Thread: Balance beam scales

With my Lyman beam scales I can see the difference a single piece or two of AR2208 makes, so I see no need to go any more accurate than that - it's not like I'm going to muck around splitting pieces of powder. I'm just a hunter who shoots paper sometimes though.
I have a small wooden kids chair that I use when weighing out powder, gets my eyes at the same level as the scales, which is important as others have mentioned.

At 30 yards with fast moving target about to dissapear it(VELOCITY SPREAD) matters not in the slightest LMAO.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

At 30 yards with fast moving target about to dissapear it(VELOCITY SPREAD) matters not in the slightest LMAO.

True enough.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

At 30 yards with fast moving target about to dissapear it(VELOCITY SPREAD) matters not in the slightest LMAO.

Yeah but at 600m and a wee young goaty sized target, that velocity spread matters, every granule of AR2208, or 09 in my case!
@Cigar I moved to a balance beam scale after getting cheesed off with every wandering digital scale I used, including expensive ones. Best thing I ever did. Thoroughly confirmed my steadfast belief in keeping things very simple, and low cost!

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Yeah but at 600m and a wee young goaty sized target, that velocity spread matters, every granule of AR2208, or 09 in my case!
@Cigar I moved to a balance beam scale after getting cheesed off with every wandering digital scale I used, including expensive ones. Best thing I ever did. Thoroughly confirmed my steadfast belief in keeping things very simple, and low cost!

I have literally just come in from loading some 243 rounds with AR2209, I had a couple where I tapped a couple of granules out of the pan to get the scales right on the zero line.
My Lyman 500 scales cost $170 In the early 1990's, I recently bought a Hornady electronic set for $80 odd but they do wander a bit and at one point were over 4 grains out (may have been me not waiting long enough for calibration to finish). I trust my Lee powder measure more than the electronic scales, checking every few throws on the beam scales of course.
The Lee spoons are good for speeding things up using beam scales. I started off using some plastic kitchen measuring spoons, I found a set where one spoon was about 23gr (good for 223) and another for 44gr (good for 308).

Originally Posted by Flyblown

.... I moved to a balance beam scale after getting cheesed off with every wandering digital scale I used, including expensive ones. Best thing I ever did. Thoroughly confirmed my steadfast belief in keeping things very simple, and low cost!

I tried several digital scales up to $500 and they were all rubbish and not as good as my old balance beam scales. As ebf said, "if you want scales that measure to the nth degree, get a force restoration balance. You will be spending around 1K". You'd be lucky to find some at even that price now.

I once had for about twenty years some RCBS 10-10 scales made by Ohaus in the U.S. not Mexico as they are now. They were excellent scales but they were damaged beyond repair so bought a second hand Lyman scale which was pretty good too. Nowhere as accurate as the digital scales I now have but more than good enough for most shooting I do.

Cheers for all the comments so far fellas, I notice the common brands don't seem to be made with as good a quality anymore going by the write ups on the internet which is a shame. I want to shoot out to 500 meters so I want the scales to be some what accurate, I guess I need to keep reading and asking questions before I settle on something. Thanks again for all the replies

Was told lee was slow, as when reading as it would take an age to balance. This is true so went to hornady which was what was recommended in Nathan Fosters reloading book. I’ll not be looking for another as this more than dose the job!

Has anyone tried the RCBS M500 Mechanical reloading scale? has a good write up

It is interesting how we experience things so differently.

My little Lee balance beam scale is the cheapie one, like $60? I use the cheapy thrower, deliberately set about 0.2gr low, I hold my finger over the magnet so the beam taps it twice as it settles down, then when its nearly still I trickle in the remaining charge to bring it up to the correct amount. I always use the trickler. I am pretty slick with the operation and I just don’t notice any speed problems. I really enjoy it.

I recently pulled a few cases from various cartridges and double checked the charges with a posh RCBS digital scale and they were all bang on. Exact. Spot on. Perfect. No variation.

I use a Lyman case prep multi-tool to clean up the cases, a RCBS hand press to push in the primers, a Lee collet die to resize the necks and set consistent neck tension, a simple Lee press to seat my bullets.

These very simple, inexpensive tools combine well: the ES of my loads is pretty impressive. I rarely experience any vertical stringing in groups shot at 300-700m, and I check this often. So 500m shooting is a doddle. I can think of a couple of blokes I’ve spent a lot of time with who have shelled out a small fortune on reloading gear. But they don’t want to take their time, they want to hurry things along and bottom line is they just don’t seem to enjoy the repetitive actions. And then their ES tends to turn out pretty shit.

My opinion - take it or leave it - being a bit of a cynic when it comes to gadgets - is that reloading needn’t be a multiple expensive gadget exercise. Time, discipline, checks, brain engaged in correct gear, these make the difference.

Also maybe something that needs to be added to the equation is how much you shot?
If your only firing 100 a year then balance beam will justify the cost, where as expensive electronic ones (from what I read you need to pay to get ones that will read and won’t shut off every five minutes)!

Unless someone can come up with a good reason to buy a certain scale I think I will settle for the RCBS M500. thanks for all the input guys and have a great Christmas break

I have fire 2 rounds in over a year, one at a target to confirm my riffle was sighted in after it was knocked over and landed on the scope and the second shot was through the throat of a deer and out the back of its neck at 100 meters.