Returning to reloading

[dmftoy1]

Over the next few months I'm going to start buying equipment and get back into reloading. It's been 14 years since I've turned out a round and I had a couple of questions wrt tumblers and scales.

Question #1 - Which type of cleaner is better? The rotating tumblers or the vibratory tumblers? When I used to clean my cases I was using a rotating tumbler, but most of what I see nowadays is vibrating ones.

Question #2 - Are the new electric (digital) scales worth it? I used to always load on a beam scale, but since I'm spreading my expenditures over 3-4 months I could probably afford a digital one if I wanted.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[griz]

1. I was given an old rotary tumbler. It worked, but besides being noisy it was pretty small compared to a vibratory tumbler. I don't really know which is "better", but the fact that almost all are now vibrating is good enough for me.

2. The main advantage to a digital scale is in weighing a batch of something, like doing QA on a box of bullets. If you are just setting up a measure, or dribbling up to a precise rifle charge, a beam scale still works fine.

Welcome back to reloading. I can't imagine taking a break from it, unless I wasn't shooting for years.

 

[swifter]

Although I maintain that, for $$ spent, you get a lot better scale in a beam scale than in a digital, after tossing my final Dillon digital in the trash, I bought a Hornady digital from Sinclair International. About $125, and I'm reluctantly impressed. It has none of the drifting habits that made me crazy with the Dillon, and has worked with splendid reliability -- another trait the Dillon lacked -- for a couple of months now.

I'd gone thru three Dillons, and frankly hated them, and used a friend's PACT for a month. Not too impressive.
This little Hornady is way better than either, and the price is not too bad.

Tom

edited to correct typos...

 

[dmftoy1]

Thanks guys! So if you're reloading for a pistol and basically sit down and crank out 300-400 rounds then a digital scale doesn't buy you much, but if you're weighing each charge . . .such as for reloading a smal batch of rifle rounds then it's a good way to go??

I live in Illinois, so I had given up shooting much until about a year ago when we bought some land. (maybe 300-400 rounds a year) Now I'm shooting 300-400 rounds a month, and I just bought a .500 S&W so it's getting much easier to justify the cost again!

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[griz]

Hey Swifter, my Dillon drifts too. Is that common with that brand? I didn't mention it in my first reply because I didn't want to paint all digitals with a single problem. I guess I should test out their highly touted warrenty.

 

[ocabj]

I used to be opposed to digital scales until I bought the Pact Precision Powder Scale.

http://www.pact.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=scales

It's $129.95 shipped from Pact.com. It is very consistent at holding zero and it is possible to trickle on it (you have to wait several seconds for it to detect the change in weight if trickling, though). I recommend it. Haven't had any problems with it. Make sure you plug it into a good surge protector, or better yet, a UPS or something else that will help provide it a clean/consistent electical current (ie: line conditioner) and let it warm up for a good 15 minutes before you calibrate it and use it.

I bought the RCBS branded version of Pact's BBK. The BBK is now called the BBK II and the one I had was probably an older model and I had lots of problems using it. I ran it from a battery and warming up didn't help much. I haven't tried Pact's new revision of the BBK.

 

[swifter]

Griz,

You can give 'em a try They sent me brand new ones twice, although they started acting up inside of a few months. I'd heard they quit doing that with the scales, and was tired of the SOS with the Dillon, so I bought something else.:banghead:

In the interest of fairness, I must say that I suspect our "iffy" electric power
Up here in the mountains. We live a bit above 6K, and despite having things plugged into surge protectors, we get constant "brownout" blips that are not enough to kick our electric clocks out, but do set off the computer's battery back-up. We went thru three answering machines in about 18 months. Before moving up here, we'd had the same one for several years. The little Hornady digital runs on battery power, so I hope it'll last.

Tom

 

[halvey]

I'd get both a beam and digital scale. Beam scales can be had for $40-50 and are a nice double check. For rifle, a digital is super nice. Besides, if you get one of those neat auto powder throwers, you'll need a digital scale to synch it up with.