gtxmonte said:Trickle up guys talk about using "beam" scales. While good, they nor you are good enough to get within a tenth of a grain either..........Some use electronic scales to trickle up. If you trust the electronics to trickle up, you may as well trust the electronics to throw it
Beam scales are accurate................the small ones used for reloading don't have enough resolution on the pointer. The "window" that pointer rides, YOU can not judge it within a tenth of a grain, don't care what you think. But do it however you want, but digital scales are more precise. Just like any other measuring device........A vernier caliber is good, a dial caliper is better and a digital caliper is best, because it takes the numbers out further. There is zero guesswork in YOU reading the hashes or halfway in between twoRick Courtright said:gtxmonte said:Trickle up guys talk about using "beam" scales. While good, they nor you are good enough to get within a tenth of a grain either..........Some use electronic scales to trickle up. If you trust the electronics to trickle up, you may as well trust the electronics to throw it
Hi,
It's getting deep in here again...
Beam scales, or balances as some have corrected me in the past, depend simply on gravity, arguably the most consistent force we deal with every day. The job of our scale, no matter how big, small, simple or complex, is to measure the effect of that gravity on a mass and give us a result of that interaction expressed as a weight, in one of several kinds of units, which in the reloader's case is the one we call grains. One can purchase check weights which trace back to THE official standards bureaus, and they don't change. So if one prefers a beam scale, as I do, and it checks out dead nuts against the check weights, as mine do (and the oldest, an RCBS 5-0-5 has been doing for 40+ years), it's done its job, and that's MORE than good enough!
Now, many people like the electronic scales. That's fine, as long as one recognizes their vagaries and can work within them. Yes, they can be convenient! Yes, they are quicker for certain kinds of jobs! Despite the big differential in retail prices, they are probably cheaper to have Wat Yu Way put together in a Chinese sweatshop than a good beam model. However they can be, and often are, inconsistent due to a variety of influences, both internal and external, far more so than beam models. That said, a tenth of a grain is a tenth of a grain, no matter how it's weighed, so, no, they are not any more accurate nor precise than beam models, and in my experience, often less sensitive. (Sensitivity being drfined sd that quality of being able to detect a change in the tool's reading at the very lowest levels, something our consumer grade electronics are often deficient at doing. Yet it's probably our most important consideration when trickling!) If their shortcomings don't bother you, get one and use it! If you wish to spend $300 to do a $100 job, it's your money and your choice how to spend it.
But please quit telling us they're "better" than beam scales. They're NOT. They do the same job, in a different way. Simple as that, and most of our reloading tasks fall under that exact same heading. There's a reason so many companies make reloading equipment, and no two of them do it exactly like the next guy... EVERYBODY has his/her idea of what's best, and they're probably correct. For them...
Rick C
No "Match" shooter I know of, including myself, trickles up charges, because it has been found to basically not matter. In a "Match" load you are only concerned about two things, grouping and velocity spreads
Beam scales are accurate................the small ones used for reloading don't have enough resolution on the pointer. The "window" that pointer rides, YOU can not judge it within a tenth of a grain, don't care what you think
I believe I made that clear in my first post. Accuracy and velocity spread is what matters and the simple fact is a tenth of a grain doesn't change that, plus my Chargemaster IS accurate within a tenth of a grain, so trickling gains me nothing. I DO shoot matches, I know many match shooters, we have a large group of them here. Not ONE trickles up charges. My velocity spreads between 10 shots strings are VERY small, so whatever I am doing works and one of those things is throwing every charge with this machine, along with meticulous case prep and bullet selection.Kevin said:No "Match" shooter I know of, including myself, trickles up charges, because it has been found to basically not matter. In a "Match" load you are only concerned about two things, grouping and velocity spreads
I would definitely disagree with this statement. A trickle up charge from bullet to bullet will be more consistent. How can that NOT matter? Don't you want each bullet for a match to be as equal as possible? In a match IF you are concerned with velocity, as you say (and I agree) shouldn't you be concerned with how much powder is in the load? Yes, down to the tenth, IF you want consistency from bullet to bullet.
And this....???
Beam scales are accurate................the small ones used for reloading don't have enough resolution on the pointer. The "window" that pointer rides, YOU can not judge it within a tenth of a grain, don't care what you think
Sorry, but the RCBS 10-10 scale does do a very good job of measuring in the tenths of a grain. I bought this scale years ago because of these measuring capabilities.
If you would like I can post some close up pictures of the scales tomorrow.