Autotrickler alternative?

[BBob]

NOTE: The chargemaster overthrew several charges, (5+, I don’t remember), I did not keep record of these charges and tossed them back into the hopper.

Precisely why my chargemaster collects dust. A better mousetrap came along and I quit wasting a lot of time throwing charges back into the hopper and waiting on the next one.

 

[BjornF16]

It is an improvement in many ways over the previous generations.

Can you elaborate, particularly compared to V3?

 

[Lawnboi]

Chargemaster Lite works fairly well. I check my throw's every so often and its always where its supposed to be. A step up from doing everything manually. What issues are you guys running into with them?

Overthrows. I’m dumping 20% of my throws on some powders.

When I’m loading 200 rounds it’s enough to piss a guy off

 

[SDHNTR]

Overthrows are one thing, but at least you know when that happens. What pisses me off is when the damn thing says 57 gr, it’s not 57 grains! As seen in Chanimal’s post (thanks! Very informative btw!) he had one throw that was almost a full grain over 57! Hell, that’s more than enough to cause a dangerous pressure problem. I don’t trust the damn thing so in order for me to use it without worry I have to double weigh each charge to feel safe and confident. It just takes too damn much time.

This V4 thing sounds good, but I gotta admit, it still looks like an advanced jury rig with all those pulleys and belts and contraptions. I just want a Chargemaster-like, fully self contained, unit that actually works! I want to buy one thing. I don’t want to assemble stuff. I don’t want to download apps on my phone. I don’t want anything complicated. And I don’t want a multi month open ended wait time. Why is this so hard? Where’s the Forster/Wilson/Hornady/Redding version that actually works and is available? If there isn’t one, why isn’t there one? I don’t get it.

Phew, I feel better now…

 

[CaptArab]

Those companies don't want to integrate with a $500 lab balance and they lack the resources to build that part.

I had a v3 and sold it because changing powders was a pain IMO.

V4 should have been better but I decided to wait for a supertrickler instead.

They should be shipping soon.

 

[BBob]

Can you elaborate, particularly compared to V3?

• V4 one piece rather than separate V3 trickler.​
• V4 only needs the front open, the side previously where the V3 trickler went had to be left open so less potential side draft interference with V4. You could drill a hole for V3, I never did and I think I was okay.
• V3 trickler o-rings failed all the time and you need to keep spares handy or you're SOL if it breaks and no spare. V4 belts are more robust and I doubt they'll need to be changed anywhere near as often as the V3 o-rings.​
• V3 trickler angle needed altered at times with different powders to keep from too many over/under charges. Sometimes you'd move the slider on the back of scale to tune as well.​
• V4 doesn't have a chamber type powder measure, you calibrate when changing powders from the app. V3 needs powder measure adjustments with powder charge changes. That was a PITA​
• V4 so far with the simple calibrate function for each powder setup seems to keep over/under charges at a small minimum. You can tilt the unit front to back to fine tune if you like.​
• V4 bright green LED tells you at a glance it's done and the charge is ready (+/- 0.02 gn of the target weight). If it's not on when done that charge is out of range and gets dumped. Faster than reading the scale all the time.​
• There's probably more. I wouldn't go back to the V2 or V3 even though both were better units over the chargemaster.​

 

[HuntHarder]

Weird to see so many guys not like the chargemaster. I have never had an issue using short cut powders with mine. Sometimes it over or under throws, but never more than .3 grains and it is really easy to add or remove with a small plastic spoon. I check maybe every 3 rounds with a beam balance scale to verify it's accuracy and it has NEVER been off. Maybe I got lucky or maybe I just do not load as much as others.

 

[SDHNTR]

Weird to see so many guys not like the chargemaster. I have never had an issue using short cut powders with mine. Sometimes it over or under throws, but never more than .3 grains and it is really easy to add or remove with a small plastic spoon. I check maybe every 3 rounds with a beam balance scale to verify it's accuracy and it has NEVER been off. Maybe I got lucky or maybe I just do not load as much as others.

Just curious, what’s your climate? Do you have it plugged into some isolated outlet? Do you do anything special with leveling it out? What’s your warming up process? Have you modified it somehow?

I’d love your kind of accuracy.

 

[BucksNDucks]

• V4 one piece rather than separate V3 trickler.​
• V4 only needs the front open, the side previously where the V3 trickler went had to be left open so less potential side draft interference with V4. You could drill a hole for V3, I never did and I think I was okay.
• V3 trickler o-rings failed all the time and you need to keep spares handy or you're SOL if it breaks and no spare. V4 belts are more robust and I doubt they'll need to be changed anywhere near as often as the V3 o-rings.​
• V3 trickler angle needed altered at times with different powders to keep from too many over/under charges. Sometimes you'd move the slider on the back of scale to tune as well.​
• V4 doesn't have a chamber type powder measure, you calibrate when changing powders from the app. V3 needs powder measure adjustments with powder charge changes. That was a PITA​
• V4 so far with the simple calibrate function for each powder setup seems to keep over/under charges at a small minimum. You can tilt the unit front to back to fine tune if you like.​
• V4 bright green LED tells you at a glance it's done and the charge is ready (+/- 0.02 gn of the target weight). If it's not on when done that charge is out of range and gets dumped. Faster than reading the scale all the time.​
• There's probably more. I wouldn't go back to the V2 or V3 even though both were better units over the chargemaster.​

I have the V3 and do really enjoy but like all have issue with N570, Retumbo and all other powders for the most part have been spot on.
I’m upgrading to V4 but saw and heard folks mentioning tilting the V4 for adjustments.
Question I have is, won’t the tilting affect the “leveling” of the scale?

