RCBS Charge Master --- more like Charge Beginner

Dallas4rceMarine

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 5, 2011
541
2
39
Dallas, TX
Anyone else have trouble with a RCBS charge master? Instead of taking 1 round from primer-powder-seating I decided to take all to powder and then visually inspect before seating. (Trying to see why I had some hot and slow rounds yesterday). What I saw was shocking. When looking in I saw most were at the same level but some obviously high and some low. I took those out and re measured them getting ranges from 31gr-48gr, all said 43gr on the initial pour or I would not have loaded it. Quite disturbing if you ask me.

I am now in the market for a more accurate scale, any suggestions??
 
Why is there a CTD add in my OP? Or is that just how user it in my phone?

Talking to a few guys here at the SFTG match they said it needs to warm ups and some of them never turn it off.. Others check it on another scale and just use the rcbs to throw it faster. Hmmm..
 
This time of year static is a big factor as well. It's a good idea to wipe your scale down inside and out, bottom and top, including the power supply cord with Windex and a paper towel. Get it good and wet. Let it air dry before use. It really helps my Lyman dps2.
 
Anyone else have trouble with a RCBS charge master? Instead of taking 1 round from primer-powder-seating I decided to take all to powder and then visually inspect before seating. (Trying to see why I had some hot and slow rounds yesterday). What I saw was shocking. When looking in I saw most were at the same level but some obviously high and some low. I took those out and re measured them getting ranges from 31gr-48gr, all said 43gr on the initial pour or I would not have loaded it. Quite disturbing if you ask me.

I am now in the market for a more accurate scale, any suggestions??

I'll give you $100 for your chargemaster! I'll gladly run 3 of them!
 
Had a chargemaster for about 5 yrs, it was decent, but quirky . I let it warm up for 8-12 hrs, no flourescent lighting, straw trick, closed down powder window by 1/3, and use dryer sheets yr round. Mine would throw a charge and say it was dead on, then when the powder and scale pan were removed it would show -99.4. If it said anyother number it just threw light or heavy. I switched to a Harrel and use a lyman digital scale with a built in hand trickler. With h4350, varget, h4895,& similar extruded powders it will throw dead on 50% and just need .2-.3 gr trickled the other50%. I average about about 5 secs per case, less when it throws dead on or a little longer when i trickle. Either way it is faster then the 15-20 secs of a chargemaster without the over or under throws.
 
I never turn mine off.

A fluorescent light above it on the ceiling hasn't seemed to affect it much - never more than a tenth off, though I always zero before use.

Straw mod was a BIG help with extruded powders.
 
Sounds like there is definitely something wrong with yours. I run two of them and they are well within the .1 plus or minus accuracy. Keep away from fluorescent lights, keep in a temp controlled room or at least a warm one, turn it on and let it set for about 45 min before checking the calibration or re calibrating, make sure there is no breeze hitting the scale, make sure it's level or close to level and make sure there are no vibrations or bumps of the surface it sits on. If none of that helps along with what others have mentioned then its simply defective. Just send it back and get another one.
 
I have the dispenser/scale combo and it's great, never had any real problems with it. If it over or under charges a throw, it says so. I always zero it out each time I turn it on, check it against the beams, and I also do random checks with a beam scale as I load. Always dead on. My loading process using this thing has reduced my velocity spread to a consistent average, and I haven't had a squib, over or under charged load since I've started using it. Well, not one that's made it past me. Some powders just throw poorly, nothing you can do about it (except maybe the straw mod). But you should be catching these poor throws, not loading 'em.

I'm assuming you zero that scale each time you turn it on? And check it to the beams now and again? And when your charge is ready, do you wait until it beeps and the screen displays the final number? Is there an up or down indicator? That indicates your charge is over or under. When it dumps the charge, the weight will look fine WHEN IT HITS THAT WEIGHT and it'll stop dispensing --and you can be tempted to just pull the pan as soon as it hits that weight. But if you wait a bit, you may find that charge is over or under when the final number is displayed. It weighs the charge as it goes in, stops, then weighs the final charge, beeps and flashes the final number. THAT is when you are supposed to take it.

