Digital Scales

358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I'm thinking about giving digital scales another opportunity to displease me. Does anybody have a digital scale that they feel is really working well for them that they're willing to recommend?
 
Chris

Chris

Well-Known Member
Nope.

Got a Dillon scale, it's a little faster than leveling my balance scale but that's all the good I can say. It loses zero frequently and I don't trust it. Handy for quickly weighing bullets, cases, etc. It eats batteries. I can live without it.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I have two, been using both for several years now and wouldn't be without either one. I have the Dillon and the RCBS in the Chargemaster. At any time I can transfer weighed powder from the RCBS to the Dillon and the weights are spot on the same. On a rare occasion they will disagree by a tenth of a grain. If one is inaccurate or off they both have the same problem and that's pretty doubtful.
 
Chris

Chris

Well-Known Member
Must be my Dillon is defective. It will be reliably off by 0.3 grains within a couple measurements.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Hhmmm batteries, I've never had a battery in mine. Much simpler to just plug it into the wall.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Chris said:
Must be my Dillon is defective. It will be reliably off by 0.3 grains within a couple measurements.
Click to expand...

I do hit the re-zero button every now and then, mostly just out of habit I think and it doesn't hurt anything so . . .
.
 
358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
My Hornady (okay, Pacific) beam scale has developed an issue with sticking at irregular intervals that no cleaning has been able to rectify. I have a friend pulling down samples of my reloads to check the accuracy of the weights I thought I loaded them with.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
I have no recommendation for anything electronic having to do with powder weighing. Gravity and check weights are fickle enough without adding magic pixies and Chinese transducers to the mix. The one cheap scale I do have was purchased for 'more speedier' bullet sorting and barely works for that...operative word "cheap", as in $30 on sale.

There is an unopened, NIB chargemaster still sitting under one of my workbenches, through, having never taken Rick's advice to use it. Maybe one day.
 
Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I tend to use a Hornady digital for setting the measure on the Dillon. For anything approaching max loads I gravitate towards the old Lyman beam scale.
In many ways my best tool for this is my Harrell's measure. I record the settings and every time I go back it is dead on. Nice to have that kind of confidence.

I own an RCBS digital but I find it sucks when trickling charges. Haven't used it in years.
 
Mike W1

Mike W1

Active Member
Have an older Pact BBK which I've had "fair" luck with but I only use it to double check with. Pact's service isn't something I've had very good luck with either. Sent it back once for service and it times out pretty quickly. Tech said it did before too but I really don't think it did. I ran a lot of tests with check weights and did not find it to be very repeatable with the same weight so it became something I only use to weigh cast bullets.

Then I bought a little FA scale on sale and this thing actually seems to work well. I've abandoned the Pact pretty much and use this little bugger. I do use it to check charges on occasion on my SDB but only as a check. If I were to reset the measure it'd be via my Lyman/Ohaus balance beam. FWIW
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Brad said:
I own an RCBS digital but I find it sucks when trickling charges. Haven't used it in years.
Click to expand...

I let the Chargemaster do 100% of all trickling and it does a right fine job of it. I bought the Chargemaster specifically for SR4759 but it wasn't long before I was using it for all powders.
.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
I'm not going to argue with Rick on the Chargemaster, but I own five different beam scales and the RCBS 505 is hands down the best of the beam lot. It's amazing to me how RCBS is the only one that (IMO) managed to perfect such a seemingly simple instrument, or how badly so many other popular and classic brands managed to screw up the usability of such a simple and effective instrument.
 
USSR

USSR

Finger Lakes Region of NY
Ian said:
...the RCBS 505 is hands down the best of the beam lot. It's amazing to me how RCBS is the only one that (IMO) managed to perfect such a seemingly simple instrument, or how badly so many other popular and classic brands managed to screw up the usability of such a simple and effective instrument.
Click to expand...

+1. I have an Ohaus 505 (original maker of the 505) for personal use, and a RCBS 505 that I use in the Reloading Courses I teach.

Don
 
J

John

Active Member
I have had a Lyman DPS 1200 for over 12 years maybe 15. I like it in spite of it telling me it is off and to rezero. I verify charges with a balance scale every 10 or so. It is a simple matter to hit the rezero button. It is a waste to charge a block of fifty but great to use with a lee turret to size/deprime, reprime, charge, seat and crimp if necessary. I hit the button when the pan returns to the scale and rarely wait whether charging 55 gr of 2 grains of powder. It throws odd shaped powders without stopping and is instantly there to weigh bullets. I did get an upgrade the first year or so it was offered, bigger powder holding reservoir or something.
 
Chris

Chris

Well-Known Member
My old RCBS 10-10 is reliable after many years of use. I'll keep the electronic one around, I've gotten leery of it but it's fine for weighing bullets, etc.
 
Winelover

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Another recommendation for the Chargemaster. Had mine since they were first introduced. Trouble free (always verify against my RCBS 5-10 scale). All I use anymore, except for small charges of Bullseye. Have three dispensers set to throw different charge weights of BE.......one Uniflow and two Hollywoods.
 
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