My old Dillion electric scale just went south but it was 10 years old. Looking for a new one that holds its calibration and is accurate. I have looked at the RCBS and the Lyman but don't know if they any good. What have you guys had good luck with?

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Looking for a new one that holds its calibration

good luck.......

i've had good luck with my old RCBS

A friend bought a Dillion D-Terminator when they first hit the market. This is the style with the curved upward housing. It was a worthless POS. It would not hold it calibration for any number of rounds -even 2 or 3 were suspect. He gave it to me after we tried it a little while. Several years later he bought another brand.
I talked to Dillion and they were not very encouraging about improving it's performance but they offered to give me another. I just let it sit in the closet for 5 years. I called Dillion again and they said send it back but I never did. About 3 years later (total of 8 years passed) I called Dillion again. They told me to send it back again. In the mean time computers had gone from 486-50 MHZ to Pentium 400MHZ or there abouts. I figured they might have gotten the electronic scales through the development phase to the point they worked. So I finally send the thing back. The new DTerminator was a different size and shape -(still looks like the current model). It works flawlessly and includes an anti-static draft shield. I am really suprised they improved so much. It really works as intended and is great for weighing bullets and brass.

davel, I have the RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 Combo (dispenser & scale).
I honestly have used it for alittle less than a year, and at present am very happy with it.
It is my first electronic scale so I really can't compare it to another brand, but it is leaps and bounds better than my old beam scale. As far as calibrating, it's a snap.

I use a PACT scale. No complaints so far.

Had an RCBS electronic and used it for about 2 or 3 sessions. Sold it and won't ever go back to an electronic scale. Wouldn't hold calibration for crap and even with RCBS' reputation for great customer service, I wasn't going to send it back for repair/replacement. I realized it was just another thing I was "sold" and not something I knew I needed.

Another vote for the Chargemaster 1500, 2 plus years and a ton of powder later it hold it's calibration all the time and is a breeze to set up.

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Originally posted by ELKMAN2:
Another vote for the Chargemaster 1500, 2 plus years and a ton of powder later it hold it's calibration all the time and is a breeze to set up.

+1



If you want just a scale, get the chargemaster scale only.

As I've posted several times, for the life of me I can't understand the current fascination with digital scales. What "problems" do digitals solve?

My old Ohaus/Lyman M5 (basically the same as today’s RCBS 1010 and 505) scale goes back to the mid-60s and is as dead-on accurate today as it was then. No reason to think it won't still be just as good for another 40 years. Any fan of digitals want to say that? I think RCBS warranties their digitals for 2 years, or is it one? Either way, that says something about how long THEY expect DIGITALS to last!

I once worked as an electronic instrument tech in the space program for years. Not all of it on scales but I fixed a few. Digital scales can be made accurate and sensitive BUT they really need periodic checking and professional recalibration to remain so. (Check your local grocer's expensive digital meat scales for their recalibration periods!)

Good digital scales cost several hundreds of dollars and have recalibration schedules every 4 to 6 months, a year at most. That level of quality and maintenance isn't available with the simple and cheap types sold to reloaders. So, digitals aren't for me, I'll keep my old beam scale, thanks.

Okay, I admit having only tried one reloader digital, a friends, so I'm no "expert" on them. But common sense does prevail!

The digital scale I tried had a half second or more of time lag before showing a change. That made trickling charges a chore. We would usually over trickle and have to remove a few kernels to get it right. And a “hang-up†factor kept it from following the trickler smoothly, the scale might jump .3 or more grains when it finally recognized a change. We learned to trickle very slowly as we approached weight but that seemed to defeat the scales claimed virtue of speed, right?

That digital's "calibration" AND zero tended to vary during use. We frequently checked it's weights against a beam scale (you know, one of the "obsolete" types we can actually depend on)! And we found it did need to be re-zeroed twice in one loading session. That's just not good enough for me, I want to KNOW my reloading scale is reading the same, all the time!

The single occasion I would like to have a digital is for weighing cases. That seldom happens on my bench and it need not be dead accurate either.

When charging cases I trickle up to weight for each rifle cartridge and my beam scale works great for that. ‘Course I don’t load hundreds of rounds at a time either but .... my Redding powder measure is safe for bulk loading by volume if I need to.

And I don't understand why anyone has a serious problem with the swings of a magnetically damped beam scale. Mine, and every magnetic damped scale I've ever tried, will stop within two or three swings and it doesn't swing at all while trickling, they just slowly follow the increase until I stop. I’m not saying the swings don't happen with some but it's not happening with mine.

I think everyone should have a good beam type scale setting on a shelf at eye level to make viewing easy. Then level it for zero, just one time. Don't abuse it, keep the bearings clean and the pivots undamaged and it will work accurately long after we are all dead and gone.

That won’t happen with ANY digital scale I know of, at any price. I think. IMHO. ??

I work in research, where we would get laughed out of the business for even thinking of using a balance scale. BUT, that is not the case with reloading scales, as the electronic scales are not up to par with a good balance.
IMHO, the old Dillon was the best, it actually worked pretty well overall. The new Dillon cannot be trickled into, as it can't detect the slow change in weight. I was able to actually put over 2 full grains on it from a trickler without the reading changing. A call to Dillon and a short talk revealed that they only recommend the scale for checking a powder measure, where you throw a weight of powder and dump in on the scale all at once. That defeats the purpose of a scale all together.

As stated earlier, a good balance is the Lyman M5. I have one, with no plans to change. You will never be able to trust an electronic scale, as you can a balance, sad, but true.

The best one is the one you don't use. Bought a PACT. Huge mistake. Never again.