Best Hand Priming Tool?

[WestKentucky]

I currently have 6 priming tools. I have had many more and have sold/traded/given a bunch away. As far as hand primers go, there is NO product that comes close to the old round tray lee tools. I have 3 of those, 1 of each size in use and 1 new in box in reserve.

I will rank in order best to worst what I have had... and will note how many I still have if I have them. The numbers are kinda telling.

Lee hand primer (round) 3 sets
Lee safety prime (for LCT) 1 set
RCBS hand prime
Lee LCT factory priming arms 1 set
Lee classic cast (same as LCT but feels different on this press)
RCBS press mounted priming arms
Lee Ram Prime 1 set
Lee “whack-a-mole” set

 

[Dudedog]

there is NO product that comes close to the old round tray lee tools

Rats, I was hoping you were going to say xyz was as good.
Still thinking about the Frankford, not a large amount of money but still twice the price of the Lee.

Wish I would have bought 2 or 3 spares back when.

 

[Walkalong]

Yea, they were very good.

 

[338reddog]

Miss my old lee round tray. The new one is ok but not as nice in my hand. My second is the Hornady for feel im my hand. I have gave away my RCBS as it felt like a club. Plus a pain to change shell holders. I wish lee would bring back the round tray. I even made a mold of the link and cast it in brass. It wouldnt wear out like the pot metal. I gave the round tray when I got the new safer lee.

 

[Bixster_inc]

The RCBS hand primer that came with my RC kit was giving me a horrible time and almost had me throwing all my reloading equipment in the trash. Kept jamming up and had to be disassembled, cleared and then it would jam up again. Sometimes it would happen on the next attempt and sometimes I could get through ten or more before it’d throw a tantrum. One night it took me over an hour to prime 100 rds of .223. Also primers are under .04 a pop but it really starts throwing your cost/benefit off when you’re constantly tossing them because they went in sideways.

One day in my work travels I stopped off at a general type store to use the restroom and buy a drink when I saw one, singular Hornady hand priming tool on the back wall on the bottom shelf. This store had nothing to do with guns and ammo aside from the tool, not even small boxes of .22lr for the local farmers to keep squirrel populations under control in their orchards like virtually everywhere else around here.

I took it as a sign from above, bought it and haven’t had a single issue in the thousands of uses since.

 

[sparkyv]

I looked at RCBS, Hornady, Lee, & Lyman. The FA was not available when I looked.

I went to Cabalas and held each one as feel is not a mechanical design. The Lyman felt best in my hand.

The Lyman uses a press shell holder. Which if you use a single stage or turret is fine. If you use a progressive press with a shell plate you may not own them. For me this was a bonus over LEE's primer only shell holders that are required.

The Lyman is an excellent, solidly built tool. Only issue I have is that small primers can flip in the tray, so I must watch carefully as I seat them. Lyman was supposed to have fixed this. No issues with large primers.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Please take private OT conversations to PM