A better way to prime?

gwpercle said:
and touching a primer with your fingers does NOT kill it ... Boy was that myth ever passed along as "truth" for years ... but it ain't so !

Gary
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OMG! NO!
I suspect that might have been an issue for those reloaders who also never learned to wash their hands after they wiped.
 
Not a fan of hand priming. It takes more time and I never had much problem priming on any of any several different presses. The few problems I did have were much quicker to deal with than hand priming.

But I don't enjoy reloading much so I'm production oriented.
 
I use a Hornady hand primer for small batches of pistol cartridges. I have used the press setup on my Hornady LNL progressive press but that thing can be fiddly.

For rifle cartridges, especially anything with a floating firing pin, I use the Forster Co-Ax bench primer. It gives me more leverage and a better feel for when the primer is fully seated. Plus my process includes wiping a fingertip over every primer to make sure it's seated deep enough and not proud of the case head.
 
SMSgt said:
OMG! NO!
I suspect that might have been an issue for those reloaders who also never learned to wash their hands after they wiped.
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As I recall from the '60s gun magazines, you would frequently read the admonition not to touch primers with fingers. Seems they may have been speaking of greasy fingers that had just lubed brass for resizing.

I prime one at a time and handle all primers and have done this off and on for well over fifty years without problem.
 
Another + for the RCBS Bench mounted Automatic Priming Tool . In 1973 upon release from Uncle Sam's Daycamp I bought a Rockchucker , 10-10 scale , Uniflo w/ both drums & the Priming Tool . All are still in service today . I like the " feel" it gives when seating .
 
When not using a Dillon I prime with My RCBS Rock Chucker. I use a tube from an old C&H that holds 100 primers. Doesn't take much time at all to prime and bell 100 cases.
 
I am never in a hurry reloading so I occasionally use a ram prime. I have tried 3 different hand primers but none seem to fit my hand, I have to reset the tool in my hand after every squeeze and the 3 were not "fool proof" as I got mis feeds and upside down primers quite often (2 out of 12). When priming a lot of brass I use my RCBS bench prime...
 
I run two Dillon 550s and two Lyman Tmag turret presses and prime handgun brass on my machines. It's faster because I don't have to handle the brass as much. However when I load '06 or .30-40 Krag on my single stage Bair Kodiak I prime with a old Lee Auto prime in front of the tv. I reload a couple hundred handgun rounds every month but only reload for my big rifles a couple times a year.
 
I have used a Dillon 550B for about 30 years and an RCBS Jr. before that. I never could see the use of hand priming when the press did an outstanding job and you didn't have to fiddle with the cases and primer separately. Especially with the 550B, as it primes just after sizing and before moving to the next die.
I realize its different strokes for different folks, and if you want to hand prime, thats ok with me, I just never could see the advantage.
 
rockquarry said:
True, and a little more on that... I've used these over the years including the early "dangerous" model with the round tray. It worked well, far better than than the later and "safer" version with the square tray, something much discussed here and elsewhere because of its shortcomings.

Some have said these tools will last longer by lubing the points of wear and I can't refute that advice. I'd only lube them when I thought about it using Vaseline, something I read somewhere long before the Internet. I'm not sure the lubing procedure really enhanced tool life by very much.

As mentioned already, the soft material these tools were made of was the real limiting factor to their longevity. Many say they have used the early Auto Primes for thirty or forty years and they continue to use them. I wore out several of these, one or two may have lasted twenty years at best, but I probably wasn't priming much then. I'm pretty sure other users aren't priming a great deal, probably under, maybe way under 10,000 rounds per year. It's just hard to see these tools lasting long with continued heavy use - they weren't made for it.

I never wore out a square tray version; I just threw them away after quickly discovering they didn't work very well.
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As mentioned, I'm at least on AP no 5. It has had less use than the previous units because I've played around with some other priming tools including the Safety Prime on my Classic Turret press. The current AP has the round tray, so I may be getting more mileage from of it from lubing it more frequently. Not that I didn't with a couple of its predecessors, just not as often and probably didn't lube the 1st much, if at all.
For me, one of the biggest safety issues has been when they've reached the limit of their usable lifespan they begin short-seating primers where a second strike on the primer will be needed to set it off.
It definitely pays to monitor primer seating depth.
And since one of my presses is the Classic Turret, I'd prefer to prime with it if there was a reliable priming tool. They've redesigned, supposedly, the original Safety Prime, but it remains to be all plastic, so far as I know. And because of plastic or other poor quality parts in the drive system of the CT, it lost the ability to auto index a long time ago. And again shortly thereafter the replacement parts. Over time I've found that manual indexing can be about as fast, and also allows some options for steps you might want to make along the way.
 
