The link to the Prometheus web site is not valid. Does anyone have a contact number? Has anyone on the forum used this measure? Does anyone know how fast the machine will weigh charges? Finally, is there a digital scale at reasonable cost that I can be certain that is reading right. I have owned the Pact, an upgraded Pact, and a Lyman 1200. All of them have issues. I would buy a Prometheus if it will weigh chages quickly, especially the stick powders.
Using the Lyman 1200 this weekend, I loaded 400 rounds. While loading the 9.3 I spilled some powder and stopped the run. I pulled the pan off the scale and cleaned the area. I recalibrated the scale, saved the pan of powder originally weighed and zero'd with the pan. I put the pre-weighed powder back in the pan and it weighed .5gr. less than I thought I was measuring. I checked all of the charges and found that each one was .5gr off. Now I know that .5gr on a 63gr. load is not much, but this rifle is most accurate at exactly 63gr. I used my RCBS check weights to verify the Lyman is at least weighing the check weights accurately.I now worry that much of my ammunition is as accurate as I want it to be.

Did you read the article about the Prometheus on 6mmBR.com?? Sounds like a nifty machine. Maybe the article will also provide some answers for you?
- mike

I did read the article and tried the link. It doesn't work. Do you have another suggestion for finding the company address/phone number?

I found this over on benchrest.com - there seem to be quite a few people using the machine over there, and it is worth doing a search for "prometheus"... Anyway, hope this is current, please don't kill me if it isn't

Prometheus
Brand Cole
72589 I-20
Gordon, TX 76453

brandx375@yahoo.com

Sorry no phone number. But a later post has the following information:

quote:

One of his shooting buddies is James at K2 Sports in Richardson, Texas (972) 234-5537. James should have a phone # for Brand

- mike

I would check with Glen Zediker. He used to have a link to Brand Cole's website and wrote about his powder dispensing system in his book Handloading for Competition.

http://www.zediker.com/

I have used it a few years ago at a benchrest match in Phoenix. It is plenty fast enough unless you are in a race. It needs to be used inside or in an enclosure. It doesn't matter what kind of powder as it trickles the last little bit. If you don't find Brand call Shilen as he worked there for a bit. Butch

The Prometheus runs about $1,000 doesn't it?

Have you considered the RCBS Chargemaster? It's the newest scale and dispenser put out by RCBS and is supposedly superior to the old one, which was actually a PACT. Here's a review:

http://www.6mmbr.com/catalog/item/1433308/1266096.htm

DeltaHunter, it is not even close to the same class as the Prometheus. The digital scale as they use is not nearly as accurate as a beam scale. It is probably OK for hunting rounds. Bear in mind the Prometheus accuracy is needed only in extreme long range shooting. Butch

Is this system still actually available?

AD

Allen, I really don't know as I have not visited with Brand since he left Shilen. Butch

Butch, how is the inital charge set? On a digital measure all you do is punch in the desired weight and hit enter. If this uses a conventional powder measure then you must open or close the powder chamber until you get close enough for the trickler to work. Am I right in this assumption? Sort of like using a redding, Harrels or lyman powder measure with an auto trickler, right? Thanks for all of the input. The real issue for me is accuracy. I think that if I had a honest digital scale I could trust, I could use any automatic powder measure to load shells as long as I could know that when I check the weights that they are right. On all of the scales I have used and I have used everything out there at least for a while, the wandering zero point is the real issue. On the lyman 1200, the wandering zero causes some loading discrepencies on long runs of ammo. The charges that change all weigh the same. This weekend I had 20 rounds that weighed 63 gr almost without variance. Some time in the run the zero changed and all of the charges were weighing 62.5 gr. In my rifle the .5 gr difference is noticable. Not at 100 yards so much as at 300 yards. I try to load in such a way that a 1 gr. difference one way or another doesn't make a difference. On this 9.3x62 the groups with 63gr of H4895 go into .5" at 100 yards. The 62.5gr load opens up to 1.5" at 100 yds. That is a big change.

Butch, why would the folks at 6mmbr.com tout the Chargemaster so highly is what you said is correct? After all, their site is totally about extremely accurate target shooting, not hunting. According to them, their tests indicate that this unit is every bit as accurate as a typical beam scale, which is +/- 1/10 gr. That seems just about good enough for any kind of shooting I can think of.

As far as the wandering zero is concerned, that has been a big issue with me too. I had a PACT electronic and the zero would wander within 10 weighings. It was frustrating. I ended up using my Redding beam scale almost exclusively. From what I've read about this new Chargemaster unit, the problem of a wandering zero has been eliminated. I don't own one, so I don't know if this is really true, but the reports I've read from the few who have one seem to indicate that it may be so.