looking for good hand or bench priming tool

[labnoti]

I started with an RCBS Universal, but after only 1200 cases or so, the piston punched a primer through the white plastic guide insert and ruined it. Vista sent me a new one, but after a few hundred primers, it punched one through that one also. Maybe it's not so much one primer that punched through, but many primers that slowly chewed through after a while.

I bought a Lee Auto Bench Prime. I loaded 500 cases. I found I had to tap or shake the tray every 4 or 5 primers because they won't slide into the feed chute. Out of 500, a couple primers were fed sideways. They were all right-side-up in the tray, but must have been turned in the tool. Then I had a misfeed and the piston smashed a primer through the clear plastic guide.

It might sound like I'm being clumsy and careless, but I think I work gently and with a reasonable amount of sensitivity and dexterity.

I don't think the primers I'm using are the issue. They're all small pistol. The first thousand were Remington and I had no problems. Then I ran a thousand CCI and started to have problems. I switched to Fiocchi and still have the same problems.

I suppose the soft plastic guides are used to keep from smashing and detonating primers, but at this rate, the number of replacement parts I'll need is unreasonable.

I've got 10,000 primers sitting on the bench needing to be loaded. What's a good tool that will get the job done without wasting a lot of time?

 

[Livin_Cincy]

When I was looking I Hornady, RCBS, Lyman, and Lee.

I watched a few videos and concluded Hornady was out. I just did not like how it worked compared to the others.

So I went to Cabbalas and held each one in my hand and played with it.

The Lyman felt best in my hand so it came home.

• I have not had an issues.
• I prime in the living room.
• I verify each primer is right side up before I push in the brass.
  • They always seem to be.
• You have to use a press shell holder with this tool.

The Franklin Arsenal hand primer looks nice to me. It was not available when I was looking. You can adjust the seating depth below flush which I have been told is required in some reloading data. Not many YouTubes on it. All I have found are positive.

 

[G11354]

I only have experience with the Lee Auto Hand Prime Tool (old model, no longer made), its worked well for me priming .223, .40 S&W, 9mm and 500S&W. Ive considered the Franklin Armory hand priming tool, has very good reviews.

 

[santacruzdave]

My hands are old and tired, so I bought a bench priming tool. With the bench mounted tool I get a lot of leverage. RCBS bench prime was the ticket for me. I primed 4500 cases over a cupla weeks with no ill effects to my hands or wrists. Yea, loading primers into the tube is time consuming. I'm looking at one of the vibratory loaders. They can load up a tube in a few seconds.

Operating the RCBS bench prime tool is super easy and there is a lot of "feel" provided by the long (read lots of leverage) handle. I like it a lot.

 

[labnoti]

Is there a durability advantage to the tube-loaded primers? I've reviewed a half-dozen tray-loaded tools and they all seem to use some kind of plastic guide that the piston slides through to ram the primer in. If it's not fed perfectly so that a primer isn't off-center, double-fed, or turned on its side, the piston is just going to mash the primer into the plastic guide like it has on my RCBS and Lee.

 

[buck460XVR]

I have a RCBS hand primer and their bench Primer. Both work very well and I would recommend either or both to anyone. Only reason I went with the bench primer is because of old hands when doing large quantities of ammo. With small .380 cases one needs to be careful how much pressure they apply with the bench primer, as it's leverage will bend the rims if too much pressure is applied. Altho that could be because I use Lee shell holders with .380. Only cartridge I do not use RCBS. .

 

[markr6754]

I went through a number of primer trials, on the press, above the press, Hornady Hand Primer...I either produced too many high primers, or I crushed them...just couldn’t get a handle on proper technique or feel.

This led me to the Frankford Arsenal Hand Primer...and I’ll never go back to any other method. Custom seating depth, easy loading/feeding, and everything comes included...tray, small and large feeds, and custom shell holders for every caliber...certainly everything that I load. Frequently out of stock, but I got the best price at Cabela’s...yep, the oft maligned and hated Cabela’s. Free shipping was included.

 

[Allen One1]

I just use the Hornady Lock & Load AP. It quickly primes both pistol and rifle brass and can do a lot of other things too. It just depends on how you like to do things, there are multiple ways to solve the problem. I know that isn't what the OP requested but after you burn through several hand primer units the cost starts to make other options more viable.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I found I had to tap or shake the tray every 4 or 5 primers because they won't slide into the feed chute. Out of 500, a couple primers were fed sideways. They were all right-side-up in the tray, but must have been turned in the tool.

Both of these are usually indicative of not releasing the handle to bump against the rubber stop after each depressing/seating. That doesn't mean that feeding will always be smooth, I still tap the tray now and then to even the stack in the tray...and it seems to be getting smoother as I'm getting toward 10k primers seated. Other then the Lee Auto Bench Prime, I have also had very good luck with my Co-Ax Primer Seater

Then I had a misfeed and the piston smashed a primer through the clear plastic guide.

While you may believe you are using "a reasonable amount of sensitivity and dexterity", the above would seem to say otherwise

If you're really interested in a high quality bench primer that will hold up over time, I'd recommend that you take a look at the Competition Primer Seater by Primal Rights...no plastic parts to break

 

[cfullgraf]

For small batches of priming, I use an RCBS hand priming tool with the universal shell holder. I have both the tray model and the APS strip model. Not perfect, but they have given good service.

As I have aged, my hands and wrists cannot handle 300 plus rounds of seating primers so...

For large batches of priming, I use an RCBS APS bench priming tool but I use modified shell holders instead of using the plastic sleeve RCBS provides. See photo.

I've brazed bronze into the shell holder and machined it out. While I have the machine tools to do this easily, it could be done with a drill press and hand tools.

The modification can be done with JB Weld but may need to be replaced periodically.

Generally speaking, I can prime 100 cases as fast as it takes me to manually fill a primer tube with 100 primers. So, no real time benefit for me. I have not used any of the automatic primer tube fillers so I have no basis for comparison with them.

While I do fill some of the APS strips myself, I purchase pre-filled strips saving the strip loading process.

 

[rskent]

Competition Primer Seater by Primal Rights

Ok, I want one of these. Sadly, I can’t justify the $600 to get one. Guess I will have to stick to using my Hornady AP.

 

[FROGO207]

In the past 30+ years of reloading I have been at it I have tried lots of different primer options. Press mounted, top of press (ram prime), several brands of hand held (single and tray feed), and bench mounted. ALL of them have had some problems at times but the one that has worked the best for me over time with speed and less crushed primers is the older style Lee with the round tray. FWIW I have never had a bad primer seated with the single feed type unless I dropped the primer in upside down and did not notice it. Those do take more time to prime a batch but they are consistent throughout. The biggest problem with a hand held primer is you tire of squeezing it IMHO. I do not own a progressive press but read enough on the forum here to realize that they are no better than the others either. Primer installation has to be the trickiest part of reloading for the most part (not counting placing bullets on 25ACP).

 

[9mmepiphany]

Ok, I want one of these. Sadly, I can’t justify the $600 to get one. Guess I will have to stick to using my Hornady AP.

I can't either.

I load practice ammo on my Hornady AP (whole process) and load match ammo by first priming the cases on my Lee Auto Bench Prime ; after running it through a Redding Dual Ring Sizing die on my Lee Classic Cast

 

[taliv]

pretty sure the owner of primal rights used to post here regularly.

 

[FROGO207]

I will admit that is a good looking rig to prime with though!

 

[9mmepiphany]

I always figured that if I was going to all the work it takes to prep rifle cases for long range accuracy, having that control over primer seating would likely be worth it.

Luckily, I only load for handguns

 

[taliv]

it's not really necessary as long as you just seat the primer firmly til it stops at the bottom. don't crush it. if you don't seat it flush, a variable amount of energy from the firing pin will be expended finishing the job of seating the primer and you'll get inconsistent ignition.

 

[9mmepiphany]

...and the Forster Co-Ax is very good at that.

The Lee is just faster for large amounts of handgun ammo

 

[dh1633pm]

I have the RCBS universal. I have loaded 1000's without an issue. Was thinking of getting a second so I would have to convert it all the time from small to large and then back again. Love it.

 

[FROGO207]

I did that with the Lee round hand held primers. One set up for each large and small. Then another used one for spare parts as well. They will probably outlast me. I also have one of the Lee single primer types with the screw in shell holders and holders for 308 (3006, 270, 45 ACP,etc.) and 38 SPL/357 MAG. That one will probably out last the step grandchildren.

 

[ZGunner]

I do all of my priming on my Lee Challenger single stage press. It was my first press but still works great for decapping and priming. It gives a great positive feel for seating and has never fed a primer sideways. I have an RCBS handheld, but feel like it seats about .002” deeper than I prefer. The press just feels better to me, but it is all personal preference as far as I see it.

 

[markr6754]

I do all of my priming on my Lee Challenger single stage press. It was my first press but still works great for decapping and priming. It gives a great positive feel for seating and has never fed a primer sideways. The press just feels better to me, but it is all personal preference as far as I see it.

I very much would prefer priming on my Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic. But...my current bench is a converted Black & Decker Workmate. For nearly every function, this works perfectly for my need....except when it comes to on the press priming. Priming is up stroke on the L-N-L, which results in too much flexing of the table, and consequently, too many high primers. Now that I am 8 months into this experiment I am looking forward to a new, fixed surface loading bench.

 

[ZGunner]

I very much would prefer priming on my Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic. But...my current bench is a converted Black & Decker Workmate. For nearly every function, this works perfectly for my need....except when it comes to on the press priming. Priming is up stroke on the L-N-L, which results in too much flexing of the table, and consequently, too many high primers. Now that I am 8 months into this experiment I am looking forward to a new, fixed surface loading bench.

I know it wouldn’t be practical to consider it, but that basically how I started reloading everything from 9mm to .308. I had a cheap Harbor Freight version of that bench so I know how unstable they can be. I would hook my fingers around the press frame to squeeze the primer that last little bit (and still do out of habit). I don’t know if this is possible with the Hornady, but technique change may save some money? Of course, I understand if you are buying equipment for this task you will buy a piece specifically for the task.

 

[Whiterook808]

Your experience with the Lee bench primer mirrors mine with the ergo prime. It works well enough with large primers, but not so good with the small primers. I bought the RCBS automatic bench primer and I am very happy with it. I like the feel and I can see the primer in the cup before I put the case in. I don't mind filling primer tubes, but I understand there are those who find this tedious.

 

[irishlad]

Love my Rcbs bench primer.