Scales

[DCP]

Balance Beam Reloading Scales
or
Electronic Reloading Scales


Do any Electronic Reloading Scales work reading review they're scarey

[HammerMTB]

Do any Electronic Reloading Scales work reading review they're scarey

The internet is full of strong opinions. You will find those who hate most any and every thing, and the internet is a favored place to vent that hate.
That said, I have an electronic scale I like a lot. It's the cheapy Frankford Arsenal job, on sale at times for as little as $20.
I would not stake my health on charges of Bullseye from it exclusively. I have a beam scale, and check the FA against that often. It works fine, but won't respond to small changes in charge (read trickler over scale pan). There are places to use it and places not.
It is the cat's *** for weighing a bunch of boolits. Fast.

[Jon K]

Ditto.......Ditto above, some will complain about anything and everything.

You want an electronic scale to respond to trickler accurately...you have to pay for it. Like anything else.........you get what you pay for.

Do lots of research, and consider the reviewer.......who may be very biased.

Choose wisely,

Jon

[Firebricker]

I have a pact that has been flawless for the last two years and would highly recomend them plus their American made. At the same time though I check mine with a full set of scale weights not just the two that come with it. And I still keep a beam for a backup. FB

[cbrick]

I have the RCBS ChargeMaster and the Dillon scale. When I weigh out a charge with the RCBS and then pour it into the Dillon they match to the 10th of a grain, if one of them is off they are both off the same amount. I wouldn't be without them.

Rick

[powderburnerr]

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

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I have used two Redding beam scales with the brown crinkle finish for the last 4 decades. I originally had a pharmacist friend make two sets of checkweights; one from a series of clean coins and the second from small sections of copper wire. I have always kept them in two small airtight pill bottles. I check my scales every time I set them up and sometimes check a powder load on both when setting my measure. Beam scales are slower than electronic scales I'm told, but I've never been that much in a rush or had a need to go that route. Those who have larger needs or narrower time limits or requirements will probably do better with the electronic versions and the best advice to give in that direction is to spend the extra bucks to get a good reliable one and even then have some sort of backup means of/for checking it. I once learned that it is better to be safe than sorry. LLS

[jdgabbard]

I had that cheap Frankford Ars scale for quite some time. It did respond well to my trickler, as I'd go back and weigh again on my beam to check accuracy. I don't have it anymore because I accidentally dropped a die on it. It didn't respond well after that.... As a matter of fact it would just continuously think that it was having weight added to it...

What I eventually ended up doing, and have had great luck with this, is just to use a powder meter, and then weigh every 5th to 10th charge on my Lee balance beam. The Lee seems to throw consistent charges. But this is after my addition of a home made baffle. If you're not familiar with these its essentially just a piece of metal or plastic that drops into the the meter and keeps the weight of the powder on the nozzle consistent. Its worked so far...

[c3d4b2]

These may help..... or add more confusion :smile:

http://www.6mmbr.com/prometheus.html

http://www.6mmbr.com/mxx123test.html

Part way down the page
http://www.6mmbr.com/BlogAugust2005.html

[Marvin S]

I have a RCBS 10-10 and a charge master 1500 and also the Pact 2 BBK. I always check the electric ones against the beam scale and have had no problems.I too am a little leary of the electronic stuff but have nothing bad to say about them. I used to have a cabelas electronic scale that was junk so it had to go.

[35remington]

My PACT is a fine electronic scale and I trust it implicitly, after calibrating it, of course.

No electronic scale responds to "trickling" powder in the pan properly. The load cell is not that sensitive to small additions of weight.

Dispense the charge in the pan, then set it on the electronic scale to be weighed. That's how they're meant to be used.

If you're a trickler, use a balance beam scale. Electronic scales don't "catch up" to the small additions of weight that trickling provides very well. Or, as mentioned, add the powder first, then weigh it.

