Need a hand held primer

[MoreIsLess]

I have a Dillon 550b and an XL650. With the 650, I have a problem with primers not being seated deep enough sometime. Most of the time the 45acp rounds have a OAL of around 1.235 to 1.239. That's a .004 variance, not to bad, I'll get a few that are 1.243 to 1.245 and those won't feed in my gun (that is still only .01 variance). Usually what I do is run those back through the 650 priming system again and they come out OK 1.237 to 1.239. As everyone that has a 650 knows, running them back through the 650 priming system is kind of a hassle. I've already tried about everything to correct the problem on the 650, to no avail, do I'm not looking for suggestions for that (I've tried them all).

So I am thinking of getting a hand held primer or some device that will re-seat the handful of bullets that are too long, any suggestions as far as a hand held device, (I've already tried everything on the 650)

 

[Hokie_PhD]

I have the Lee hand primer.
Overall it works ok. The bad parts are that it uses special shell holders so the low cost isn’t as low as you’d expect. Also when I got it, no one told me, so I had to wait to get the shellholders. Also the handle is kind of cheap so it comes apart if you’re not careful.

Considering those issues when it’s all together it works good. But if I buy another hand primer, I’ll look at other options as it’s the one piece of Lee gear that I dislike the most.

My suggestion is to consider other options. And like you I’m interested in what others use.

 

[R. Cobb]

I found the RCBS old style hand primer ended ALL my primer problems.
With the old style you will need a shell holder for each caliber you load.

 

[wrench459]

I'm only a single stage guy for now.
My primers are set by this guy.

 

[bersaguy]

I have the lee hand primer, two actually. The only other system I have to compare it to is the safety prime system on a lee turret. I find hand priming easier. All in all im satisfied, though the handle on my older one is a bit chinsy, but seems to work fine

 

[ArchAngelCD]

For years I used a Lee hand primer and I liked it until I was given an RCBS hand primer. Now I will use nothing else and I keep the Lee as a backup.

I'm not talking about the new Lee Auto-prime or the Ergo-prime, I have the Lee hand primer with the square primer tray. The New Auto-prime looks like a good tool.

 

[cp1969]

The best method of seating primers that I ever used was a Bonanza Co-Ax press. It had no primer feed, though.

My experience, from best to worst:
1. Bonanza Coax (now Forrester, I believe)
2, Lee hand held
3. RCBS Jr.
4. Dillon RL550B

 

[cfullgraf]

I use the RCBS hand primer with the universal shell holder, both the tray version and the APS strip version. There are one or two odd cartridges like 25 ACP or brass .410 hulls that will not work with the universal shell holder. Otherwise, everything I've tried works with it so no special shell holder needed.

I used to use, and still have the old round tray Lee Auto Prime which I really like but I save it for special needs since parts are no longer available.

The current manufacture Lee hand primers with the primer elevator just did not float my boat.

 

[MEHavey]

getting a hand held primer or some device that will re-seat the handful of bullets that are too long

Are you telling us that:

- The primers are not seated flush and are therefore the heavy 45-ACP slide is not closing ?
- That you want to re-seat those primers in live rounds ?

 

[Walkalong]

Are you telling us that:

- The primers are not seated flush and are therefore the heavy 45-ACP slide is not closing ?
- That you want to re-seat those primers in live rounds ?

Sounds like that. Curious myself.

The 650 has a reputation of being good at seating primers, so I would think someone here could help, despite your saying that doesn't interest you.

I wouldn't seat primers further on loaded rounds, even though I think the odds are poor they would go off and then poor that it would hurt anyone. Are primers not seating flush or below causing chambering issues?

I really like my old style RCBS hand primer. The newer one with the universal shell holder is much harder to seat primers with and is tough on my hands. I have been eyeballing the Franford Arsenal one when it is on sale, as I would like to try it, but I don't know why, my RCBS works great.

 

[Jack B.]

Re-seating primers on loaded rounds?

 

[JimKirk]

The best method of seating primers that I ever used was a Bonanza Co-Ax press. It had no primer feed, though.

My experience, from best to worst:
1. Bonanza Coax (now Forrester, I believe)
2, Lee hand held
3. RCBS Jr.
4. Dillon RL550B

That old Bonanza is hard to beat as far as seating primers about as perfect as you can get ... a little slow but dang good !!! Mine is an old one too ...since early '70s....

 

[Rule3]

Oh MY, Oh MY!

With a Dillon 550 and a 650 wouldn't all it take is Call Dillon??

Reseating primers on loaded rounds?? As mentioned above that goes against, "best practices" in reloading 101.

 

[Whiterook808]

I used the Lee Auto-Prime for years and was very happy with it. Last June I replaced it with the Ergo-Prime, because the plastic trays were getting brittle with age. I am not so happy with the Ergo, due to jams in the primer gate. It seems I am always fiddling with it. I appreciate the fact that they are trying to make it safer, but it just doesn't work as well as the older model. It may just be how I use it. I have moved it to backup status and use either a ram prime or the RCBS universal priming arm on my Rockchucker for rifle ammo. Loading pistol ammo on my 550b, I haven't had many primer seating problems, as long as I keep it clean and the fasteners tightened down.

