If you’re a shooting enthusiast, then you probably enjoy making and reloading your own ammunition. Making your own ammo not only ensures you’re getting better quality cartridges but can also save you a lot of money. This is because buying ready-to-shoot ammo is way more expensive compared to buying the raw materials.
However, reloading your own shells can be tricky, you need specialized tools that are quite expensive and sometimes hard to use. You’ll only save money after reloading thousands of rounds yourself. However, thousands of rounds is not that much if you’re a gun enthusiast that goes to the firing range every week right?
To reload your own shells, it’s important to get the best tools for the job, a good powder trickler is one. A powder trickler helps you get more precise measurements of gunpowder before weighing them and putting them into your cartridges.
Along with a good digital powder scale or even a mechanical beam scale, a powder trickler is an essential tool for reloading enthusiasts.
By accurately trickling and measuring the amount gunpowder, you’ll always have the exact amount, thus eliminating waste. The savings comes from not wasting any extra gunpowder on overfilled ammo and also on misfiring under-filled ones.
In this article, we’ll discuss what makes a good powder trickler and review the 5 best powder tricklers on the market for your reloading needs.
Lets explore them together, shall we?
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What to Look for When Buying a Powder Trickler
There are a lot of powder tricklers on the market so it might be difficult for you to choose the best one. Because of that, before buying one, you have to understand what makes a powder trickler good and what makes it bad. Here are a few things to look out for in a powder trickler
- Stability
- Accuracy
- Capacity
- Durability
- Ease of Cleaning
- Extra features
Stability
Stability is an important factor when choosing your powder trickler. You don’t want your trickler to tip or slide easily during use right? Because of that, it’s important to find a powder trickler that’s stable and easy to set up so you don’t mess up your gunpowder weighing
One of the most important things to look out for when choosing a stable powder trickler is it’s base. If the base is solidly constructed it won’t slide or tip over easily during regular use.
Accuracy
Accuracy is arguably one of the most important aspects of a good powder trickler. An inaccurate powder trickler is quite useless because it can’t do it’s main function right.
A powder trickler’s main function is to trickle gunpowder into your weighing pan so that you can accurately measure it’s weight. If it’s not accurate, then no matter how accurate your scale is, your measurement will be inaccurate. Look for powder tricklers that have the highest accuracy when trickling your powder into the weighing pan to avoid any waste.
Capacity
If you plan on reloading a lot of cartridges at a time, then finding a powder trickler with a big capacity is important. You don’t have to reload your trickler that often if it can hold a lot of gunpowder. This increases your reloading efficiency and also reduces the strain when reloading hundreds and thousands of shells.
Durability
As with most firearms and gunsmithing products on the market, finding a durable and well made product is very important. You want something that’s going to last a long time and won’t break down when you need them most. Because of that, look for powder tricklers that are well made and crafted out of high quality materials.
However, the best powder tricklers won’t last long if you don’t care for them. You need to clean them up after every use and store them in a cool and dry place to avoid rusting.
Ease of Cleaning
The ease of cleaning a powder trickler is something you want to pay special attention to. As we’ve established before, cleaning your powder trickler after every use is important to guarantee it’s longevity. Besides that, it also eliminates the chances of residue powder contaminating your new gunpowder.
If you frequently use one trickler for multiple powders, find one that’s easy to clean. Different gunpowder have different burn characteristics. Because of that, mixing one with the other is not recommended unless you’re an expert. The wrong combination may lead to a misfire or worse.
Extra features
Besides the things that are listed above, sometimes powder tricklers also have extra features. These serve to increase the tricklers functionalities and help you during reloading. One extra feature that’s quite important to look out for is the ability to adjust the height.
This is important because sometimes, your scale has a different height compared to the powder trickler. To increase accuracy and help with reloading, find a powder trickler that enables you to adjust it’s height to that of the scale.
Now that you know what to look out for to get the best powder tricklers, we’ll help you even further by reviewing the 5 best powder tricklers on the market. All of these are great quality powder tricklers, however, each of them has pro’s and con’s that you’ll have to choose from.
The Best Powder Trickler – Top 5 Picks
OUR #1 CHOICE
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RUNNERS-UP
[su_service title=”Hornady 0505010 Lock-N-Load Quick Trickle” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#2D3092″ size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]
The Hornady 0505010 Lock-N-Load Quick Trickle is an excellent portable powder trickler that povides a more hands-on kind of control. It has a great accuracy and control that allows you to dispense gunpowder accurately according to your needs.
This powder trickler is hand operated which allows you to set your own pace when dispensing gunpowder. It can operate at low or high speeds using a 3 to 1 gear ratio.
It also comes with ball bearings that ensures the powder does not impede the internal mechanics. Because of that, you’ll find that the Hornady 0505010 Lock-N-Load is one of the smoothest powder tricklers on the market. If well maintained and used according to it’s manual, this powder trickler won’t jam and break down during use.
This product also comes apart easily, allowing you to store and clean it more easily. However, even if you can take it apart, it’s quite hard to completely clean the Hornady 0505010. You’ll find that there is residue of the gunpowder inside hopper or on the tool’s insides.
To clean it completely, you might have to use an air compressor at about 25 psi. It’ll clean this powder trickler better compared to using a regular brush. This is not a big problem if you use one kind of powder. But if you’re the type to use many kinds of powder, having an air compressor is handy to shorten the cleaning process.
The Hornady 0505010 Lock-N-Load is also fairly heavy and has a stable base. It will resist tipping over and won’t skid that easily during use. It’s also well constructed so that it’ll last a long time and won’t break easily due to regular use.
