Originally Posted by
1hole
But .... we all have access to commercial jacketed bullets we can use to check for massive scale error! And rough handling doesn't do electronic scales (or anything else) any good.
For some 15 years I was one of those people who calibrated, repaired and certified precision electronic test instruments to original specifications at Cape Canaveral so I know a bit about that - enough to know to not trust any such devices. All of the reloader digital scales I know of are Chinese "through away" tools and they will never see the inside of professional electronic cal lab. (There are good reasons the dig. scales only carry a one or two year warranty!) I really doubt anyone who is careless with his scale is a competent reloader and precision check weights are unlikely to help him.
Again, it's consistent - precisely repeatable - performance that reloaders need, not nit-picking accuracy; that's exactly what balance scales give us. And, point of fact, all I've ever seen ARE quite nit-picky.
The roots of brass case reloading as we know it goes back to at least the 1920s and few of those old guys blew themselves up. The first set of scale check weights I remember seeing was around the mid 1970s and I still don't know a soul who has them.
Okay, everyone to his own tools tastes and I'm happy for him. But posting that a powder scale of any kind is "worthless without a check set" cannot rightly be defended; that is just not true. I hate to see posts leading inexperienced new guys to spend hard earned money on meaningless fluff.
After some 50+ years of handloading I have and still love to tinker with a lot of uncommon reloading tools. BUT, I will never try to sell anyone else on the gimmicky little things I love because I know they won't help other's down range results or safety.