. If done properly ADJUST PARAMETER should scroll across the display

To change the setting, just use the number pad and type in the new setting. If you wanted to change the first setting to 7.00, you would type in 700. When you have the variable set, simply press ENTER to move to the next setting. You'll have to press enter a number of times (20+) to get through the rest of the settings, and then the unit will reboot itself.

Here are my settings:
HSP A1 -6.95
HSP B1 - 2.30
HSP C1 - 0.85


I'll let you know how tonight's 100 drops go & if I play around with these updated re-program settings anymore.

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BTW, I'm using this MOD of the MOD with the following video chargemaster re-program:
Reloading Tips - Reprogram your RCBS Chargemaster 1500, Straw Modification - YouTube