I've used the Lee for many many years. Yes they break, and because there was never anything better to replace it I just bought another when that happened.
Then I read this review on
RCBS's new APS Hand primer.
Since I now use an RCBS Pro 2000 progressive with it's APS press primer, I thought I'd buy and try their APS hand primer.
Wow...wasn't disappointed...at all! I gave away my latest Lee. Here's the features than won me over.
1. Comfort. You can use it as a 4 finger press or a thumb press and either way it comfortably fits the hand. No more sore hands.
2. The universal case holder really does work.
3. It's fast. I can load 3 or 500 primers as fast as I can squeeze. Of course using a progressive is faster, but I use a hand primer for those "special" situations. Such as...I can load a strip of Remington primers and prime 6 or so, pull the strip out, and then insert a strip of Winchester, prime 6 of those, then maybe try 6 bench rest Federals all nice and convenient.
4. Since I already use the APS system (the APS loader came with the Pro 2000), primers loaded in strips, for me, is the norm, so there's always strips ready to insert. (no dumping a box of primers in a tray that gets spilled on the floor, no primers trying to load on top of other primers)
Cons? Well its pricier for sure, especially when you add an APS loader to the order (obviously not many are able to find APS strips of primers easily these days, except at Midway, and the're only found in CCI. Therefore an APS loader is a must. And of course you have to buy strips. (reused over and over). Peter Eick (who posted above) doesn't have that problem since he has loaded thousand of CCI stripped primers (back when primers were cheap and available) on his Pro 2000 and has buckets of strips.
From his post, it appears he hasn't tried this APS tool yet, and I'm surprised!
How does the strip loader work? Easy. You can load four strips of 25 in about the same time as manually loading 100 in a tube. You stick 4 side by side to what looks like an "Avery" sticker, and store them. Storage in that state is way safer than storage primers in a bunch of tubes.