Hornady auto charge review

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black_hog_down

New member
I finally got around to loading some 44 magnum this weekend with my new Hornady Auto charge dispenser.
First of all it looks nice, seems to be made well and has all the features you would expect. I got started by calibrating it and then throwing some 29 grain charges for a test. Each one I checked on my other scale came out at 29.1.
I went on to load a hundred rounds and near the end I checked a batch of those too. Each one of those was 28.9 Very consistent and I have the feeling that my other scale, which is kind of cheap, was off and not the Hornady scale. Each one was exactly the same weight when I checked it.
Overall I am very happy with it but I have very limited experience with automatic powder dispensers. I did have to turn it down to the slowest speed to keep it from overcharging but I didn't really read the manual (yet) so there's probably a way to overcome this problem.
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Make sure you let it warm up for 20min and then calibrate it and zero. You will get some variation depending on powder used, +\-.1 gr.
 
How easy it is to clean and get the leftover powder back to the container? When I clean the RCBS CM I use a routine that takes a few minutes to make sure everything is out

suggestions

- warm first up as others have mentioned, I sometimes do an hour or more on electronic scales.

- get a plastic straw from a fast food restaurant, cut a short piece off and insert in the tube where the powder exits. That will cut down on overcharges

- find a load that will tolerate + or - .1 grain because any electronic will give an error of at least that much. Load cell based scales use software to prevent scale creep so .1 is about the best anyone can hope for unless that have a $1K + scale which uses EMFR technology

I have started to do load development using a accurized beam and looking for loads that are weight tolerant to .1 on either side of target weight. Then I use the electronic for doing 50 or more at a time. I am finding I get fewer flyers.

I won't use my electronic for developing loads anymore. I have seen my CM throw loads that are up to .15 off since I started checking it closer. But for every day and even match loads it is within .1 which is fine for a good load. Just when developing I prefer a bit more consistency from load to load
 
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Black hog. Once your desired charge is inputted press and hold MODE, each time you do this you will see a flash of a number, 2, 4, 6 etc etc. This is how many grains away from the desired load it will start to slow down. Set her bacl to fast or medium, do this and you'll throwing faster. Adjust more time in with MODE as desired until over charges dont happen.
 
I will be playing with my setting more, but the one time I did change it it went from pretty good (few off and always over) to slower than dirt.

Also the speed setting can be slow medium or fast. Slow was needed for the stick powders.
 
Mine works great and when I first got it I measured everything on an Rcbs 505 and a decent digital I've got. Never off no more than plus or minus .001. Love it for loading a lot. Let it run until full and load in bullet and seat while next load is dispensing. A cell phone within a few feet will throw it off and make it act up. Figured out after going back to a you tube review. You can put a used dryer sheet in empty hopper and under it when not in use and that H110 will never stick.
 
Is it easy to change powder on automatic powder dispensers?
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Not too bad. The Hornady is not as good a setup port wise as the Lyman G6. Small tube withe a knob on the end you have to turn and hold a container under it. Powder comes out slow.

The bowl at the bottoms is good and easy to clean, they send a brush with it.

You do have to watch the dispensing tube and get the powder out of that.

I hit the trickle button to get the slot pointed down, then a brush into the tube.

They say tip back and tap but the spirals at the front hold powder.

Overall I like the Lyman G6 better but it also has openings into the machine guts, you can get grains into it and have to turn upside down.

Overall the Lyman G6 dispenses better with no change other than a thread in plastic tip that adjusts it for stick powders nicely.

To get the powder out of the tube the other thing you can do is tell it to charge when empty and a pan on it and then run a brush in and out.

Lyman G6 has a ramp that pulls down that feeds nicely into a 1 lb container.

I will probably find a larger mouth container to drain the Hornady into and then put it into the 1 lb.

I watch how much I put in the Horandy so I don't have to wait so long for the drain.
 
Interesting it overcharges with tiny powder grains as well as stick (H110 is not a ball is it?)

I think mine dislikes H4350 the worst, in that case I under charged and then pulled grains out of the tube until it was at target. So far always an over.

Lyman G6 will do both, under is easy to pull a few grains out and get on.
 
+1 what chain saw said.

I have had mine for about a year now. Tried the straw trick, didn't help much. Where I find the auto charge useful is with big granular powder that my other powder measures hate, or simply wont dispense a charge. For example when loading for my 30-378 weatherby mag I tried H50-BMG powder, it wouldn't even drop a charge, just clogged up in the drop tube. The auto charge was a way better solution than a teaspoon and a pan on the scale.

I have used it to load bulk 223/556 plinking rounds with blc2 and found some efficiency with dispensing and weighing one charge, while seating a bullet on the previous one at the same time. With this type of powder it is almost faster (or as fast) to just drop and trickle up the old way.

The scale on the auto charge is on par with 3 other digital scales that I have, so that part is good. The over trickle mixed with digital scale creep gives me too many over charges, mind you we are still talking about +/-.1 in the scales measurement.

Just my 2 cents
 
to clear the tube after the reservoir has drained you can input a charge of 100 grains or so and have it autodispense. The trickle function takes forever the but if it thinks it has 100 grains to dispense the tube will spin like mad and clear in seconds
 
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Sorry. Yes .01. Plus or minus. I've ran pistol powder of all kinds.Rifle powders Varget,4064-benchmark imr 4831 and h4831 sc. It's all been in slowing trickling down few grains before full charge. Most handgun powder I just run slow but all rifle powders at medium speed. Fast works but gets the 2 to 3 out of 10 overcharges. To clear hopper I turn sideways on table and use funnel with drop tube back into original can. Tilt and brush for last few grains. The dryer sheets helped powder sticking and I soaked the hopper in dawn rinsed and let dry. My lee dippers had to be done that way so I gave it a shot. Honestly I only pull it out if loading 50 or more. Just use powder thrower and trickler for small loads. Don't forget to close the nozzle. No need to ask how I know that.
 
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Wendy, you are the only one whos ever left the drain valve open. :p Yeah right, not only did I leave it open but I dumped h110 in when I left it open. What a mess. Couldnt have been h4350...

Good idea on the drier sheet, I try that for 4227, it likes to stick and float around on the hopper tube.
 
There are two hidden adjustments (both hold down on the buttons)

MODE: That sets how far from the set weight it starts to slow down.
It also goes away when cleared or turned off, annoying.

CAL: The allows to set the trickle speed pushing the Speed or Units buttons. It stays but not sure what happens when unit turned off

I played with it last night and got it to work, still on slow speed (rifle powders) on the visible speed setting.

I could probably set it to medium and then adjust the other two again.
 
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