I have been considering the programable trickler and scale combos out there, and the wife being a good woman has told me she will buy me one for the x-mas holiday. That being said,...

does anyone have a favorite combo and resons why? I have looked at the Lyman 1200 and the pact/rcbs combos. I just can;t figure why the pact combo would cost over $100 more to purchase?? anyone have any suggestions?

http://www.realguns.com/archives/031.htm
http://www.realguns.com/archives/032.htm

"it took a full minute to meter 90 grains"

Before you even think about spending your wife's hard-earned money, do yourself a favor.

Find a shop with florescent lighting and a good air flow. Make sure you pack a lunch!

Most LCD combos I have seen do nto display well under florescent lights, and the slightest air currents will keep it guessing.

As for the lunch? They are slower than hell!

Save the wife's money and have her send me some chocolate chip cookies...

I have several scales including three electronics. I've slowly gravitated to use of the Pact with the trickler. It's by far the fastest of any including the balance beams, and just as accurate as a scientific that dumps to the nearest .00g. It's touted to be accurate only to the nearest tenth. I've never had the problems attributed to the electronics of failure to maintain consistency and sensitivity to air currents and flourescent lights. I don't happen to have the latter in my gun room but the consistency even without recalibration has been outstanding. Only negative is the time it takes to calibrate to a new powder though if you stay in the same range of burn rate I've not found recalibration even necessary. Don't overlook considering their trickler/scale combination.

Santa (wife) is getting me the Lyman 1200 unit, and research has indicated it is the best on the market, but still needs help on the large charges, plus it has a 30 minute warmup. Even with that, I think it will be an asset, especially if I throw a slight undercharge (scoop or measure), then let the Lyman unit finish it.
I primarily load 17's and 22's, so charge weights for me are small (but they likely benefit most from weighed charges).
Once I have some experience with it, I will give a real "user" report.

I have the Pact, they upgraded my scale to add the laser port for only $5 so I could use the powder dispenser without buying a new scale, and the dispenser came with a certificate for a free upgrade in the event they upgrade it. However, it takes about 30 sec to dispense a charge of about 25 gr, most of my loads are cast bullets and the powder charges are relatively light. With 10 gr of Red Dot it takes about 30 sec also, and occasionally will dump too much powder and you have to dump it and start over. With the 45-70 I am useing a Toilet paper wad and by the time I am done inseting the wad the powder charge is ready so in that case it doesnt slow me down. Overall I like it but it is not nearly as fast as I hoped it would be. Joe S

I read a review of the Lyman 1200, and the biggest negatives were the 1/2 hour warm-up, and the unit seemed to be overly fragile/sensitive. Sean

C,

I have the Pact/RCBS units. The only real problem that I have is the speed. It is slow, as previously mentioned.

However, I've taken to having a bowl of powder next to the unit and pre-charging the pan with some powder prior to despensing. Cuts the time in half (if not more).

By the time I've got the bullets seated, the next charge is ready to dump into the shell.

Works fine and I get an accurate (.1 gns per RCBS web site [0 to 350 gns.], at best .05 gns, due to quantizing error) 'throw'.

I could even make it faster if I had two pans.

Take Care,

-Steve

Bob338,..how long does recalibration take? I load anything from 222 up to 300RUM!!! That's a lot of different powders. What makes the pact more likeable for you?







ricciardelli,...if I have all standard house lights (non flourescent) and close off all my air vents and doors to my loading room,..will this problem still exist? How do you measure your loads? by hand trickler on to a scale?



Steve,..so if I throw a charge in the pan by hand/powder dipper,..then the unit will finish the charge relatively quickly while I seat a bullet on a charged round? Lets say I throw 80gr of an 87gr charge by hand and then hit the dispense function while I go over to seat a bullet in the previously charged case,..how fast does your unit dispense that remaining 7gr of powder?



Thanks for the replies guys,..this is the info I need before making my decisions incorrectly.

I load for everything from .223 at around 26g of powder, up to about 123g for Warbirds, UM's, etc., and use propellants from the small ball powders to the big log extrudeds.

