A friend talked me into purchasing one of these scales so I thought I'd write up a little review. Previously I was using a Lee Safety Scale, which has reloaded nearly a thousand 308 without flaw but I've never been a fan of how long it would take the scale to settle down and I found the overall process to be stressful. I know some people love their beam scales, and I'm not here to say one's better than the other, but I definitely prefer this digital scale.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Background on the scale-</span>
$199 normal price, but it's on sale this month for $169. I wasn't sure about $200 on a scale when, like I said, the Lee appeared to be fine but a bit cumbersome. Regardless, my friend reassured me he was very happy with his so I went ahead and placed my order.
<span style="font-weight: bold">First Impressions-</span>
The packaging the scale arrives in was quite a bit better than I was expecting- they didn't skimp out on the plastic case it comes in and I appreciate that. The scale comes with a powder tray (that I have not used), an ASTM Class F2 20 gram check weight, a set of tweezers, and an anti-vibration pad.
In addition to the factory instructions explaining the features and programming options, the owner of Uniquetek includes a supplemental sheet that has some FAQ's and some tips regarding scale accuracy. Also, the owner of Uniquetek includes his own calibration test, where he weighs the included 20gr check weight 14 times over 4 hours. I was impressed by this, as I tend to fear I'll always be the one that gets the lemon. Him checking that the scale was working properly before it ships definitely adds a degree of confidence in my book. One thing that is brought up is to let the scale adjust to your ambient temperature for at least 24 hours before using it, and to always allow a 5 minute warm up period when using the scale.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Performance-</span>
To be honest, repeatability is the most important thing to me. Sometimes I would go back and weigh powder charges that were already in the brass on my Lee scale and it would come up a little bit heavy or light; which I found frustrating. After giving the scale the 24 hours the instructions called for I fired it up- using the 20gr check weight the scale would return to 20.000 about 80% of the time, the other 20% it would show 20.001 or 19.999. I never saw any deviation further than those extremes.
In weighing powder charges I noticed that I can move much quicker than with the Lee beam scale. Response time on this digital scale is between 2 and 3 seconds when I timed it with a stop watch. Trickling was another thing I looked forward to testing. By just screwing around with Varget, I had determined that a single granule weighs about .02 grains. Using the supplied tweezers, which work very well with Varget, I can move single granules fairly easy. Trickling one granule at a time does not always show a heavier weight, but I have found that by applying *SLIGHT* pressure to the scale and then releasing it will 're-weigh' the powder and the single granule difference WILL show up. If I trickle 2 granules a time, the scale appears to react consistently and show the new weight everytime (without tricking it into re-weighting).
One trick I have learned to use, is that if my dropped charge comes in at 43.92gr, I will throw 8 granules of Varget and that will come up with 44.00gr just about everytime. Sometimes you'll get a longer or shorter granule of Varget, and that can throw off the exact number of granules required.
One thing I am especially pleased with is that I can pull out individual cases with the weighed charge in them, dump the powder out on the scale and, so far, it always comes back to 44.00gr.
On another note, I had the same friend who owns this scale send me some pre-weighed bullets from his reloading supplies to use as check weights for my Lee scale. In weighing these bullets that he sent me I've found that my scale registers the exact same weight that his did. This is reassuring that there is a lot of consistency from scale to scale and that on top of being precise it is also accurate.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Conclusion-</span>
I am thrilled with this scale, which is really why I'm writing this review. I wish I had gotten this back when I first started reloading, it has made weighing charges a simple task that doesn't require half the concentration that using the Lee scale did. Also, it has sped up my reloading time significantly, and that alone made the purchase worthwhile. While I don't expect to see any shocking improvements other than trimming out the occasional flyer this has made me more confident in my ammunition and has simplified the process greatly. I will come back and post an update when I get a chance to shoot the new ammo (I have 20 rounds loaded using the new scale, and 40 rounds loaded using the old scale so that should give a decent comparison).
<span style="font-weight: bold">Background on the scale-</span>
$199 normal price, but it's on sale this month for $169. I wasn't sure about $200 on a scale when, like I said, the Lee appeared to be fine but a bit cumbersome. Regardless, my friend reassured me he was very happy with his so I went ahead and placed my order.
<span style="font-weight: bold">First Impressions-</span>
The packaging the scale arrives in was quite a bit better than I was expecting- they didn't skimp out on the plastic case it comes in and I appreciate that. The scale comes with a powder tray (that I have not used), an ASTM Class F2 20 gram check weight, a set of tweezers, and an anti-vibration pad.
In addition to the factory instructions explaining the features and programming options, the owner of Uniquetek includes a supplemental sheet that has some FAQ's and some tips regarding scale accuracy. Also, the owner of Uniquetek includes his own calibration test, where he weighs the included 20gr check weight 14 times over 4 hours. I was impressed by this, as I tend to fear I'll always be the one that gets the lemon. Him checking that the scale was working properly before it ships definitely adds a degree of confidence in my book. One thing that is brought up is to let the scale adjust to your ambient temperature for at least 24 hours before using it, and to always allow a 5 minute warm up period when using the scale.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Performance-</span>
To be honest, repeatability is the most important thing to me. Sometimes I would go back and weigh powder charges that were already in the brass on my Lee scale and it would come up a little bit heavy or light; which I found frustrating. After giving the scale the 24 hours the instructions called for I fired it up- using the 20gr check weight the scale would return to 20.000 about 80% of the time, the other 20% it would show 20.001 or 19.999. I never saw any deviation further than those extremes.
In weighing powder charges I noticed that I can move much quicker than with the Lee beam scale. Response time on this digital scale is between 2 and 3 seconds when I timed it with a stop watch. Trickling was another thing I looked forward to testing. By just screwing around with Varget, I had determined that a single granule weighs about .02 grains. Using the supplied tweezers, which work very well with Varget, I can move single granules fairly easy. Trickling one granule at a time does not always show a heavier weight, but I have found that by applying *SLIGHT* pressure to the scale and then releasing it will 're-weigh' the powder and the single granule difference WILL show up. If I trickle 2 granules a time, the scale appears to react consistently and show the new weight everytime (without tricking it into re-weighting).
One trick I have learned to use, is that if my dropped charge comes in at 43.92gr, I will throw 8 granules of Varget and that will come up with 44.00gr just about everytime. Sometimes you'll get a longer or shorter granule of Varget, and that can throw off the exact number of granules required.
One thing I am especially pleased with is that I can pull out individual cases with the weighed charge in them, dump the powder out on the scale and, so far, it always comes back to 44.00gr.
On another note, I had the same friend who owns this scale send me some pre-weighed bullets from his reloading supplies to use as check weights for my Lee scale. In weighing these bullets that he sent me I've found that my scale registers the exact same weight that his did. This is reassuring that there is a lot of consistency from scale to scale and that on top of being precise it is also accurate.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Conclusion-</span>
I am thrilled with this scale, which is really why I'm writing this review. I wish I had gotten this back when I first started reloading, it has made weighing charges a simple task that doesn't require half the concentration that using the Lee scale did. Also, it has sped up my reloading time significantly, and that alone made the purchase worthwhile. While I don't expect to see any shocking improvements other than trimming out the occasional flyer this has made me more confident in my ammunition and has simplified the process greatly. I will come back and post an update when I get a chance to shoot the new ammo (I have 20 rounds loaded using the new scale, and 40 rounds loaded using the old scale so that should give a decent comparison).
