Just purchased the hand primer from Lee's with 2 #19 shell holder for 38 Spls. This is the recommended size from Lees. My casings won't fit. I tried both holders. Thinking my brass was the culprit, I tried new ammo and it wouldn't fit either. Has anyone run into this before or am I doing something wrong

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Rick

#1 is the correct size for 38 Special...#19 is for 9mm(and 38 Super).

I'd suggest just buying the shell holder set that goes with this tool. It's cheap and also contains a card listing all the correct shell holder sizes by caliber.

Thank you Ben. I must have looked at it wrong

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Rick

Everything "Ben" wrote is correct. The take-away here is that the #19 holder is designed to hold pistol rounds rather than revolver rounds. You would have the same problem if you bought a 45ACP holder and tried to insert a 45Colt round. The 45Colt has the larger base to keep it from falling through the cylinder of a revolver and therefore won't fit in the 45ACP holder. The 45ACP is straight walled allowing them to better stack in a pistol magazine.

Doesn't LEE offer a shell holder kit for there pocket primer tool?

I believe that's what I purchased for my pocket primers. This way it covers all my reloading.

Yes, they do. The shell plates for the priming tool are different from those for the press.

The only "quirk" to the kit of shell holders is that it doesn't include #6, which(it so happens) is the one you need if you reload 32-20(which I do). Fortunately, we did have a local reloading supply store which sold odds and ends like the shell plates for the priming tool individually(most places around here only sell the set) and I was able to buy a #6 from that store. As the shell holder kit normally ships with an empty hole(it's 14 plates in a box that holds 15) I just threw the #6 in and went on my merry way.

I've been using them for a lot of years and with some problems I think they have a very good "feel" to em. If you have the old round one you will break the lever "all the old ones broke eventually", the new square one has a "unbreakable" lever that will fit the old one. The new ram will not fit the old one. The parts are available at Midway. Take it apart now and again and oil the top round part of the ram and all pivot points and let it stand upright overnight and dab up any oil that drained down into the handle. Do not oil anything in the plastic tray asy. This seems to extend the service life.

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Stay safe people!

The reason I didn't replace my worn out Lee hand primer with another is because Lee decided to use "special" shell holders for the primer and changes them with every updated version. RCBS uses standard shellholders, as does the Hornady model I believe.