Stoopid reloading mistake#37.

[rthillusa]

Stoopid reloading mistake#37 is not regularly checking that your scale is zeroed as you reload.

I've had my Hornaday electronic scale for well over a year and have never had an issue with it loosing 0, but I always gave it at least 1/2 hour to warm up, just like the manual says. But tonight I was in a hurry so I just started right in. I zeroed the scale, set the powder measure to throw 6.4 grains and away we go. I'm anal so I weigh every load. After a while it starts throwing light, so I adjust the powder measure to throw a little more. This repeats 3 or 4 times and I never set the empty pan on the scale to see if its still zeroed.

Loaded 48 rounds, then for some reason, on round 49, I set the pan down empty on the scale and - oh-oh - its reading -.7 grains. I zero it and weigh my alleged 6.4 grains and it now comes in at 7.1. (The Hornady reloading manual says 6.7 is max)

So much for being anal and weighing every load. I would have been better off trusting the Lee Perfect Powder Measure which is never more than .1 or .2 off with the fine grained Power Pistol.

Hopefully this will be a "Never again" item for me.

[mrvmax]

Luckily I have the Hornady Auto charge scale, it zero's before dropping each load. It works great for loading small quantities like I normally do.

[SPDGG]

I can relate on the being overly cautious, I dont think thats possible.
Sorry to hear about the overs, glad you caught it before sending any down range. I hate when I have to pull bullets.

I start off as you said with a half hour warm up and then check it with a beam scale.
Then throw 5-7 empties just to be sure and weight out ever 15 minutes to be the throw is not off.

Hate reloading, but love shooting and for me I it does hand in hand :)

[Jumping Frog]

Electronic scales are notorious for losing their zero.

That is exactly the reason I went back to using my Redding balance beam scale. Reliability and simplicity.

[mr surveyor]

so .... is the RCBS Charge Master a disaster waiting to happen?

just curious, as that one is currently on my "want list"

[Don2]

My main scale is a RCBS 10-10, I also own a RCBS Charge master 1500.
Had the Chargemaster for about 5 years now, I don't use it every time I load, but gets used about every few times depending on what I'm loading. It's very handy for making up several test rounds on the fly. Just dial in amount of powder needed and push START.
It has not failed me so far
It has a lot of features I like but I'm sure the other guys do too.
I like to load my rifle and "some" pistol rounds in batch loads, so I set the unit to drop X amount of powder, then remove pan and pour into brass, then replace pan. When I seat the bullet , the unit has already poured my next charge waiting on me.
I have checked and double checked the Chargemaster's drop weight at several different points and all is well.
I have read many problems with the other guys digital powder dispensers and even some about the RCBS unit. Like I mentioned earlier, I have had no trouble soooooooo farrrrrr.

It's man made and destined to fail at some point, but not yet.
I don't let my guard down, so I check it's operation frequently best I can.
You know what murphy says..!!

Don2

[mr surveyor]

Nothing but "batch loading" for me, as I don't do high volume loading or shooting .... maybe 100-200 loaded rounds in a session, at most. I use fairly bulky powders, so a double charge isn't going to slip by. My brass is always stored in a pre-prepped condition waiting for powder and bullets, and a PACT digital scale is used to weigh each charge that's dropped into brass via funnel and loading block. I start each "powder drop" with a Lee dipper that's right at, or nearest to the charge weight without going over, then pick up a small amount more powder and trickle to finish off the desired charge weight. I'll charge 25, then seat bullets, then turn the scale back on and spend about an extra minute to calibrate, then powder the next 25 (and visual check the charges in the loading block for general consistency before seating bullets. I'm really thinking this is almost as fast as using an auto powder measure and having to throw a charge on a balance beam scale every 10-15 rounds as a check. In my case, I trust the Lee dippers using the weight to volume ratio charts for the various powders to be conservatively accurate (generally a scoop will weigh 2-10% LESS than the chart data). Having checked many loads on the digital scale, and comparing on a balance beam scale, the variation is only due to my inability to see the vernier on the balance beam scale now. So I trust that the PACT scale when calibrated is accurate, and the redundancy of seeing the (pre-determined) weight of the "starting dipper" in the pan, that I have consistency within my general tolerances (target weight + no more than .1 gr).

As far as I can tell, as long as there is some type of redundancy used in the measurements (redundant measurements are a big part of my day to day life), and good, consistent procedures are followed, all should be well.

Since I enjoy my "batch loading" system, the Charge Master Combo would probably make charging chores faster .... but then I would worry about redundant measurements

ain't life grand?

[mrvmax]

so .... is the RCBS Charge Master a disaster waiting to happen?

just curious, as that one is currently on my "want list"

So far I have not had a problem with my Hornady and my friends have not with their RCBS versions. Nothing is perfect but I think doing a zero between each load and weighing every load is about as good as it gets. There are ways to prevent problems with the auto charge scales, paying attention when you put the pan back on the scale, it should be close to zero, and also visually looking at each charged case to compare them. I have had way more variations with the metered drops. The manual scales are better but there is no way I would weight every charge with a manual scale, it would take too long. With my manual scale I would weight every 10th drop, comparing weighing each drop with an electronic scale the most accurate is the electronic.

[Don2]

At the end of the day, who can say weather a round was loaded with a Lee dipper or an electronic nightmare????
I use all of them, just depends of what I am loading at the time.
It's all up to you.
I only bought the electronic nightmare because I just wanted it. It is a very cool unit and works well for me.
My friend who reloads also used an OLD Redding beam scale what would NEVER balance to zero. It was it's design to do so, you had to figure out the actual weight by taking the amount it went over zero to the amount it went under zero ( The swing ) and divide that to find your weight.
And thats with NO drafts in the room...It's very sensitive..!!

It was NOT for me...!!!
I'll take my rcbs 10-10 scale anytime

Don2