Which of these are any good and would they work for me?

P

Pond James Pond

New member
Toying with the idea of an electronic powder measure/thrower. So far I have seen the Hornady LnL, and the Lyman Gen5 and Gen6 on sale on sites that I know will deliver to me.

Will these models save me significant time in reloading?
Are they accurate enough to reload charge weights that were developed to 0.1gr accuracy?
Is one model more dependable or simply better amonsgst these three?

One of the reasons I perhaps reload a little less than I might is time. I load with VihtaVuori. An excellent powder in terms of performance, but it is tricky to measure out with my existing, manual systems.

To put it in perspective, so far I have dismissed reloading .223 for my AR on the grounds that I'd never find the time to load 100+ cartridges before a range trip, at least not to the accuracy I'd like.
No point doing load work ups if you then don't try to nail every charge....

My Lee safety scale is my only existing scale. Slow but seemingly very accurate.

NB: I am not interested in the RCBS Chargemaster!! Please leave it out of the equation.
 
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You don't need exact charge weights for excellent accuracy with the .223 through 400 meters. Charges thrown from a measure with a 2/10 to 3/10 grain spread are good enough. The primers you use plus how you hold the rifle cause much more muzzle velocity spread than a 2/10 grain spread in charge weights.

If you feel better with exact charge weights to 1/20 grain spread, do it.
 
I agree with what Bart B said, but if you want an automatic dispenser, look at the RCBS Chargemaster 1500. I use one for all my rifle loading and I love it. Fast and accurate. It is programable so you can tweak the speed of the throws. Not cheap, but worth every penny in my book.
 
This would be for all my existing calibres, not just for .223.

I raised the case of .223 to merely illustrate that the time it takes to charge cases has been a reason to rein-in my reloading.

RCBS Chargemaster: not in a million years, unless one of those years I win the lottery. At £420 (€455) it is almost 70% more expensive than the LnL and Gen6 "only" 50% more than the Gen5.

I'm just not prepared to spend that much on something that is an unnecessary, albeit useful, purchase.

For that reason I really just want to focus on the relative merits of those two Lyman models and their Hornady equivalent.
(OP updated accordingly)
 
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Just my 2 cents. I have a digital scale. I guarantee you I can load as fast or faster than the mentioned scales and with more accuracy then them too. Very easy to do 3 or 4 per minute. With accuracy of 1/10 gn .

Bart
2/10 to 3/10th difference in a 223-no difference?. I grant you all the knowledge you have, but I can not swallow that one. Especially in a case with such a small powder charge in the first place. I could easily show you the difference.
I load 25.5 gn varget in my 223. If I were to drop that to 25.2 or 25.3 I would be back to doing load work up again. I did the OCW method. 25.2, 25.5, 25.8 and 26. There was a very noticeable difference in group size. I will definitely go with your primer call though. I was using Rem 7 1/2 bench primers. good groups, switched to CCI-BR4's and groups just all came together very tight. On the croney the switched came to over 60fps in MV.
 
James:

For what its worth I use a cheap Frankford scale.

What I do is use my drop charger to get close, then trickle charge to a tenth low or high however it comes out.

I can load pretty quickly with that setup.

I use stick powders so it may be a grain or two low at times though I try for about half a grain low.

I have gotten quite good with using my finger to speed run the trickle charger tube and with a bit of practice know when to stop and see where I am at.

I am not sure if I am as fast as an RCBS Chargemaster but it goes pretty quickly and I typical load 50 at a time.
 
I'm new but I really like the little Franford Arsenel scale. I usually weigh first charge with Lee balance beam scale which is really slow and check digital against it. Very close. I use the Lee ppm and adjust as close as possible and top off with little lee scoop or take some out. It's dead on the money. I had bought a Hornady digital small scale too but it shuts off too quick and jumps a lot. Good scale for $22.00.
 
What I do is use my drop charger to get close, then trickle charge to a tenth low or high however it comes out.
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I do that already with PPM and trickler. That is what I'd be moving away from. It is accurate but slow for me.

I'm not looking for a beam scale: I'm asking about electronic scales and throwers.

Can anyone give me feedback on the relative performance and worthiness of the Hornady LnL, Lyman Gen5 and Gen6?
 
watching this thread..... I was seriously considering pushing the left mouse button on a lyman touch-screen auto today, but I need to hear more reviews before dropping that kind of dough. but I really do wanna upgrade soon.

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/scales-measures/gen6scale.php

anyone own a new lyman touchscreen? I love the idea of t have a database to save hundreds of loads in, right at your fingertips

pond, the 30$ MTM scale has been 1000% accurate for me for two years now......just saying. I also only have the beam scale from lee, but they always match perfect to each other
 
You know James, I really don't know how to answer your question, because I do not own all of the units you are asking about, and I don't know anyone who does. It would be somewhat costly and time consuming to do a head to head comparison.

I can tell you this though, I did a LOT of research before I bought the unit I am using now, and the L&L was pretty much at the bottom, with the Lyman's being regarded as somewhat better, quality and reliability wise.

Which is why I bought the (not too be mentioned in this thread) machine that I am very satisfied with.

Yes, I had to save up for a while, 18 mo. But I found it on sale for what the Gen 6 is going for right now.

There are some folks out there that spend an ungodly amount of money on their powder management setups, as in the thousands, ain't gonna be me.

Whatever you decide, I highly recommend a set of check weights and a good beam scale for backup, and checkup.

Other than that, it's drop, trickle, drop, trickle, and I still recommend a set of check weights.

I did the drop trickle thing for nearly 40 years for rifle loads before I upgraded.

Accuracy and precision combined with speed and reliability, costs money.
 
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RCBS Chargemaster: not in a million years, unless one of those years I win the lottery. At £420 (€455) it is almost 70% more expensive than the LnL and Gen6 "only" 50% more than the Gen5.
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That's quite a mark-up to cross the pond and the currency exchange is a killer. It can be had here in the states for as low as $280 US after rebate. Good luck on your search, sorry I couldn't help.
 
I do that already with PPM and trickler. That is what I'd be moving away from. It is accurate but slow for me.

I'm not looking for a beam scale: I'm asking about electronic scales and throwers.
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I am sorry I can't help James. Its a very low cost solution to the much more expensive combo units.

My brother has the RCBS and things it is great but that has been ruled out and the others are unknown to me other than by reports which seem to be some and some.
 
4Runner, I'm talking about a spread about an average charge weight. Not a difference between two average weights.

Maybe I'm loosing my written communication skills.
 
Measures

I have the new lyman gen6 and the hornday lock n load

The lyman is the best option. Only takes 3 mins to warm up and I use it for all my precision rifle relaoding. It is accurate to .1 and doesn't over charge like the hornday does. As for speed it is perfect. I load a case and while seatingbullet the pan is being charged again. I cannot put run the machine.
 
I own the Lyman Gen6 and have loved it. It has been over a year and I have had no issues with it. I recently bought the RCBS deluxe weight check kit and checked the accuracy of the Gen6.....It was spot on for all weights.
I load 90% 9mm and 10% .40SW so I'm using fairly small amounts. I have a nice setup where I can put the trickler next to Gen6 and if it is 1/10th under I tap the trickler a few times and I have it exact.
As is the case with any electronic device you have to be careful with it, but other than that it has been a great investment.
Smaller size takes up minimal room on my 54" bench and I certainly don't need memory of loads since I select that from my computerized log sheet.
It is easy to clean and works best if allowed to warm up for 20 minutes or so. I don't always do this so the first part of my loads can be 1/10th light (typically).

It has dropped slightly in price since I purchased it and mine had a 2 year warranty, which is icing on the cake.
 
I have the Lyman Gen 6 and like it very much. It has definitely speeded up my reloading as my hand powder dispenser was continually off and required constant recalibrating. I am not the fastest reloader by any means, but having the correct amount dispensed each time saves me time, frustration, and worry.
Just my $.02
 
You know James, I really don't know how to answer your question, because I do not own all of the units you are asking about, and I don't know anyone who does. It would be somewhat costly and time consuming to do a head to head comparison.

I can tell you this though, I did a LOT of research before I bought the unit I am using now, and the L&L was pretty much at the bottom, with the Lyman's being regarded as somewhat better, quality and reliability wise.
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As it happens, your second paragraph does go toward answering the question!! You may not own them all, but research is also useful.

That's quite a mark-up to cross the pond and the currency exchange is a killer.
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Tell me about it!! I thought I had become accustomed to the cost of certain items in the shooting realm, alas not. And my sources are all over Europe!!

I am sorry I can't help James. Its a very low cost solution to the much more expensive combo units.
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I can't complain about the performance of my PPM/trickler/Lee Safety set-up. Accuracy wise I doubt I could do any better with another combination. It is just the time. As I stated earlier, I'm not even bothering to loading for .223 because I just know the time it would take so long to load the 100 odd rounds I'd shooting at the range that I'd end up never shooting that calibre!!
Sad but true. Money is in short supply, but time seems even more so!

The lyman is the best option. Only takes 3 mins to warm up and I use it for all my precision rifle relaoding. It is accurate to .1 and doesn't over charge like the hornday does. As for speed it is perfect. I load a case and while seatingbullet the pan is being charged again.
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This is valuable input as you've owned two of the 3: great!!

I have a nice setup where I can put the trickler next to Gen6 and if it is 1/10th under I tap the trickler a few times and I have it exact.
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How do you know that it has thrown under? Presumably, the device throws what it believes to be the exact amount in which case to know you've under-thrown you'd have to weigh independently, no?
 
How do you know that it has thrown under? Presumably, the device throws what it believes to be the exact amount in which case to know you've under-thrown you'd have to weigh independently, no?
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After the Gen6 dispenses the correct amount (so it thinks), it beeps, and in a second or two the scale shows exactly what weight is sitting on it. You can then trickle more powder if necessary. You can also remove the tray and remove powder or whatever, then place it back on scale and it will weigh it precisely. Its not until you replace the tray and it returns to zero that it will dispense the next load (if in automatic mode).
 
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