elkeater2
Handloader
- Jan 5, 2009
- 762
- 88
My son got me a Hornady GS-1500 digital scale (about $30) because I told him I wasn't sure if my old Ohaus 505 was accurate enough. It seemed to do as advertized, at least at first. These little scales in this price range aren't meant to do daily production work, or load by load weighing, yet many of the reviewers seem to want to do that.
I have a powder measure that I've modified and polished the internals on which throws very repeatable charges. I found that setting it up for an individual charge is time consuming, though. So I like being able to slightly change it and see the results quickly - my main use for the little digital.
The Hornady seemed a little flaky, not giving the same weight + or - a tenth or two for the same quantity of powder. Calibration didn't seem to matter. There is a learning curve with these things, they need to be level, turned on and warmed up for a while, stable position, etc. The claimed accuracy to a tenth on the Hornady kinda bugged me. Then the day came when it seemed like I just couldn't get the powder measure set - turned out the Hornady was returning really inconsistent measurements. I went back to the old beam scale, cleaned it up good, and relied on it again.
I pulled out the Hornady a few days ago and checked it with some bullets of known weight and got frustrated all over again, so hit the web looking for info on decent, low cost digital scales. The name that kept coming up was the AWS Gemini-20. I read about it and ordered one. This is smaller, has a dinky pan sitting on a weighing point that is about 5/8" diameter. It also is accurate to 1 milligram! That's .001 gram...or .0154 grains. Hmmm. That is a huge difference!
It works. It repeats. It calibrates. It checks out against the 505 every time. It does display in grains. I found myself being picky about 42.48 grains when I wanted 42.50....that's about 2 kernels of IMR4064. Yes, when it's set to display grains it shows them to two decimal places.
The pan is small, too small for charges over about 45 grains of most powders. I took a plastic 1 oz. size throw away measuring cup which fit nicely in the pan and use that to weigh powder. It works well.
The AWS has a max capacity of 20 grams/308 grains, so it won't do for big bullet weighing, but I don't do that.
The AWS has the small circular weighing surface vs. the larger inkpad size one on the Hornady. The AWS one has more give or easier movement to it, which I believe is a factor in the accuracy. The Hornady has more resistance or less travel, and is designed to weigh much heavier totals. An exagerrated example would be trying to weigh yourself to the ounce on a truck scale - you'll get a reading, but....
So I like the AWS just fine so far. I think it is great for a $30 or less scale.
EE2
I have a powder measure that I've modified and polished the internals on which throws very repeatable charges. I found that setting it up for an individual charge is time consuming, though. So I like being able to slightly change it and see the results quickly - my main use for the little digital.
The Hornady seemed a little flaky, not giving the same weight + or - a tenth or two for the same quantity of powder. Calibration didn't seem to matter. There is a learning curve with these things, they need to be level, turned on and warmed up for a while, stable position, etc. The claimed accuracy to a tenth on the Hornady kinda bugged me. Then the day came when it seemed like I just couldn't get the powder measure set - turned out the Hornady was returning really inconsistent measurements. I went back to the old beam scale, cleaned it up good, and relied on it again.
I pulled out the Hornady a few days ago and checked it with some bullets of known weight and got frustrated all over again, so hit the web looking for info on decent, low cost digital scales. The name that kept coming up was the AWS Gemini-20. I read about it and ordered one. This is smaller, has a dinky pan sitting on a weighing point that is about 5/8" diameter. It also is accurate to 1 milligram! That's .001 gram...or .0154 grains. Hmmm. That is a huge difference!
It works. It repeats. It calibrates. It checks out against the 505 every time. It does display in grains. I found myself being picky about 42.48 grains when I wanted 42.50....that's about 2 kernels of IMR4064. Yes, when it's set to display grains it shows them to two decimal places.
The pan is small, too small for charges over about 45 grains of most powders. I took a plastic 1 oz. size throw away measuring cup which fit nicely in the pan and use that to weigh powder. It works well.
The AWS has a max capacity of 20 grams/308 grains, so it won't do for big bullet weighing, but I don't do that.
The AWS has the small circular weighing surface vs. the larger inkpad size one on the Hornady. The AWS one has more give or easier movement to it, which I believe is a factor in the accuracy. The Hornady has more resistance or less travel, and is designed to weigh much heavier totals. An exagerrated example would be trying to weigh yourself to the ounce on a truck scale - you'll get a reading, but....
So I like the AWS just fine so far. I think it is great for a $30 or less scale.
EE2