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TexasViking said:
As mentioned, I'm at least on AP no 5. It has had less use than the previous units because I've played around with some other priming tools including the Safety Prime on my Classic Turret press. The current AP has the round tray, so I may be getting more mileage from of it from lubing it more frequently. Not that I didn't with a couple of its predecessors, just not as often and probably didn't lube the 1st much, if at all.
For me, one of the biggest safety issues has been when they've reached the limit of their usable lifespan they begin short-seating primers where a second strike on the primer will be needed to set it off.
It definitely pays to monitor primer seating depth.
And since one of my presses is the Classic Turret, I'd prefer to prime with it if there was a reliable priming tool. They've redesigned, supposedly, the original Safety Prime, but it remains to be all plastic, so far as I know. And because of plastic or other poor quality parts in the drive system of the CT, it lost the ability to auto index a long time ago. And again shortly thereafter the replacement parts. Over time I've found that manual indexing can be about as fast, and also allows some options for steps you might want to make along the way.
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As for short seating...surely everyone runs a fingertip across the case head to check primer depth when using hand held priming tools? This isn't limited to Lee tools. I bought two RCBS Universals several years ago and returned both. Neither would fully seat primers with 100% reliability. Their tool that used shellholders was a much better one.
 
rockquarry said:
As for short seating...surely everyone runs a fingertip across the case head to check primer depth when using hand held priming tools? This isn't limited to Lee tools. I bought two RCBS Universals several years ago and returned both. Neither would fully seat primers with 100% reliability. Their tool that used shellholders was a much better one.
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Definitely correct. And an absolute necessity for those who make their own defense loads!
 
I had a try on my MEC loader that worked well but I've never seen that set up on single stage press. They're usually tubes and I'm not going to take the time to load a tube when I can dump a try of primers into an RCBS hand primer. Maybe I just don't know what's out there for a LEE single stage press. Maybe I'm just fine with what I have.
 
I had a Lee hand primer for when I was a youngin and used a wack-a-mole. It had screw-in shell holders.

Then I upgraded to the second model that used flat shell holders.

Finally, I upgraded to a press mounted Auto Prime II that used the same holders that were used in the press. This was such an awesone tool that I bought a second one so I could use it if the original, parts broke and they had discontinued the parts.

So far, the second one (new) is still in the box. Tens of thousands primers went thru the original with no failure yet.
 
For unmixed small batches of rifle cases I like the guaranteed consistency of my ram prime die. Otherwise I hand prime. I never could really feel the seating well enough on the factory press gadget.

If anyone has evidence that ram die seating can be uneven relative to individual pockets even in matched sets of brass then I'd be interested in learning more.

Dean in Arkansas
 
I began using a 21st Century hand primer seater about five years ago. I prefer it over the Sinclair, but the Sinclair is also a good tool. It's one-at-a- time seating, but that's not nearly as slow as some think it is and I prime at least ten thousand cases a year. The 21st Century is machined steel, well made, it works, and no one complains about it like they do with most of the other tools. It does require 21st Century shellholders, but they're inexpensive. Amortized over a couple of years or so, the initial $120 (I think) cost is minimal.
 
I use the RCBS APS strip loader. The technology of primers in a plastic strip never caught on well but I like it and have stocked up a strip loader as well as many spare strips. and CCI still sells primers loaded in strips... when they have primers!
 
Frankford Arsenal

Used the round tray Lee hand held priming tools for years. Broke or bent several handles seating primers into tight pockets. Hand was sore after priming 3-500 rds. Had one set up for larger primers and one for small, so never changed either one to the other setup.

Saw the Frankford Arsenal Priming tool online. Looked like a longer handle and better ergonomics. It fits my 2X size hands better than the Lee and has an adjustable lift on the primer seater to make it shorter or longer. The longer lever makes an easier cam to seat primers and hand is not sore after several hundred.

Only thing is, its kind of pricey at $85, was about $65 when I bought it a couple of years ago. Thus, being cheap, I only have the one tool and change back and forth from small to large primers depending upon what I am loading.

Have also done the easy chair priming in front of TV, never lost one in the chair but have picked up several from underneath.
 
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