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bdb.hunting

bdb.hunting

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Hello All,

EDIT* just for everyone who has commented I appreciate the feedback. I went back to the article I was reading and it referenced both Grams and Grains so that caused some confusion. The load data is to .1 Grain.

With boxing day coming up I have one thing on my mind and that is a good quality scale. I have a Lee Beam Scale that came with my kit but am looking for something with a little more accuracy for load development and fine tuning.

Edit! I am not looking for an autotrickler/dispenser just a scale.

Budget is ideally under $500.00

What are you using and why ? Did it come with check/calibration weights ?

.1 or .01 accuracy would be ideal.

Cheers,
B
 
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What's your budget? The tried and true scale/dispenser most are using is the rcbs chargemaster or chargemaster lite. The gold standard seems to be the a&d fx120 with the autotrickler setup. I'd be surprised if either of those options are on sale cause of boxing day
 
laker415 said:
What's your budget? The tried and true scale/dispenser most are using is the rcbs chargemaster or chargemaster lite. The gold standard seems to be the a&d fx120 with the autotrickler setup. I'd be surprised if either of those options are on sale cause of boxing day
Click to expand...

Made an Edit. looking for a scale so A&D FX120 has been added to the list. More so I can say it went on sale :D
 
For what it's worth, the Lee scale is more sensitive than the Ohaus beam scales.Which means more accurate.Ohaus use to make their reloading scales in the States, now they are made in Mexico .Not recommended. Ohaus use to make RCBS scales. I don't know about now. The old 5-0-5 was the classic, the 10-10 the queen. The larger capacity allows weighing brass, important in loading. 30-06 cases run from approximately 175gr to 200gr. Heavier case, less volume.

I don't have load sensor electronic reloading scale , but much like cell phones, technology marches on. check around. Sales??, you will be lucky just to find anything.
 
I found the old RCBS 505 to be too light, and easy to knock over on the bench, along with taking too long to settle, haven't tried out the newer 500 or 1000 models. That was 30-35 yrs ago or so. Ended up with a Hornady M scale at the time, nice heavy base and it is dampened properly, like night and day difference to use, and plenty sensitive enough. 1010 was a great scale, never tried Redding or Dillon or Lyman. If you can set up the newer ones in the store, I'd try them, to compare to your Lee.
 
bdb.hunting said:
Hello All,

With boxing day coming up I have one thing on my mind and that is a good quality scale. I have a Lee Beam Scale that came with my kit but am looking for something with a little more accuracy for load development and fine tuning.

Edit! I am not looking for an autotrickler/dispenser just a scale.

Budget is ideally under $500.00

What are you using and why ? Did it come with check/calibration weights ?

.1 or .01 accuracy would be ideal.

Cheers,
B
Click to expand...


Are you looking for a beam or electronic scale? I have a 1010 Ohaus, Hornady Pacific, RCBS 505, Hornady LNL and an older Redding beam scales all made in the USA and all very accurate except for the Hornady LNL beam. However these days I just use a Hornady electronic bench scale that is as accurate as any of the beams.
As downwindtracker said the Lee is really accurate but is a pain to use. I had one but gave it away as I don’t have that kind of patience anymore.
Also depends on how accurate you want to be. Majority of scales are advertised as being 1/10 grain accurate but if you are one who wants to be within .001 grain like some then $500 is a down payment.
Be careful of buying a used beam unless you can see it operate with check weights.
As far as some scales being too light and moving that is easily fixed with filling the cavity with lead shot and cutting a 1/4” piece of balsa wood to snugly fit into bottom. Scale will never move.
Whatever you do get repeatability is king and so is having a good set of check weights. The scale can be out by a certain amount through the range but if it repeats then that is what you want. Knowing how much is easy to compensate for.
 
You can buy a RCBS Chargemaster Lite on Amazon.ca for $429.00 right now. I bought one a while ago to replace my much-used, and often abused, Lyman DPS. Personally I like the RCBC unit more.
 
Your concern about accuracy - I have a Hornady beam scale with magnetic damping, and an RCBS Chargemaster Lite - both are "accurate" to 0.1 grains, so far as their manufacturer information says. You will see the readout change or the pointer move with a single granule of most log-type powders. Not sure why you would care for more than that, unless you intend to "chop" individual logs of powder - which would change the burning rate on that piece. Is nice to think that you are "more accurate" with a 0.01 or even a 0.001 grain scale, but that is simply spinning wheels, I think.

Do not confuse accuracy listed in "grains" versus "grams" - is an error that I think some make?? For example, the A&D FX120 is accurate to 0.001 grams - that is 0.015 (and change) grains. I am not aware of any loading data that specifies down to 0.015 grains powder weight, nor can many common powders be dispensed to that accuracy level.
 
