Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Powder Scales - General Chit Chat

I own a number of scales, but generally use one of three - an Ohaus 10-10, the Lyman 1500 or a Lee Safety Scale. Admittedly, I used the Lyman 1500 the most.

Occasionally, I take one of my beam scales out and compare the results to the Lyman digital. In the past, the cheap Lee scale weighed the same as the Ohaus, which weighed the same as the Lyman 1500. (or no more than 0.1 grain different). For my recent work ups, I did not do that. There was never a difference in the five or six years that I had the Lyman to doubt that it would fail.

Yesterday, I wish that I had checked.

I was testing loads for my 6x45 - 85 gr. Speers and 85 gr. Noslers. For each of the two bullets, I loaded 10 cartridges x 5 powders. For the work ups, I used my Lyman 1500. It was calibrated immediately prior to use. It is also re-calibrated every 10 shots, just in case you were going to ask.

The first 20 shots with the 85 gr Noslers were uneventful, with velocities varying from 2715 to 2767 fps. That's on the money for what I had used in the past. When I started with the third powder, things seemed off. The velocities had climbed, and were hanging around 2800 to 2820 fps with the first five shots, so I stopped, and went to the fourth powder. The first two shots chronoed at approx. 2850 fps. Alarm bells went off, so I stopped shooting them. I tried the fifth. The first shot chronoed at 2917 fps. Full stop. The recoil told me that there was too much powder.

I shot a 223 Remington over the chrono to see if something was wrong with it, but the 223 ammunition numbers were fine.

Back to the house. I pulled the bullets and weighed the powder using my Ohaus and Lee Scales.

The loads with the third, fourth and fifth powders were heavy by 0.4 to 0.7 grains.

I tried the Lyman. When I turned it on, I noticed that the display read 23.2 grains with nothing on, or around it. I let it warm up, calibrated the scale and weighed the powder. The display showed an amount much less than the original charge weight. I threw the powder on my Lee again. The charge weight was supposed to be 25.8 grains, but showed 26.3.

The Lyman is dead.