Recalibration for a different powder takes about 3-5 minutes. Recalibration for weight is about a 20 second thing but I've found it unneccesary. I do occasionally check the weight with a check weight and it's NEVER been off.

I'm talking about the Trickler system, not the Powder Dispenser. I've never used the latter though that's what I have on my scientific.

I use the Lee powder cups to dispense the powder into the pan at just under the weight I want. The trickler takes care of the rest quite rapidly and precisely.

The slowest part of the entire operation is the recalibration for a new propellant and when you load as many different powders as I do while experimenting, that's the biggest time waster. There is usually something else to be done to prepare for the the next course so it isn't all just waiting.

C,

I've got to load some 375 H&H in the next couple of days. I'll time it for you.

-Steve

My vote would be for the Pact/RCBS units. I have the Pact Electronic Scale and Powder Dispenser/Trickler unit and I am very pleased with mine.

I too, load for cartridges ranging from .22-250 to .300 RUM and find this combination faster than conventional manual powder dispensers, tricklers and balance beam scales. While the unit is doing its thing I am seating the bullet from the previous powder charge.

My experience with mine mirrors that of Bob338.

JustC,

I don't have\need one as I change load amounts and powders frequently in search of the perfect recipe. But my friend has one of the Lyman units. He likes it. His only complaint to me was cleaning out residual powder from the reservoir. But once he figured out how to do it the quickest, he said it didn't take long at all after that. He loads mostly IMR powders for 22-250 through 300 win mag.

I think that Pact just announced that the latest ones are about twice as fast as the originals.

FWIW, I can also give the "thumbs up" on the Pact. I first bought the scale, then later bought the powder dispenser/trickler, to go with it.
As far as the speed issue: You remove the pan to dump each charge, and I find it convienient to run the pan under my RCBS measure & dump a light charge, on the way back to the scale. That's only if I'm in a hurry, or doing a fairly large batch of the same loads. Most times, I load at a leisurely pace, so the speed of the trickler is seldom at issue.
When working with a lot of different weights of powder, as when working up a load, these things really shine. You just punch in the desired weight, and keep going. It only takes a couple seconds. The only time you have to recalibrate the trickler, is when you first start, or when switching powders. And, I almost always calibrate the scale on start-up, but that only takes a minute, or so.
The only fly I have found, is that the trickler/dispenser does NOT like the real fine-grained powders like H 110, or 2400. They stop the mechanisim up, so the dispensing tubes don't turn. I finally stopped trying, and just use the Little Dandy for charging pistol cases. Even tho' I can't always get the exact charge I want, it's usually close enough..............Bug.

JustC,

I just got through loading some 375 H&H with 69 gns of RL-15.

Via a very precise time measurement technique of eyeballing the dispenser and my watch at the same time, I was able to gather the following data.

The first number is the starting weight of the powder that I poured in the pan. The second number is the amount of seconds to top off the load at the specified 69.0 grns.

53.3gns - 30s
59.8gns - 28s
50.0gns - 30s
59.8gns - 32s
64.4gns - 35s

It usually took 10-15s before the dispenser started, following hitting the button. I believe most of this time is waiting for the scale to settle.

Let me know if you've got any questions.

-Steve

I have their updated dispenser and based on my limited experience with it to date it takes about 30 seconds to dispense a charge no matter what. This is longer than what they claim on their website. They told me it depends on what powder you are useing and suggested that I change powders,(NOT and option). Joe S

I shoot a lot and load most every night. I use two of the older Lyman Autoscales, each with a powder I use in several rifles. It takes 9 seconds to have a load, even 104 grains for my .416 Rigby. I bought an RCBS Digital dispensor and scale, but sold it because of it's constant Calibration requirements. I have asked Santa for the new Lyman Digital scale that requires no calibration repeats. Good shooting.

Thanks guys.

and thank you Steve for going through that trouble for me. That gives me an idea of what I will be working with.

No Problem. Any time.

-Steve