In need of a new scale - suggestions?

[sierracharlie338]

I’m looking to upgrade my scale from a range master 750. Scale still works but I don’t have 100% confidence in it.

Before you toss a 500-1000$ scale out there let me save you some typing. That ain’t happening. It has been a while but I seem to remember hearing good things about the Gempros but they seem to be hard to find these days.

Well with the being said let’s see what you got!

 

[cleric]

Skip the gem pro...they take a while to settle...also I don’t believe the accuracy I have never gotten an odd value

 

[Steel head]

Get a charge master.
or a hornandy auto charge.
The Hornandy is cheap when it’s on sale.

so much nicer.

 

[Schw15]

Rcbs chargemaster lite fast and accurate. Had a hornady liked it but didnt last and find the rcbs way better

 

[Ryridesmotox]

Have no complaints about my frankford intellidropper. Its been good to go for about 1k rounds of 223 and 308 since December. Got it on sale for 160 shipped... from frankford during their black friday sale.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Get a charge master.
or a hornandy auto charge.
The Hornandy is cheap when it’s on sale.

so much nicer.

I have the Hornady version of the charge master. I’ve been really dissatisfied with how it performs. I spend more time fixing charges than I do throwing with a powder drop and trickling up. I may need to pull it out and try it again. The straw method didn’t seem to help much either.

Always seen the RCBS chargemaster but the Hornady has put a bad taste in my mouth despite how much good I hear about the RCBS. That may be the route I end up going.

 

[Steel head]

I have the Hornady version of the charge master. I’ve been really dissatisfied with how it performs. I spend more time fixing charges than I do throwing with a powder drop and trickling up. I may need to pull it out and try it again. The straw method didn’t seem to help much either.

Always seen the RCBS chargemaster but the Hornady has put a bad taste in my mouth despite how much good I hear about the RCBS. That may be the route I end up going.

The straw mod works wonders wonders on the Hornandy
My buddy with a chatgmaster needed the straw mod as well to a slightly lesser degree.
I do feel the RCBS is a nicer unit but your not buying one for $160

 

[Painterbolt]

Rcbs chargemaster lite is awesome. I have a V3 autotrickler now and honestly for most shooting the only thing your saving with the autotrickler is time. I dont really notice a difference in extreme speeds between the two.

 

[sierracharlie338]

The straw mod works wonders wonders on the Hornandy
My buddy with a chatgmaster needed the straw mod as well to a slightly lesser degree.
I do feel the RCBS is a nicer unit but your not buying one for $160

I’m getting one of the sleeves a member on here sells that I just happened to stumble over. I’ll give that a go and report back if I’ll still be needing a scale

 

[Rocketvapor]

Confidence in weighing is mostly on the human.
With your 50 grams/750grain cheap Range Master digital you NEED a CHECK WEIGHT close to your target powder charge. If you are tossing 35 grains of powder you need a check weight CLOSE to that.
You can put the check weight in the PAN anytime you want. Reads right or it don't.

You can also look at the tare value of the pan each time you lift it. Same each time, or not.
Or, I guess you can just check each toss on a beam scale.

+/- 0.1 grain accuracy with a even number only scale?

 

[magtech]

If you dont mind doing simple math get an old/used .0001 GRAM scale. These measure about to .02 grain accurately and can be had ~100 on ebay. Mine only displays grams so i have to do the conversion when figuring out a load. Problem solved

 

[sierracharlie338]

Confidence in weighing is mostly on the human.
With your 50 grams/750grain cheap Range Master digital you NEED a CHECK WEIGHT close to your target powder charge. If you are tossing 35 grains of powder you need a check weight CLOSE to that.
You can put the check weight in the PAN anytime you want. Reads right or it don't.

You can also look at the tare value of the pan each time you lift it. Same each time, or not.
Or, I guess you can just check each toss on a beam scale.

+/- 0.1 grain accuracy with a even number only scale?

Good points. I’ve seen a change in Tare weight of the pan as I’m weighing charges and that’s one of the biggest things that makes me uneasy with the 750. I may also try loading inside instead of the closed garage.

 

[Rocketvapor]

A large cardboard box with a opening might help.
I use a cheap digital and time my charges between HVAC cycles.
My charging is also done in the KLAS, except when using a thrower at the reloading bench.
I can hear the purge fan start up and that gives me time to complete one more charge before the furnace fan starts blowing.
I head for the interweb and wait for the furnace to cut off

When you put a pan on a cheaper digital scale and tare, then add powder and remove the pan, the next zero may be an "autozero". If the scale has drifted due to temperature, or any reason, that "autozero" may drift back the next weighing. Try Pan on, ADD check weight, remove pan, replace empty pan, a few times.
Doesn't take that long.

 

[Alabusa]

I have zero complaints with my Lyman Gen 6. I get single digit es & sd #s with it. It's not the fastest but has been dead on accurate for me.

 

[Rocketvapor]

@Alabusa
Single digit ES and SD is great. Your reloading is dead on, but your weighing accuracy is NOT Dead on.
Really really good maybe but not dead on.

@magtech
I use Carats
The cheap scale I use has the best RESOLUTION in Carats, because of decimal point placement.
I calculate grains to carats, and use a post-it with the closest count below and above my target right on the front of the scale.

For example, if I'm tossing 31 grains (31.0gr= 10.04383ct ) the post it note will show
10.045, 10.040 as upper/lower limits. My check weight for that load would be 2 grams.
30.9 grains would be a about 6 counts low, 31.1 about 6 counts counts high (corrected typo).