 

[Varminterror]

I have two old Lee round tray hand primers which I use the most. One in service, one as back up. I've owned the Lyman, Hornady, and RCBS hand primers as well, but prefer the Lee Round Tray (not as much the new square version). I do prime a lot on LCT's with the safety prime and on my progressives, of course. I have a Forster bench prime and had an RCBS, and had an RCBS, but admittedly, I prefer hitting myself in the face with a hammer over loading strips or picking up primers one at a time in tubes/slides.

My latest addition is a Bald Eagle bench primer, I hung a Lee safety prime on a bench bracket to feed into the BE bench primer. Very happy with the feel, consistency, and control - AND the speed.

 

[TheDomFather]

I have a Dillon 550b and an XL650. With the 650, I have a problem with primers not being seated deep enough sometime. Most of the time the 45acp rounds have a OAL of around 1.235 to 1.239. That's a .004 variance, not to bad, I'll get a few that are 1.243 to 1.245 and those won't feed in my gun (that is still only .01 variance). Usually what I do is run those back through the 650 priming system again and they come out OK 1.237 to 1.239. As everyone that has a 650 knows, running them back through the 650 priming system is kind of a hassle. I've already tried about everything to correct the problem on the 650, to no avail, do I'm not looking for suggestions for that (I've tried them all).

So I am thinking of getting a hand held primer or some device that will re-seat the handful of bullets that are too long, any suggestions as far as a hand held device, (I've already tried everything on the 650)

Take a look here as I have had problems with primers not seating fully on my Hornady Lock and Load as well:



Thanks,
Dom

 

[Iroquois]

I’ve been using the RCBS posi-priming hand primer for over 20 years. I’ve had 0 (zero) primer failures to fire. I get a consistent seating depth of all the primers. It’s true you have to use a different shell holder for each individual cartridge, but I have to have it to use in my press anyway. It’s not the fastest way but it works for me. I agree it is a “bad practice” to go back and reseat primer on live rounds.

 

[Walkalong]

Bald Eagle bench primer

From the website:

When shooting strings of 20 shots in a match, those unexplainable "flyers" are often caused by unevenly seated primers.

I doubt it. It would have to be seated almost too lightly to fire IMHO. Very unevenly seated primers I could agree with.

But that looks like a great priming tool. No better than my Sinclair for adjustability (Although that looks easier) or consistency though.

I hung a Lee safety prime on a bench bracket to feed into the BE bench primer.

I'd love to see a pic of that.

 

[Varminterror]

From the website:
I doubt it. It would have to be seated almost too lightly to fire IMHO. Very unevenly seated primers I could agree with.

But that looks like a great priming tool. No better than my Sinclair for adjustability (Although that looks easier) or consistency though.

I'd love to see a pic of that.

Fully agree - the "flyers caused by primer seating" is a complete oversell.

Also fully agree, the adjustment is no better than the Sinclair, or the K&N I have for seating depth adjustment, just faster to feed once I set it up with the primer feeder.

To expand a little on how I ended up trying so many different priming systems... I'm HEAVILY biased about priming tools - I only want to individually handle each primer ONCE; when it's fed into the cartridge case. Unbox a full tray, dump a full tray, flip a full tray - seat individual. That's what SHOULD happen. My day job is centered around Continuous Improvement, QAQC, and production/product efficiency, so taking a page out of Lean/6 Sigma, I focus on "spending time where time gets spent," and "fixing the process where the product gets broken." Priming can take a lot of time, but it has very little impact on overall precision - so a guy really should find ways to reduce priming time and brass handling related to priming. I started on the Lee round tray, which is about as fast and easy as it gets... About... I'd give up speed for better precision - but there's not really enough precision gained in priming alone. BUT, I've always felt like I'd prefer a bench mounted primer, to improve my "operator efficiency" a bit, so one of my hands wasn't committed all of the time (and putting down/picking up, aka transfer time, is wasted time), let alone hand fatigue. I bought the K&N thinking I could "fix the part where the part gets broken," improving consistency with the adjustable depth, but it slowed me down a lot, and increased my production incursions - aka "dropping primers" or "feeding them upside down." I got the K&N over the Sinclair for the price, plain and simple.

I did try using the Lee primer feeder mounted on a bracket with the K&N (same would work with Sinclair), but I didn't love it. Straight forward - slide the hand-primer under the primer feeder like filling a beer from a tap. It worked very well, but I still had one hand committed to holding the priming tool, and still lacking leverage.

What I probably SHOULD have done is simply found a way to convert the K&N to a bench mounted base, since it was only about $50, vs. the Bald Eagle's $150.

The inefficiency, of course, is in the production space a bench mounted primer takes. But I've always been happy running high equipment density on my benches, so I'm trading spacial footprint for operator efficiency.

ETA: The whole "don't reseat primers on loaded rounds" is a red-herring. Process safety is about mitigating real risk exposure - it's NOT about creating imaginary risks for the sake of mitigation. A guy would have to try VERY hard to ignite a primer with any priming tool. We're not "hitting" the primer here...

