Yet another Chargemaster test:

Pete Wass

Pete Wass

Well-known member
I decided to load 10 more rounds for Sunday's match this evening so thought I would take note of the actual weight of the charges my Chargemaster was throwing.

A couple of weeks ago I checked a few thrown charges and found that my Chargemaster was actually throwing an extra.1g more than the scale and mechanism stated. I weighed the charges with my Aculab scale which weighs to the .01.

For the past couple of loading sessions I have used the Chargmaster to extrude a slightly lighter charge and trickled up to the exct weight I wanted. Yes, it's slow but I'm retired, live alone most of the time and have nothing better to do than load and listen to Bluegrass on the tv (XM radio I think)

Ok, here's what I found for 10 extrusions:

Extruded weight - Autual weight

32.9 - 32.94
32.9 - 32,94
33.2 - 33.22
32.9 - 32.96
32.9 - 32,88
32.9 - 32.89
33.1 - 33.1
32.9 - 33.02
32.9 - 32.79
33.0 - 32.96
33.0 - 33.02

SOOOOO, my Chargemaster isn't as exact as I would like it to be :( BUT, it still is a lot better than I have ever been able to throw with any measure I have owned, including the Upper End measures. Obviously any charges that end up weighing more than one wants can simply be dumped back into the Hopper.
 
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...ok i guess i missed that the intended weight is not necessarily the weight in the first column......i thought you were moving the weight..but makes no sense if you were loading...my bad.....so the rest no longer applies...no not good....... a 0.3 spread is no better than a good beam scale....and is about what teh better guys with throwers do with n133..tho not all.
its nice you have the acculab....
thanks
mike in co
 
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Pete Wass said:
SOOOOO, my Chargemaster isn't as exact as I would like it to be :
Click to expand...

Really Pete?
Who cares? All that really matters is consistency. The way I see it if you have a load that shoots good in your rifle and it is say .2 gr heavier than what is indicated what does it matter as long as it is consistent and you keep using the same Chargemaster to load with?

Dick
 
Pete,
That's interesting data, but I bet it's still more accurate then a 18th century horse and buggy technology beam scale, wouldn't you think? I'm just saying....
Dave T
 
Pete Wass said:
I decided to load 10 more rounds for Sunday's match this evening so thought I would take note of the actual weight of the charges my Chargemaster was throwing.

A couple of weeks ago I checked a few thrown charges and found that my Chargemaster was actually throwing an extra.1g more than the scale and mechanism stated. I weighed the charges with my Aculab scale which weighs to the .01.

For the past couple of loading sessions I have used the Chargmaster to extrude a slightly lighter charge and trickled up to the exct weight I wanted. Yes, it's slow but I'm retired, live alone most of the time and have nothing better to do than load and listen to Bluegrass on the tv (XM radio I think)

Ok, here's what I found for 10 extrusions:

Extruded weight - Autual weight

32.9 - 32.94
32.9 - 32,94
33.2 - 33.22
32.9 - 32.96
32.9 - 32,88
32.9 - 32.89
33.1 - 33.1
32.9 - 33.02
32.9 - 32.79
33.0 - 32.96
33.0 - 33.02

SOOOOO, my Chargemaster isn't as exact as I would like it to be :( BUT, it still is a lot better than I have ever been able to throw with any measure I have owned, including the Upper End measures. Obviously any charges that end up weighing more than one wants can simply be dumped back into the Hopper.
Click to expand...



Well........ I concur.

Thanks Pete

:)


al
 
Dick Grosbier said:
Really Pete?
Who cares? All that really matters is consistency. The way I see it if you have a load that shoots good in your rifle and it is say .2 gr heavier than what is indicated what does it matter as long as it is consistent and you keep using the same Chargemaster to load with?

Dick
Click to expand...

I think .2 matters a whoe lot more than you seem to. If it didn't matter why do some folks have better results with 33.7 than, say, 33.5? It is impossible to make ammo that is too good but it is real easy to make ammo that isn't really good enough.
 
One can't get a scale that is too good but it is easy enough to get all kinds that aren't very good at all.
 
Hey Pete.... one thing the CM does do well is to throw consistently day-to-day.


I did a series of testing where for two yrs I kept track of my throws by weight. Not only do throwers vary by .XX grains on a given string............. they vary by X.XX over time.

al
 
pshaww on the straw, and on all the other "mod's" like speeding up the ticker.

Default is the best there is




IMO





:)





al
 
I think the various modifications can each work better depending on exactly what you're throwing. I found the straw to work well with ball powder but it threw horrendous overcharges with long stick.....

For long stick I ran a twisted hairpin back up into the tube.

At one time I hade 7 different attachments setting by the CM. One day they all went in the garbage. :)

Last 6mo I'm working on getting down to only 3-4 powders on the shelf instead of twenty......... K.I.S.S........It's hard to safely store 200lb of powder in various jugs.

al
 
al,

Funny, I load a fair number of rounds every year w/ the Chargemaster, and mine still wears the Mickey Dee straw and has the programming tweaked. Granted, 99% of my powder use is Varget, RE-15, N150 and H4350 - 'short cut' medium burn rate powders. Very occasionally mine will over throw by 0.1gn - but it indicates it pretty reliably.

For my LR loads things get weighed again on a lab scale accurate to +/- 0.01gn (reads to 0.005)... based on observing a *lot* of charges (couple thousand) I'd say mine dispenses +/- 0.1gn 95% of the time, and probably +/- 0.12-0.13gn the remainder of the time.

Monte
 
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Jerry makes a very good point. High end electronic laboratory scales are supposed to be "warmed up" for at least half an hour before use, and are generally left on all the time. Worked in an analytical lab many years, and accuracy was required.

Considering how much other stuff is left plugged in and on all the time the Chargemaster can't make a lot of difference in the electric bill.
 
Larry Elliott said:
Jerry makes a very good point. High end electronic laboratory scales are supposed to be "warmed up" for at least half an hour before use, and are generally left on all the time. Worked in an analytical lab many years, and accuracy was required.

Considering how much other stuff is left plugged in and on all the time the Chargemaster can't make a lot of difference in the electric bill.
Click to expand...

I generally leave the Chargemaster on all the time but lately have wondered if that is a good thing so have shut it off when not using it. I always let it warm up before I use it though. The instructions with the AcuLab say 20 minutes warmup I think I recall but it is easy to tell when it ain't warmed up properly, wanders quite a bit.
 
If you can't measure the difference on the target! You are wasting your time, or worrying over nothing.
 
B.Johnson said:
If you can't measure the difference on the target! You are wasting your time, or worrying over nothing.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know about you but I have always been able to measure the difference on the targets I have shot when testing. If one goes to a match throwing charges and loading bullets randomly out of the box they are lucky when they win.
 
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