Problem with Lyman and Gen5 Powder Measure

[O-1A]

I haven't posted anything in a long time but have been lurking and taking notes. I am still in the learning stage of BPCR load development. We bought property 3 years ago and a year ago today we moved into our new house out in the country. There is still a lot to do but I made time to unpack all my gun room stuff and set up my reloader. I am determined to hunt with nothing but bpc this season since I have not hunted much in two years. Long story, I went to load some 45-90 to fire form some new Starline brass. Set up my Lyman Gen5 powder measure and turned it on. There is a warm up sequence it goes through then it is ready. Well after 4 hours it was stuck on warm up. It would not respond to the by pass key so I unplugged it. Plugged it back in and it was stuck on warm up. Well, I had to wait until today to talk to a tech rep at Lyman. The lady was real nice but could not help me. She said that they no longer have parts for that model. She directed me to a warranty/sales person. He was nice enough but could not help me. I told him I bought the machine 3 years ago and only used it twice. He told me it was discontinued but they would cut the price in half of a new Gen6 model for $160. I said ok, do you have one in stock. He said no, the factory in China is backlogged and probably couldn't get any until late October. I gave him another chance for a sale and asked if he could put me on a list. He said they don't do that but would take my credit card and mail the powder measure when they came in. Well, that was discouraging and it pretty much put me off buying anything made by them. Mind you I have several of their moulds.

Any suggestions for replacement of this plastic POS. I resorted to using my Lyman Classic 55 and it worked great just slower. Had that one a long time. I know some like using the manual method of measuring but I liked this measure when it worked because it was accurate with the powder weights.

[SSShooter]

Been using a B&M powder measure and GemPro 250 digital scale for 10+yr without a hitch. Weighs to 0.02gr (but I'm good with 0.1).

[Don McDowell]

I ended up going with the RCBS charge master

[bpcr shooter]

Started with a RCBS scale and that broke, called RCBS and was told no parts were made for that anymore so I bought a charge master....that broke, bought a Frankford Arsenal....that broke, but got it back in time for the cabelas warranty, and am currently using that. now I did have 15k thru the charge master before it went belly up, and around 6-7k thru the frankford before it did. At that time I did all my reloading with those scales, I now use a powder drop for pistols so its not used as heavily anymore, maybe the new one will last longer????

problem is....there all china junk, there all going to break and they keep updating them just like computers so in 2-3yrs they will be obsolete and no parts will be available. Ive just come to the conclusion that they will NEVER last forever and put $400 away in the safe for when the next one dies.

Matt

[TexasMac]

I've been using a RCBS Powdermaster electronic dispenser & RCBS digital scale for over 20 years. I don't know who made the dispenser for RCBS but the scale was sourced & rebranded from PACT at the time. I've loaded over 10,000 rounds of BP cartridges & a 1,000 or so rounds of smokeless handgun & rifle ammo with no problems so far.

Wayne

[Clarence]

I've never invested in one of the automatic powder dispensers. I have an old PACT electronic scale that suddenly stopped holding zero about a year ago. I had always been a bit skeptical of it because it would continue to drift regardless of how long I let it warm up. Suddenly I couldn't calibrate it or zero it; the display just kept jumping and never would settle down. So I'm back to using a Saeco-Redding mechanical scale to trickle charges to weight after throwing them slightly light from my RCBS measure.

Clarence

[O-1A]

Clarence,
I am thinking about not getting in a hurry to buy another electronic powder measure. I think I did pretty good using my Classic 55 and my Pact scale. I can get on a rhythm if the wife doesn't interrupt me.

[beltfed]

AMEN.
I am still using my old Lyman/Ohaus 1010 mechanical, magnetic damped scale to check weight my charges
after dumping them from the lyman 55 measure, then trickling on the scale to weight.
beltfed/arnie

[Woody]

I currently have two RCBS (Pact) electronic scales and one Dillon. I caught the Dillon on sale and set it aside as a double back up. I've avoided the auto dispensers. I recently loaded 100 45-70 rounds for my trapdoors for the upcoming military match next month at Friendship. I used my old Belding and Mull. I didn't weight each charge, but checked every 10th. All were within + or - .1 grain when checked. I shot 25 ish through my Trapdoor carbine last Saturday to check accuracy and get sight settings for the carbine. I had not given this carbine a shakedown since acquiring it two years ago. The results at 300 meters were very satisfactory, as well as the 385 turkeys. When I went to rams at 500, I couldn't get on. At the time the consensus was that the 525 bullet had run out of steam between the turkeys and the rams. After further chewing, I think it might be the short sight radius as opposed to the group size. I didn't have any left or right issues, just vertical. I guess I'll break out the rifle for next months match.

So why did I "splain" all of the above? I'm starting to think that we spend too much time loading these rounds to the "nats ass" when it just ain't that critical. If you figure out how to run your measure, you should be able to throw charges within .2 grain, for a total .4 spread. This just won't make a difference at silhouette distances. I doubt that it will be measurable at the 1K line. We will find out this weekend, as I'm shooting my Shiloh 77, 45-90 at Atterbury, IN. These charges were thrown with a Redding measure with a baffle installed and a one pound reservoir. I did weight each of these charges, but the all fell within .1 grain + or -. I didn't trickle to get to .0

Stand by for results.

Woody

[O-1A]

Woody,
You may be right about getting it down to a gnats ass. My 55 was getting within .1 or .2 and I was trickling. I doubt that the old buffalo hunters were that precise when loading ammo at the end of the day around the campfire.

[bpcr shooter]

Im with you on the "gnats ass", I use a electronic dispenser for speed, a .01-.02 will most likely never change anything but tick of compression.