beam scale vs digital

[timmay]

I have a Hornady digital scale that Im completely fed up with (granted its not an expensive scale but it should still work accurate)
Ill weigh a charge (indoors with no air movement) and then reweigh it several times to check its consistency and every time it fluctuates from .1 to .4 grains. I can weigh a charge of 45gr take it off the scale, put it back on and it will read 45.3, 44,8, 45.2..etc
So I just want a good accurate beam scale. I do not want an electric no matter how good it is
I can pick up a redding for $70 at sportsman's or the RCBS beam for $80. I just want to be accurate and consistent to 1/10th a grain..and it last

 

[gohring3006]

I use a RCBS beam scale and a Lee powder measure.
I use the measure to get me close then trickle powder in the pan with a teaspoon measure I stool from my wife. Once I get get my mojo going I can pump out some serious ammo rather quickly.. I have no complaints with the RCBS beam scale. I have used other brands (Lee and Bonanza) and have no complaints with those as well..

 

[Dosh]

Tim, probably cause I am an old fart totally resistant to change, but I cannot trust a digital scale. I have the RCBS digital powder dispenser, but I use a quality thrower and beam scale that I occasionally check with weights along with a trickler. Like gohring these tools can load fast enough for me and are proven consistent to the tenth of a grain. I do use the digital unit for .223 AR loads.

 

[timmay]

Tim, probably cause I am an old fart totally resistant to change, but I cannot trust a digital scale. I have the RCBS digital powder dispenser, but I use a quality thrower and beam scale that I occasionally check with weights along with a trickler. Like gohring these tools can load fast enough for me and are proven consistent to the tenth of a grain. I do use the digital unit for .223 AR loads.

So which beam scale would you recommend? Are they all pretty much the same?
Id like to pick up the redding for $69 at sportsman's unless the higher priced RCBS is worth the extra money

 

[gohring3006]

I would get what ever you can afford. Either one will be more precise than your digital..

 

[ohiohunter]

So which beam scale would you recommend? Are they all pretty much the same?
Id like to pick up the redding for $69 at sportsman's unless the higher priced RCBS is worth the extra money

In this case the higher priced balances are probably better. If I were shopping for one I wouldn't settle for anything less than a 10-10, and make sure the blades are sharp. Reason being is I have a 5-0-5 that worked great relative to my particular load and consistency, the repeatability was the only reason I was producing consistent loads that happened to be accurate on the range. Then I got a gempro that showed my ~50gr loads were pretty close to accurate, but when I loaded for my 300wm around 75gr the 505 was way off. Also the 505 didn't fair well w/ my check weight that came w/ the gempro.

The redding may be good or good enough, research reviews.

 

[Canadian Bushman]

I personally would hop on ebay and look for an old ohaus 10-10 or a rcbs 10-10 when they were made by ohaus.

 

[Rick Richard]

I have beam scales and a Dilion (sp) digital scale that I purchased 12 years ago. I still like the digital better. It is very accurate and has very minimal problems with drift. Also, I can weigh loads faster than with the beam.

Out of the 5-0-5 and 10-10, I like the 10-10 better, but no great significant difference.

 

[Gunpoor]

I had an RCBS 505 and it was okay but eventually upgraded to an RCBS 10/10 and like it better. I tried another beam scale, though I don't remember what brand, and returned it because it just wouldn't give repeatable and accurate measurements. I have never seen a need for an electronic scale to measure powder charges with, but would consider one for weighing cases, bullets, etc.

 

[Greyfox]

My son in law had the same issue with the high end Hornady digital with the powder dispenser. It proved to be very unreliable. I know of several other reloaders that have experienced problems with the Hornady digitals. I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I have been using the RCBS Chargemaster Digital for over 10 years and it has proven to be dead reliable down to 1/10 of a grain. I routinely check the calibration and QC the charges with a beam scale. With the amount of competitive shooting, along with my practice and hunting, I couldn't imagine ever going back to a beam scale.

 

[stevesmith]

just my 2 cents..i am a certified scale technician licensed in 7 states and have been for 27 years....any electronic scale that will repeat, meaning return to zero is better than the most expensive beam scale you can buy..a beam scale is mainly a wild guess at any type of accuracy..it will repeat zero everytime but other than that all of mine mee the trash can.. a small way to check accuracy of a electronic scale ... take your calibration weight and place on scale IE: 500 gram weight..it shows 500g take it off and find you 2 items that weigh close to 100 grams each.. place 1 on the scale and weigh it..write down what it weighs..then do same thing to 2nd object cloe to 100 grams.. now put either on scale say it reads 102.7 grams now add you calibration weight should say 602.7 then add you 2nd weight say it weighed 110.6 grams now your scale should read 713.3..go back to zero..place 2nd object on first scale should weigh 110.6 add calibration weight should be 610.6 then add object 1 scale should go to 713.3..the tolerance on a scale is one tenth of one percent of applied load or one division... which this scale is by .1 so you have a accuracy tolerance of +/- .1 gram so any reading you took if its within that +/- .1 reading is a(PERFECT) scale..now if it doesnt do that put it in the box and send it back and get another because any electronic scale either works or it dont there is no sometimes or weighs wrong its either on or off nothing in the middle..the way the wheat stone bridge or some call it the load cell is designed it works off of m/v per volt of input..so it is electronis digital just as your fluke meter..only it has a analog to digital converter installed to convert raw counts into a number that we all read as a known weight..so bottom line if the electronic scale works it cant be beat by any beam scale regardless of the price of either..if it dont work get one that does..be careful they are like shoes..sometimes you pay for a name and a name dont make it better it just means its a name brand..all i have stated is from a certified licensed scale technician thats been to school for to many hours to imagine in the past 27 years..so nothing i have said is a if and or but, its simply the way it is..the old saying you can lead a horse to the water but you cant make him drink..its like that..all i can do is tell you exactly what is what and why it is..from that point you can use the info. however you want to but i just felt sorta compelled to share this info. since this is what i do for a living for 27 years now and getting ready to retire from it..
i hope you all ahve a wonderful blessed day...

