Reloaders...what scales do you use?

[germag]

Germag I do not have any reloading or for that matter load workup experience per se. Anyway the guys I trust say that what they do for the most accurate loads is what some call "the ladder method". They generally decide on the projectile they want, then load up a set of rounds and they start at the minimum load and load one round per setting moving up .2grains per round. They mark em real good on the round so that there is no mistake which round is which and they load up past max because generally you never shoot all you loaded. Then when they shoot they mark where each individual round impacted and shoot until they shoot em all or get pressure sign. You look at the round impacts and there will generally be a couple of groupings that impact nearly the same place and they choose the load in the center of the grouping that best matches the velocity they want or the center of the largest grouping. This way any slight variation in load will not result in a wild swing of accuracy since generally you are matching the load to barrel harmonics. It helps if you have a chrono at the same time and shoot thru it because then you have the velocity numbers to compare as well. OR so I understand from guys who shoot P DOGS out to 800+ yards and generally rebarrel every year.

Course you could always do like some guys I know do and use one o them harmonic balancer things like the BOSS and they just buy premium factory ammo or get it gifted to them somehow and they use the BOSS to tune in the accuracy they want...

Then you could do like I seem to do far too often and load up some stuff with every intention of working up a load or testing factory fodder to see what your rifle likes and wind up just goofin instead or shooting someone elses AR or teaching some kid about black powder firearms (he got such a kick out of watching the loading process and shooting them it was worth every minute and the boy could shoot too)... Last time we got a bit carried away bustin soda bottles full of water, somehow the son managed to just graze one and knock a hole it the side and when he hit it the second time it flew bout 30 feet up and nearly got caught in a tree. We is like kids in a candy store I tells ya...OOOO, AAAHHH, did you see that??? I figure so long as everyone had fun and no one was hurt, nothing bad left on the the ground, like glass, everything is cool.

Yeah, that's not the problem....I have no problem with load development. I think it's really more of an "OCD" kind of thing.... When I'm loading cartidges with, say 73grains of RL22, I want it to be 73.00 grains....not 73.05 grains....and if the velocity is 3,050 fps, then I want it to be within a range of 3,049 and 3,051 fps.....when I'm loading...even hunting rounds....I have to have everything perfect. I weigh my brass and sort it into groups that are within 1/10 of a grain or so of each other. I weigh the bullets and sort them the same way.

What's making me the craziest is that I don't know if th epowder charge is really 73gr or if it's 73.08gr because my scale is only accurate to .1gr. That's why I always weigh the charges exactly the same way....I dump powder until I'm about .5gr or so below my target weight, then I s-l-o-w-l-y trickle up until the scale JUST indicates 73gr...I figure that I'm getting the most consistency that way......

.......or am I? Hmmmm???? There are now scales that are available that are accurate to .001gr. I'm thinking about feeding the monster and investing in one of those.....then I can believe that my 73gr (or whatever weight) charge is really that.

 

[Niner]

I'll bet your either a metrologist or an engineer.