If you’re looking for an accurate and easy to use powder trickler, the Hornady 0505010 is a great choice to buy. However, if you’re the type to use multiple types of gunpowder, be aware that this little thing can be hard to clean completely.
[su_service title=”LEE PRECISION 90058 Perfect Powder Measurer” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#2D3092″ size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]
The Lee Precision 90058 powder measurer is one of the best non-portable powder tricklers on the market. It has great design, perfect stability due to being mounted, very easy to use, and is well built. However, this trickler is mostly made out of plastic so it might not appeal to those who like more rugged designs.
As we’ve said before, the 90058 is a non-portable powder trickler, to use it you have to screw it into your workbench. This is great because it provides unparalleled stability compared to other powder tricklers on the market.
It won’t tip over or slide, ever, even if you’re very clumsy due to being bolted on. This ensures you get a consistent and accurate amount of gunpowder every time you reload, because you don’t have to worry about it slipping or shifting in any way.
Don’t worry, its very easy to screw into the workbench and set up correctly. With the Lee 90058, you won’t spend hours just pondering how to set this thing up.
Besides the stable design, the powder trickler also has great precision in regards to controlling how the grains are released. It can be accurate up to two grains at a time all the way up to 100 grains. The hopper also has a large storage capacity. You won’t have to worry about having to reload the hopper often when reloading large batches of cartridge.
The non-portable design also ensures that you can easily use this powder trickler with any kind of powder scale. Simply put the powder scale near the trickler so that you can start trickling gunpowder into the weighing pan.
We always stress the importance of properly cleaning your powder trickler after every use. With the Lee 90058, this is not going to be a problem. It’s very easy to take apart and clean the powder trickler. This ensures that your tool will last a long time.
Overall, if you’re in the market for a high quality non-portable powder trickler, the Lee 90058 powder measure is one of the best there is. It’s well designed, very stable, has great accuracy, and is well designed. It’s also very cheap for all the benefits that it offers!
[su_service title=”RCBS Powder Trickler 9089 ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#2D3092″ size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]
RCBS has long established itself as one of the best brands when it comes to making quality reloading equipment, the 9089 powder trickler is no exception. The RCBS Powder Trickler 9089 is a high quality, well made, cheap powder trickler that’s durable and long lasting.
It’s main body is made out of cast aluminum to ensure it’s durability and long life. Aluminum won’t spark when hit by other metals so there is no risk of ignition with this powder trickler. It’s also rust resistant and won’t break down if you clean it up quickly after every use.
This powder trickler is also very precise and accurate when trickling gunpowder. It lets you trickle the smallest amounts of powder into your pan. This in turn allows you to fine tune how much gunpowder you’re weighing.
The careful trickling is done via a fine tuning knob that lets you trickle a couple of grain at a time. This makes sure that you get the precise amount of gunpowder every time you reload your ammo. Coupled with a high quality reloading scale, you won’t waste any more gunpowder.
This powder trickler is also equipped with an adjustable height base that makes it very adjustable. You’re guaranteed to be able to use this with any reloading scale, be it a mechanical scale or a digital one.
The base also quite wide and is weighted to ensure that it’s very stable. We can attest that the RCBS powder trickler is very stable and won’t tip over when lightly touched. The base is also skid proof so it won’t easily slide when you’re trickling powder into your scale.
Overall, the RCBS Powder Trickler 9089 is a great powder trickler that’s very stable, accurate, and well built. This will help you reload your shells for a long time if you take good care of it. For most people, this is a great powder trickler to buy.
[su_service title=”Hornady 050100 Powder Trickler” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#2D3092″ size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]
The Hornady 050100 Powder Trickler is well designed powder trickler that’s lightweight and compact. It’s made out of sturdy plastic that’s both lightweight and quite durable. Because of the weight, you can basically take this trickler everywhere with you inside your EDC bag.
It has a unique angled-up design that’s larger at the bottom and smaller at the top to increase stability. The base also has a special coating that increases it’s grip and prevents it from sliding during use.
However, due to it’s light weight, the base is not as stable as other powder tricklers on this list. The weight makes the Hornady 050100 easy to tip over, even if it is specially designed to reduce the chance of tipping over. We recommend you to fill the base with lead shot or other forms of weight to increase it’s stability.
The Hornady 050100 has the ideal height that’s compatible with almost any scale and powder pan. This allows you to easily position the trickler so that the powder slides easily into the pan.
This powder trickler also very accurate, it allows you to make small adjustments with high accuracy. The listed accuracy of this powder trickler is 0.1 grain, however during testing this varies between 0.1 and 0.2, still a very good number.
Overall, the Hornady 050100 Powder Trickler is a great inexpensive powder trickler that does it’s job very well. If you’re looking for the cheapest most bang for the buck powder trickler in the market, you can’t go wrong with the Hornady 050100. However, as we’ve said before, this powder trickler is very light, it’ll slide and tip over easily if you’re clumsy and not careful.
Summary
Choosing the best powder trickler for your reloading purposes greatly depends on your needs and budget. If you’re a firearms enthusiast that likes to reload their own cartridges, investing in the best quality powder trickler is a great idea. In this case, choosing the Frankford Arsenal powder trickler is a great idea because you’ll fully utilize it’s features and functions.
However, if you’re just a hobby shooter that shoots on the gun range every couple of weeks, choosing the most expensive and highest quality trickler might be overkill.
If you fall into this category, choosing the Hornady 050100 powder trickler might be a good buy. This product is very cheap for what it offers, and even though it’s cheap, it can do all of the basic functions just fine.
What if you fall in the middle? Any powder trickler that we’ve reviewed in this article can be a great fit for you, just make sure to read the pro’s and con’s carefully. Also don’t forget to check if it fits into your budget. The verdict? Find out what you really need and start from there!