If you're doing everything by the book and waiting on the final weight and that looks good, you've got only one way of finding out if the scale is faulty: check each load against a beam scale until you hit a large discrepancy like you mention. Then I'd be calling RCBS and asking about changing that scale or unit out.

The straw mod is something I plan on doing soon, it'll reduce the amount of over and under charges you get with certain powders that measure difficult. But you still have to wait for that final number.

I think there's an environmental issue to take into account, but I could be wrong and I can't remember what it is: no magnets or metals very close by, no crossing the power cable perpendicular with another, something. I know it has to be setup right on a flat and stable table top in order to be consistent.

As for other brands, I looked around a few years ago when I got this thing. It seemed like there's not much difference between the three or four major makers, and it comes down basically to the features you get, want. All the scales are the same type and the same tolerance, 1/10gr. I think I went with this one because I have RCBS stuff already and it had some of the features I wanted that the others didn't.

FWIW, US Marine marksmanship unit or team or whatever, their shop that handloads all the ammo, they use RCBS gear and this is the exact same scale/dispenser they use.

Good luck, I hope you get to the bottom of it. Sorry to hear it's giving you grief.
 
Turn on scale about 20min before you plan on loading, an hour is even better
Zero and Calibrate everytime
First couple dispenses weight, remove, weight again, dispense, restart.
 
I have two here and they work wonderfully. I've won or placed in top of many matches using loads from my chargemaster. I use the straw mod and that's it. Have compared them many times to various scales and they are always on. I never retrieve the pan on the first beep. I wait until the number sequence goes away and shows final weight. If it's ever off you will see it then.
 
I throw on a Chargemaster and check with a Sartorius but in order to get the best out of both I bought one of these power conditioners. It improved/tightened the Chargemaster throws and stopped all drift on the Sartorius. Best $70 I've spent to solve those problems.

L

edt: although my Chargemaster throws almost dead on most of the time it will throw high/low .5g every 10 or so. That +/-.5g is too much for my liking when you start talking longer ranges.
 
Last edited:
I never turn mine off.

A fluorescent light above it on the ceiling hasn't seemed to affect it much - never more than a tenth off, though I always zero before use.

Straw mod was a BIG help with extruded powders.

All of the above. Plus I did the reprogram thing as seen on You Tube. It really is a lot faster and no loss of accuracy. Well, except for AA2520. One of the CMs runs so fast it throws that stuff like corn from a feeder.
 
I've done the straw mod and I reload for about 5 calibers with it. It gets me single digit SD's on loads for 223 to 338.

As said above, if you want to get rid of it I could gladly add another to speed me up.
 
BTW, when i say it throws high or low you won't know that unless you check it on another scale as it reads correct even though it's wrong. You may think it's showing the correct weight but it's not. We've seen this on every chargemaster we checked by double weighing.

L
 
The problem i have is when I zero it the pan will weigh 156.0 then I zero it. As im loading I will notice it will sometimes say -156.1 and 156.2 when I remove the pan. It makes me wonder what my charge of 39.5 grains actually weighs if the zero is wondering (when I put the pan back on it still says zero and starts to run)
 
The problem i have is when I zero it the pan will weigh 156.0 then I zero it. As im loading I will notice it will sometimes say -156.1 and 156.2 when I remove the pan. It makes me wonder what my charge of 39.5 grains actually weighs if the zero is wondering (when I put the pan back on it still says zero and starts to run)

THIS is what I've been trying to get across. You need a power conditioner in front of it. "these power conditioners" are what I use. It will stop that wandering you are seeing for the most part. It still will over time but not to the extent it is now.

L
 
Last edited:
Exact same set up as mine, I have a 5 bulb bigassed fluoro light right above the machine with two 4 bulb lights off to the left and right, never off by more than 0.1, I check about every 50 throws on a separate scale to confirm, never an issue. I do run through the calibration when I start a batch, my batches are usually 500 rounds.

