Hornady Autocharge Automatic powder dispenser Review By Vince Bottomley
The whole thing takes about 30 seconds, which just gives me time to pour the charge into the cartridge case, replace the pan (which automatically starts the weighing process) take the cartridge case across to the bench where my press is mounted, (the scales are on a separate wall-mounted bench to reduce the chance of vibration) seat the bullet and get back to the Hornady - just in time to hear ‘ding’ – signalling that another charge is ready!
With some previously prepped 308 cases, I reloaded 90 rounds in under an hour without any fatigue. Normally, I would have done this in three batches on three separate nights. With the Hornady, it’s just effortless, it totally eliminates the tedium of weighing.
Downsides? What about accuracy? I never switch off the Denver scale, so I was able to check-weigh the odd charge and they were pretty good. I was weighing 46.9 grains of Vihtavuori N150 and occasionally, it would over-weigh – 47.0 grains – so I just chucked it on the Denver’s pan and took out a few granules – whilst the Hornady was trickling the next load!
If you like, you could hook a few granules out of the pan and let the Hornady have another go. If it over-weighs by more than one-tenth of a grain, an ‘over’ message flashes up and the bell rings twice. Alternatively, you can just dump the over-weighed charge back in the hopper and let the Hornady weigh another.
The over-weighing comes about due to the workings of the tube-trickler – rather than dropping a granule at a time, it will sometimes ‘clump up’ and drop three or four at once – just the way it works. If you slow down the process – there is a ‘normal’, ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ option – you get less ‘over-weighs’ but it’s so easy to adjust if you have your ordinary electronic scales at the ready and it doesn’t even slow down the progress - by the time I’d done a check-weigh on the Denvers and hooked out a couple of granules, the Hornady has already dispensed another charge!
My second test was with Hodgdon H4350 powder. This is a bit finer than the Vit N150 and I started to get more ‘over’ loads. I tried using the ‘normal’ rather than ‘fast’ speed setting and it sorted the problem. On the ‘fast’ setting, the Hornady quickly dispenses to within half a grain and then trickles the last half grain very slowly. If you go to the ‘normal’ setting, it trickles the last grain – so less risk of an over-throw.
I later did a proper check against the Denvers - this time using Reloader 22 powder. The target-load was 52.5 grains. I loaded ten charges, tipping each one into the Denver’s pan. I had just one indicated over- load, which went back into the Autocharge’s hopper. According to the Denvers, here’s what they actually weighed:
52.42 grains 52.54 52.48 52.48 52.59 52.50 52.46 52.52 52.40 52.56
Pretty impressive really and easily as good as you would get with a set of standard electronic reloading scales. You would need a set of laboratory scales like the Denvers or maybe an RCBS 10-10 beam scale to better it.
I even took it to the range. Fortunately, Diggle’s benchrest range has power and the Hornady’s ‘wind-cover’ meant that accurate loads were quickly dispensed – very handy for load development.
Honestly, until you use one of these devices, you just can’t appreciate how easy weighing becomes. Remember when you got your first set of electronic scales - after fiddling and tapping those beam scales? Well, the Hornady just takes it on another leap. If it wasn’t for the price, everybody would have one!
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