Now I know it's not a firearm, but it's firearm related.
I got this a few days ago for my birthday, and I've already loaded 100 .223 and 100 .243 rounds. ( thanks Allan for getting it to my wife for the big day )
First thing I noticed when I took it out the box is the size, it's not quite as big as I thought it would be, this is a good thing. It's also extreamly well packaged with excellent protection.
The build quality is absolutely superb. The led and photo cell stand is weighted and should stand up to decades of use.
The fly lead which connects to the trickler unit has a nice chunky plug. I particularly like the use of this plug, smaller plugs will work, and is cheaper but, I think Allan uses the bigger jack plug as he takes pride in his product and wants the end user to have many years ( decades ) of trouble free use.
The unit is battery powered ( 4 x AA not supplied ) the battery compartment is accessed by un-winding the feed rate foot and sliding the bottom panel off. This reveals the motor mechanism and battery housing. Installing the batteries is a doddle. Slide back the bottom panel, install the feed rate foot and your almost there.
Set up your beam scale and zero it in the usual manner. PLEASE TAKE NOTE: THIS UNIT WILL NOT WORK WITH THE LEE SAFETY POWDER SCALES. I use an accurised redding no2 2 poise beam scale. The sensor unit is placed as far away from the fulcrum nearest the pointer as possible to give you the best possible accuracy. Plug the sensor into the trickler and fill the resovoir with your chosen powder PLEASE TAKE NOTE 2: THIS TRICKLER MUST NOT BE USED WITH BLACK POWDER OR BP SUBSTITUTES. Place the unit to dispense over the pan. There is a toggle on/off switch on the back of the unit, turn it on and a red led on the top of the unit indicates that it's on. On the top of the unit, there is a big red button, push this and the unit then starts to throw the charge. It takes approximately 30 seconds for the powder to emerge from the tube the first time you use it. The beam when it rises will break the light reaching the photo cell turning off the powder feed. The height of the sensor can be adjusted up and down to "zero" the trickler, this might take three or four takes to "zero" but once set does not need adjusting during the session ( unless you bump/nudge the unit accidentally )... Ask me how I know this
You then set the scales to the required weight. I use a powder thrower to under throw a charge, place the pan on the scales, push the big red button and wait for the magic to happen. I have noticed that +-1/10 throws will be a granule or two under or over, I use a tweezer to take the over thrown weight down to zero. If under thrown, you can nudge the unit by quickly pushing on the big red button to drop a granule or two to zero.
I have set up a web cam on my laptop to "view" the zero scale to eliminate parallax error. Once into a rhythm you can be seating a bullet whilst the unit is throwing the next charge.
I really hope this review is of use to somebody, and although not a firearm, there isn't a section for reloading equipment.
Vasbyt
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