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View Full Version : Interesting info about the Sartorius AY123/Acculab VIC123 scale


blockfort
01-30-2013, 7:19 AM
I called a balance distributor to ask about a balance for powder charges. They turned out to be the ones who calibrated the scales that Sierra uses.

He recommended the Ohaus Adventurer Pro AV53, which I can find online for about $700, almost twice the price of the AY/VIC 123. Both are milligram balances, but he said the VIC has a repeatability of 0.003grams or 0.046 grains. Meaning that consecutive weighings of the same object could be off by that much each time. If anyone out there is looking for a high precision, high accuracy scale, that may not be it.

I really don't want to pay $700 for a balance, nor do I want to pay $350 for one that I might need to replace in a few years if I continue down the Palma path.

I guess no one ever told me this is a cheap sport, but that is a chunk of change. Is there any other piece of gear not actually on the gun that costs that much?

Bill Steele
01-30-2013, 7:30 AM
After running the gamut of digital balances from inexpensive that seemed really repeatble for a month or so, to embarassingly expensive that was repeatble for a few months, I am back to my RCBS 1010. It is extremely sensitive and repeatable. If you happen to get one that is not absolutely perfect, there is a guy out there that will perfect it for you for like $50.

XDRoX
01-30-2013, 7:33 AM
This is a Prometheus Powder Measure. It use to be the best powder measure available. I think they use to cost around $1200.

Personally I don't see the big fuss. Unless you're shooting over a mile I just don't see the amount of powder making that big of difference in accuracy. Bullet consistency trumps powder consistency. So the first step in making better rounds is making more uniform bullets. There are dies that can turn round nose bullets into hollow points which from what I've seen can make a huge difference. The dies are pretty expensive though.

Seems like the deeper we go the more expensive things get, huh?

http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac105/puebloshooter/Reloading%20Stuff/DSC02743.jpg

phish
01-30-2013, 8:22 AM
I called a balance distributor to ask about a balance for powder charges. They turned out to be the ones who calibrated the scales that Sierra uses.

He recommended the Ohaus Adventurer Pro AV53, which I can find online for about $700, almost twice the price of the AY/VIC 123. Both are milligram balances, but he said the VIC has a repeatability of 0.003grams or 0.046 grains. Meaning that consecutive weighings of the same object could be off by that much each time. If anyone out there is looking for a high precision, high accuracy scale, that may not be it.

I really don't want to pay $700 for a balance, nor do I want to pay $350 for one that I might need to replace in a few years if I continue down the Palma path.

I guess no one ever told me this is a cheap sport, but that is a chunk of change. Is there any other piece of gear not actually on the gun that costs that much?

The spotting scope package can easily exceed $700. 0.046 grain repeatability is still half of the minimum weight precision that is of interest.

Sartorious also sells a magneto restorative balance that does not use the traditional strain gauge bridge. It has much faster response time with greatly reduced hysteresis.

Poke around Accurateshooter.com, there is a video of it, it ain't cheap by any means: $900!!!

blockfort
01-30-2013, 9:34 AM
I bought a Celestron telescope (c90) with an eyepiece to make it 78x and it is really incredible. Much better than the Leupold dedicated spotting scopes at my range. It was only $149 at Adorama. It's delicate and not weather proof, but really, really nice to look through. At 78x, I can't even see the whole moon at once.