AusVarmint

Looking at some reloading stuff....

What do you think of this ?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RCBS-ROCKCHU ... 4ab708098d

top choice. Bought mine years ago so cant comment on the price.

You can sell the scales and thrower down the track when your ready for a chargemaster

trevort wrote:top choice. Bought mine years ago so cant comment on the price.

You can sell the scales and thrower down the track when your ready for a chargemaster

I'm going to be contrary here and ask - Why go with a Chargemaster?

A good thrower, like the RCBS unit, can throw powder within .1gn every time I use it with BM1/BM2 powders and within .2gn with AR2209 (you spot .2gn difference in 60gn of AR2209!). Dialling it in is piss easy as I record the index mark as part of my reloading documentation. Once it is 'in' I can fill 50 cases quicker than a chargemaster can do it, in fact in my observation I've got this done before the Chargemaster has completed it's warm-up cycle. The overall time spent from filling the hopper to putting bullets on cases is pretty much identical, or favours the manual system.

If I'm working up loads, throw and trickle is still very quick. The beam scales are reliable and don't need to warm up before I use them and since I put them back in the same place everytime they are always level.

In short, why spend a shitload of $$$ on an electronic toy that is slower to use, less reliable and needs yet another power socket?

I've only been reloading since I was 12, so maybe I'm just not experienced enough yet?

maybe you arent

adamj... I assume your saying 0.1/0.2 either side of the specific charge weight so total variation would be 0.4 grains between the lowest and highest?

Ackley Improved wrote:adamj... I assume your saying 0.1/0.2 either side of the specific charge weight so total variation would be 0.4 grains between the lowest and highest?

.1gn maximum with smaller powders like 2206H, 2208, etc. Usually charge weights of 35 to 45gn so this is almost imperceptible. 0.2gn is less than 0.5% of 35gn.

No noticeable variation with BM powders. Usually charge weights of 24 to 34gn.

.2gn with AR2209 or similar large grain powders. Usually charge weights of 45gn in a single throw, up to 80gn for the 375H&H. Even .5gn variation makes no difference in cartridges with charge weights of this size. 0.5gn is just over 1% variation on 45gn, it is SFA on the 58gn loads for the 7mm SAUM, 69gn on the 300H&H or 82gn on the 375H&H.

Example: Today I was at the range doing a load workup on the 338 Win Mag. The ladder test revealed a nice three shot cloverleaf with the last three loads - 69 - 69.5 - 70gn of AR2209 behind a 225gn Speer. 1.5gn differential, cloverleaf group and less than 20fps differential in velocity. I have settled on 69gn for that rifle. The attached photo is the group, ignore the shot by itself - trying to work out the elevation and still needed to come up an inch. Charges were thrown and then trickled up to the exact weight. BTW 1.5gn is 2% of 69gn. Two per cent is statistically insignificant, the velocity difference was 0.6% - more variation between today (8degC) and the opening of deer season (25degC).

I use a RCBS powder thrower with baffle and micrometer adjustment thingy.

FWIW I do trickle each load in the K Hornet - with only 11.5gn of AR2205 to fiddle with I can't afford any variation.

Lets not get carried away on the chargemaster discussion blokes. The OP wants advice on the RCBS kit.

When I got back into reloading a few years ago, I looked at the options and reached the point of realising green=good. The RCBS and Redding kits both offer a really solid starting point for a new reloader. I ended up with Redding which was considerably more expensive than the RCBS option you have found. I say go for it!

Cheers, Jason.

To find out how good the deal is, try pricing the different components of the kit seperately. Should save you plenty, just like buying projectiles in bulk. Go for it most of my stuff was brought over a period of time when I was starting out reloading. They didnt make kits like that in the 70s

Andries if you wanna inspect the green brands in action give me a hoy. I'm in Seaford