scales for weighing bullets

22 Long Rifle ammo is finicky. Tell us all about it here.
Hawk-1
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scales for weighing bullets

Post by Hawk-1 »

I have beam scales that I weigh powder charges with, but would like to get a good digital scale for weighing .22 ammo. What decimal point should it go to, what brands, and approx. cost of each type. Is annyone currently doing this? Thanks in advance.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by Dee »

I got this one off ebay to play around weighing/sorting pellets and will use it to sort enough .22 ammo for Winnie to make sure I get any potential lite or heavy loads out of the mix. It weighs in grams, carats, ounces and most of all grains. Nice little scale for $14.99 w/free shipping. I use a 200gr jacketed bullet to check it is calibrated but the seller also has calibration weights for sale that might be good to get if you order one and have it sent along with the scale. So far it has always been dead nuts accurate and I test that by weighing in scales here at work that go to 1/10000th of a gram.

SPECS

100g capacity x 0.01g increments

3.527oz capacity x 0.001oz increments

500.0ct capacity x 0.1ct increments

1543.2gn capacity x 0.1gn increments

Weighing tray measures 2 3/8" x 2 3/8"

Scale measures 2 3/4" wide x 4" long x 3/4" thick

Operates on 2 AAA Bateries included

Scale has auto shut off after approx 2 minutes to save battery life



http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Scale-100g- ... 5ad28b2258



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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by Number10GI »

Hawk-1 wrote:I have beam scales that I weigh powder charges with, but would like to get a good digital scale for weighing .22 ammo. What decimal point should it go to, what brands, and approx. cost of each type. Is annyone currently doing this? Thanks in advance.
I don't think weighing ammo is worth the time. There are so many variables that affect the accuracy of rimfire ammo that weight has to be one of the least reliable indicators. The primer in the rimfire is a large part of the explosive force that send the bullet down the barrel. Just a small difference in primer amount, consistency, mixture, etc can create quite a variance in velocity but the difference in weight is so miniscule that it can't be reliably measured. A few grains of powder plus or minus will affect the velocity also and it's weight would be negibible. Between the brass case, bullet, powder, and primer how do you know which is the one that is not the correct weight? This has been beat to death in the benchrest community but no one has won a significant match using lower grade ammo that has been weighed and I don't know of any successful benchrester that is doing it. For a time measuring the rim thickness was being touted as the means to eliminate flyers from ammo but that has also been debunked. One thing I learned in about 7 years of benchrest shooting is that cheap ammo produces inferior accuracy. To get the maximum accuracy possible you have to buy better quality ammo and then test numerous lot numbers till you find the one that your rifle likes.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by lone ringer »

I agree with what Number 10GI said 100% but we silhouette shooters could and have won National Championships with ammo Bench Rest shooters have rejected. Anything that is 1MOA or less at rams would be more than satisfactory for a top silhouette shooter.

Separating ammo by weight or rim thickness may be a waste of time but if you think it would help give you more confidence in it, that is a good enough reason for doing it.

There are good enough inexpensive ammo available for practice and local matches like CCI mini group, Federal Target and Aguila SV to name some of them. Then you can try the lower grade Eley, RWS, SK Standard Plus and CCI Green Tag and finally you can go to the high end ammo for state, regional, nationals and some of the more important invitational matches like the Southern Nationals and CBC. if you do not want to take any chances with ammo.

I know a few top shooters that have shot mid to high 30's with inexpensive ammo. If you do not want to spend a lot of money on the best ammo at least invest money on the best barrel installed by a good gunsmith and you will get a better return for your money. For whatever is worth is the best advice I would give anybody that asked me.
Last edited by lone ringer on Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by martinsteve97 »

Hello friend,

Me too searching for weighing scales from many day's but at last one of my neighbor who is also using the weighing scale suggest me to use the scales from digitalscalesaz.com because they provide the best scales with reasonable price not only this but they also provide the grantee. :-bd
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

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Hawk-1, I ditto loneringer and others on weighing ammo and especially his advice on a better rifle. Now what I do not agree with is the Tony's words 'well known gunsmith' as you and I have both experienced (along with others not mentioned here) being wellknown does not necessarily make good gunsmith. Most of the Annies have a great barrel out of the box anyway, and the only changes that you might really want is to the stock (for shape and weight) so therefore you are interested in finding a gunsmith that can do a good job bedding the rifle.

