Thursday, February 16, 2006

Hornady Model M

A couple of years ago, grandchildren broke my powder scale and I went shopping for a new one. I bought the Jennings ModelJS50X digital scale and learned to use it.

The Jennings scale is painfully accurate, so accurate that it would measure air currents in the room, and was susceptible to things like ambient temperature. I still like my Jennings scale, but recently I found myself yearning for a balance beam type scale. I found one in the Hornady Model M.



I bought mine from MidSouth Shooters Supply. When I got it out of the box, I set it up on the kitchen table and zero'd it in under a minute. The magnetic poise is suprisingly stable and doesn't wander about like some scales I have used. The counterbalance has three weights, one for ten grains, one for single grains and one for tenths of a grain. It is very easy to see the settings and once set, they tend to remain in place. The powder pan is set at the proper height for using a trickler, which is important when I want to be very careful and specific about the weight of powder I am using. When trickling powder, the magnetic beam moves slowly and carfully to the zero setting, so I can be very precise with my measurements.

I don't always weigh powder. I'm a fan of the Lee Dippers (scroll down) for a lot of the reloading I do. Many of my pet loads are set up using the dipper method and they are quick, safe and repeatable. However, there are times when I am working up loads that I want to be very precise with weights of powder.

I like the Hornady Model M. I like it a lot.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your veteran lawman. Any comment about what in the hell is going on down at Gonzalez, Louisiana just south of you?