Scale or Annealer

[ED3]

Please, oh please, just shoot me if I EVER take your advice and go down that road! Hell, I'll just shoot myself.

Not really advice, merely an observation.
It is sad and ironic that those who would likely serve best will be the last to be drawn to the swamp.

 

[Medic505]

there are a lot better ways to spend over two grand

I'm curious, what would you spend 2 grand on that would improve one's shooting more so than an annealer and scales?

 

[dcali]

I'm curious, what would you spend 2 grand on that would improve one's shooting more so than an annealer and scales?

A good action, a competent 'smith, a tuner, and some portable reloading gear so you can load at the range. Getting good at tuning is more important than measuring everything as precisely as is possible just because we can. That's my opinion at least.

Edit: I’d throw in some high quality rests/bipod/bags so you can sort out gun handling properly.

 

[powderbrake]

1) Quality rests & bags, so you can fine tune and repeat your rifle position and sight picture.

2) I suggest following damoncali's suggestion of working on the tuning..... sizing of the case, seating depth, primer selection, buy a good caliper and micrometer, case length gage, base to ogive gage. Take data and record it.

3) An A&D 120Fxi with the Autothrower and Autotrickler. This gives you a powder load down to 1 or 2 pieces of Varget, thus completely eliminating the powder load as a questionable source in striving for accuracy. Now repeat 2) above.

4) annealer. I do not think that case life is going to be the determining factor, rather the neck tension consistency, and that may be buried in the effects of the annealer on the friction characteristics of the inside of the neck. Lots of testing may be required to determine the efficiency of the annealer.


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[okie]

Hello,
I'm looking for suggestions on either upgrading my scale or purchasing an annealer

Right now I am using the chargemaster 1500 for weighing/throwing charges and am not sure it is accurate enough(+/- .1) for my liking. So I am considering upgrading to the fx 120i(w/auto-throw&trickle), but not sure if that money would be better spent on an annealer(ampv2). I know I will be purchasing both eventually but looking for opinions on what to get first. I'm not a benchrest shooter but just starting to get into prs and fclass. Also I'm not taking into account brass life increase, just looking for accuracy/consistency.

are you shooting a .223 or .308??

 

[MislMan]

Sort of depends on what size groups you are currently shooting and what improvements on target you expect. Since you aren’t shooting benchrest the need for such accuracy may change quite a bit. As you are just getting started in PRS & F-Class, I doubt your loads are holding you back.

 

[Medic505]

A good action, a competent 'smith, a tuner, and some portable reloading gear so you can load at the range. Getting good at tuning is more important than measuring everything as precisely as is possible just because we can. That's my opinion at least.

Edit: I’d throw in some high quality rests/bipod/bags so you can sort out gun handling properly.

So in the OP what leads you to believe he doesn't already have these thing covered?

 

[normmatzen]

Scale then Annie annealer. Bargain price for an excellent annealer.

 

[dcali]

So in the OP what leads you to believe he doesn't already have these thing covered?

Nothing. I was just commenting on the relative importance of the items in question. The op said he’s new to f class and PRS, so I though some context would be appropriate.

 

[Nature Boy]

I shot a 600-32x at 600yds with 6BRX brass that had been fired more than 12 times without ever being annealed.

You should start annealing, just imagine what you would have scored!

 

[Nature Boy]

I've had the A&D FX120 and auto trickler for a couple of weeks now. Just the elimination of the tedium associated with hand trickling on a GemPro 250 makes the price worth it.

 

[CharlieNC]

On the CM if you tune the trickling parameters and install a smaller dispensing tube insert, you can easily achieve +/- .05gr. Problem is it will be considerably slower, but is nearly free. Therefore I generally use a tuned beam with a video monitor, which is very fast and accurate. Point is there are more options.

 

[KenOath]

120i and Auto Trickler would be my first purchase.

 

[Richard Coody]

no question Adams autotrickler system

only reason anyone would.say different is they have never used it

 

[Papa Charlie]

Scale

 

[Baddog0302]

Consider a set of check weights to see how accurate your present unit is. How many rounds do you shoot in a week, or a month ?? How much total time do you have to devote to reloading ?
As to annealing,from the $ 1400.00 AMP to the ones that run $ 500.00 (+-) to the DIY hand drill /socket/ and torch , YOU still have to deal with each case one at a time.

 

[ranger3]

You can anneal all you want but unless your powder charges are consistent, you'll never get the accuracy you need to get good groups at a longer distance.

 

[Puzzaz01]

Go with the scale. Maybe just me but I sold my annealer after my scores started going down. And like I said, maybe it's just me and maybe I was doing something wrong but what I do know is that when I got rid of the annealer and dumped all that annealed brass my scores went right back up. Go with the A&D FX-120 auto dispenser and auto trickler and never look back. It takes about 20 seconds to dump an accurate load, really speeds things up.

Darrin

 

[Acyr]

I loaded with a Chargemaster 1500 and trickled into a RCBS 1010 for the last 5 years. Took me to LR HM in TR. I recently purchased the A&D FX120i with the auto throw and trickler plus the Area 419 package. The whole kit and caboodle. Is it any more accurate than my previous set up? No. Is it a whole lot easier to throw accurate and consistent charges? You betcha. It makes the loading process simple and dead nuts repeatable. I still anneal on an a simple flame type annealer every 3 times fired. I would take the $1000 you could spend on an Amp and spend it on bullets, brass and powder instead.

 

[KenOath]

no question Adams autotrickler system

only reason anyone would.say different is they have never used it

True ^^^