 

[sierracharlie338]

@Alabusa
Single digit ES and SD is great. Your reloading is dead on, but your weighing accuracy is NOT Dead on.
Really really good maybe but not dead on.

@magtech
I use Carats
The cheap scale I use has the best RESOLUTION in Carats, because of decimal point placement.
I calculate grains to carats, and use a post-it with the closest count below and above my target right on the front of the scale.

For example, if I'm tossing 31 grains (31.0gr= 10.04383ct ) the post it note will show
10.045, 10.040 as upper/lower limits. My check weight for that load would be 2 grams.
30.9 grains would be a about 6 counts low, 31.1 about 6 counts counts high (corrected typo).

What scale are you using? I was looking at some that do that carat weight for around 200$

 

[R0man]

This small cheap scale is the most accurate I have. 0.02 grains. It detects individual kernels.
The design is bad, the pan is way too slow. This scale was designed for jewelry.
What I do is to put another pan on top of its pan.
It is very good to use it for checking after you use another method.

Amazon.com: American Weigh Scale Gemini Series Precision Digital Milligram Scale, Silver 20G X 0.001G (GEMINI-20) (Silver): Kitchen & Dining

Amazon.com: American Weigh Scale Gemini Series Precision Digital Milligram Scale, Silver 20G X 0.001G (GEMINI-20) (Silver): Kitchen & Dining

www.amazon.com

 

[Rocketvapor]

@R0man

That is a really poorly designed scale but it is pretty sensitive.

 

[Rocketvapor]

Where's that German guy telling us to go be poor someplace else



The 31.6g on the post it should be 31.6gr.
31.6 grains = 2.0476 grams
31.6 grains= 10.238 carats (somewhere between 10.235 and 10.240 carats)

If your scale LSD is 0.1 grain then 31.6 grains is 316 counts.
If it counts by 2's it's only 158 counts
If your scale LSD is 0.02 grain the 31.6 grains is 1580 counts.
If your scale LSD is 0.001 gram then 31.6 grains 2048 counts.
If it counts by 2's it's 1024 counts
If your scale LSD is 0.005 carats (counts by 0.005 ct) then 31.6 grains is the same 2048 counts.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Where's that German guy telling us to go be poor someplace else.
The 31.6g on the post it should be 31.6gr.
31.6 grains = 2.0476 grams
31.6 grains= 10.238 carats (somewhere between 10.235 and 10.240 carats)

If your scale LSD is 0.1 grain then 31.6 grains is 316 counts.
If it counts by 2's it's only 158 counts
If your scale LSD is 0.02 grain the 31.6 grains is 1580 counts.
If your scale LSD is 0.001 gram then 31.6 grains 2048 counts.
If it counts by 2's it's 1024 counts
If your scale LSD is 0.005 carats (counts by 0.005 ct) then 31.6 grains is the same 2048 counts.

So what you’re saying is as long as you do the math nothing could go wrong?
What if math isn’t our strong suit

 

[Rocketvapor]

"What if math isn’t our strong suit "
Some people just don't like extra math when reloading.
Or some of those metric measurement units.
Once you've done it a couple times, it's pretty easy.
Then there is Google. If you type "31.6 grains to carats" into Google the conversion will be magically displayed. I document the grains and carats of my loads.
To keep from getting mixed up I write the values on the note on the front of the scale.
If I load 10 rounds @ 31.4, 10@ 31.6, and 10@ 31.8, each has the value written down.
buy a good scale and you don't need the math.

For that 31.6 grain load I could just press the 'Units' button to check my math.
But checks and double checks are necessary unless you have confidence your weighing is Dead On.
The check weight method sort of verifies your calculations and that your scale is 'accurate' near your target value.

What is the value of the CALIBRATION weight used to calibrate YOUR scale?
50 grams? 20 grams? How big is your usual powder charge?
If, in addition to the "Calibration" weights supplied with your scale, a small set of check weights like a 1,2,2,5 gram set, you could double check charges at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 grams.
Powder charges near 15.432 grains, 30.865 grains, etc up to bullet weights of 154.3 grains.

 

[R0man]

Yes, the design is very poor for reloading, but that is a jewelry scale. They have another one with a bigger weighting tray but I did not test it personally. It looks like behind is same scale, so it to be assumed that is good too https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Weigh-...B00ESHDGOI/ref=pd_cp_79_1/147-8271201-8418102

 

[Rocketvapor]

I would search for a video of the scale you select. Watch closely for resolution while weighting not just 100.000.
Know if it counts by 1, 2, or 5.
A 300 or 400 gram scale that costs less than $1000 is going to have a resolution / accuracy problem at 1 or 2 grams.

I have a cheap 300 gram scale the larger one with rechargeable batteries that reads to 0.001 gram all the way to 300. Will display something like 299.999 and 300.001 grams. It's pretty good about 30 grams and up and I use it to compare weights between my reference set of weights and working set.
One or two or 3 digits drift/repeatability at 300 grams isn't much. At 3 grams it makes a difference. I can average most of that out using multiple substitution weighing methods.

It does seem to be well built, for a load cell scale. Th load cell is a good 500 gram rated one with the electronics scaling that to 300 grams.
While it reads to a milligram I would not trust it under 30 grams or so, even as a comparitor.
I also bought one of the 3 kilogram models that seems good at 500 grams, 1 and 2 kilograms.
It reads to 10 milligrams.

The 3000 gram and 300 gram scales with more appropriate weight values.