What's the best? This is one of those things where, for the most part, you get what you pay for.
Twenty years ago, I programmed an autodropper machine to interface with an Ohaus scale. It delivered 0.1 grain accuracy every time, but took about 10 seconds between charges. Too slow for production work. I think my work cost about four grand. The Ohaus would have been about two.
For autodroppers, I had a RCBS Chargemaster Gen 1. Finicky ***. The feeder would stop feeding properly, and act funny. Overcharges were common. Gave it away (to someone who needed a scale).
Have a Hornady LnL Autocharge. Half the price of my RCBS. It's very useful. I like that I can program it's feed characteristics so I get zero overcharges. If I had a complaint, I don't care for it's keypad, or that it won't store my feed adjustments. Repeatability seems excellent when I check it with my beam scale.
When you're feeding cases with >70 grains, all autodroppers are slow, unless you want to spend >$600 for a feeder and scale. I'm not in that much of a rush. I load to relax, not to rush through filling cases.
While the RCBS couldn't do it, with the Hornady, I can drop in a spoonful of 85 grains of powder for a 94 grain charge, and the fast/trickle mode will do the remaining few grains.
For pistol or bulk ammo for the 30-30, 5.56 or 7.62, or anything that uses ball or flake powder where I don't care about a 1/2 grain, I'll use a Lyman or Hornady dropper. The lyman does NOT like stick powder, but it has excellent repeatability for flake or ball.
Twenty years ago, I programmed an autodropper machine to interface with an Ohaus scale. It delivered 0.1 grain accuracy every time, but took about 10 seconds between charges. Too slow for production work. I think my work cost about four grand. The Ohaus would have been about two.
For autodroppers, I had a RCBS Chargemaster Gen 1. Finicky ***. The feeder would stop feeding properly, and act funny. Overcharges were common. Gave it away (to someone who needed a scale).
Have a Hornady LnL Autocharge. Half the price of my RCBS. It's very useful. I like that I can program it's feed characteristics so I get zero overcharges. If I had a complaint, I don't care for it's keypad, or that it won't store my feed adjustments. Repeatability seems excellent when I check it with my beam scale.
When you're feeding cases with >70 grains, all autodroppers are slow, unless you want to spend >$600 for a feeder and scale. I'm not in that much of a rush. I load to relax, not to rush through filling cases.
While the RCBS couldn't do it, with the Hornady, I can drop in a spoonful of 85 grains of powder for a 94 grain charge, and the fast/trickle mode will do the remaining few grains.
For pistol or bulk ammo for the 30-30, 5.56 or 7.62, or anything that uses ball or flake powder where I don't care about a 1/2 grain, I'll use a Lyman or Hornady dropper. The lyman does NOT like stick powder, but it has excellent repeatability for flake or ball.
