reloading scale options...

[texasgunhand]

If you were gona buy a new scale for reloading what would you buy? The rcbs or hornady chargemasters are nice,but 300 bucks. So lets just stick to beam or digital. Iam thinking of buying another when i send my 505 back to rcbs to be checked. If i could subtract the hour i spend dealing with it,, loading would be much more fun.

Ive done everything it still gets off zero and iam tired of wasteing 40 mins. trying to get it zeroed were i trust it. Just fyi i talked to rcbs today they want me to send it in. 2 or 3 week turnaround
And ive honestly spent as much time dealing with it as reloading.

Please give me some ideas on a scale thats fast and trust worthy.Thanks.....

[MikeDawg46L]

I was in the same boat recently. I use a Frankford digital to verify my powder measure is throwing consistently, but was trickling with a newer 505 for my precision loads. It is a pain in the ass. Slow to respond, finicky even with the garage door shut and no air flow blowing around. Though, I can't complain about it not holding zero.

After doing some research, I bought a used and very vintage Ohaus 1010 off ebay for about $100 in very good condition. It is beastly in it's construction compared to the new 505 made-in-Mexico RCBS/Ohaus scale that it is replacing. It zeroes very well, and is very quick settling and responding when trickling. I haven't put it through the paces so to speak, but initial thoughts on it are positive.

I believe there is a guy on accurateshooters forum named Scott Parker that does additional "tuning" on these scales that is really supposed to put them over the top, and the pricing isn't terrible. I'm thinking of contacting him to see what he can do on this.

[MegademiC]

I have a Dillon beam scale and it's nice. I wouldn't pay extra for digital, you can get very accurate with beam. If your checking every load, maybe, but for occasional checks ( I do 2 or three per loading campaign), it's not worth it to me.

Verify zero.
Check first load.
Load 10, check
Load a hundred or 200, check.
Check last round.

Zeroing takes about 1 min, i moved the scale. If not, it stays zeroed.

[IraqVet1982]

For $25 this does the trick.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001KZ7JLW/

[T2C]

For $25 this does the trick.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001KZ7JLW/

That is dirt cheap. If it maintains accuracy, it is a good deal.

If you are thinking about buying a mechanical powder trickler, you may want to consider an alternative. When I trickle powder into a pan, I roll a 30-06 cartridge case back and forth to drop powder. It's faster and less messy.

[texasgunhand]

Lol, great idea for a powder trickler. I was thinking of going digital becouse of the speed,as stated sometimes it takes 3 hours to load 30 bullets becouse of the problems with the 505.
Iam going to send it back,but its a 3 week wait from rcbs. I dont wana be down that long.


I dont mind spending 100 bucks if it will help,i spend more time zeroing my scale than reloading at this point.
I would like a digital than can be used during the trickle part ive read some dont like that.

I also dont weigh every charge,, just like every tenth or so. My uniflow seems to stay were i set it. But i would be kinda scared not to be able to check and make sure.

[markm]

I run the 505 and the RCBS Chargemaster. Both have their place. What is the 505 doing to give you problems?

[IraqVet1982]

That is dirt cheap. If it maintains accuracy, it is a good deal.

If you are thinking about buying a mechanical powder trickler, you may want to consider an alternative. When I trickle powder into a pan, I roll a 30-06 cartridge case back and forth to drop powder. It's faster and less messy.
Mine remains accurate

[texasgunhand]

It wont stay zeroed,ive leveled the table etc. You can zero it and check just zero and it jumps off. Throw a couple of charges then check zero and its off either high or low.

It also takes about 5 or 6 swipes to stop bouncing,i have a 20 year old one that a guy gave me it bounces twice then stops but theres no telling what its been through,becouse he didnt use it for reloading.
I called rcbs told them this,they said send it back of course theres a 3 week turn around.