 

[ATLDave]

Or you could just do what I do on the 650. Get a pad of post-it notes. Take a stack of 3-5 off the top. Cut a small square, about .5x.5", from the portion that has the adhesive. Stick that to the portion of the press's base that the primer seating rod gets shoved against. Voila, you've just added a little seating depth. I did this after finding that my 650 (old, and perhaps with a seating rod shortened by years of previous use) was seating to just barely below flush. I wanted that nice, deep seat I had always gotten on my LCT press. And now I get it.

About one billion times easier than seating off-press.

 

[ATLDave]

Re-seating primers on loaded rounds?

If you use a Lee Classic Turret, the priming arm pushes up against the seated primer on every cycle, which means 3 "reseatings" for every round. It doesn't pop primers.

 

[thomas15]

I am not recommending that anyone buy anything or do anything. But allow me to say a few things.

Re-seating primers on loaded rounds?

How many times has a handloader, a handloader that exercises good handloading procedure, had a primer detonate while seating it? No doubt there is 1 or 2 stories out there. But in general it's rare.

May I ask what are the chances of a primer setting off during the first seating vs. a possible second seating? Can someone offer up a percentage?

Of course I'm not the measure of all things handloading. I have handloaded in excess of 45,000 rounds pistol ammo. Compared to same that's nothing, compared to others that's 10 lifetimes worth. But in those 45,000 rounds I have not had a single primer detonation while seating them.

I also have reseated well over 20,000 primers on (gasp!) live ammo. I happen to know other revolver shooters that do the same and can say that among them roughly 200,000 reseats no issues.

Again, not saying do it, just offering a personal experience. I use an RCBS bench mounted primer. While I hate the thought of priming off press, I have been thinking that I might start doing so because I think in the long run it might save some time. In my auto-loaders, having primers seated below flush is not required but for revolvers with action work it's Federal primers seated below flush, or game over... period.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Take a look here as I have had problems with primers not seating fully on my Hornady Lock and Load as well:

Interesting as I've gone to a bench primer for my competition loads...because it wasn't worth playing the odds when a non-ignition might be the difference between winning and losing when traveling to matches.

I've loaded with both tools in the video, though not side-by-side, and much prefer the Lee. The simpler design, easier loading, and better "feel", to say nothing of lower cost, made the decision pretty easy...I just hate loading primer tubes.

My favorite bench tool is still the Forster Co-Ax primer seater

 

[Slamfire]

I purchased a 21 st Century hand prime, and it had a second generation Auto Prime tray.




While I like my 21st century tool, the second generation tray has all sorts of feeding issues. Lee must have gotten tired of all the complaints, and that variation is gone and now they are using the current Auto prime feeding system. You can tell, by virtue of the second generation tray, that Lee had to change the feeding system because primers were igniting and setting off the primers in the tray. The second generation tray keeps any flame spray above the rest of the primers. Because all settlements are arbitrated, or are sealed, we will not hear of these things from the people who were injured, but, you can tell just by the design changes in the tools, that the manufacturer is making those changes to reduce their liability. As they say, where there is smoke, there is fire.



http://www.xxicsi.com/auto-feed-ss-priming-tool-for-the-lee--new-auto-prime-tray.html

But, I happen to have old Lee Auto Prime trays sitting around and when the tray on my 21st Century finally breaks, as it will, I will install new old stock Auto Prime trays.

I do like my 21st century unit, I can use all my old Lee Auto Prime shell holders, over the decades I have lots of them, and worst of all, duplicates! I have bought enough shell holders by memory, and found once the new one came in, I already had one! Argh! The old Lee Auto Prime, I don't recommend as the zinc die cast tool will break. I broke maybe ten handles, they just break in time, and in time the shell holder cracks the top of the tool body. The 21 st Century tool is all aluminum and so far, except for the stupid tray, works well.

The outrage about accuracy sales hype about primers, priming tools, is spot on. Primers are in the "noise" level when it comes to accuracy. I do believe they make a difference, but the affects are much less than the barrel, the bullet, and good bedding. In my experience, these have been primary contributors. After shooter inaccuracy. Then comes cases, powders, primers. The affect of primers is hard to quantify because primers vary so much, within the lot. Primer mix varies from lot to lot, because the percentage and quality of the components in the mix, vary from lot to lot. I do believe that if a primer lot does not provide a consistent spark that will make a difference on target. However, without test equipment to measure the material ejection, flame temperature, we in the public, can't measure those things and make any real correlations about their affect on pressure or combustion. Primers are subtle.

I would say, if anyone is having problems setting their primers on a Dillion progressive, call Dillion. I had issues, they sent me enough parts that eventually, everything worked out. Dillion has a real "NO BS" warranty that they stand behind. Kudo's to Dillion.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I also have reseated well over 20,000 primers on (gasp!) live ammo. I happen to know other revolver shooters that do the same and can say that among them roughly 200,000 reseats no issues.

...but for revolvers with action work it's Federal primers seated below flush, or game over... period.

I don't recommend it to folks who have any reluctance about it, but I've done it also...yes, I'm a revolver shooter with a tuned action priming with Federal primers