Longshot Cameras is best known among long-range shooters for target camera systems that send your hits back to the firing line. Now the Texas-based company has a product for the loading bench, too, after acquiring Dandy Products and its 2-Speed Electric Powder Trickler.
High Power, F-Class, precision rifle and benchrest competitors who weigh every charge know the routine. A powder measure throws a charge a few tenths of a grain light, and the last kernels go in a few at a time until the scale settles on the target weight. Traditionally, that final step meant a manual trickler, a tube you twist by hand. At the other end of the spectrum, automated dispensers throw and trickle the full charge at the push of a button, for a good deal more money. The Dandy falls somewhere in between.
Instead of twisting a tube, the reloader works a two-button control pad on a 24-inch cable. Pressing the red button runs the vibratory feed at its fast setting for larger additions, and the yellow button drops it to a slow feed as the scale closes in on the target. A weight that slides along the discharge tube adds another layer of fine control over how quickly powder leaves the outlet.
Setup works with the scale you already own. A tower rod rises from a weighted base, and the hopper assembly slides onto it and locks in place with a knurled nut. Outlet height adjusts from 1 to 5½ inches, measured to the center of the tube, and the assembly rotates a full 360 degrees with up to 6 inches of reach from the base. That range lets the 4¼-inch, angle-cut discharge tube hang over the pan of a variety of beam and electronic scales, though it should never touch the scale itself. Power comes from two AA batteries in the control pad, so the only cable on the bench is the one running to the pad. The hopper holds roughly 1,000 grains of powder.
“We’re excited to welcome Dandy Products to the Longshot lineup,” said Clay Rhoden, president of Longshot Cameras. “This acquisition allows us to expand our offerings into precision reloading while continuing to serve shooters who value accuracy, consistency and control in their shooting setups.”
Longshot specifies the Dandy for smokeless powder only. Black powder and black-powder substitutes can be ignited by static discharge, and the company warns against using either in the trickler. Also, be sure to empty and clean the hopper and the entire powder path before switching powders, verify every charge on a scale and work from current published load data.
Made in the U.S., the Dandy 2-Speed Electric Powder Trickler carries a suggested retail price of $140. Batteries, scale and powder are not included. Replacement hoppers are sold separately in a four-pack for $16.
For those who’d rather hand the whole job to a machine, Longshot is also developing the Precision Trickler, an automatic dispenser built on the open-source OpenTrickler platform and paired with a scale of the company’s own design. It’s still in development but open for preorder at $699 for the first production run, $300 below the planned $999 retail price.
Go to longshotcameras.com.