 

[gohring3006]

just my 2 cents..i am a certified scale technician licensed in 7 states and have been for 27 years....any electronic scale that will repeat, meaning return to zero is better than the most expensive beam scale you can buy..a beam scale is mainly a wild guess at any type of accuracy..it will repeat zero everytime but other than that all of mine mee the trash can.. a small way to check accuracy of a electronic scale ... take your calibration weight and place on scale IE: 500 gram weight..it shows 500g take it off and find you 2 items that weigh close to 100 grams each.. place 1 on the scale and weigh it..write down what it weighs..then do same thing to 2nd object cloe to 100 grams.. now put either on scale say it reads 102.7 grams now add you calibration weight should say 602.7 then add you 2nd weight say it weighed 110.6 grams now your scale should read 713.3..go back to zero..place 2nd object on first scale should weigh 110.6 add calibration weight should be 610.6 then add object 1 scale should go to 713.3..the tolerance on a scale is one tenth of one percent of applied load or one division... which this scale is by .1 so you have a accuracy tolerance of +/- .1 gram so any reading you took if its within that +/- .1 reading is a(PERFECT) scale..now if it doesnt do that put it in the box and send it back and get another because any electronic scale either works or it dont there is no sometimes or weighs wrong its either on or off nothing in the middle..the way the wheat stone bridge or some call it the load cell is designed it works off of m/v per volt of input..so it is electronis digital just as your fluke meter..only it has a analog to digital converter installed to convert raw counts into a number that we all read as a known weight..so bottom line if the electronic scale works it cant be beat by any beam scale regardless of the price of either..if it dont work get one that does..be careful they are like shoes..sometimes you pay for a name and a name dont make it better it just means its a name brand..all i have stated is from a certified licensed scale technician thats been to school for to many hours to imagine in the past 27 years..so nothing i have said is a if and or but, its simply the way it is..the old saying you can lead a horse to the water but you cant make him drink..its like that..all i can do is tell you exactly what is what and why it is..from that point you can use the info. however you want to but i just felt sorta compelled to share this info. since this is what i do for a living for 27 years now and getting ready to retire from it..
i hope you all ahve a wonderful blessed day...

For some one who has been in it as long as you have, What scale have you found to be the most reliable? Seems every one I have had has not been repeatable as my beam.

 

[stevesmith]

For some one who has been in it as long as you have, What scale have you found to be the most reliable? Seems every one I have had has not been repeatable as my beam.

if its a name you want- ohaus , denver instruments , fairbanks , cardinal , weigh tronix , toledo , lynx etc. but most digital scale being mad these days are quality enough to do the job and do it well as long as it doesnt have a problem..as i had mentioned if it will do the steps i outlined it is perfect and if it want it needs to be returned..having said that most manufacturers are producing a unit with the same wheat stone bridge (load cell) as your name brand scales just being dubbed by whoever puts there box around the electronics..a beam scale has to many friction points to allow for drag or binding to cause them to be very unreliable. they will repeat zero because they were made from zero. but where the fulcrum pivot sits in the bearing cup the pivot is almost sharp as a kinfe blade so it can actually pivot. with just a small amount of wear that sharp edge becomes blunt and rounded not allowing the pivot to pivot it sorts rolls then and can stop off axis actually anywhere with a load aplied except where it truly is..now it can go exactly to the correct weight but when it rolls instead of pivots it cannot by no means at all be correct..dead top center of the pivot in the fulcrum lever is zero so it will go there with ease thats where the false pretense that a beam scale s doin so good because folks think it returns to zero everytime therefore its working properly however thats the fartherest from the truth as it can be.. even your scoop on the end of the beam kangs on a pivot the scoop does not have a cup bearing to sit on the pivot therefore it is riding on a rounded arm of the scoop hanging on the end of the beam so when the beam goed down or up with applied load there is no bearing to sit on the pivot so after using it for some time the scoop will mke a indention in its curved arm that will catch on the pivot at the end of the beam causing huge amounts of friction or drag causing the scale to be impossible to weigh correctly.with load removed it goes back to top dead center where it was made with ease again this is where folks get the opinion there scale is doin good when getting a zero reading is so far from allowing a scale to weigh properly..it took me years of working on these things hands on and many schools to understand what took place while weighing..a beam scale operated exactly as a old truck scale a rail road scale, even the old beams and dials found in your warehouses cotton mills and manufacturing facilities.thats why everybody went digital because they realized they were either loosing tons of money and merchandise or was ribbing the customer of money and merchandise..thats when the department of weights and measures stepped in and started regulating the calibration of all scale being bought or sold across..well were not buying or selling our loads off of them but were sure relying on them being correct to keep our loads consistent..so basically if a electronic scale will pass the build up test which is what i was describing to do to tst if a scale is working properly..if its not doin that then it has a problem because the wheat stone bridge is a resistor in theory so it either works or it doent ..if it works its 100% if it dont its 100% broke
i hope this helps to understand the theory behind a beam scale versus a digital scale..
have a blessed day

 

[gohring3006]

I have loaded ammo for years on my beam scale with no problems in consistency of loaded ammo. All I can say based on my experience is with the addition of meticulous case prep. I have loads the shoot .5" or less at 250yards and Es at 10 or less, that I have no reason not to trust my 100$ scale. I'm not saying you are wrong. I can't argue with that much experience. I guess I'm saying my scale is good enough for who its for.LOL.