1/100th Grain Accuracy Scale?

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Matt304

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I am interested in buying a new digital scale for precision reloading. Is there anything out which reads in 1/100ths of a grain?

I imagine that 1/10th grain accuracy scales probably use nearly the same electronics inside, with different cases and different prices. So I was trying to find something which is notably more accurate than the rest of the pack.
 
To read in 1/100, you'd have to cut the grains of powder apart. 1/10th is only a few individual grains of many powders. On something like AA5, you can barely see 1/10th if it's spilled on a counter top.
 
Some people will say that trickling to the nearest 1/10th is overkill and I tend to believe them. Benchrest shooters often don't even use a scale and just go by volume alone. It's a safe bet that they do better than I do with my carefully weighed loads.
 
Say I am loading 3.1 grains of powder and I want to know if my measure is throwing closer to 3.0 or 3.2, I just throw ten charges, weigh them all and divide by 10 and you’ll get “3.1x”. I know you wanted an individual weight and not an average but that’s still useful information.

The only scales I have used that weigh to the .00 or .000 would be cost prohibitive for consumer use and have enclosures as your breath caused them to read incorrectly.

I just looked at Sam’s link above and $1300 is a good deal for that resolution.
 
There are digitals commonly available for 20 or 30 bucks that resolve to 5/100ths of a grain (they are sold as gem scales). That's one-half of a tenth. I have one of them, and believe me it isn't always pretty. A slightest breeze in the room upsets the scale. Walk past the table and the vibrations upset it. When everything is still, I can keep the charge within 2 or 3 granules from one round to the next.

In my 40 years of reloading, I have found that +/- one-tenth grain makes a difference in a rifle capable of shooting small groups at long distances, but only if all other factors are also held constant. At shorter distances (and in pistols) it often doesn't make much difference. You are the only one who can decide if that's important to you.
 
Accu Lab makes some really nice scales for reloading. I use the vic 123 VIC-123 120g max +- 0.001g

Very reasonable prices too.
 
"Say I am loading 3.1 grains of powder and I want to know if my measure is throwing closer to 3.0 or 3.2, I just throw ten charges, weigh them all and divide by 10 and you’ll get “3.1x”."

I agree jmorris, that's exactly what I do!

TFC
 
"1/100th Grain Accuracy Scale?"

I think it's safe to say that far too many reloaders feel that making accurate ammo requires weighting charges within a quarter gnats azz. Not so. In fact, there are few, if any, sporter rifles larger than a Hornet that care at all if a charge varies +- .2 gr., at least if the load is properly worked up to a good pressure/accuracy node.

A scale that is accurate to .01 gr. would cost several hundred dollars, money better spent on components and shooting practice. Or even a better scope!

Anyone who weights pistol charges has too much time on his hands! :)
 
ants:

In my 40 years of reloading, I have found that +/- one-tenth grain makes a difference in a rifle capable of shooting small groups at long distances, but only if all other factors are also held constant. At shorter distances (and in pistols) it often doesn't make much difference. You are the only one who can decide if that's important to you.
Click to expand...

That's the kind of attitude I was approaching with. All my shooting is 500-1500 yards now, and what's mainly left to improve upon is the precision of my reloading. I figure if all the general scales are 1/10, why not get something slightly more accurate? The 1/20th grain scale sounds perfect. I am going to look into that. I admit that 1/100th is far overkill, just due to possible burn rate differences, but I had no clue what the next logical step was available after 1/10th.

Thanks
 
Can you buy a scale that accurate? Probably.

Can you buy a measure that accurate? No, and you would drive yourself nuts trying to trickle every charge that well.
 
On something like the Lyman DPS III if you set the units to grammes and convert your charge from grains to grammes you can get 0.5 grains accuracy or there abouts.
 
Several have offered inexpensive alternatives. I would like to point out that there is a difference between resolution and accuracy. Someone gave me a $5 pair of digital plastic calipers that have a resolution of .0005 but they certainly are not accurate to .0005.
 
I use the same method as JMorris - get as close as possible on weight with a single throw of powder, then throw 10 and check the accuracy.

BTW, when loading .45acp, I throw 2 loads into a casing before dumping the powder onto the scale - it saves a small bit of time. This trick won't work for 9mm.
 
ClarkEMyers said:
Yes, but as noted wind, thermal effects, wind, warmup and wind make it all pretty moot as a regular tool for measuring successive loads by hand.
Click to expand...
Not to mention the effect humidity will have on the weight of the powder. The volume should remain fairly consistent, but the weight will change.
Someone who knows more about how hydroscopic smokeless powder is should "weigh in" on this subject.
 
I didn't think smokeless was very hygroscopic, if at all. Surely not enough to have a measurable weight variance while going from the container, to the scale, to the case. Volume is not a very accurate means of measuring solid particle mixtures with granual sizes this large. There are many ways the particles can settle from each pour, and thus volume is not always 100% consistent. If it were a liquid, it would be a different story.
 
Smokeless is not very hygroscopic.

Smokeless is not very hygroscopic. In fact original samples of Bullseye were for a long time stored under water to keep the powder and its original solvent burden as close to original as possible. For all I know the practice has continued across ownership. More often any variation is solvents evaporating - the proverbial ether smell test for freshness in reloading powder. Blackpowder of course is much the reverse and is often measured by volume and compressed with good results.

Just the same it has never been proven, at least to my satisfaction, that weight to the last decimal offers any advantage at all over contemporary volume measurement by skilled operators of good equipment - cf the whole practice of bench rest shooters.

Notice the caveat of skilled operators of good equipment.

That is consistent volume measurement gives results that are as good as it gets - notice the sustained results of shooting in the warehouse as reported in Precision Shooting as an indication of how close to theoretical perfection volume measurement can come.
 
Apparently some people have scales that measure this accurately because when I asked about my loads, I had several people tell me that they were metering loads to +/- one half of a tenth of a grain, which would be .05, or 5/100s. I've never been able to figure out how they knew that, because every scale I've ever seen only goes to tenths of a grain. Maybe they have those expensive scales . . .

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=378554
 
my acculab measures to hundredths of a grain and wasn't exceptionally expensive.

yes, a single grain of powder often moves the scale about .03 grains, but there are large and small grains.

what I do when I care enough (not very often) is throw powder in a harrel measure AND then weigh it. and instead of trickling more powder in to get the desired weight (which would screw up the volume), I'll keep throwing charges until I get 20 of them that weigh the same, for a string. (it may take 100+ throws to get those 20.)


in my experience thus far, doing this makes a HUGE difference in extreme spread (e.g. 20 or less FPS variation in a ~2800 fps group of 5-10 shots) over the chronograph and I can easily get loads with SD in the mid-single digits

HOWEVER, all that work does NOT seem to make any difference on paper. i.e. groups aren't any smaller than if I just throw.
 
Nevermind.... after rereading the original post, my post wasn't on point.
 
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