powder tricklers

Muleskinner · May 1, 2018

Up until now I have reloaded small batches of ammo measuring each charge with a small electronic scale or large amounts using a Lee autodisk. The autodisk works ok but when the difference between min and max is less than a couple grains I have found a lot of inconsistencies in speed and accuracy, primarily in hand gun loads SOOOO I want to buy an electric trickler but I don't know much about them...

I would like to get some input from those that use them:

how accurate is the measured charge?
do they do well with ball, flake and stick type powders?
how long to dispense a charge?
thanks in advance

Speed3 · May 1, 2018

RCBS 1500 chargmaster is the best bet. Its easy to clean up for sure!

I've tried to answer your questions the best I can.

how accurate is the measured charge? .1 gr but seems more consistent after it heats up.
do they do well with ball, flake and stick type powders? des better with ball powder, extruded/stick powder you will get some over throws and there is a straw fix to it, although I haven't done it yet.
how long to dispense a charge? depends on the charge wait, less than 60 seconds for each for sure.

If your wondering how accurate they are.... the WV mid range state fclass championship was one with a guy who used one.

CombatAK · May 1, 2018

Speed3 said:
RCBS 1500 chargmaster is the best bet. Its easy to clean up for sure!

.

This! I have the Chargemaster Lite and it works for everything that I want to use it for.

DaemonAssassin · May 1, 2018

Chargemaster 1500 is the way to go. It will take about 30 seconds to drop a 60gr charge. The Chargemaster 1500 will also have a visual alert, should it throw heavy. I have never seen is throw more than .1gr over what you want it to be. It will accurately dispense ball and extruded powders, I have no experience with flake powders in it.

erwos · May 1, 2018

Muleskinner said:
Up until now I have reloaded small batches of ammo measuring each charge with a small electronic scale or large amounts using a Lee autodisk. The autodisk works ok

The Auto-Disk, in my experience, is not all that great. The Lee Auto-Drum, on the other hand, is MAGNIFICENT and gives me within +-.1 of what I'm asking for even on tiny charges of TG. So, just an idea on that.

However, I should really point out that testing has shown that small variances in charges don't really have much measurable impact. Primer efficiency, on the other hand, is surprisingly important but is basically impossible to control except by doing lot by lot testing. I suspect people get caught up on charge weight because it's one of the variables they can control.

atblis · May 1, 2018

Pick a powder that is less finicky or meters better. Too many options to mess with trickling.

Muleskinner · May 1, 2018

OK then, RCBS 1500 chargemaster it is...Just bought one from Larry Potterfield. Amazon was more expensive since they charge tax...Besides, I like Larry...he knows his guns!

Muleskinner · May 1, 2018

atblis said:
Pick a powder that is less finicky or meters better. Too many options to mess with trickling.

It's not about finicky...I will probably still hand measure charges for my hunting rounds...But I am now frequently loading 5000-7000 rounds for the range and it would take forever to manually weigh a charge for each round. With the trickler I can fill several hundred cases in an evening and go back and seat the bullets the next day. I like my autodisk, but like I posted, on calibers like 9X19 where the difference between min and max can be 2-3 grn the charges thrown can be off by .2-.3 grn..doesn't sound like a lot but it is. My load data is good and I have used the same load for my 9mm handguns for 25 years...I'm not going to change it now. It functions very well in my S&W, Barettas and Glocks...I'm now working up a good load for my AR9...

Major03 · May 1, 2018

You’ll like it! I liked it so much I picked up two lol.

I’m impatient

Muleskinner · May 1, 2018

Major03 said:
You’ll like it! I liked it so much I picked up two lol.

I’m impatient

If I ordered it through Amazon I could have had it tomorrow but right now I am deep into a honey do list so reloading has to take a back seat to tearing out my kitchen and putting it back together. I've been prepping about a hundred cases a night just before bed just so I can say I did something at my bench but at a hundred rounds of night 7000 rounds takes an awful long time. Once the kitchen is back together I can concentrate on reloading except on weekends. She-who-must-be-obeyed must have her boat rides on the weekend now that the weather has gotten warm again

CombatAK · May 1, 2018

Muleskinner said:
Besides, I like Larry...he knows his guns!

It must be the nearly perfect powder measure!!!

DaemonAssassin · May 1, 2018

Muleskinner said:
OK then, RCBS 1500 chargemaster it is...Just bought one from Larry Potterfield. Amazon was more expensive since they charge tax...Besides, I like Larry...he knows his guns!

