does anyone pre-prime their brass?

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S391

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I see so many discussions where the auto-prime feature seems to be the weak link and I'm curious if anyone "pre-primes" their brass as a seperate function before they run it through their progressive press?

It seems like this would eliminate a lot of issues that most folks seem to have and it might speed up the overall process.......

When I loaded shotshells on my MEC 600 JR I would resize / deprime 500 rounds at a time to speep up the overall loading time...
 
Do it quite a bit with a hand primer while watching a favorite movie.

Just be double dang sure that you label the primed brass as to whether it has standard or magnum primers to avoid trouble in the future.
 
I find the progressive is just more to keep track of at once and I can't just blindly crank out loads like I can do single stage style. My LNL AP works well enough that I do save time skipping the pre-priming step. It's not 100%, but it's close and each cycle of the ram does 4-5 jobs at once, unlike the decap/resize and prime steps being two operations before I even start loading.

It's a groove I haven't got down 100% yet, but I do feel my time is better spent just processing the spent brass into cartridges with the progressive regardless of priming issues. But that's just me, I don't spend the time at the bench I did before my son was born, now I enjoy the ability to get a lot of rounds completed per session instead of getting a lot of brass just readied.
 
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I only pre prime my bp rounds. Mostly 50-90 sharps. All my other stuff is done on a progressive now
 
No but funny you ask. For the med hot to hot loads I decap/size, prime and expand with my progressive then I will powder measure and weigh each separate then back to the progressive for seat and crimp. I had maybe two bad primes out of 5000+. I will hand prime only when I need the therapy;)
 
I preprime all mine using an RCBS hand primer, with the exception of 6PPC cases where I use a Sinclair hand primer.

I run all the cases through the progressive to size and deprime. Then I tumble if I need to remove lube, and prime them all. Then I run them through the press, sans the sizer. Makes things smoother. It gives a better feel for the other operations.
 
I also use a single stage. I will size a prime 500 9mm or 45acp at atime. Then they are ready to load, or experiment w/ different loads.
 
I guess I must...Because I went looking for a once fired box of .30-06 cases to reload and they already had the primers installed. Not my norm though. Hummm...Wonder when I primed them cases...Oh well...They are loaded now...
 
I resize/deprime everything then tumble and then prime. When it comes time to load, they go in the loadmonster primed and ready to load without having to stop and fill primer trays every hundred. I try to keep at least 1k primed and ready all the time.
 
I answer your question, I never preprime anything that goes through any of my 4 progressive presses. They are all Dillons and prime just fine.
 
On a progressive press I don't want anything distracting me from looking at every last powder charge to see that I don't have a light charge, and especially that I don't have a double charge.

I size, deprime and hand reprime while watching the TV.
 
I hand primer everything except my shotgun shells (of course). My Dillon's priming mechanism is a little off, and I have already had them replace a bunch of stuff on it. I bought it used on ebay so I feel guilty enough getting all the updated stuff for free because of Dillon's warranty, so I resize and reprime separately. I prime while watching a netflix, it's easy and that way I don't feel bad for sitting on the couch doing nothing.
 
I have Dillon presses. They do a good enough job for me. Gotten to the point that reloading is a necessity not a pleasure that it once was. Don't want to go thru any more steps that possible.

Ranch Relaxo
Dillon doesn't care how you bough there press. They will fix it no matter what unless it is a newer 1050 (1 yr warranty).
 
I guess it depends on what it is. My rifle calibers all get hand primed except the 223 Rem (although sometimes I hand prime that too) My Handgun calibers all get primed through the Dillons except the hot 44 mag and Hot 357 Mag.

LGB
 
Single-Stage Only Reloader Here

I weigh each powder charge on a balance scale; I hand-prime after careful case preparation; I load according to the bullets I use. I'm not very PROGRESSIVE oriented. I trust in my Ohaus Cent-o-Gram balance that I bought from a college lab. cliffy
 
For pistol, I let the progressive take care of it. For rifle, I size and deprime, into the tumble to remove the lube, trim and prime by hand. Then back to the progressive to finish the loading process. Since I shoot primarily semi-autos, I trime after every firing.
 
Yeah. I have two 2-gallon buckets full of cleaned and primed .45's, 1.5 2-gallon buckets full of .40's, a couple big handfuls of 9mm, and a bunch of .380's, all cleaned and primed, waiting for my lazy butt to get started yankin' on the press again.

I've decided to not pre-prime in the future though, but I'll continue to de-prime before cleaning and polishing. then, when I resize, the decapping pin can poke the walnut/corncob out of the primer hole for me, then I can put in a primer and continue. I do prefer to de-prime and at least try to clean the primer pockets.

Yeah, I know....I'm anal.
 
Hi everybody,
I prefer to pre-prime either 40Sw & 357Mag, i take this as a further inspection on my brass, then I load them with a "de-decapped" Pro1K & a Turret.
Bye
 
sometimes, just depends on what it is. if i do, i seal them in a bag with a silica bag, so moisture will not accumulate, even in my basement where i do my loading.
 
I deprime/pre-prime. Too much goes wrong in the priming process... primer doesn quite go in or sticks going in or so many things... that it is worth it for me to just concentrate on priming. I can prime at a rate of 12 a minute... I've timed it.
 
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