Worst thing you have purchased for reloading

[Reloder28]

Where do you buy them from and what exactly they supposed to do?

For me it is the type A Redding dies. Junk.

They solved my RCBS Chargemaster from overcharging.
https://www.ebay.com/c/810044878

 

[foul bore]

sure glad I did not buy a chargmaster, Ill stick with the older "slower" way

 

[WahooYahoo]

1. Cheap digital calipers

2. Forster Ultra micrometer seater ( made a circumfrential ring around the ogive and "clicked" with every seating from the very 1st bullet. Sent to Forster, they acted like it was one off, never heard of that. Which was odd. I read in forums searches dozens of threads where the same problem was the topic, but... Played their game and received a new stem that was polished to match my bullet... same thing happened.

 

[Reloder28]

sure glad I did not buy a chargmaster, Ill stick with the older "slower" way

Mine works so perfectly that I do not measure powder any other way.

 

[sodakota]

I bought small base dies that had exactly the same effect on fired brass as the standard dies.

 

[tbrice23]

Well said. I totally agree. When I started reloading I spent so much on junk. And ended up upgrading what I just upgraded lol. These forums have a lot of useful information that I wish I would have had many years ago.

I always tell new loaders to buy quality equipment right away. If you buy junk up front you'll be upgrading very soon and that initial junk was wasted money and time...ask me how I know!

 

[Roughwater]

Some will probably disagree but that's what makes the world go round.

Mine was to different powder auto dispensers (The RCBS Charge master) I realy thought these would improve my loading time and accuracy, They did not. I bought one and found that half the time was spent dumping error charges. So based on other peoples recommendations I bought another one to speed up the process (Some had as many as 3).

The second one was no better at dropping consistent charges than the first. and only complicated the process. so I set out on a mission to evaluate the powder charging process altogether.

I found that with a very good powder measure and beam scale, speed and accuracy was better than using the charge masters. I loaded 50 rounds with one system and 50 more with the other and it wasn't even close.

I checked each load individually and found the measure and scale came out on top with almost 100 % accuracy. the charge master was close to 20% rejected. Curious as to why, I started dumping more loads and If i waited long enough it would give me an error message and the charge had to be dumped.

Once I got the powder measure calibrated and got my rhythm down there were almost no rejects. I also checked these loads with a digital scale that measures to 0.01 g so there would be no human factor. this confirmed that the beam scale was being read correctly and accurately.

Some feel that this level of accuracy is not necessary and I don't disagree, but when I load, I don't want or need any excuses for poor accuracy and except the human factor as the problem.

So I have reverted back to a simple and time proven method that gets me the most consistent loads in less time with less problems.

I sold both of my Charge masters and have never looked back. and of all the poor choices I have made for reloading this has been the most costly one.

J E CUSTOM

J E, sorry also yours didn't work out. I have one and it's worked great all along. It's not fast but while it's dumping the load I'm usually loading the bullet in the case from the previous powder load. The scale on mine has been really accurate. I keep a 5 gram calibrated weight setting on top of it and if I have any concerns I pop that on the scale and fortunately it always reads exactly as it should. It will occasionaly dump too much powder but that's not been a real problem cause the scale clearly shows it was too much so I just take my little powder scoop and scoop out the appropriate amount which is only one or two tenths of a grain if that and go on loading. It only drops too little if I jar the bench it's on while loading and thats an easy fix as well. I think I've had mine about 4 years. I did have to replace the power adapter once due to an electrical surge that also burnt up a couple other adapters in the house. I got a adapter that you could adjust the voltage on and set it a tad higher and the thing actually speeded up the process but didn't affect the accuracy. However if I'm going to load just a few rounds at a time I don't bother to load up the hopper, I just dump some on the scale using a powder measure type scoop. I only use the hopper any more when I load 20 or more rounds at a time.

 

[Remmy700]

I thought the chargemaster was great until I got an A&D wow was I wrong. I ditched it good while back and now I have a chargemaster lite. It does the same thing. But I final weight everything on my A&D and trickle up so the chargemaster is an overpriced electric Lee Powder Scoop now.

 

[J E Custom]

J E, sorry also yours didn't work out. I have one and it's worked great all along. It's not fast but while it's dumping the load I'm usually loading the bullet in the case from the previous powder load. The scale on mine has been really accurate. I keep a 5 gram calibrated weight setting on top of it and if I have any concerns I pop that on the scale and fortunately it always reads exactly as it should. It will occasionaly dump too much powder but that's not been a real problem cause the scale clearly shows it was too much so I just take my little powder scoop and scoop out the appropriate amount which is only one or two tenths of a grain if that and go on loading. It only drops too little if I jar the bench it's on while loading and thats an easy fix as well. I think I've had mine about 4 years. I did have to replace the power adapter once due to an electrical surge that also burnt up a couple other adapters in the house. I got a adapter that you could adjust the voltage on and set it a tad higher and the thing actually speeded up the process but didn't affect the accuracy. However if I'm going to load just a few rounds at a time I don't bother to load up the hopper, I just dump some on the scale using a powder measure type scoop. I only use the hopper any more when I load 20 or more rounds at a time.

I knew that some were satisfied with theirs and that was the reason I went down that road. I do things differently than some, and that was one of the reasons I didn't like mine. I don't overlap the steps like some do and will dump powder in batches before I do any other step like seating the bullets. I like to look at all the loaded cases in the batch to see if there are any differences in the powder charge and the case. Even though I weighted each one, if one does not look right, I re-weigh it to make sure. (Sometimes the powder charge doesn't compact the same, but I want to assure that there is not a problem.

The face that the Charge masters were notorious about error charges, left me uneasy when loading MAXIMUM CHARGES and I just lost confidence and decided to go back to what worked best for me.

I try to keep chance and Murphy's law out of my business when reloading, and it just seemed the right way for me to accomplish that .

J E CUSTOM

 

[RoyB]

Lee bullet seating contraption for the LEE 1000......You need to be a Ferrari mechanic to get it to function.

 

[Remmy700]

I am sure one or two of their products are good but my rule of thumb now is if it says Lee on it, I will pass.

 

[Danny Butler]

As far as the ELDs are concerned.. I wish they would have left my A-Max alone....

 

[Philo in AZ]

1. Cheap digital calipers

2. Forster Ultra micrometer seater ( made a circumfrential ring around the ogive and "clicked" with every seating from the very 1st bullet. Sent to Forster, they acted like it was one off, never heard of that. Which was odd. I read in forums searches dozens of threads where the same problem was the topic, but... Played their game and received a new stem that was polished to match my bullet... same thing happened.

I ran into this problem on one of my five Forster Micrometer Seating dies. I took it apart and flipped the spring over and it stopped the clicking. Can't explain why as the springs ends look similar but just slightly different. It works fine now.

 

[ptb]

I am certainly no expert reloaded, but my Gem Pro has been solid. I will say however, mine HAD to be plugged directly into an outlet. Had it plugged into an extension cord at buddies garage and it would jump, not zero and wander. Bout threw it out the window!!!!! Then just to see, plugged it into wall outlet directly and it was solid. Couple weeks ago, redid my loading area and added a 6 outlet adapter to add more versatility. Plugged Gem Pro in one of the 6 outlets. Same issue as the extension cord!! Anyway, for me scale has worked flawlessly when either used with batteries or plugged directly into 2 gang outlet.