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Potashminer said:
Your concern about accuracy - I have a Hornady beam scale with magnetic damping, and an RCBS Chargemaster Lite - both are "accurate" to 0.1 grains, so far as their manufacturer information says. You will see the readout change or the pointer move with a single granule of most log-type powders. Not sure why you would care for more than that, unless you intend to "chop" individual logs of powder - which would change the burning rate on that piece. Is nice to think that you are "more accurate" with a 0.01 or even a 0.001 grain scale, but that is simply spinning wheels, I think. Do not confuse accuracy listed in "grains" versus "grams" - is an error that I think some make??
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Yup. Absolutely. I have a Lee Safety Powder scale that came in the Anniversary Kit I bought in the early 90s. I have a Gem Pro, an RCBS 10-10, and a few automated powder dispenser. Despite it's age and bare bones, that old Lee Safety scale still works just as well as anything I have. Rigged with a needle and webcam, you can get incredible precision with a balance scale. I only have digital scales and dispensers to make life easier when I want to weigh rather than throw charges. Throwing low and trickling up on a balance scale is as accurate as you could hope to be.

It's more about what you're loading and what you want to do than it is any scale or dispenser being outright better.
 
I got an EJ-54D2 from Cambridge Environmental. Total to my door was just over $400. If you email them they'll likely give you a discount code to purchase. Just make sure to do it via their Canadian website, not the USA one.
 
Scales for reloading aren’t necessarily about accuracy more consistency. It doesn’t matter if your 0.1 gr out of actual weight as long as you can consistently repeat it.

I prefer solid state beam scales. Drift etc bothers me with digital.

Enjoy your choice.

SCG
 
Southcountryguy said:
Scales for reloading aren’t necessarily about accuracy more consistency. It doesn’t matter if your 0.1 gr out of actual weight as long as you can consistently repeat it.

I prefer solid state beam scales. Drift etc bothers me with digital.

Enjoy your choice.

SCG
Click to expand...

This is where I am at.

If I was replacing the two I have, this would be my Choice; RCBS M1000:
s-l1600.jpg


There are a few in Canada; send me a message if you can't find one.
 
Potashminer said:
Your concern about accuracy - I have a Hornady beam scale with magnetic damping, and an RCBS Chargemaster Lite - both are "accurate" to 0.1 grains, so far as their manufacturer information says. You will see the readout change or the pointer move with a single granule of most log-type powders. Not sure why you would care for more than that, unless you intend to "chop" individual logs of powder - which would change the burning rate on that piece. Is nice to think that you are "more accurate" with a 0.01 or even a 0.001 grain scale, but that is simply spinning wheels, I think.

Do not confuse accuracy listed in "grains" versus "grams" - is an error that I think some make?? For example, the A&D FX120 is accurate to 0.001 grams - that is 0.015 (and change) grains. I am not aware of any loading data that specifies down to 0.015 grains powder weight, nor can many common powders be dispensed to that accuracy level.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the comment it made me go back and read the article and that's what it was. Causing me confusion they used a scale that is go to 0.05 but it used vihtavuori powders so they talked in grams as well. Which confused the hell out of me and translation probably didn't help.
 
Meroh said:
This is where I am at.

If I was replacing the two I have, this would be my Choice; RCBS M1000:
s-l1600.jpg


There are a few in Canada; send me a message if you can't find one.
Click to expand...

Now I do like that beam scale. I find the Lee tricky to use and maybe thats what caused the problem for me ? this one seems to have very defined needle points. I see X-reload has some.
 
Potashminer said:
Your concern about accuracy - I have a Hornady beam scale with magnetic damping, and an RCBS Chargemaster Lite - both are "accurate" to 0.1 grains, so far as their manufacturer information says. You will see the readout change or the pointer move with a single granule of most log-type powders. Not sure why you would care for more than that, unless you intend to "chop" individual logs of powder - which would change the burning rate on that piece. Is nice to think that you are "more accurate" with a 0.01 or even a 0.001 grain scale, but that is simply spinning wheels, I think.

Do not confuse accuracy listed in "grains" versus "grams" - is an error that I think some make?? For example, the A&D FX120 is accurate to 0.001 grams - that is 0.015 (and change) grains. I am not aware of any loading data that specifies down to 0.015 grains powder weight, nor can many common powders be dispensed to that accuracy level.
Click to expand...

While the FX 120i is a great scale for weighing powder, it is not limited to that.

I use mine to weigh powder, bullets, and brass (with and without water). it is user friendly and settles fairly quick.....a joy to use.

Also makes any internal software that you may be using more accurate.
 
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