New addition RCBS Chargemaster 1500

Road_Clam

New member
Well I've been thinking about this upgrade over the past 6 months and finally decided to pull the trigger and buy the chargemaster. After spending about a week with the new unit I am just delighted as to the speed and trouble free accuracy and consistency. I first loaded up a run of 460 S&W mag which uses 50 gr of H110 ball powder. The first aspect you realize is that the unit is speed programmed from the factory "conservative". I did a lot of research and of course like most "man things" the chargemaster can be hot rodded with just some simply reprogramming. Speeding up the parameters is especially beneficial if you load the big stuff such as 50+ gr charges. The default setting from going full speed to medium speed is 15 grains under your programmed amount. I dropped that parameter to 7 grains , and this alone was an instant substantial speed up in the process. I ended up tweaking all three available speed parameters and now the thing just flies ! I can have a fresh 50 gr charge ready in almost the same time as to seat a bullet. So safe to say my load time will be cut almost in half. I've even put the chargemaster to the ultimate test with loading the problematic 4064 matchstick powder , and the unit threw perfect 44 gr charges for my 8mm Mauser loads (I did have to do the famous "McDonalds straw mod" when metering 4064). So in closing if any of you are thinking a digital charge system, DO IT ! you have my two thumbs up !

 
I too wet back and forth on buying one and read every review I could - finally picked one up about a month ago and just love it. Every time I check it against my old balance beam it seems to be right on the money. For the price I just hope it last for a long time!!!
 
Guess it's maybe 4 or 5 years back now but I did the load work up for my ex-son in law's .300 WSM using the components he was told by a friend to be good. No problem with the brass, bullets or primer but cringed when he handed me that pound of IMR4831. I'd quit extruded power that had large granules years ago preferring to use ball powders. Now here I'm stuck with a 4831. For some reason I've always had trouble getting consistent charges with 4831. I'm pretty anal about accurately weighed powder charges so it was an 8 hour session in a hotter'n hades shed to get the first series of loads made up.
Well, the loads got shot up over the week end and it was time to work with the promising loads. I had to go to Sportsman's Warehouse for more powder and bullets. My wife went along to look at clothes and while she was waiting for me to get my stuff, I pointed out the Chargemaster 1500 and said, "One of these days I'm gonna get me one of those things." She smiled sweetly and and said, "Why not today?" Guess you know why I've kept her these last 45 years. :D I've used it for my rfle loads ever since but still use the RCBS powder measure for most handgun loads. It handles small and large charges of Bullseye, 2400 and W231 very nicely, but Unique not so well. Guess I can't have everything my way. ;) Anytime anyone asks about the Chargemaster I tell them it's a healthy two thumbs up.
Paul B.
 
Does the chargemaster do very well with small charges? Say from 3 to 6grs? I load mostly handguns and always thought I would like one but wasn't too sure if I would get enough use out of one to justify the expense.

Mac
 
I picked one up in january and love it, could not imagine being without it.

Mac Sidewinder, I use it with Bullseye for 380(3 grs) and 9mm(3.9 grs) and it works great.

ETA: I could charge cases faster with RCBS uniflow, but with the chargemaster I know it's right on every charge. And with the chargemaster I can seat bullet in charegd case while it's dispensing the charge for the next case.
 
Last edited:
I've loaded about 160 rounds thus far and only had about 2 over throws. and IMO the overthrows are no big deal as they are only +.01 gr and when your talking a 50+ gr charge .01 is nothing. It's just so convenient to NOT have to babysit my precise load by hand trickling anymore !
 
Loads of 3 grain and less are too small to ever get the dispenser out of trickle mode, so time to dispense increases. You can program it, but I'm not sure that it would help with such small charge, as the faster speeds would probably still overshoot.
The most I have ever had was a 0.1 gn overshoot and that is NOTHING. If one is obsessive, one can simply lightly wet their finger and remove a couple kernels of powder to get the "right" weight.
 
Back
Top