[Russ in WY]

Like "Firebricker", I have Pact's. 2 to be exact, Keep them plugged in all the time & turned off. They are both over 5 yrs old, Had a problem with one early on, sent it back & factory repaired & returned for $10, I check them regularly with check weights, they are spot on all the time. Check weights are .1 to 500 grans. They can be calibrated for small charges only or for larger loads, two ways. Both work with the Pact auto dispenser, which I had upgraded last yr, now is faster & more accurate. [ American Made ]. My 2¢, Russ.

[cajun shooter]

I have a 1010, 510 in balance beams. About 4 years ago I bought a RCBS Micro-Pro. It broke on me and when I called RCBS I was told to send it to PACT as they made it. Sent it back twice before it was repaired. Purchased a ACW scale off flea bay and it is dead on all the time. I have checked it with the 1010 and 510 and a set of check weights. It was so good that I just bought another one. The best thing is that they cost $24.00 delivered to your door. I'm now a believer in electronic scales.

[qajaq59]

Some guys like the electronic and I happen to like the balance beam. However.... I think we can all agree that whichever one you get, make it the very best you can afford. You're going to have it for a long time so the money wont be wasted. A cheap scale is nothing but a funny looking paperweight.

[XWrench3]

I have 3 scales, 2 balance beam and one electronic. The electronic is really nice, but it can be a pain to use at times. It keeps shutting itself off to save the battery, then i have to start it up and recalibrate it all over. If you are going to weigh something like cast bullets, or cases to seperate them into lots, the electronic one that i have, works great for that. But for throwing powder charges, i will stick to my balance beams. With a balance beam, i can detect `1 kernel of powder dropping, with the electronic one, not. Also, you do know the deal with anything elecronic don't you? It is headed for failure the first time you turn it on. How long that will be is anybody's guess. But i would not want to stake my life on one.

[Hip's Ax]

I use digitals for seperating components and I use beams for powder.

I also use the digital where it makes sense, like when making Mexican Match ammo I use it to weigh every pull down powder charge so I can write it down and decide on what charge to use when reloading them.

Bought the RCBS Chargemaster combo on sale a while back, then after reading the Internet on what makes them respond properly bought a AC filter and also printed out the reprogramming instructions. That project might happen this winter. I want to shoot across the course high power again next year and being able to push a button and dump the powder charge sure would make things go a lot faster. When your shooting 100 rounds at least everytime you practice something like that can save you a lot of lost range time.

In short, right now, the digitals makes me wary so I don't use them for powder.

[bedwards]

I just recently tried my first digital posted here:http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=63132 I think I would check it every few throws of powder with my beams though.

be

[fredj338]

In a scale, you do get what yo upay for. I have had a Dillon digital for years now, in fact my second. The early model had trouble holding a zero. This new model is right on, every time. I also have a RCBS 505 as my backup. The beam scales are accurate but slow & a good digital is accurate & faster. Just don' buy cheap. The Dillon beam scale is $50, best buy in any scale IMO.

[mike in co]

My PACT is a fine electronic scale and I trust it implicitly, after calibrating it, of course.

No electronic scale responds to "trickling" powder in the pan properly. The load cell is not that sensitive to small additions of weight.

Dispense the charge in the pan, then set it on the electronic scale to be weighed. That's how they're meant to be used.

If you're a trickler, use a balance beam scale. Electronic scales don't "catch up" to the small additions of weight that trickling provides very well. Or, as mentioned, add the powder first, then weigh it.

NOT SO YOUNG MAN
i have an mx-123 lab scale (denver instruments), it is sensitive to .02 with a resolution of .03( if i got the names right).
with things like varget you can see a single grain added.

like all things you pays your money and you takes your chances. this scale is over $300, sits on a granite slab 12x18 x3......
i have a older ohaus beam and a ohaus lab beam.
i use the beam to set my powder measures.
i use the mx123 for most small lot match ammo.
for boolit/bullet sorting i use the mx-123....but you do not have to wait for the scale to stop, just wait for it to fall into the range you have settled on.

benchrest powder/bullets/cases all get done on the mx-123

a scale that is +/-0.1 means you can easily be off .2.....sometimes no big deal sometimes it is.

mike in co

[35remington]

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.

[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.