Sometimes it will zero then get off and you have to turn the leveling wheel alot more than you should to rezero,then its off hi or low by that amount again. Ive cleaned it , everything looks ok and its very sensitive if you move your hand by it fast it will make it move so its working. Ive moved everything away from it etc no help. The 3 week wait time,if i have to buy ammo for 2 for that long i could buy another scale, or just not shoot i guess. Also the leveling wheel is really sloppy compared to the 20 years old one,i just chalked that up to being like everything else,made cheaper for more money.

My kit was made on a Monday.When i got it i had to retap the block the handel screws into becouse the threads not all the way through,so the handel would only screw into the left side of the press.

Also had to take a round file and remove the flashing or casting that wasnt removed on the uniflow powder thrower inside the spout,called rcbs on that one, got told in a pissed off way to either fix it myself or send it back.
So all together i would be waiting about 9 weeks in turn around time on these three things if i sent them back one at a time,as i found the problems.

I didnt think when i bought rcbs stuff that i would have to finish the the machine work for them,i was wrong.
So far the hand primers working good though.

[CrazyIrishman]

I use my Dillion digital for bulk rifle and pistol. and a My Weigh gem pro 250 for my precision rifle stuff no complaints with either for what I use them for. Dillion by far is the best company to deal with customer service wise, they just gave me $280 worth of free replacement parts on my square deal B, almost 25 years old now and loaded tens of thousands of rounds so they didn't need to replace anything because i was going to pay for what needed to b replaced anyway, but they did! and I've heard similar things about about My Weigh as far as quality of there products and there customer service and how they stand behind their product also. I have zero complaints about either but I say that with reference to nothing is perfect, and there's not much out there that's priced similar that does the same function leaps and bounds Better (for lack of a better word, hehe no pun intended)

[MegademiC]

On a digital, make sure the tray is not holding a charge, and that where it sits is spotless. Our scale at work (down to 10,000ths grams) goes whacky sometimes. Washing followed by a cold rinse( both of the tray) and blowing/wiping out under the tray fixes it.

[snowdog650]

I use a GemPro 250. For $150 ... I can't find anything else even in the same ballpark.

[waveslayer]

I use a GemPro 250. For $150 ... I can't find anything else even in the same ballpark.
I agree, just that I have had 2 brake for no apparent reason. .. but they replaced them. just the down time hurt my reloading for a bit. but the Gem pro has reduced my SD to the single digits

[SlimMan]

I've had a few inexpensive scales and felt that I got what I paid for. I would either go for a quality beam (e.g. RCBS) or a Dillon digital (which gets most of the use on my bench). The Dillon has been excellent (I think I paid a little over 100), easy to zero, maintains zero, big display, runs off battery or cord, sturdy and reliable.

[texasgunhand]

Think i will check out the gem or dillon,i need to check out dillons web page,is there any other way to get a dillon other than from dillon i dont see them at midway when i looked.

[T2C]

If you can't find a Dillon dealer locally, you could try Brian Enos. http://www.brianenos.com/store/dillon.html

[rcoodyar15]

this is just my opinion and my experience.

first is how accurate do you really need to be?

Personally I think for accuracy a beam scale is the best. Lots of them out there of varying quality. Most are slow to use. This is the best powder dispenser out there and it uses a beam scale.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sqNcs-uWzY


Now for me the beam was too slow. I purchased the lyman powder dispenser. I was curious how accurate the powder charges were.

Wanted a scale that weighed to 0.02 grains. Now I looked at the little gem but it seemed the warm up time was a little long. Found this http://www.affordablescales.com/ohaus/yj-grain/ and have been very happy with it.

I found that my lyman could have powder charges that were as much as 0.08 grains +/-. Now that is over 0.15 grs. most would say that is unacceptable.

Now I dump with my lyman and trickle on the ohaus. Lots slower. Thinking of just getting an old timey powder measure and dump charges and trickle. Probably would be faster.

I think it all depends on how accurate you want to be. +/- 0.1 grains or better. For most it won't matter. For me accurate powder charges eliminated all my vertical spread.

[texasgunhand]

How about jennings scales ?Any one have any luck with them?

Jennings jsvg20....0.05 grain accuracy not bad for the money. Maybe more of a gem scale?

http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/jennings-jscale-jsvg20.html