RCBS Little Dandy or Uniflow small rotor

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Irish Lad

New member
What do do you folks think is best for small pistol loads. Gonna start loading .380. My Lee auto drum is great for 223 on my Lee Classic Turret, but not so great on real small loads.It throws 4.9-5.1 using W231 for 45 acp. Not much wiggle room on 380. Looking at the RCBS Little Dandy or Uniflow small rotor with the micro adjustment screw. Any opinions or other suggestions are appreciated.
 
Irish Lad, The Little Dandy is a big investment but over time I have filled in most of the blanks places. The Little Dandy is my favorite powder system. I have the Uniflow system also. I have three presses that come complete with the Uniflow and two drums so If I had a problem with one of them? That has not happen but for pistols I prefer the Little Dandy.

AND! As soon as this thread gets started someone is going to try to sell you another rotor.

F. Guffey
 
F. Guffey,

I appreciate the reply. The investment doesn't bother me if it works well. Because of your previous posts I invested in a wilson case gauge for every caliber I load.
 
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I use the Little Dandy for most pistol loads.For pistol loads I prefer them over the Uniflow.I'm not a real fan of the Uniflow.I prefer the Lyman 55 measure for larger charges.
 
I too have a Uniflow (large rotor). Works great for my rifle loads. I use it and a Frankford Arsenal Powder Trickler to get exact loads.
 
The uniflow with the pistol drum can be calibrated to 1/10 grain of many ball powders. I also use .380, if a powder measure can precisely measure that micro charge, it's perfect.

the little dandy has to be set with drums that couldn't possibly be that versatile, you would have to buy specific powders to get that standard sized drum to fit a charge capable of safely firing a .380. You could make it work with a large capacity case like 9mm, but the .380 is just too small. I looked it up once and it didn't seem to me that it was the right answer to that problem.
 
Why would you want to have to buy another rotor if you want to throw a little more or less powder? Get the Uniflow where you can adjust it to throw more or less powder.

Don
 
I use the Uniflow for .380 up to .308. ( small cylinder) Never misses a beat, but I only use ball powders, it may not be the best for flake powders like Unique.
 
Joe for Unique in the 380 you like need one big Flake and one small one .

I use a lot of Unique hard to throw 1 or2 tens is right on .
 
I have been using my Uniflow w/ a small rotor since 1984. It's all I've ever used in fact - so I guess I have nothing against which to compare it.

But I do know that it'll consistently throw 1.8 grains of Bullseye. Doesn't need to work any better than that for me.

I'm completely satisfied. Works as good as the day it was made. Have never even considered getting another powder hopper of any kind.
 
I'm sure I have not loaded as many as others responding to your post, but I have used my Lil Dandy to load a few tens of thousand handgun rounds since the early 80s. The only problem I had was cracking the plastic hopper 1 or 2 years ago. I wrote to RCBS who sent me a new one at no cost. Fantastic customer service. I can't say enough good things about my experience with it. Even though it isn't recommended, I bought a few extra rotors and slightly expanded the rotor cup for my pet loads.
I have also owned a Lyman 55 for 20 years, but despite polishing the heck out of the adjustable rotor and housing, it sticks. Since I cant get a consistent throw, I have a difficult time adjusting the amount of powder dropping each time. Tried it with Bullseye, 231/hp-38, Unique, TightGroup, 748, CFE-223, and of course stick powders. Probably haven't loaded more than a couple hundred rounds with it.
I've considered a Uniflow for many years, but since I have all of the Lil Dandy rotors for my handgun rounds and individually weigh my rifle loads, I haven't found the desire to buy another adjustable powder measure which may or may not be better. If I do, it will certainly be a green one.
 
I've never used the Lil Dandy.

This is another vote for the Uniflow. I've found the Uniflow to be fine for all my handgun loads and some of them have been very light target loads. It's always been accurate enough for me.

I don't think I'd like to have to buy all the rotors but again, I've never tried one.
 
I load all the Target pistol stuff on a Dillion 650 and use Unique useing the dillion powder measure it works well with most powers Unique is not one of them . For heavy pistol I use the single stage and AA9 or WW296 and the uniflow .
 
I use my ‘Little Dandy’ for about all my handgun loadings. Not sure if he’s still around, but I bought an ‘adjustable rotor’ for the LD, works great. I don’t have any of the fixed rotors.

Not sure how well the fixed rotors work. I guess if one had most, you could find them workable. My lightest charges are Win-231 for the 380, the adjustable rotor works fine.
 
I used a small rotor in a Uniflow for years, for all my rifle and handgun loads. More recently I've aquired a Hodgdon LNL with the small rotor, and now prefer it for small handgun loads. It's rotor diameter is about half that of the small rotor Uniflow, so it tends to work rather well for very light charges. It does max out at about 12-15 grains for most powders, so it is limited to very small rifle and non-magnum handgun cartridges.
 
I had a Little Dandy. The rotors were seldom rated for what I wanted to load and they seldom delivered what the chart claimed when they were apparently suitable.
 
I believe that the dandy would be exactly what a person would need if he loaded for a few calibers and was flexible regarding his powder charges and general load characteristics. Someone could use maybe 4-5 rotors and assemble loads for 9, 40, 38, even .45. It could be easier than turning out tens of thousands of assorted rounds in small lots when having to reset the measure constantly.

The dandy and four rotors will cost about the same as a uniflow.

I would personally like one of the dandy measures, but only as a secondary. It is a pain in the neck to reset a uniflow
 
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