Should have picked it up from Midway, back in April. They had a $100 rebate, if you spent 300+ on qualifying RCBS products. Total cost for mine was 220 with the rebate.

deerassassin22 · May 1, 2018

The snipers hide forum you can get them around 200.00 to 250 shipped form other members.

Muleskinner · May 1, 2018

DaemonAssassin said:
Should have picked it up from Midway, back in April. They had a $100 rebate, if you spent 300+ on qualifying RCBS products. Total cost for mine was 220 with the rebate.

Larry Potterfield owns MidwayUSA. I bought a priming tool, a set of 243 dies and extra tubes for the priming tool..All RCBS and I got my rebate...

DaemonAssassin · May 1, 2018

Muleskinner said:
Larry Potterfield owns MidwayUSA. I bought a priming tool, a set of 243 dies and extra tubes for the priming tool..All RCBS and I got my rebate...

Excellent. Glad I could be an enabler.

atblis · May 2, 2018

Muleskinner said:
It's not about finicky...I will probably still hand measure charges for my hunting rounds...But I am now frequently loading 5000-7000 rounds for the range and it would take forever to manually weigh a charge for each round. With the trickler I can fill several hundred cases in an evening and go back and seat the bullets the next day. I like my autodisk, but like I posted, on calibers like 9X19 where the difference between min and max can be 2-3 grn the charges thrown can be off by .2-.3 grn..doesn't sound like a lot but it is. My load data is good and I have used the same load for my 9mm handguns for 25 years...I'm not going to change it now. It functions very well in my S&W, Barettas and Glocks...I'm now working up a good load for my AR9...

Oh man. You're loading 5k+ plus rounds and not using a progressive?? Are we talking per year or do you mean that'll be all you ever load? Spend that money on an XL650 and switch to a something that meters nice out of the Dillon powder measures. Heck I shoot a ton of Unique loaded on a Dillon and I've never found the accuracy wanting nor the velocity variation all that high. Unique is not the best metering powder, but it's good enough and most definitely not finicky.

DaemonAssassin · May 3, 2018

atblis said:
Oh man. You're loading 5k+ plus rounds and not using a progressive?? Are we talking per year or do you mean that'll be all you ever load? Spend that money on an XL650 and switch to a something that meters nice out of the Dillon powder measures. Heck I shoot a ton of Unique loaded on a Dillon and I've never found the accuracy wanting nor the velocity variation all that high. Unique is not the best metering powder, but it's good enough and most definitely not finicky.

I have to agree with going to a Dillon for large scale loading.

You know I preach the blue kool aid, but I figured I would be nice to MS, just once.

Pinecone · May 4, 2018

Muleskinner said:
It's not about finicky...I will probably still hand measure charges for my hunting rounds...But I am now frequently loading 5000-7000 rounds for the range and it would take forever to manually weigh a charge for each round. With the trickler I can fill several hundred cases in an evening and go back and seat the bullets the next day. I like my autodisk, but like I posted, on calibers like 9X19 where the difference between min and max can be 2-3 grn the charges thrown can be off by .2-.3 grn..doesn't sound like a lot but it is. My load data is good and I have used the same load for my 9mm handguns for 25 years...I'm not going to change it now. It functions very well in my S&W, Barettas and Glocks...I'm now working up a good load for my AR9...

5000 rounds will take a LONG time with a 1500.

For handgun loads, get a good measure and use ball or flake powders.

I shot a lot of WW231 and it measures PERFECTLY in Lyman 55 and Dillon power measures.

Muleskinner · May 5, 2018

atblis said:
Oh man. You're loading 5k+ plus rounds and not using a progressive?? Are we talking per year or do you mean that'll be all you ever load? Spend that money on an XL650 and switch to a something that meters nice out of the Dillon powder measures. Heck I shoot a ton of Unique loaded on a Dillon and I've never found the accuracy wanting nor the velocity variation all that high. Unique is not the best metering powder, but it's good enough and most definitely not finicky.

I can't really afford to drop that kind of coin..yep it will take a lot of bench time but I already have several thousand rounds of 9mm and 5.56 in the can so I'm in no rush. If I can do a couple hundred a night it won't take that long. I will be finished by end of summer, just in time for my other hobby to play in (hunting)

Neutron · May 5, 2018

If it was just a concern about accurate powder measure why didn't you go to the Lee Auto Drum? It is capable of 1 grain accuracy.

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