Vernier Caliper for Precision shooting

J

JNA

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
238   0   0
Hello,

I was wondering which Vernier caliper the precision reloaders recommend getting as my mastercraft caliper is very unreliable.
 
Go quality or go home: Starrett or Mitutoyo.

On the other hand, my no-name chinesium digital calipers seem to suffice for me. Then again, I'm more of a general purpose reloader leaning towards a modicum of precision.
 
The more precise your measuring device, the more you will lament the variance in your other equipment like loading press, powder measure and components.
 
OldDude said:
Go quality or go home: Starrett or Mitutoyo.

On the other hand, my no-name chinesium digital calipers seem to suffice for me. Then again, I'm more of a general purpose reloader leaning towards a modicum of precision.
Click to expand...

Any particular model?
 
adamg said:
The more precise your measuring device, the more you will lament the variance in your other equipment like loading press, powder measure and components.
Click to expand...

Have fairly good equipment, chargemaster, Redding and Forster dies
 
I use both starrett and mitutoyo on my bench. While some might argue the mitutoyo are better quality, the starrett are nicer for me to use for reloading. Auto on/off and larger display. The newer mitutoyo might be auto on/off now, but mine aren’t. It’s a pain. I don’t feel like you can’t go wrong accuracy wise. It’s nice to have a couple of pairs as well. I leave a Hornady comparator body on one all the time.
 
For the price, this might be acceptable if the major job it will do is repetitive batch measures of same caliber case.
 
I had good luck buying a used Starrett dial caliper on eBay. It was damaged, so I sent it to Starret for repair. They reconditioned it for free, and shipped it back to me also free.
Costs to me were maybe $50, for an excellent tool. No batteries, easy to read, reliable.
I would not consider using a digital caliper.
 
Mitutoyo is pretty much the gold standard these days.

Plan to spend $150 (Amazon) if you want one.

I have an older Mitutoyo dial caliper that I use for reloading. My work caliper is a digital Mitutoyo. No problems with either.

The last Starrett dial caliper I had was a POS, their quality has slipped badly.
 
Ganderite said:
I have a digital, a dial and a vernier.

I don't trust the digital. I prefer the dial. Very easy to read quickly.
Click to expand...

I second this.
I've never had a dead battery on my dial caliper. Digital battery seems to be dead at the most inopportune times, usually when I just used the last battery for something else.

On a side note, I have a very nice Mitutoyo that doesn't work anymore. Sounds like you can send a Starret for free warranty work. Can you send a Mitutoyo somewhere to get fixed?
 
20180821-135053.jpg

I tend to be trilingual. Use Mitutoyo at work.
 
Greg S said:
I second this.
I've never had a dead battery on my dial caliper. Digital battery seems to be dead at the most inopportune times, usually when I just used the last battery for something else.

On a side note, I have a very nice Mitutoyo that doesn't work anymore. Sounds like you can send a Starret for free warranty work. Can you send a Mitutoyo somewhere to get fixed?
Click to expand...

Tried cleaning battery contacts yet?

https://www.mitutoyo.ca/
 
For the once in a while use I get out of mine, I use two Canadian Tire digitals and just take the batteries out. As you might guess, I am not a precision shooter.
 
I use TESA calipers.
Not the crappy Brown and Sharpe "TESA" calipers that now have some parts made in China and assembled in Switzerland.
Spendy tho.
 
For reloading I would look at insize, asimeto, KAR industrial or Sowa. You don't need to go spending 150.00 + on a digital caliper for measuring the stuff you'd encounter in reloading, and realistically a caliper should only really be trusted to within +/- .005" anyway. For me personally I have a 6" digital asimeto that I use around the home shop and for reloading and it works well enough, it's not as nice as my Mitutoyo's at work but it was also 1/4 the price. I'd stop into one of your local machine shop suppliers and look at their seasonal sales catalog, they usually will have decent deals on various measuring tools. I think I got my asimeto caliper on sale for something like 60.00.
 
Lucite said:
For reloading I would look at insize, asimeto, KAR industrial or Sowa. You don't need to go spending 150.00 + on a digital caliper for measuring the stuff you'd encounter in reloading, and realistically a caliper should only really be trusted to within +/- .005" anyway. For me personally I have a 6" digital asimeto that I use around the home shop and for reloading and it works well enough, it's not as nice as my Mitutoyo's at work but it was also 1/4 the price. I'd stop into one of your local machine shop suppliers and look at their seasonal sales catalog, they usually will have decent deals on various measuring tools. I think I got my asimeto caliper on sale for something like 60.00.
Click to expand...

+2 for Asimeto. Got one as recommended by a machinist friend who uses both Mitutoyo and Asimeto tools and it is good enough for the precision requirements of reloading.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom