most accurate reloading scale

Most sharpshooters take pride in loading their own custom rounds because it’s cost effective and gives the opportunity to improve performance and accuracy.

In your quest for accuracy, one of your most important tools, is a quality reloading scale. You’ll be able to sort bullets by weight, meter gunpowder, sort primers and cases by weight. In addition to checking case volumes by water capacity.

You can choose from two different scales that are commonly available in the market:

  1. the traditional balanced beam scale,
  2. and the digital scale.

The Traditional balanced beam scale balance around a mechanical pivot point and by sliding calibrated weights up and down in marked notches, which gives you a readings. Unfortunately the accuracy of mechanical scales are limited and you can expect it to be off by a few tenths of a grain. Modern electronic scales offer a resolution down to 0.02gr which is not easily matched by mechanical beam scales. Variations in powder charge adversely affect muzzle velocity spread, which in turn affects accuracy.

Even small differences in powder charge cannot be ignored. A good range is zero to 750grain with a readability of at least 0.02 grain. Calibration weights are usually supplied with the scale. Two different weights is better than a single calibration weight.

Magnetic Interference is one of the factors which affect the accuracy of modern electronic scales.

Another common problem is associated with the exactness of the measurement itself. Measuring small weights requires a very small signal to be amplified to the extent that precision is affected by induced electronic noise and drifting of the reading .To counter this inherent weakness some manufacturers resort to built-in logic to counter the drifting with software algorithms.

This is an intelligent solution, except if the user is actually adding a few granules to get to the desired weight. In such a case the scale would assume that if the reading is drifting due to signal problems, where in fact the user is adding a few granules to get to the desired weight. The scale will thus ignore the added granules and keep the reading the same, while the user is adding granules, until such time as the scale randomly accepts part of the added weight.

This is especially dangerous if granules are added slowly i.e. one granule or less per second. This can lead to huge inaccuracies to the point that unsafe loads may be produced. It is important that electronic scales with this type of weakness do not find its way into a reloader’s carefully selected kit of precision tools.

There are a few electronic dispensers from well-known manufacturers that suffers from this phenomenon that should best be avoided or a second weighing station should be used to ensure accurate propellant loads. Therefore it may not be a good idea to solely rely on the built in electronic weighting of motorized dispensers.

The preferred action would be to get hold of a very accurate scale that can be used for precision loads, accurate to within one granule of the coarse extruded propellant. One way to counter the drifting phenomenon is to always remove the measured charge, reset the scale to zero and then reweigh the charge again as a whole as a final check.

The Peregrine Reloading Scale

The Peregrine electronic scale is small, very accurate and has a highly reduced sensitivity to frequency interferences form mobile phones and fluorescent lighting. This scale is less susceptible to drifting lockup from the slow addition of granules and more capable of getting precise metering by weight than most electronic scales available today.

The Peregrine electronic scale also features very accurate readings up to 920gr with a 0.02gr resolution. This will enable you to read anything from the bullet tip itself, casings and most importantly measure your reloading powder precisely to the mark. The non-zero functionality makes each propellant petal accountable (even if it’s less than 0.02gr) so that you get the most accurate and consistent reading possible.

Included with the Peregrine electronic scale is a very easy and convenient calibration method using two separate weights. This ensures that you won’t run out of precision or consistency whether weighing bullet tips, cases or propellant.

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