I am considering one of the Pact BBK electronic scales for use at the range in load development, since this unit can be operated by battery. Would anyone care to share their experiences about this scale?

I have heard that they are prone to zero drift, and wondered about the effect that minor airflow might have on readings.

Any comments appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

I'm a tinkerer of gun stuff and shooting and over the course of 30 years I've tried a lot of stuff. One thing I would not do is have another BBK. They are slow, not repeatable and subject to stray electrical frequencies. They simply are not worth the price when you consider a Dillon (the older DTerminator, not the DTII) is a very nice scale for about the same money when purchased on Ebay and uses batteries too.
If you surf the bulletin boards for info on the BBK, you'll find way more negatives than positives. I've had one, and I won't have any more.
One thing to remember is that the other scale that Pact makes is a pretty decent scale, the Pact Digital Precision Powder Scale. I wouldn't hesitate to use it, but it's not battery powered.

Bobby,
Thanks for the reply. This is just the type of info I was looking for.

In searching for electronic scales I also was wondering about the CED Pocket Digital Scale. The review looked good, and they apparently make the DTerminator for Dillon, so it might be OK.

Still trying to decide.

Jim

My experience mirrors that of Bobby's. I have a Pact BBK II digital scale. It is capable of running off batteries or 110 volt house current. I thought it would be waaaay better than a balance beam scale, but I was wrong about that. Once in awhile now, I will set it up on a table that I have leveled perfectly, turn it on an hour or more before I want to use it, run the calibration process and then use it to check charge weights that have been weighed on my RCBS 10 10 balance beam scale. After 3 or 4 charges, I have to zero it out again, put the powder pan on it, zero it again, and if I am lucky I may get 4 more valid readings. It seems to be a complete waste of time for me.

I had heard that flourescent lights made the Pact unstable, so I installed new lights above my reloading bench that were not of that type and I still don't get reliable readings. Using this Pact BBK II is an exercise in futility!!!

My Pact is dead-on and remains so during reloading ( I spot-verify with check weights). However, they are sensitive to air movement by room air conditioners, etc., so I have doubts as to how practical it would be at the range.

I have one of these Pact BBK scales. It's been nothing but a dissappointment. I don't recommend it at all.

I once did a review on my website about electronic scales and the long and short of it is that the older Dillon DTerminator (which I use) is far and away the best. I have worked in a laboratory doing research and testing for 17 years, so I have access to some of the best scales money can buy, and the Dillon holds up well compared to them. The Pact DPPS (I mentioned earlier) is pretty decent, but a little slower. The new Dillon DT has a special auto tare function that makes it dangerous IMHO. It sees small amounts added to the pan slowly as a zero shift and adds the amount to the internal tare, WITHOUT ADDING IT TO THE DISPLAY. The result is you simply cannot trickle into it, or you load can be way, way off. I emailed CED and Dillon about this problem (you are correct CED makes the newest Dillon DT)and they are quite aware of this "problem". Their response is the new scale is "ONLY" for setting up a powder measure, where a charge is thrown into the pan and then put on the scale for a reading. No extra powder is added. This makes the new Dillon DT worthless to the normal reloader not using a progressive press or powder measure.

I would assume, but have not seen one, that the CED has the same tare function, but that is an assumption I got from our email conversations. We discussed how their software in the scale worked, and they seemed totally unaware that Pact has nearly the same tare function, but it is limited to .5 grain, and then it alerts the operator by the display flashing. What that means is that once the display shows a weight over .5 grain, the auto tare function is disabled. When weight is added after that amount it is added to the display as usual. You cannot trickle into an empty pan, you must first have at least .5 grains and then you can slowly add any amount. That's the way it should work. When you put the empty pan on the scale and zero it, if you replace the pan later and the scale has drifted .1 grain or so, the scale automatically zeros itself without alerting the operator. If it has drifted more than .5 grains it will flash the display to alert the operator that something is amiss, and rezeroing is necessary. An ingenious piece of work, though the scale itself is a little slower than the Dillon. Myself, I would rather have no auto tare function and tare the scale myself when it's needed. That's just a part of using an electronic scale. CED and Pact both informed me that they had a lot of complaints about wandering zero, and thus the change in software. I think that's a bad choice. Educating the public would have been a better choice. Even the $3000 lab scales require zeroing quite a bit, that's an indication of their extreme accuracy and any change in atmospheric conditions would change their electronic weight cells.

The one Lyman I was able to get my hands on was a LE300 and it was only fair in the speed and repeatability department. I would like to check out one of their newer LE1000 scales as they look like a quality scale.

I don't have room here to point out all the features that make the Dillon the better scale (older Dillon DT)but suffice it to say I use one exclusively, and don't own a beam scale. We recently had a "clean up" day in the technolgy center where I work and I was given the opportunity to take my choice of scales that were no longer needed. These are scales, that when new were in the $2-$3000 range, but I felt I had no need for them. I think they are overkill for reloading, and the Dillon I have tracks right with the expensive ones. That's how I would rate the Dillon DT. I only wish Dillon would go back to manufacturing it. I can only assume they have a cheaper alternative manufacturer now.

The BBK you mentioned has none of the auto tare functions, and has a completely different weight cell which is cheap and not reliable when compared to other known accurate scales. It can maintain at best a +/- of about .2, which makes it a .5 grain error margin. The fact that it is slow also makes it hard to use. I'm in the "had one and won't have any more" category.

Sorry for the length, but this is at least one category I know something about and it's hard to explain in a short paragraph.

Bobby,

Many thanks for your information!!!!

Are you familiar with the MyWeigh Durascale Powder Precision unit? Link to unit description

Jim

After using several digital scales sold to the reloading community, I found that they all had some defects. Some were not repeatable, some didn't work as advertised, and they were all VERY slow. So, I bought a Denver Instruments Model APX-153. It is repeatable, measures to .01 gr, incredibly fast; as soon as you put the powder in the pan, the weight is displayed, no waiting at all. I've weighed over 5000 specimens during this past year with perfect results.
I can highly recommend this unit.
Don

I've heard references to the MyWeigh scales but never had a chance to see one. I perused the website, and my guess is that they too are made by CED. I'd have to see more and look at one though, to recommend one.