What's the best hand primer?

[mtgianni]

I went through 2 stages of Lee and with the junk one currently out there I am really happy with Hornaday. The only minor irk is that it takes Hornaday shellholers.

 

[Krogen]

Instead of a hand primer, I would recommend the RCBS bench mounted primer. The one that has primer tubes, not the one that uses the APS strips. I've had one since the early 80's and love it and do most of my priming with it instead of on press. It has good feel, is easy on the hands and I never end up with high primers.

I second that opinion! I bought mine in the early 80's. I used it so much that the primer rods wore on the bottom and it started to fumble primers. A call to RCBS resulted in new rods which should keep it going for another 30 years!

 

[Benchrest1]

The K&M and Sinclair tools work great, and will last a lifetime.

 

[Forrest r]

For presses:
I still use the old rcbs priming arm on the rcbs press.

Bench top:
I've used the SSK primers for decades. They use standard shell holders.

Hand held:
It's hard to beat the old lee hand held primers. Still have 9 or 10 of them laying around. When the discontinued them I bought every 1 I saw at gunshows for a couple years.

 

[292]

Thanks for the replies. I kinda want to stay with a hand primer because of the portability and I like the ease of use a primer tray provides. I sent an email to Lyman customer service we'll see if that bears any fruit. In the meantime I'm thinking hard about a Frankfort Arsenal hand primer. I primed 100 9mm last night with the Lee so I'm not out of business.

 

[fredj338]

I went through 2 stages of Lee and with the junk one currently out there I am really happy with Hornaday. The only minor irk is that it takes Hornaday shellholers.

Mine will take any ss press shell holder. The tool came with little adapter pins for diff brands of shell holders?

 

[max503]

For presses:
I still use the old rcbs priming arm on the rcbs press.

Bench top:
I've used the SSK primers for decades. They use standard shell holders.

Hand held:
It's hard to beat the old lee hand held primers. Still have 9 or 10 of them laying around. When the discontinued them I bought every 1 I saw at gunshows for a couple years.

I prefer the new ones. The old ones used to crack on me. They couldn't stand up to hard-to-seat primers. The new ones seem to have more leverage and they're more robust.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

There are many good handheld primer tools out there now and unfortunately a few bad ones too. While I have and use many Lee tools their hand priming tools are not one of them. (other than the original) I use the plain old original RCBS hand primer and it always works very well for me.

For high precision work I recommend the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series primer with the Sinclair being a close second.

 

[2tall79]

I've used the RCBS bench primer for years and after 1000's of rounds the bolt that the actuator arm pivots on broke yesterday. One email to RCBS CS and a new one is on the way....free of charge. IMHO, you just can't do any better than the green team.

 

[HKSmith]

Another vote for the K&M hand priming tool. I bought one earlier this year and it has completely replaced my Lee Ergoprime. It uses Lee priming tool shell holders, but I already had those. About 3000 cases primed in the past 8 months with no problems.

 

[WildTurkey66]

Go with this one as many others have stated. You can thank Fortune Cookie for the video demo. Best one out there.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4nShKxk7Gs[/ame]

Mine is very portable as I mounted it to a leftover chunk of plywood. I then clamp the plywood to the bench for use. Unclamp and put the whole thing up on a shelf out of the way when not in use. It is setup so that I am standing at my bench when using. You get into a rhythm and quite fast if you set up ergonomically.

 

[Protocall_Design]

I have one of those. It works very well, really like it. It's fast and easy to use.

 

[TOM BECKWITH]

Like many above, I use the Lee tool most of the time both rifle and pistol.
Not mentioned above, but I press in the primer, turn case 180 degrees, and press again. Guess it makes me just feel better?

 

[292]

Lyman is sending me a new ram for small primers. I guess I'll give it a try. Before ordering the Frankford.

 

[crankyoldlady]

Instead of a hand primer, I would recommend the RCBS bench mounted primer. The one that has primer tubes, not the one that uses the APS strips. I've had one since the early 80's and love it and do most of my priming with it instead of on press. It has good feel, is easy on the hands and I never end up with high primers.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I used the old hand Lee primer for a long time until the arthritis in my hands made it impossible. Bought the RCBS bench mounted and wish I had done so years earlier.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

RCBS Universal gets my vote: no need for the funky shellholder switch, no need to touch the primers when correctly loaded into the trays. You do need to adjust between small and large pistol primers, but...

Works excellently while loading up mixed prepped cases, 380acp, 9mm, 40 S&W, 38 S&W Specials, etc. and you can then just sort 'em as you prime 'em... And it is a quality RCBS product!

My $0.02 worth CHEERS!

 

[rockquarry]

Regarding the RCBS Universals...

I bought two a year or so ago. Neither would fully seat primers with 100% reliability and both required what I consider to be an undue amount of force. The original Lees were better priming devices. However, from what I've read, other such Universal tools have worked fine. I returned the ones I bought.

 

[jim lock]

Your question: Best hand primer. Sinclair makes one used by precision shooters. It is expensive. I'm thinking best is not always the most expensive.

 

[DWalt]

I'm just an old school dinosaur, but my preferred hand primer seating tool is Lyman's 310 tool. But then I'm still burning powders from canisters with Hercules and DuPont on the labels.

The 310 tong tool does work well, but you really need the proper holder for the caliber which is usually part of the die set. It also works very well as a de-capper. I have the tool and dies for .45-70. Works well to de-cap .45 ACP and .45 Colt cases also.

I have used the Lee auto-prime hand tool for many years, and can't complain about it. Mine is nearly worn out and I recently bought a Lee bench model. It works generally OK for large primers, not so well for small primers. Lousy for feeding them. So I am continuing to use the Lee auto-prime hand tool for small primers rather than putting up with the hassle of using the new bench primer. I cannot recommend the Lee bench tool, but would recommend the Lee auto-prime hand tool.

 

[292]

Update

I bought me a Frankford Arsenal Perfect Seat. I've done 250 or so small primers with only 3 small hiccups. I'm happy.