I finally have my loading work center set-up and after reading some manuals wanted to become familiar with the equipment. It's the RCBS Rock Chucker package including their 5-0-5 scale. I decided to get a feel for the scale by weighing some 140gr Nosler Partition bullets. The following is a 10 bullet sample: 6 @ 140.0, 3 @ 139.8 and 1 @ 139.6. I expected them to all be exactly 140.0. I did set-up the scale correctly and calibrated it to -0- although the leg adjustment screw is out ~ 3/4". Are those bullet weights close enough or should I not use them where accuracy is required.
I also played with my Lyman Dial Caliper and in addition to having a scratched dial face found that even though I calibrated it to -0- it didn't hold on -0- and the various 1" inch marks. Is that the only factor that would account for new Winchester 7mm-08 Rem cases that measured 3 @ 2.028 and 1 @ 2.025. According the manual case lenght should be 2.035. Assuming it's not the caliper how would I lenghted new brass?
BTW - Sat (10/29) a made good use of a NH doe tag with a nice 98 lb'er. It was 50 min into the muzzleloading season opener. Now I can concentrate on New Hampshire and Maine bucks.

For scale accuracy I would suggest a set of calibrated check weights. It is not uncommon to find variation in bullet weights.

And, for your case length "problem", I doubt it is the caliper. You don't "lengthen" short cases, you trim all your cases to the length of the shortest case.

Steve is exactly right. Bullets wts. can vary quite a lot, especially complicated bullets like the NP. Usually match bullets have closer tolerances. Alos not unusual for brass to be diff. lengths when new. Run them all through a sizer & then trim to the same OAL. Throw out any really short cases but having them slightly shorter than spec. is fine.

Bullets vary in weight. That's why benchrest shooters buy from small speciality bullet makers and they still weigh and measure individual bullets before shooting them in matches.

It's not unusual to have brass measure shorter than the length listed in the manual. It won't hurt anything and the cases will grow a litlle every time you reload them. I usually full length resize all my new brass, trim them all to one uniform length and then chamfer and deburr them. Typically they are shorter than spec then.

In the absense of calibrated weights to calibrate my scale I use bullets as such. IMO they're pretty good.....and by that I mean +/- .5 grain....in many cases this is +/- 1/2 of 1%. It's really not too bad IMO.

Benchrest maybe not.....but it wouldn't bother me at all as a hunting/varmint bullet.

The boxes of 6.5mm 140g Nosler Partitions I weighed a couple of years ago were all within 0.1g, while Hornady Interlocks were 0.6g, and Speer 1.0g. The Hornady's are very accurate, the Speer much less so, in my rifle, and the Nosler I haven't used enough to form an opinion.

Jaywalker

Vapodog kind of beat me to the punch on his idea about using a bullet as a check wt for scales. I have a rcbs 10-10 scale and a pact electric. Years ago I spent some time calibrating both and then measured several different caliber bullets in different wts and keep them in a small box by my bench. I have a 50 grain, 55, 60, 70 & 87 grain bullet that all scales agreed were the same wt. Just the other night my electric scale was showing about .4 grains more than my balance beam although it wasn't "warmed up". It usually isn't this far off but I picked the bullet closest to the charge I was throwing and it proved the elec scale was the culprit. The next time I used it and it was fine.
But the bottom line is you won't find cheaper test weights.
Also.....food for thought.....I replaced my original 505 scale that came with the kit this summer with a 10-10 that I bought on e-bay for about $65. It really was worth it as the 10-10 just seems more accurate and consistant with all motions. I would recomend this update to you at sometime in your future expansion.