Overall I'm not THAT AR, but sometimes I look at my reloading log (Excel spreadsheet) and wonder "Am I overdoing it?" This morning I learned "No."
When I calibrate my scale prior to a loading session I calibrate to the weight below my target charge weight based on what my check weights will enable me to do. I decided to do this so if I ever forget to adjust the scale to target weight after calibrating that I'm below target charge - not above it. My pistol charges are 3.9gr HP-38 (.38 Spcl) and 3.8gr Titegroup (9mm). So that means in both cases I calibrate using 3.5gr and adjust up from there.
That means my scale gets put away set on 3.8gr or 3.9gr. (Except when I'm doing rifle - which I haven't done in a number of months.)
Imagine my surprise when I get out my scale this morning and it is set on 3.5gr. Did I do a batch and forget to adjust-up the scale after calibrating? I can't imagine I did that (I check it multiple times visually during a session. But maybe I did forget.
First I'm thankful for my method of calibrating low. I'm quite confident I at least don't have a batch that is too hot. It might be low.....but not high. But I can't remember the last caliber I loaded.
I go to the handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet. I can see the last batch I loaded was 9mm. I pull a bullet from that batch and weigh the powder in it: 3.8gr.
I don't recall what I did after that loading session. I might have re-calibrated it or calibrated a few hours later - just to see if things had changed over some time of scale storage.
But the bottom line: Thanks to reading here about how people work their processes and document their sessions I was able to retrace my steps and give myself confidence that that last batch has in it what I intended to put in it.
OR
When I calibrate my scale prior to a loading session I calibrate to the weight below my target charge weight based on what my check weights will enable me to do. I decided to do this so if I ever forget to adjust the scale to target weight after calibrating that I'm below target charge - not above it. My pistol charges are 3.9gr HP-38 (.38 Spcl) and 3.8gr Titegroup (9mm). So that means in both cases I calibrate using 3.5gr and adjust up from there.
That means my scale gets put away set on 3.8gr or 3.9gr. (Except when I'm doing rifle - which I haven't done in a number of months.)
Imagine my surprise when I get out my scale this morning and it is set on 3.5gr. Did I do a batch and forget to adjust-up the scale after calibrating? I can't imagine I did that (I check it multiple times visually during a session. But maybe I did forget.
First I'm thankful for my method of calibrating low. I'm quite confident I at least don't have a batch that is too hot. It might be low.....but not high. But I can't remember the last caliber I loaded.
I go to the handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet. I can see the last batch I loaded was 9mm. I pull a bullet from that batch and weigh the powder in it: 3.8gr.
I don't recall what I did after that loading session. I might have re-calibrated it or calibrated a few hours later - just to see if things had changed over some time of scale storage.
But the bottom line: Thanks to reading here about how people work their processes and document their sessions I was able to retrace my steps and give myself confidence that that last batch has in it what I intended to put in it.
OR
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