re: Reloading Equipment Question - RCBS Chargemaster 1500

That's pretty much what I was thinking. I am very close to pulling the trigger on the Rock Chucker but I want to be able to find primers and powder easily first.

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Funny you should mention that. Here are the rifles that Ill be reloading, see if you see a pattern: 308, 30-06, 300WSM, 300BLK

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You proved my point exactly. That's the beauty of reloading - you don't have to depend on a manufacturer to load a certain way. You can dial in all the parameters yourself.

EDIT: Forgot to reply to Smails

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Here's what my set came with - its outdated I believe.

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It may be outdated but that's exactly how my RCBS Uniflow works. You set the rotor to a certain charge weight and tighten it down. This throws the exact same powder charge every time.

this is what I was looking at but I've decided to let the market stabalize and start seeing reloading supplies back in stock quite often before pulling the trigger and getting into reloading. Plus I want to read up on it a little so I'm familiar with the components and what not before jumping straight in.





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• Shell Holders; #3, #10, #32
• Model 5-0-5 mechanical scale
• Powder Funnel
• Two Universal Case Loading Blocks
• AR Series Dies; 5.56/.223, .308/7.62, .300 AAC Blackout, 7.62x39

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That Lyman powder dispenser may be old, but it's not necessarily outdated. Have you tried the Lyman yet? There are lots of good, easy to use, fast and inexpensive powder dispensers out there. This weekend I used my 30 year old Lee Double Disk powder dispenser to load up 50 rounds of 223 Rem in less than 20 minutes, including about 5 minutes to set it up for this new load. I'd say it did ok, wouldn't you?

That was shot using Stevens Model 200 bolt action I bought 2 years ago for $180. Except for a 5 min trigger job I did myself, it's unmodified.

I'd also suggest you consider a turret press. A turret press (like my Lee) will be a little faster than will a single stage press if you decide you want to load a larger volume of rounds.

Judge,
Believe me when I say I understand your safety concerns. A handloader CAN NOT be too careful. Which handloading manuel do you have?

Generally, powder measures work by dispensing (you'll frequently see it referred to as "throwing") a certain volume of powder; powder dispensers don't weigh charges. Sounds like yours uses different sizes of rotors (what you called inserts) to determine the volume of powder dispensed; mine uses 8 discs w/ a number of different sized holes in each disc. One uses a chart that shows what approximate weight of a particulr powder is dispensed w/ each rotor in place. Here's a sample chart in case your kit didn't come w/ one. LINK
One uses scales to weigh a few dispensed charges to be sure of the powder weight. A good powder dispenser will be accurate +/- 1/10 grain. Powder measures can vary some depending on personal technique.

I can't access YouTube on this computer, but I'll bet it has some good instructional videos on using your Accumeasure. As long as you're careful, read GOOD handloading info, observant and pay attention to detail, you should be fine as you learn how to handload. If you've never tried your Accumeasure I'd give it a go. Who knows, you might like it!

The Hornady Handbook is a good one. It should a good resource for you as you start loading. There are a bunch of scales out there. Bascially, all the reloading equipment companies (Lyman, RCBS, Lee, Hornady, etc.) sell a good assortment of quality mechanical scales. If it's like anything else, there's prolly only 1 or two companies that make all the scales then label them w/ whatever brand is needed. My scale is a RCBS, 505. I've had it prolly 30 years and been pleased w/ it. I also bought a $35 MTM simple electronic scale a few years ago. It works well. Be sure you buy the weights so that you can periodically check the calibration of your scales, as well.

The majority of my handgun loading is for low to mid velocity rounds. Compared to full power loads, they don't require as much powder and are a lot more fun to shoot. A powder charger of some sort is very handy when loading large quantities of low-mid range handgun loads for practice.