Thread: Electronic scales

My personal belief is now to just use a very good powder thrower, and a balance beam. A good powder thrower should be +/- 0.1 grain charge to charge.
Check with the beam every once in a while.
If you are doing load developement, still use the beam to get that 0.001 result you want. For most hunting, and medium range target shooting a thrower is good enough.
The accuracy loss is negligible on 0.1 grain and is more likely to be less than by a seating /neck tension anomaly.
And the cost compared to an electronic charge churner is slightly less too.
Of course this is all just what I think, and hey I already have the thrower, if you are starting out and bought a good quality E scale system, you wouldnt need a manual thrower and beam scale untill the E one goes on the blink.

I use a chargemaster.

Results may vary depending on the powder type you use and how much powder but I use only one powder AR2208 and two similar loads (.303 and 7mm08) and find it repeatable for that.

4 throws out of 5 are the exact same weight eg 43.0 gr for me. I allow +0.1 but reject 0.2 if I see it. About every tenth throw is +0.2gr.
Once it has dispensed the charge it beeps then takes 5-10 sec to stabilise and display the checked weight, which shows if its out or exact. I only wait and let it check every 5th load so some overloads will get through. However, I have confidence from hundreds of loads checked that very few are +0.3 or worse.

I also weigh my standard machine nut a couple of times each session and it always comes out at 44.3gr. So it holds calibration within sessions and between sessions to better than 0.1 gr.

Tips / superstitions for use:
Check the flush out tap is closed before pouring powder into the hopper. So it doesn't spill out all over the bench ...
Don't let powder grains fall into the hole where the load cell is (directly under the dispensing tube if you take off the black plastic doolacki.
I don't run the radio or anything else off the same power point.
Shed door is closed to keep out draughts.
Don't try to do anything else like seating bullets while dispensing all the powder. Any bump on the bench can give an out of whack weight.
I use a big MacDonalds Cream Freeze straw ( 0.308" dia) in the dispense tube which improves speed and consistency.
I've adjusted the dispense rate (goes in 3 steps) according to instructions posted by Spanners so search for that. The optimal weight breakpoints to slow down the dispensing will depend on your powder type and the total weight required so experimentation is needed.
The time needed to dispense a load varies a lot for me. The slower ones tend to be more accurate and the very quick ones are sometimes overthrows.

I'm loading ammo for short range hunting and for gongs out to 500m, its not long long range nor bench rest.

I can also get quick and accurate charges using a Lee loader plastic dipper followed by hand trickling into the electronic scales pan and if you don't have the money just now for the full setup that would be very good, just buy the RCBS scales part. I'm not sure the chargemaster is hugely quicker than a beam balance but its much less stress and frustration - just a period of "zoning out" towards the end of a session before the sweet job of seating the projectiles. I would say if you load more that 200-300 rounds a year its probably worth the money.