Scales

[peter nap]

are going to weigh bullets use an electronis , if powder use a balance beam..............Dean

+1

I have two beam scales and a Lyman electronic and that's exactly how I ue them. If it could be only one it would be an RCBS 10.10

[mike in co]

Mike, if that's so, I stand corrected. If you pay enough money, and 300 dollars is a great plenty, you can get around it, I suppose. However, it's worth pointing out that a simple beam scale can record the addition of a single grain of powder as well.......at far, far less cost than that.

None of the reasonable cost, reloader type electronic scales I've tried from PACT, Hornady, et. al. can manage trickling powder very well, so the information I've posted is relevant to the most commonly purchased ones found on the reloader's shelf that typically run in the 100 to 200 dollar range. I've used a pretty fair number of those owned by either myself or someone else.

Some of the imports are so poor I wouldn't even weigh bullets with them. One good example I own uses such a poor calibration procedure, with such overheavy calibration weights that the low end of pistol weight powder charges is several tenths of a grain off, and there's absolutely no way to calibrate it to a proper zero with my scale check weights.

In addition, it's afflicted with "wandering zero" as an object weighed today does not weigh what it did yesterday. It comes in a neat carrying case, with a good layout and with what seems to be good quality, but the actual execution leaves something to be desired. Cost me a little over 90 bucks on sale about four years ago and it wasn't worth it.

I'll stick with my 110 dollar PACT and the beam balance scale for trickling. The PACT is greatly convenient for weighing an object "all at once" and serves just fine for that to save time. Trickling powder on a 300 dollar electronic scale doesn't save much time over a beam scale as the trickling is the slow part of the process. My use of an electronic scale is to save time, and that's where I use it.

sorry, we have different standards.

i consider the $325 for the mx123 a good investment in my shooting hobby. you'll have to show me that beam scale that can tell me how much one grain changed the scale reading. my scale tells me how much it changed...not just that it changes....yes any good beam scale could do that...the real problem is what is the beam telling you.......21.10....21.19......21.15..........21.05 .....they are only .1 machines

for those that talk about comparing one or two scales....YOU CANNOT CHECK SCALES against each other. if they are both 0.10 scales.....they cannot tell you if they are the same , only that they are within 0.2 of each other.................. you need a more precise scale to check two scales.
soemthing like an mx123........... which is how i check my scales.


mike in co

[Ken O]

I have a Pact electronic and an Ohaus beam scale. They are always dead nuts together.

A couple things about the electronic.... keep it plugged in and on all the time. My Pact is around 20 years old and has only been off once (when I moved) and the times we lost power. I doubt it uses over a nickles worth of electricity a month, why would anyone turn it off? Its warmed up, stabilized, and ready to go anytime.

When trickling up, instead of using the trickler, have a small pan of the powder nearby and use your fingers. You will get the feel of what a .1 grain is pretty quick. Drop the powder with your fingers and touch the center of the pan, it will re-measure the load.

If you get the wondering scale, take off your shoes and socks. In the winter it get real dry and it doesn't take much to build a static charge in your body that will drive you and your scale nuts.