 

[N2TRKYS]

Glad I’ve never had the issues with my Chargemaster as some of y’all seem to be having.

 

[Tahoe1305]

I will take an unpopular counter opinion.

Although I have no doubt AT is great, one may ask what does it buy you (outside of piece of mind and knowing you have the best)?

I’ve watched this a few times and think this comparison is done pretty well. He doesn’t say the CM lite is better, he just says it is pretty darn good and the results “May”
Not justify the 3-4x the price AT.

I’ll have an AT some day. But happy with my 2x CM lites now.

It’s all about significant figures(from science)…..at some point overly precise doesn’t matter AS much.

 

[HuntHarder]

Just curious, what’s your climate? Do you have it plugged into some isolated outlet? Do you do anything special with leveling it out? What’s your warming up process? Have you modified it somehow?

I’d love your kind of accuracy.

I am in Az. I have it plugged into my garage outlet. Nothing special. When I reload, I usally turn it on 10 minutes before I start reloading. Lately the temps in my garage are probably in the 90's I'd suppose. Is it common for temperature change to affect these?

 

[SDHNTR]

I am in Az. I have it plugged into my garage outlet. Nothing special. When I reload, I usally turn it on 10 minutes before I start reloading. Lately the temps in my garage are probably in the 90's I'd suppose. Is it common for temperature change to affect these?

I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure out why yours is good and mine sucks.

 

[Shooter264]

I have the V3 and do really enjoy but like all have issue with N570, Retumbo and all other powders for the most part have been spot on.
I’m upgrading to V4 but saw and heard folks mentioning tilting the V4 for adjustments.
Question I have is, won’t the tilting affect the “leveling” of the scale?

No it doesn’t affect the leveling of the scale. The AT is set on 3 points on top of the lid, 2 up front and one in the rear. The rear is the one you shim if needed. Like a tripod and making one leg a little longer. Works really well.

 

[HuntHarder]

I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure out why yours is good and mine sucks.

What kind of problems do you run into? Not throwing accurate weights, or is the scale off? Majority of my reloading is either, H1k, Retumbo, H4831sc, H4350, Varget. I am kind of a Hodgdan fan boy apparently. lol

 

[BBob]

Question I have is, won’t the tilting affect the “leveling” of the scale?

No, you leave the scale leveled. The powder dispenser sits on three rubber pads, you can shim up the back or the two on the sides to get it to tilt forward or backwards. I haven't had the need to mess with mine with the powders I've thrown so far.

It’s all about significant figures(from science)…..at some point overly precise doesn’t matter AS much.

From Adam MacDonald (I don't recall but Adam is some sort of scientist, mathematician, statistician or something along those professional lines) :

"Once you have +/- 0.02 grains, any increase in precision will not make a difference to the practical performance of your hand-loads. Why? The short answer is that the effect is negligible, and you may be surprised how much so. For the long answer, read on."

 

[SDHNTR]

What kind of problems do you run into? Not throwing accurate weights, or is the scale off? Majority of my reloading is either, H1k, Retumbo, H4831sc, H4350, Varget. I am kind of a Hodgdan fan boy apparently. lol

The scale is slightly off and inconsistent. It sometimes overthrows but not terrible. My biggest beef is the inaccuracy of the scale. I don’t trust it and have to manually weigh each charge.

 

[Podigga]

I run a V3 & a V4. V3 is much faster. Around 9 seconds on avg. v4 is inconsistent depending on the powder. I’d say avg 15 seconds. Having two kids limits my time so I run both. Hope this helps.

 

[mfllood3800]

None. Use a chargemaster lite currently that is everything from tolerable with xbr to a swear fest with h4350.

I’m going to deal with it till my auto trickler ships.

There’s a whole in the market for this.

You could go real nuts and get a Prometheus.

I have the Match master and will say it is every bit as accurate as the V4 I have. It can be complicated to program if you choose to go down that route. I just use the standard settings. It is slower than the V4, but a great scale. I have mine for sale I have another V4 on the way and don't need 3 high end scales.

 

[Lawnboi]

I have the Match master and will say it is every bit as accurate as the V4 I have. It can be complicated to program if you choose to go down that route. I just use the standard settings. It is slower than the V4, but a great scale. I have mine for sale I have another V4 on the way and don't need 3 high end scales.

I’m going to wait. I need speed as much as accuracy.

You ever need to re home a trickler I promise to feed it regularly