Never ever buy a PACT product!

[glockster157]

Time for a rant. I have a Pact BBK 2 powder scale. It acts weird most of the time but if you don't breathe on it and stand back a few feet it normally works. Lately it has gotten worse. It will not zero nor will it calibrate. I even put up a special shelf for it so there would be no breeze or vibrations effecting it. Still no good.

So I call Pact and the guy tells me these scales are really sensitive and that it is probably something in the environment causing the problem. He tells me not to use the AC adapter that comes with it as this can throw it off. Then he tells me to leave the battery out of the compartment as this works better. I am doing this stuff a he is telling me. Still does not work. Then he blames static on the shelf since it is plexiglass, so I move it back to my wood work bench....still dancing numbers. He says "I am sure it is something wrong there but if you want to send it to us we will look at it.".....I just told him that I had already read a bunch of bad reviews on this scale and that most people had the same customer service experience I just experienced. All I can say is there will never be another PACT product in this house.

[Guest canebreaker]

Way to go! Throw the crap out the door.

No, save it to your scrap bucket.

[kb4ns]

Maybe I'm old school, but I refuse to use an electronic scale for powder. I feel much better with the old beam scale. I know that there are some really dependable models out there, but I just can't do it.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Same here. I still use that crummy old Lyman scale to check my loads,

I got a digital scale off Ebay a long time ago. It's okay except after zeroing it,

anything it measures is twice the weight. That's a bit tedious for me.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I went through an electronic scale learning curve.

I was having very erratic readings sitting the the corner of the room. After a while of being frustrated I realized that the ceiling fan was one. Turned it off and things settled down. Another interference I had was when my heating/air was running.

The scale is senistive enough that a person walking by can cause it to bounce in their wake of disturbed air.

Not sure how much fluctuation you are getting but for me a .1 fluctuation is normal. I know some scales go down to .01 and that would probably drive me mad.

Dolomite

[glockster157]

No, I have fought with the fluctuations. I don't have a ceiling fan, and I do not have a direct hvac vent in the reloading room. I would just call this scale defective as it will not calibrate, neither will it zero. It starts to climb and will keep going up until it starts flashing error. I tried to explain this to the Pact CS rep but he didn't seem to care. He just kept telling me that the scale is very sensitive and most of the time it is the environment it is in. And don't use the DC adapter and leave the battery out of the compartment and this and that.........I guess I should put my left foot in a bucket and my right elbow in my ear, it might work then.

[Caster]

I've never loaded a single powder charge from an electric scale. Never will.

I did have a Frankfort Arsenal digital scale that I used for weighing bullets. I used it for about a week. Never worked right. One evening I set on the floor in my shop and I beat it with a dead blow hammer. Dust pan and a broom.....all beam scale ever since.

[glockster157]

That is what I was using this one for...quick bullet weight checks on jacketed bullets but cast bullets in particular. I gave up on trusting it for powder charges about an hour out of the box....it is a joke. That is one reason I took so long to call Pact....as long as it was working good enough for generalities I had a use for it.

[Grunt67]

Never had any experience with a digital scale, but have read a lot of bad reviews with these buggers. I'll stick with

my old beam scale & make do. It might be a bit slow for some folks, but it works.

[Westwindmike]

I've been using a Dillon electronic scale for about 8 years now. It is sensitive to air currents. But other than that, it has been perfectly reliable.

[mikegideon]

My electronic scales are reliable too. There are a lot of crappy ones out there.

[Jonnin]

maybe mine is not so bad after all. It has a +.2 grain variation, but if you tap the item being loaded so that it always comes to rest on the weight from the HIGH weight value side, it is consistent. I dunno if I just loaded a bunch of 10.8 or 11 grain loads, but doing it this way, they are all the same at least. If I can tap something and get the same final weight 3 times in a row, its good enough for me.

Not optimal, and probably not good enough for really, really serious folks, but I can make it work and it was only like $30.

[Dave Shooter]

Glockster,

sounds like you got a bad CS rep. The service I've had from PACT for my Mark IV timer/chrono and RCBS scale (made by PACT) has been fine. They charged a fair price to fix problems that were my fault, like dropping scale on concrete and breaking the strain gauge. Not a no-BS, fix it free warranty, but they don't claim to have one.

My two cents.

[mikegideon]

Not optimal, and probably not good enough for really, really serious folks, but I can make it work and it was only like $30.

30 bucks is mighty cheap for any scale.

[tnhawk]

I've used a Digital RCBS scale for years without any problems. I frequently check it with weights and it's worked well.

[mikegideon]

Mine are RCBS too.

[glockster157]

Well I think I should have spoken more to the attitude of the rep thought he product is unimpressive also. I am always going to stick to my Ohaus 10-10 scale....I might try a different brand digital again one day but it will not be a Pact or one made by them.