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So I'm thinking now that Ive saved a shit load of pocket money, I might leap into the 21st Century and buy a set of digital scales. Any of you chaps more experienced in this highly technical age have any insights into which brand is worth looking at.
Need reliability, consistent accuracy, and value-for-money......and I spose availability.
Cheers
The Hornady M2 digital bench scales are meant to be very good but around $400, to rich for my blood I just got the G2 1500 for $70.
what about a powder dispenser? has scales....
Go all out and get an auto trickler and a&d set up. I love mine. Super consistent and fast
A&D are great, I don't have the auto trickler but I don't load heaps. Very accurate scale.
Digital scales have a bad habit of being unreliable and expensive.
I would stick to a decent beam balance and if they are slow settling add some magnets (or replace with stronger ones) to the scale. The magnets will not effect the accuracy.
Use a Wright to confirm consistency each time you zero them.
My Lyman beam scales settle very quickly, the pointy end will be sitting still even while the pan is still swinging.
I tried the cheap Hornady G2 1500 electronic scales - the end result is I won't use them for weighing powder.
As alluded to above, there are two basic types of scales. The basic ones use strain gauge technology and their main issue is a tendency to drift during use. The serious scales are of a magnetic restoration force design and the A and D is the cheapest of these. The FX120i has become the default choice for much of the reloading fraternity and Adam McDonald in Canada has based his Autotrickler systems around them.
I have the FX 300i
If precision is your shtik, magnet force restoration scales.
I use A & D scales but they’re bloody expensive. If you follow Mark and Sam over in Aussie, they shoot extreme long range. I think they’ve gone to an auto trickler setup, but before that they were just using Chargemasters from RCBS. Quite often they’d smack a 4-5 inch group at 1000 - 1500 yards prior to really stretching out the barrel to 2-3 kms. Can’t be that important to be in the 0.02 (1 kernel) grain area if they’re getting those results with the 0.1 grain accuracy of the old chargemaster.
I set my powder thrower directly over my A&D and used that clear tubing to take it to the measuring cup. I also have a funnel set along side so i can use a manual trickler. I didnt want the robotic system or even an auto trickler. The law of depreciating returns and all that...
What are your needs for your shooting? If its 300m then you can use an equivalent electronic scale that matches a humble beam scale. Anything within .1gn is fine especially if youre happy with .75 to 1" MOA type precision. I liked my beam scale but its just too slow. The accuracy was fine
Bought a CM Lite off a Forum member recently. Good kit.
the only electronic scales I will trust are the ones I drive a truck n trailer unit over...... which come to think of it is possibly what would happen to a set for weighing powder if it gave me any of the issues of dropping zero etc I read about....my lod LEE balance beam scales are fine...I have ohau ones too but the lee are just plenty good enough.
0.1 resolution on a digi scale is misleading.
That's +/- .1 so effective accuracy is within .3 grain bracket. If that makes sense.
I went digi after being anti a long time. Frankford Arsenal intellidropper from Amazon $375 tyd.
Keep it level. Warm it up for an hour accept that they need rezeroing. By the time I have seated a bullet the next charge is ready.
My ES is usually under 30 fps and often around half that.
Had a look at a mates Frankford Arsenal Auto Trickler last night, Bought it from Reloaders Supplies and looks pretty impressive. Reackons its easy to use and measures to .01 of a grain
Might be the go.
I use A&D FX-500i scales. Same sensitivity as the FX-120i & FX-300ii just even more expensive. I think they were about $1300 six years ago. Are they worth the money? No, not unless you're shooting very long range and then it's debatable. 1/50th of a grain accuracy won't make any difference at 200m over 1/10th of a grain accuracy which is what most decent quality beam scales will achieve.
I did a bit of reloading last night with my A&D scales, one kernel of gun powder = .02 of a grain. It's nice to have piece of mind knowing your loads are as accurate as you can get them.