Lee Auto Prime question

[techieguy]

First let me say, I have never reloaded but I am trying to get as much info as possible. I just received the Lee Precision catalog and saw something listed and wanted to know more.

The catalog states that "only CCI or Winchester are recommended for use in the Lee Auto Prime"..."No other primers should be used with the Lee Auto Prime".

What is special about CCI or Winchester or more importantly what is special about the other primers?

Thanks!

 

[JoeG52]

They are a little harder than Federal and won't accidentally go off as easily when you are trying to seat them.

 

[Idano]

techieguy,

I wouldn't be to concerned about primer detonations. In over thirty years of reloading I have never had a primer detonate during reloading and I have crushed my fair share. In fact, I have never actually met anyone who has had a primer detonation during reloading. I think it is a urban myth, because the only place I have heard of it is on the internet.

Now I know I am going to get a lot of feedback saying it happened to me or a friend of mine told me it happed to his friend and so on. To any of you that fall into that group what hell were you doing? To detonate a primer it takes a strike, crushing won't do it; I have tried to detonate them in vice it doesn't work.

 

[NailGun]

I have used the Lee hand primer for seating several thousand primers now. I use Winchester and Remington (mostly due to local availability) and have not had any problems. I did break the lever off once, priming hard 7.62x54r brass. There was probably lots of pressure on the primer. Still no KB though. Lee sent me a new lever, and all is well again.

I did have a primer go KB while loading shotgun shells on a MEC Sizemaster though.... I fumbled a shell and dumped 7-1/2 shot all over the place. I cleaned up the shot, inspected the machine...BUT...one piece of shot landed and hid in the primer installation well. The next shell to be primed went BANG!

I now wear earplugs and safety glasses when priming.

 

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

When you're using the Lee Auto Prime, be sure to lubricate the hinges with a little grease. Really prolongs the life of the tool. I've had mine for six years and it's still like new, even after seating thousands of 30.06 in lake city cases.

One thing to note: If you have to "force" it, your primer hole likely has a problem and you should ease off and fix the brass, not try to force it. It works smoothly enough that if it isn't going, you definately have a brass problem, likely from not getting the military crimp out.

If you're gong to reload single stage, I recommend buying two of these and setting one up for small rifle and one for large rifle. That's for convenience and they're cheap enough it's not a big deal to do so.

Regards,

Dave

 

[tasco 74]

i use the lee auto prime tool too and i really like it.. it's fast.... like dave said the first thing you want to do is put a little vaseline on the joints to lube em....... i've done a few thousand rounds with mine and no problems at all.....