Newbie questions...

Fozy

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Just started to reload and have two questions...

When you are tumbling your brass when do you change out your medium?

I want to buy a digital scale....what makes one better from another?
 
I change the medium when the cases take too long to clean or don't clean well. The time depends on the physical size of the brass and how dirty it is, for example I did a friends 45-70 black powder cases and the media became dirty very quickly. I don't own a digital scale but at work we used some from "my weigh" on the net and they seemed to work well and had very good warranty so they might be worth a try.
 
As far as the scale goes....one night after having a few too many and reading a fair amount online I ordered an RCBS Chargemaster Combo. I've done a lot of dumb things when I've had too many, but I don't regret buying that thing one bit. Lots of money, but is it ever nice.
 
The charge master is a very nice scale, very accurate.
What are your needs: Are you looking to load for rifle precision shooting or for handgun plinking?
Whats your budget?

You can look at it in 2 ways.
If your just starting out you may want to buy a less expensive beam scale and upgrade as you go along or you can buy something deluxe like a charge master but only have to buy one scale.
The nice thing about dispensing scales like the chargemaster is that it is automated, you punch in the number of grains and it dispenses it for you without you having to fidget and trickle the grains onto the scale.
As far as the dryer sheets, it does work to an extent.
My wife saves all the old used ones for me and i just add one or 2 in with the media and they do collect the dust nicely.
 
I saw one of those scales made by RCBS...it was pretty accurate when the loads were measured on a high end scale

I want to do some hunting loads and some precision stuff.
 
Consider getting a beam scale first. Later, after you purchased an electronic scale/dispenser, you can use the beam scale to double check weights as you go along.
 
Digital scales vary hugely in quality vs beam scales. you really get what you pay for with them.

The differences deal mainly with repeatability, sensitivity and accuracy to a lesser extent.

Digital Scales are usually accurate to .1 of a grain and some are more accurate such as the Acculab Vicon scales which are accurate to a .02 of a grain.

You can get by no problem with a .1 grain scales which IIRC the chargemaster is. I'm saying accuracy is less important because pretty much all digital scales are advertized as being accurate to .1gr or less.

Sensitivity is a big factor. by that I mean the ability of the scale to pick up minute changes to the weight such as trickling powder onto the pan.

I have a cheaper cabelas powder scale and a pricey Acculab Vicon 123. with the Cabelas one if I trickle small bits of powder at a time it won't pick up the difference until i'm way over that amount in powder. however with the acculab I can literally drop a single tiny pellet of powder onto the pan and it will register.

And lastly is repeatability.

The biggest challenge with digital scales is that they can lose their zero and sometimes vary in their readings for numerous reasons. This is mainly due to their sensitivity in having so many factors in your environment from your breathing to temp changes in the room which can have an effect on your measurement.

The cheaper ones have a hard time keeping their zero and maintaining their accuracy while the more expensive powder scales do a much better job of being consistent and don't require as much worry when it comes to zeroing as well as the weight fluctuating on the pan.

Plus that variation gets smaller with the better scales. A cheap scale can wander upwards of 1gr if you don't keep an eye on them while better quality ones usually only vary between .1 of a grain and some even less such as the acculab which has been known to wander around .04-.06 of a grain. Hardly something to worry about.

Most individual extruded powder pellets weigh between .02 of a grain (obviously I can't measure any less lol) to .06 or more depending on the powder.
 
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