HighDesertWolf

I aquired a Hornady Beam scale from a friend, But with no owner manual. I currently use a Lee safety scale which I'm not really liking , you barely touch it the wrong way and its completely out of calibration and I'm not sure what the deal is but I'll weigh 3 of the same charge from my powder measure and get a different reading each time. I feel the hornady is a better scale but I'm not sure if I should trust it not being sure if I have it set correctly. I'll take a charge that the lee safety scale says is 42 grains for example and put it on the hornady scale and it says the charge is .2 grains heavier so basically reads 42.2 on the hornady. But Lee says that their scale is gonna be the correct one from two scale readings based on the fact that the lee safety scale only measures a range from zero to 110 grains where the hornady will measure from zero to 500 grains. I'm very confused on this and I am highly concerned with not getting a correct reading. I would feel more comfortable with the Hornady scale if I knew it was set right. Can anyone tell me how to properly set the Hornady scale? or tell me how I can get a Owners manual. I am currently trying to work up a 308 winchester load but I am not feeling comfortable not knowing if my equipment is working properly.

Briman

I'm not 100% familiar with a Hornady scale, but I do use a RCBS beam scale.

With any beam scale you will need to calibrate it every time you use it or move it.

The best way is to buy a set of check weights- they cost about $20. I used a 168 gr SMK bullet for a long time which is probably good enough as the weights tend to be very consistant, but I made up my own set of check weights from paperclips, coins, and a chunk of steel that I weighed out on one of the analytical balances that I have access to at work. These weights I store in a small box and only handle with tissue paper.

Put a known weight in the pan. There should be an adjustment screw on your scale that lifts the pointer end of the scale up or down. Set the balance weight to equal the weight of the check weight in the pan. Adjust the balance so that the pointer is zeroed. Now you should be able to verify the scale by putting other check weights on in varrying combinations and setting the scale to equal those weights. I've found that if I calibrate with any weight, the balance is pretty much dead on throughout the range, but remember that there are always tolerance ranges with any piece of equipment, and most scales weigh within +/- .1 gr.

Lee's claim that its a more accurate scale because it works within a short range is like alot of Lee's other wild claims- a line of crap. So long as the scale is used within a few orders of magnitude of its minimum reading, it should be very accurate, and the Hornady reads the same order of magnitude as the Lee, just has a wider range.

The Hornady should be a much better scale than the lee as it probably has a magnetic dampener and probably is quite a bit sturdier in construction.

Vapodog

Hornady's beam scale is unique among most of the scales on the Market in that it's not made by Ohaus. But it's adjusted the same as the Ohaus and that's to "level" the scale to point to "o" when the scale is clean and empty and all weights are on the "0" mark.

I consider this scale to be a very fine unit in that it is further adjustable because of the two jam nuts attached to the beam. The jam nuts are preset at the factory and usless you have sound evidence that the nuts have been moved I'd leave them alone.

Briman has suggested buying master weights, but in fact you can use bullets as master weights if you have several of known weight. I'd suggest that you have something around 50 grains and one around 130 grains and another about 300 grains. If all three bullets are weighing within 1/2 grain of what they're supposed to weigh you can feel pretty sure that your scale is in good order as delivered from the factory.

The cost of getting the scale "right on" is not worth it.....you're always starting low and working up loads so the only thing that's important is that the scale repeat well.

In other words if that 55 grain bullet weighs 55.3 grains on your scale it should weigh 55.3 grains next week as well. There's very few scales that are so accurate that you can control to 1/10th of a grain and IMO they're not needed.

Try this.....if you buy a set of master weights ask the manufacturer to include documentation as to the weights being traceable to the national bureau of standards.....just try it.

I highly recommend to all reloaders to own a fine balance beam scale that they trust and is repeatable.....so far I haven't seen one from Lee!

Hornady's scale is a very good one and all the scales from Ohaus are also good.....this includes the scale from RCBS and Dillon that I know of. I've reloaded with no problems at all for over 40 years using only bullets as check weights for my scale.

You may also return the scale to Hornady for their inspection and I'd guess they'd do it NC if it makes you less nervous.

1mile50

I ditto all that Vapodag said. I always zero my RCBS 5-0-5 before using it. I would have also said there is no way to calibrate it easily (end user). True for my 5-0-5, but I would have shown my ignorance about the Hornady scale, those jam nuts seem to be for calibration purposes. Liike Vapodog said, best left alone.

I would add that you should keep your scale covered and free from dust when not using it. Also, keep your reloading area free from sources of magnetism and static electricity when using your scale. Besides the obvious, like speakers and such, that includes some plastics like PVC that build up static charges. Your scale will be affected by this, since it is magneticaly dampened so you don't have to wait forever for it to balance and the pointer to stop.

If you want the instruction manual, I suggest you call Hornady's customer service # in Nebraska. They should be happy to send you one. Hornady Mfg. contact info

Briman

Good point, never thought of that, the commercially available checkweights are more than likely just stamped out without chcking them.

My experience with using a single bullet every time, came out pretty close to my calibrated weights, like you mentioned, there's no reason why one couldn't use bulets of known weight for calibration purposes- just put the same bullets aside and use the same ones every time, the calibration may not be dead on the nuts, but the calibrations will be consistant, which is more important.

Vapodog

There's a lot of stuff on the market that a reloader can buy that don't really add to the quality of ammunition or adds so little that most reloaders will not be able to see the results.

Several of my past posts have enumerated many of these but scale check weights are certainly not on my "to buy" list.

We could develope a very long list if we wanted to!!!

Briman

Hey great Idea!
I'll Start a new thread

HighDesertWolf

A Big FAT Oooooops!!!!!, I Moved the jam nuts, But Only because my friend I got the scale from said that was how you zero the scale. So am I SOL ??? What do I do now??? I did try using a sierra 165 BTHP game king as a check weight it weighed in at 165.5 grains. I have a winchester 55 grain fmj that weighed 55.3 grains is this good or bad so far, next gonna see if I can aquire 300 grain bullet.

Vapodog

Here's the bottom line.....assuming you can get the scale when clean and empty to point to "0" and it reads the two bullets you have reasonably good.....(I'd move the jam nuts about 1/16th of a turn foreward to get the readings closer to what the bullets are supposed to be) then you should be be ready to go. The 300 grain bullet isn't really necessary.....very few powder loads are over 100 grains so the lighter weights are actually better anyway.

HighDesertWolf

I'll try that, But I'm thinkin I'm just gonna go buy a RCBS 505 or lyman 500 on tuesday the design seems to be more user friendly less likely to mess up LOL, NO jam nuts.