I never turn mine off.

A fluorescent light above it on the ceiling hasn't seemed to affect it much - never more than a tenth off, though I always zero before use.

Straw mod was a BIG help with extruded powders.
 
If you wait til the charge number clears then it will actually show the weight thrown. If you do that you will find it is much more accurate. I never go off of the first charge weight that pops up on the screen.
 
When looking in I saw most were at the same level but some obviously high and some low. I took those out and re measured them getting ranges from 31gr-48gr, all said 43gr on the initial pour or I would not have loaded it.

31gr to 48gr is a significant difference.

Be sure that the powder isn't getting clogged in the case funnel when dumping the charges. If you dump all at once, some kernels can get caught up in the funnel, then are inadvertently transferred to the next case. This could explain your obviously high and low charges when checked visually (especially if the highs are always the next case after the lows), despite the ChargeMaster's indication of correct weights. If this is what's happening, a new scale will not fix the problem. You might need to simply change the way you dump the charges into the cases.
 
well I usually do have a magnet for shit that sneaks by the QC checks. I keep this on a level table in a temperature and humidity stable room. I have now been letting it run constantly for a few days. I added the straw trick and that definitely does help. I cleaned it with windex like stated above, I do zero it (sometimes avery 10 rnds just to be sure), I do use the window cover to block any air flow. For the most part it is doing a lot better now that I have added all of that but now and then I shoot a round that is way off. The scale only shows .1 or .2 over occasionally now which is a big improvement but when you take a shot and it drops that low (far beyond human error) only thing I can think of is that the powder was off and it lied to me.

I guess Ill just keep using it and load a bunch at a time and check with a light before seating them to see if any are obviously high or low.
 
when you take a shot and it drops that low (far beyond human error) only thing I can think of is that the powder was off and it lied to me.

Tourettes? ;)

I visually check every load when loading for precision rifle - I throw them all, set charged brass in a reloading block and make a comparison before seating. I view it as a must, so I would encourage the last part of your post.
 
Been using one for years. Had great luck with it. Was replaced about a month ago by RCBS, the trickle side quit. I quit double weighing on the old unit along time ago. My last Chrono session with a 300wm, indicated to me things were alright. A string of five shots over the Chrono gave me a cold bore of 2936, second 2936, third 2982, fourth 2982, and the fifth was 2982. I was pretty impressed with the consistency.

After re weighing on a beam, I felt pretty confident that the Chrono was perhaps the best indicator of powder dispersing uniformity.

Or am I wrong.

2834
 
My experience is opposite. I double weigh with a Sartorius and find the CM is often off by as much as .5g's more than 1 outta 10 throws. I'll start counting to get an average but it's enough that I won't trust it for any loads that I'm going to shoot at 600y or beyond.

L

.
 
Last edited:
My experience is opposite. I double weigh with a Sartorius and find the CM is often off by as much as .5g's more than 1 outta 10 throws. I'll start counting to get an average but it's enough that I won't trust it for any loads that I'm going to shoot at 600y or beyond.

L

.

Are you running the straw or pen mod?
 
Are you running the straw or pen mod?

Yep, I have all the mods and one of the better power conditioners. It reads as if it's thrown the correct charge but when I weigh on the Sart it's wrong. I've said this before in other threads but people tend to ignore me. And we've tested on 2 other CMs and they do the same. CMs are not the end all be all when it comes to throwing the correct charge and unless you double weigh every charge, not just spot check, you won't know when you have that 1 charge that's +/- .5g or so. But most wont take heed and wonder where that high/low flier came from or that one fast/slow round during a chrono session when all else was the same. And If you are only shooting short ranges you may never see the difference. That's fine with me when it comes to comps and having to shoot 3x20 shot strings or more. :) That's one less variable I'm worrying about and I feel that's a little of an edge that gives me over those who rely on the CM solely. 1 shot has made the difference more than once between 1st and 3rd.

edt: that's +/- .5gs so by weighing on a CM exclusively you could have charges in a single sitting a whole grain apart.
 
Last edited: