Electronic Auto Drop Scales

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PepNYC

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Looking at a few electronic auto drop scales. At the moment I only reload 9mm and 223. Usually do 100 rounds or so at a time. Not looking to win any marathons, but it would be nice to speed things up a bit, and don't shoot precision. Just getting really sick of keep having to fiddle with my manual powder dropper. I know these things are good for rifle rounds but are they good for pistol? I know they fair well with larger drops Just wondering if the accuracy is there for the smaller drops.
 
I've got a FA Intellidropper that's good to go for both pistol and precision rifle.
 
Timfoilhat said:
I've got a FA Intellidropper that's good to go for both pistol and precision rifle.
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I've been eyeing 3 of them. RCBS Chargemaster lite, Hornady LNL Auto Drop and the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper. The Frankford is the one I'm leaning towards. For the price and features I don't see how you can beat it. Looking around it seems very accurate as well. That powder calibration feature looks really useful. How's it been working for you?
 
My Brother and I have been enjoying the RCBS Charge master Lite.

Its made working with 800x a pleasure.
 
I have the Chargemaster (not the lite) and my only regret is that I did not buy it sooner. Works for pistol and rifle. I use it all the time when working up loads, and also for production work of precision rifle loads.
 
I have been running RCBS ChargeMasters for many years now, and they are fantastic, never ever an issue or problem, and pretty fast. Very accurate as well. I bought mine when they were still low $300s and change, maybe the older one was around $250. Those things are well into $450 or so now, expensive. A couple of years ago I wanted one for the Range Loading Room, but decided to get the cheaper Hornady version. BIG MISTAKE. Slower than Christmas coming every leap year! You can turn it up faster, then it looses Accuracy. The Hornady is a POS, and is of zero use at all stay away from it. I also have a older PACT measure and it worked ok, but has been retired since I have the ChargeMasters. If anyone has any experience with the Frankford please share, I like their other equipment, so I think it would be worth a hard look..............

DSCN1707-X3.jpg
 
Michael458 said:
I have been running RCBS ChargeMasters for many years now, and they are fantastic, never ever an issue or problem, and pretty fast. Very accurate as well. I bought mine when they were still low $300s and change, maybe the older one was around $250. Those things are well into $450 or so now, expensive. A couple of years ago I wanted one for the Range Loading Room, but decided to get the cheaper Hornady version. BIG MISTAKE. Slower than Christmas coming every leap year! You can turn it up faster, then it looses Accuracy. The Hornady is a POS, and is of zero use at all stay away from it. I also have a older PACT measure and it worked ok, but has been retired since I have the ChargeMasters. If anyone has any experience with the Frankford please share, I like their other equipment, so I think it would be worth a hard look..............

DSCN1707-X3.jpg
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I think I'm going to give the FA a try. I'll probably order it tomorrow. Hopefully get it by next week and I'll give ya my opinion. For what it's worth anyway.
 
PepNYC said:
I've been eyeing 3 of them. RCBS Chargemaster lite, Hornady LNL Auto Drop and the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper. The Frankford is the one I'm leaning towards. For the price and features I don't see how you can beat it. Looking around it seems very accurate as well. That powder calibration feature looks really useful. How's it been working for you?
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Perfect.
 
TSConver said:
Do the programming mid and straw mod on an chargemaster and never look back.
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I love RCBS but right off the bat two things are pushing me away from them. I know it's a kick a$$ scale but firstly it's expensive. Secondly, if I pay $300-$400 for a scale and I have to modify it to get it to work properly that's a no go for me. I know the staws are free and it's not a big deal to do and I also know every scale will most likely have little quirks here and there but RCBS is fully aware of the over throwing issue. You'd think they'd redesign that nozzle by now. I could understand if it was a new model and they were working out some kinks but it's been a persistant problem since the inception of those scales and nothing has been done to rectify it. I'll pass on it for now. I know most don't mind but that's just my feeling towards the whole straw thing.
 
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PepNYC said:
I love RCBS but right off the bat two things are pushing me away from them. I know it's a kick a$$ scale but firstly it's expensive. Secondly, if I pay $300-$400 for a scale and I have to modify it to get it to work properly that's a no go for me. I know the staws are free and it's not a big deal to do and I also know every scale will most likely have little quirks here and there but RCBS is fully aware of the over throwing issue. You'd think they'd redesign that nozzle by now. I could understand if it was a new model and they were working out some kinks but it's been a persistant problem since the inception of those scales and nothing has been done to rectify it. I'll pass on it for now. I know most don't mind but that's just my feeling towards the whole straw thing.
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I never did any "mods" to mine and it works just fine. Consistent drops, no overthrows.
 
I'llBeYourHuckleberry said:
I never did any "mods" to mine and it works just fine. Consistent drops, no overthrows.
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Yeah, me too, never done anything to either of mine. And they have had 1000s of rounds run through them.........I have one that is slightly faster than the other, and sometimes it gets carried away with stick powder and drops a 1/10 or 2/10 too much, but I can live with that. Just stay away from that Hornady POS...........
 
PepNYC said:
I love RCBS but right off the bat two things are pushing me away from them. I know it's a kick a$$ scale but firstly it's expensive. Secondly, if I pay $300-$400 for a scale and I have to modify it to get it to work properly that's a no go for me. I know the staws are free and it's not a big deal to do and I also know every scale will most likely have little quirks here and there but RCBS is fully aware of the over throwing issue. You'd think they'd redesign that nozzle by now. I could understand if it was a new model and they were working out some kinks but it's been a persistant problem since the inception of those scales and nothing has been done to rectify it. I'll pass on it for now. I know most don't mind but that's just my feeling towards the whole straw thing.
Click to expand...
Really depends on the powder. I used mine for years without the mod and had maybe 1% over throw. With the straw it is virtually zero over throw.
 
Michael458 said:
Yeah, me too, never done anything to either of mine. And they have had 1000s of rounds run through them.........I have one that is slightly faster than the other, and sometimes it gets carried away with stick powder and drops a 1/10 or 2/10 too much, but I can live with that. Just stay away from that Hornady POS...........
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A tenth is no big deal for 556 bit for precision rounds it can be that is why I did the straw. Also can speed it up to get it to run faster during the initial drop with the programming.
 
Michael458 said:
I have been running RCBS ChargeMasters for many years now, and they are fantastic, never ever an issue or problem, and pretty fast. Very accurate as well. I bought mine when they were still low $300s and change, maybe the older one was around $250. Those things are well into $450 or so now, expensive. A couple of years ago I wanted one for the Range Loading Room, but decided to get the cheaper Hornady version. BIG MISTAKE. Slower than Christmas coming every leap year! You can turn it up faster, then it looses Accuracy. The Hornady is a POS, and is of zero use at all stay away from it. I also have a older PACT measure and it worked ok, but has been retired since I have the ChargeMasters. If anyone has any experience with the Frankford please share, I like their other equipment, so I think it would be worth a hard look..............

DSCN1707-X3.jpg
Click to expand...


Just curious, where does the Pact scale fit into your loading process?

.
 
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TSConver said:
A tenth is no big deal for 556 bit for precision rounds it can be that is why I did the straw. Also can speed it up to get it to run faster during the initial drop with the programming.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of the time I run the ChargeMasters with the big bores. The 223s in the photo are being loaded with RL 10X and 50 Raptors, and RL 10X does not run so good through the powder measures, hence running the ChargeMasters. If I get any charge that is .2 over, it gets dipped out. With the big bores and 90 gr powder, .2 does not matter. However, most of the time both are dead spot on.
Gator said:
Just curious, where does the Pact scale fit into your loading process?
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Check and balance..... Making sure its been calibrated as well. In addition I run a lot of test rounds, where you sometimes do only 2-5 rounds and change powders. For this I use the scales on all three, as long as all three are calibrated the same. Using only the dippers. Loading test loads its too time consuming to pour powder in the ChargeMasters.....Just dip a few and move to the next test. Example currently working with two Super Shorts, sighted in with Solids I am now moving to what other bullets have the same POI at 50 yards. Loading two rounds each of those to check POI. With different powders just Dip/weigh and load......With 3 scales I can get three at a time that way. I also have another PACT scale in the Range Load room.

I went over to Midway to look at these things, the Hornady I have is not even on Midway any longer? Thats a good thing I suppose. I always try to look at the reviews on things, and right now if I were thinking about the Frankford, I might hesitate on it because of the reviews. Out of 51 reviews it has 31 that are 4-5 stars. 10 that are 1 star.

ChargeMaster Lite has good reviews and very few negatives....... Looking at these, and @PepNYC objectives I might spend that little extra for the Lite version. Loading 9mm and 223, depending on what powder you are using, especially for the 9mm, I would also look hard at just a good simple RCBS Powder Measure. Using Ball powders they are easy to use, fast, and plenty accurate enough. When running small cartridges 300 BLK, 223, and handguns I use my Powder Measures a lot. I also see they are not so cheap anymore either.............
 
I only use my Hornady auto for Varget - everything else meters well enough.

Many of my rifle calibers only get 20-50 rds at a time, all those get hand weighed anyway.
 
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