That being said, proving to yourself that weighing does or doesn't gain anything is probably worth 15 to 50 dollars. As for quality of scales...and most importantly that word calibration (I can go on ad nausem about the definition of that word), what you are really looking for is not that precision of calibration but the consistency in weighing each time it is used. You have no control over the weight of the 22 bullet, all you are really trying to do here is compare the weights between rounds in a box, so how precise and correct the actual weight is is moot. Is the difference between rounds being weighed repeatably?


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Re: scales for weighing bullets

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Innocent wrote:Hawk-1, I ditto loneringer and others on weighing ammo and especially his advice on a better rifle. Now what I do not agree with is the Tony's words 'well known gunsmith' as you and I have both experienced (along with others not mentioned here) being wellknown does not necessarily make good gunsmith. Most of the Annies have a great barrel out of the box anyway, and the only changes that you might really want is to the stock (for shape and weight) so therefore you are interested in finding a gunsmith that can do a good job bedding the rifle.

That being said, proving to yourself that weighing does or doesn't gain anything is probably worth 15 to 50 dollars. As for quality of scales...and most importantly that word calibration (I can go on ad nausem about the definition of that word), what you are really looking for is not that precision of calibration but the consistency in weighing each time it is used. You have no control over the weight of the 22 bullet, all you are really trying to do here is compare the weights between rounds in a box, so how precise and correct the actual weight is is moot. Is the difference between rounds being weighed repeatably?


Mary
OK! Mary, I meant to say well known for his good work and ability to do a proper job on installing a .22 RF barrel on a rifle and not well know for his lousy work.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by Innocent »

Tony,
I am making reference to a gunsmith that is supposedly well known for good work, but the truth be known, I am aware of at least two jobs that have been done by him that are BAD. One being Hawk-1's trigger and bedding in
a custom stock. The trigger moves side to side over 0.5 inches, not to mention inconsistent breaks on the pull, and a few other details that I have not mentioned.
While anyone can make a mistake, being obnoxious about repairing/replacing the damaged trigger, and not returning orginal parts does not set well with me. And I am referring to a quality Anschutz trigger.

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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by jjp »

Hey Hawk, I know what it is.... you need the scales to separate your cash crop that's coming into harvest. :)) =)) :)) =)) No need to hide it. Has to be consistent or your customers might stop coming. =)) =)) =))
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by Jerry G »

Rim thickness is not the same all the way around the rim. Using a rim guage does help the cheep ammo but doesn't do anything for the better stuff. I do think weighing the ammo would help the least. When you weigh there are 3 variables, case weight, powder weight, and bullet weight. Way too many to make any sense out of. The only advantage to weighing loads is to find the ones you forgot to put powder in when you reload HP.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

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To many variables for me to consider at my level. With weighing, does it tell you how much powder and primer was put into that round? With rim thickness, does it tell you how much powder and primer was put into that round? In match grade, is there more consistency in how much powder and primer is put into each round giving more consistent fps in that lot? In other wards, the auto equipment loading these rounds have better tolerances than other equipment of lessor cost ammo? Shape, size and weight of the lead bullet have better tolerance in match grade coming off Swiss made machinery than off German made? How often is this machinery checked for making the rounds to tolerances required for Match or Std grade? Is it all in the control in the consistency of the powder strength that gives the consistency in accuracy that cannot be measured? I think the consistency in shape of lead bullet and weight may have more impact on accuracy?
What above factors make a difference in a custom rifle, or $1700 production rifle, vs a $400 production rifle, providing an expert shooter is behind it?
I'm sure it is all a piece of mind whether you choose to sort match grade as someone mentioned. I think it is all in the consistency of powder/primer type and weight in round.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by Jerry G »

Every one of the things you mentioned will affect accuracy. I think the only solution to the problem is buying GOOD target ammo.
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

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enuf said? [-x
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by CHRISTOPHERW »

Its the bullets lead weigh them %-(
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Re: scales for weighing bullets

Post by CZforlife »

Heck we're getting so nit picky here we're starting to sound like the benchrest shooters at my club! ~x( May I recommend trying to reload your .22 ammo!? That way tolerances can be very tight! =)) =)) =)) Practice is the key! Buy the cheaper stuff for practice and then for matches use SK, Lapua, Eley, or whatever else your rifle might like!
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