Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Best Digital Scale

I got on the wait list for the V4 on 10/4, canceled it today, and got on the Super Trickler wait list today.

Appreciate the heads up on the Super.

I like the looks of the Super Trickler and my go that was as well.
I found the scale on sale for less than $600 so I would most likely just buy the scale myself and order just the trickler.

I got my Auto-trickler V.4 last year with the same scale rick has in his picture.

My auto-trickler drops a charge in less than 10 seconds… it’s crazy fast and always .02 grains accurate..

I’m really happy with it.

Electronic components are subjected to heat during operation. They generally do not operate optimally until the temperature stabilizes. In theory digital electronic designs are immune to this, but there are no devices that are 100% digital...there are always analog circuits involved even if it's just the power supply, and it takes a little time for a power supply to fully stabilize its output voltages which can be critical. Many designs incorporate features to compensate for temperature change but none are absolutely perfect.

I often calibrate complex devices and voltages are sometimes read to five decimal places. That depends on the level of precision required.

Thanks for the explanation.....guess I'll just stick to dropping and dribbling.

Well - there are 2 obvious components to the electronic conundrum.. which results in 3 specific items…
The Sensor vs. the Digital tech… And the Analog to Digital converter in between.

The sensor tech improves a great deal and is much more consistent - so the 500 scales are now capable of repeating .02 grains of accuracy.
The electronics do have a bit of a “saturation” issue in terms of being turned on for a while, but the tech is so advanced you are typically fine here.

At the end of the day a 500+ scale will get you there to .0x grains

I have three digital scales and weights to test these scales. So far they all agree and they always weigh the test weight accurately. One of those scales was on sale pretty cheap. I also have a beam scale - just in case. I have not used that beam scale in many years. I know there’s people that cuss electronic scales but I’ve had no problems with any.

The technology has obviously improved. It may be that the premium stuff has been the same for years but only recently become affordable. I think a good deal of the improvements we've witnessed are software related as well as hardware advances.

I have a PACT digital scale made in about 1994 and it seems to always be as precise as I want it to be (as long as I regularly cancel out the "0" drift using the tare function). Check weight verification is almost always perfect but sometimes is off by 0.01 gram when weighing 100 grams. Linearity appears to be good when using small check weights. Nonetheless, when the scale says 9.8 grains, is it actually 9.80 grains? Most likely it isn't. It could be 9.84 or 9.76 grains. I always wonder, but truth be told my 10-10 has never screamed "your PACT is lying!" Not yet, at least.

Will weighing charges this closely help me get my Savage 99 in .303 to shoot half inch groups?

You know the answer to that: not if it won't already!

I know. I'm just goofing around about the guys doing their best to weigh charges to the nearest tenth of a gnat's ass without having a number of other ducks already lined up in a very precise row.

Which ducks don't I have lined up?

I don't know. You may have them all lined up.

I'm thinking of things like a rifle capable of better than 1/4 moa all the time, not just now and then. The very best brass as a baseline, then neck turned precisely. Cartridges assembled dead straight to one thou runout max. Brass annealed every loading by a precise method such as provided by an AMP machine.

It has been touched on in the discussion, but the main advantage I see is time. My Lyman M5 does not give up much other than speed. When I need to load up 200 plus rounds for a 3 day match, I'm thinking I would like one a lot.

Basiclly, there is no real difference between an analog and digital transistor, or diode, cap or resistor. The only difference is configuration and layout. So basically there are no true digital components only. Unless the guy designing it says so.

The thing is, if your brass isn't all matched up by volume you're still not going to eliminate extreme spreads. A very precise powder charge is never a bad thing but you'll never see a rifle's potential realized until the other variables are addressed. Using QuickLOAD, I've done a comparison using .308 Winchester in a 20-inch barrel length, a 168-grain A-Max, and a max (calculated) charge of H4895 which is 44.0 grains.

With case capacity set at the default value of 56 grains of water, velocity is 2690 fps @ 62158 psi.

Use a case capacity of 57 grains of water and velocity decreases to 2666 fps @ 59499 psi.

Now set case capacity back to 56 grains of water. It takes a powder charge variation of 0.4 grains to cause as much variation as a difference of 1 grain of water capacity.

If I had a choice between perfect brass and my junky old Chargemaster OR run-of-the-mill brass and perfect powder charges, I would take the perfect brass every time. Not that I think perfection in either area is possible...

I am not criticizing those who want as precise a powder charge as they can get and I'm not saying you're doing it wrong, but I AM saying that if your dotting the "I"s but not crossing the "T"s then you're missing out. Me---I don't worry about such minute details. I buy decent brass and charge them as carefully as my equipment allows and I am [mostly] satisfied---key word. I don't own a quarter-MOA rifle in the first place, but if I did I might very well pursue the last 1/10-MOA potential.

Sorry for the rambling...

So my question is does it fold the bindle for you?

I've been using an RCBS Chargemaster since when they first came out...come to think it has to be close to twenty years now. I've had a Super Trickler on order since October and was told 1st Qtr 2023.

I just got notification that mine is shipping on January 27th. It's coming from Denmark, so however long that takes.