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Old April 17, 2011, 11:16 PM   #16
FrankenMauser
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Join Date: August 25, 2008
Location: In the valley above the plain
Posts: 13,392
Quote:
I did not include the choice "I use both equally" because I figure very few sit on this fence.
That would have been my vote.

I throw/trickle charges with a balance beam scale (RCBS 5-0-5), during initial load work-ups. However, I set and spot-check charges from powder measures with a digital. It's much faster to get an instant reading of "you're off by 0.3 gr, idiot"; rather than messing with the balance beam scale, to dial in the exact weight. And, it's very easy to toss a spot-check powder charge on the digital, while running my Dillon 550B - far easier than screwing with a balance beam.

I don't use the digital scale for load development, since most digital scales don't handle trickling well (and mine is terrible). Throw something on it, to check its weight, and it's right on, though.

As for spot-checking...
With my Uniflow, I check every 3-5 charges. It's not that I don't trust the measure, but that it's bolted to a piece of plywood I use as the base for my scale. It's right there.... why not use it?

With the Dillon 550B, I check every charge thrown by the machine, during initial set up for any load. That may mean I check the first 5-10, or the first 10-20, or the first 30-50. It all depends on how long it takes me to get bored, and realize I just checked 35 good charges in a row. The first 100-200 rounds going through the machine will see a spot check every 5-10 cases, after I stopped checking every one. After that, it's whenever I feel like it. It generally works out to every 20 cartridges, or so. But, can be as many as 40-50, if the powder is being metered very consistently. (I also eyeball every powder charge dropped, so I see when an over-charge (+0.2 gr) or under-charge (-0.2 gr) is dropped - in addition to the spot-checks.)
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