Priming difficulties

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Phantom Captain

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Hey everyone,

I just bought the Lee kit reloader for doing individual cartridges by hand with the supplied die and tools and a soft hammer, no press or anything like that. I have a similiar kit that I use for loaing .45-70 BP cartridges and never had this problem before, wonder if anyone has any insight. I shoot mostly BP and don't reload any cartridges except the .45-70 and now want to start reloading my own .45 Colt for a new SA I just bought. I like doing them by hand and didn't want to invest all the money in a press since I wouldn't do much more than those stated.

I just primed 24 empty Remington brass cases (new) and had three different primers explode while I was driving them into the case using the correct tools and dies. Anyone else ever have this problem or experience this? It NEVER happened to me with my .45-70 kit.

Like I said I'm using Remington empty .45 Colt brass and CCI Large Pistol Magnum primers. I will switch over to just regular Large Pistol primers but the size between those and magnums should be identical. It's rather disconcerting though to be driving the new cases down on the new primers and have them go off. Makes me nervous now.

Anyone have any insight or advice? I really don't understand why this would be happening as it never did with my .45-70 kit like I said.
 
I like those simple Lee hand kits for doing small quanites of ammo, and they are portable enough to take them away on a trip as well.

Yes, it makes me a little nervous to be 'hammering' in primers, I had one go off (my fault). The design of the tools keeps everything contained in a safe manner, it's still something that makes me wary, so I like to use a Lee Auto Prime hand primer, to do it now.

Give the nerves a rest, Captain. And get yourself a seperate hand priming tool. You'll feel much more at ease when priming.
 
Thanks guys,

Perfect advice, exactly what I was looking for. Wasn't aware of that tool but will run over to my local Cabela's tomorrow and see if they have one with the shell holders.

The auto primer should absolutely save the nerves! I'll be casting around 200 or so .45 Colt bullets this weekend, I lube them by hand too. Then it's just sitting down and loading them up! :cool:
 
The Lee hand primer uses the same shell holder as the press. It's a really nice gadget that you can take anywhere. My brother used to watch TV and load primers during the commercials.

I think RCBS also has a tool much like it now.
 
The Lee hand primer uses the same shell holder as the press.
Click to expand...

Have they changed the design? My Lee Auto Prime uses a shorter shell holder than the press uses. The bit that goes in the T-slot of the ram is absent on the priming tool shell holder.
 
Have they changed the design? My Lee Auto Prime uses a shorter shell holder than the press uses.
Click to expand...

Lee Auto Prime hand operated tool uses the smaller/cutdown shellholders, but the press mounted Auto Prime II uses the same shellholders as presses. As far as I'm aware, that is.
 
Best bet is to purchase Lee's cheap "C" single stage press and right along with the press purchase Lee's Auto Prime II...A press mounted priming die...
 
Seriously, have I told you how much I love all you guys lately?

Went to Cabelas today and picked up that Lee auto primer and the box of 11 different shell holders and the grand total was like $24 or something. Ummm, my eyes are opened. I just primed 50 .45 Colt shells in about 10 minutes. :eek::cool:

Wow! I'm like a kid in a candy store!

Thanks for the tip guys. This just made things WAY easier. I'm still gonna do the rest of the loading by hand, that is powder, casting, lubing, seating and crimping the bullets but just wow. I think if I did go invest in a real loader I wouldn't know what to think. I might have to start thinking about it, I mean I could load my modern stuff too if I ever could find the time around casting and loading all my BP stuff.

Again, just wow. I'm blown away by how easy and clean this little tool works.

Thank you thank you!!

I'll never hammer another primer in again. Those days are over! :D:D
 
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