Looking for a good scale for weighing rifles

[Gene DeLoney]

Hi Guys. If you are wanting weights for personal use, not certified. Get a new paint can and lid from a paint store. Pour hot lead in it. Take it to a friendly grocery store or meat market and have it weighed. Measure the height of the lead in the can and estimate how much more you need to get to 10.5 pounds and add it or slightly more hopefully. Take it and a battery powered drill to the store and weigh it again. If it's over, go outside and use your drill to remove some lead from the can and weigh again. Repeat till you get 10.5 pounds. Do the same thing for the three pounds. Don't forget to weigh the lids as part of the weight. Put the lids on and label them. Should work well as a test weight for personal use. I am on my way to do it tomorrow. Don If you can't melt lead then just use loose sinkers. You can use side cutting pliers to cut smaller sinkers to adjust the weight. Don

Hi Don,
Years ago I did the same thing as you but used #8 lead shot. Filled the can to about 10 pounds and finished off with a small container of the shot adding a little at a time to bring it up to 10.5 pounds. My wife worked at a grocery store at the time so I did it after hours and was able to use all their California certified scales in the store to check accuracy and all weighed exactly 10.5 pounds. I later on made a smaller 3.0 can using the same method for HV weighing.
Gene

 

[Pete Wass]

In My opinion - -

It's a bit much for a Shooting Org to demand that clubs have to lay down those kind of dollars for certified weights . There has got to be a more sensible way to proceed with regard to weights. In my opinion, if a scale will weigh any known weight repeatedly and agree with the amount of known weight each time, it should be considered accurate. It seems sensless to have all of those check weights, in my way of thinking. Of course, I realize I don't think the same way many people do.

It would seem to me that if the Shooting Org had a set of certified test weights, other weights could be checked against those weights and certified by the Org. That could help things a bunch.

Pete

 

[Vern]

I do not know and I am only guessing but WHAT IF you shot a world record and the weight used to verify the rifles was not certified or whatever it needs to be and you were disqualified for only that reason?

Edit...
AS it is I think it stinks that at registered matches they dont require people to go ahead and weigh in when they sign up.
They do it later,,, or the next day or at random.
I have posed this before and always get the same response... that its the individual shooters responsibility to make sure he is of legal weight.
But when an ounce or fraction there of can cause a DQ why not just do it before it starts.

I saw a guy one day get DQd on the 2nd day of a match. He thought he was legal. He weighed his gun at his local meat market but guess what...... DQ. He lost his entry fee. Wasted money on the hotel and everything else.
It could be prevented and its not that much of a problem.