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.
Starrett 798Any particular model?
I have a digital, a dial and a vernier.
I don't trust the digital. I prefer the dial. Very easy to read quickly.
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?
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.