Jim Wooten
Just Me
Well, I finally let curiosity get the better of me and bought a new Hornady Auto Charge. I wanted a back-up for my RCBS, and also wanted to have something that I could take to the range for load development without disturbing my "old faithful" Chargemaster. Did I mention this unit is almost a hundred dollars cheaper than the RCBS 
? I have played with it for a couple of hours total now, and formed a few very early impressions.
My first observation was that it was SLOW. That's slow with a capital S-L-O-W!!!! Notice that I used the past tense, was. I called Hornady late yesterday afternoon, and talked to a couple of nice service techs. They were not able to solve the problem, but gave me the extension for Matt, who wasn't available yesterday. I spoke to him this morning. He was very helpful, and as luck would have it, had just received the new instructions for re-programing the dispense settings yesterday.
He actually took the time to walk me through the new re-programing procedure (the units were changed a bit at around serial number 2840, and the procedure differs somewhat for the newer units). On the fast setting (there are three speed settings- slow, normal, and fast), I was finally able to adjust the trickle speed and trickle start time so that the total time for dispensing a 34.0 grain charge of H4198X was reduced from 45 seconds to 20 seconds. By going outside the normal adjustment range I do get a few 0.1 grain overthrows, and the occasional 0.2 overthrow that elicits an overweight error message, but I am willing to deal with that in preference to doubling the time. I suspect that I could reduce the overthrows a bit with a little more compromise on speed, and I will try that as time allows.
Matt also told me that some units have a slightly tight fit with some of the moving parts initially, and smooth up with use, allowing them to speed up as a result. This being the case, I may have to re-adjust the settings after some use, but it seems to have smoothed up pretty well already.
To this point I don't know how well the Auto Charge will work in comparison to my RCBS or Lyman units for actual reloading, but I intend to find out soon. So far I would say that the scale portion of the unit is more stable than my Lyman, and roughly comparable to my RCBS. Also, the indicated weight of a charge on the Hornady is the same to the exact tenth of a grain when checked on the RCBS. Yes, I realize that these scales are only accurate to a tenth either way, but it is reassuring to see that they read the same in any case.
If anyone would like an update after I have loaded some ammo with it, I will be glad to post what I find out about it.
Jim
? I have played with it for a couple of hours total now, and formed a few very early impressions.My first observation was that it was SLOW. That's slow with a capital S-L-O-W!!!! Notice that I used the past tense, was. I called Hornady late yesterday afternoon, and talked to a couple of nice service techs. They were not able to solve the problem, but gave me the extension for Matt, who wasn't available yesterday. I spoke to him this morning. He was very helpful, and as luck would have it, had just received the new instructions for re-programing the dispense settings yesterday.
He actually took the time to walk me through the new re-programing procedure (the units were changed a bit at around serial number 2840, and the procedure differs somewhat for the newer units). On the fast setting (there are three speed settings- slow, normal, and fast), I was finally able to adjust the trickle speed and trickle start time so that the total time for dispensing a 34.0 grain charge of H4198X was reduced from 45 seconds to 20 seconds. By going outside the normal adjustment range I do get a few 0.1 grain overthrows, and the occasional 0.2 overthrow that elicits an overweight error message, but I am willing to deal with that in preference to doubling the time. I suspect that I could reduce the overthrows a bit with a little more compromise on speed, and I will try that as time allows.
Matt also told me that some units have a slightly tight fit with some of the moving parts initially, and smooth up with use, allowing them to speed up as a result. This being the case, I may have to re-adjust the settings after some use, but it seems to have smoothed up pretty well already.
To this point I don't know how well the Auto Charge will work in comparison to my RCBS or Lyman units for actual reloading, but I intend to find out soon. So far I would say that the scale portion of the unit is more stable than my Lyman, and roughly comparable to my RCBS. Also, the indicated weight of a charge on the Hornady is the same to the exact tenth of a grain when checked on the RCBS. Yes, I realize that these scales are only accurate to a tenth either way, but it is reassuring to see that they read the same in any case.
If anyone would like an update after I have loaded some ammo with it, I will be glad to post what I find out about it.
Jim
