rcbs hand primer?

[ArchAngelCD]

I have the original Lee hand primer and the newer Lee hand primer and both work fairly well. I do prefer the original RCBS hand primer, the one that uses a shell holder. All my rifle brass us primed on the RCBS.

I still do all my my handgun brass priming with a Lee Safety Prime on a LCT press. I don't have any problems with the Lee and handgun brass.

 

[thomas15]

I'm no fan of Lee because I feel for a little more money you can buy a lot more quality. Having said that may I suggest that you scan youtube vids for suggestions setting up or trouble shooting your on press primer? There are 100s of vids on using the LCT so someone has I'm sure covered this.

Not to sound like a jerk but I waited many years to start collecting handloading tools and I see a difference between something that works that is inexpensive and something else that is robust and reliable but has a bigger price tag. Since I had exposure to handloading as a kid I didn't think I had to dip my little toe into the waters so see if I liked it or not, but I have found that if your frustrated because your tools are less than fantastic then your experience will be less than a happy one.

Right now I have two RCBS hand prime tools, one is about 3 years old and the other was my Dads from the mid 1960s. Both work great but performance suffers when you use Lee shell holders so I use RCBS shell holders with them. I also have a new RCBS bench mount primer tool and really like it. However this isn't cheap, it costs almost as much as a LCT. Personally I don't like using hand priming tools and on my turret and progressive I prime on press, for Rifle using the rockchucker I use the bench mount priming tool.

 

[stubbicatt]

I really like the APS hand priming tool. Never a cocked or backwards seated primer with this setup.

 

[kerreckt]

After trying a bunch of different priming devices over the years, I use the APS hand and bench primer. There is an investment in the strips and loader but all said and done it works really well and the hand loader has a universal shell holder that works well. That is, when I am not priming on one of my Dillon machines.

 

[Axis II]

i searched google for lee safety prime not seating primers deep enough and found a 2 min youtube vid saying the ram could be turned and not letting the arm fall into the catch to push it high enough. I also noticed that the spring on the cup catches a lot so I turned the ram and will lube the spring a bit and see if this helps.

thanks guys.

payday I'm getting a rcbs for backup or primary.

 

[Reefinmike]

i searched google for lee safety prime not seating primers deep enough and found a 2 min youtube vid saying the ram could be turned and not letting the arm fall into the catch to push it high enough. I also noticed that the spring on the cup catches a lot so I turned the ram and will lube the spring a bit and see if this helps.

Dont lube the primer arm any, it will just attract grit and cause problems. You likely have a piece of grit or brass shaving stuck down in the primer holder cup assembly. Relieve spring pressure by pulling back with your fingernails and shake the cup around and give it a few spins. Crap under the cup can cause it to sit cockeyed making it more difficult for primers to drop from your safety prime as well as seating primers cockeyed causing damage to the primers.

Put a primed case in your press and look at the area I have highlighted in the picture below. Is there any air space here? If so, your priming woes are user error- not pushing hard enough or cases with out of spec primer pockets(not common). The gap indicated in the picture shows the amount of further travel that the primer ram is capable of.

 

[brutus51]

I started with the Lee hand primer but it only lasted a couple years. Bought the RCBS model and it has served me well for about 30 years. Started having trouble with it about two years ago in that it would occasionally flip a primer sideways or 180 degrees. Turns out the two piece plastic part that holds the tray in place became worn and misaligned causing the problem. Didn't care for the universal offering but then discovered RCBS still makes the older version. Was going to call them for replacement parts but decided to pop for a new one instead, since mine was so old. Glad I did as the new model has more robust redisigned plastic inserts that have been extended to guide the primer right up to the primer pocket.

 

[Axis II]

Dont lube the primer arm any, it will just attract grit and cause problems. You likely have a piece of grit or brass shaving stuck down in the primer holder cup assembly. Relieve spring pressure by pulling back with your fingernails and shake the cup around and give it a few spins. Crap under the cup can cause it to sit cockeyed making it more difficult for primers to drop from your safety prime as well as seating primers cockeyed causing damage to the primers.

Put a primed case in your press and look at the area I have highlighted in the picture below. Is there any air space here? If so, your priming woes are user error- not pushing hard enough or cases with out of spec primer pockets(not common). The gap indicated in the picture shows the amount of further travel that the primer ram is capable of.

thanks ill look at that. based on the video I did notice that the arm wasn't sitting right in the pocket for it but now it is. last time I could push and push and still not seat enough. going to try it in a few.

 

[thomas15]

Again ohihunter, I have been quite vocal on where I stand on Lee tools and the claims people make of them, but I would keep working on what you have before spending more money. Personally I feel that doing your priming on press is better than off press and kinda defeats the advantage gained by having a auto-indexing press for handgun loads.

I think we all kind of exaggerate the actual performance achieved by our respective press decisions. For example, I have read on this and other forums where guys say they get 250 rounds per hour on a LCT. If this is your expectation then I think you might be expecting too much. And it's not just speed, it others performance aspects.

A turret press, and I don't care what turret press you are talking about, is going to produce 100 to 180 rounds per hour tops. I have a turret press and have made many 1000s of rounds on it and tried and tried to break the 200 round per hour mark and couldn't do it. The best I have done is 160 rounds/hour in an actual measured 1 hour timeframe. What I can do is have a short burst of speed on a sample of say 10 rounds and extrapolate the time and calculate an impressive theoretical speed but in practice I cannot keep up that energy level for a whole hour.

In summery, look at what you have and operate it slowly to get a complete picture of how it works and then try to figure out what is causing the hic-ups. Something is not meshing as intended. Then slow down, take your time and you will get this to work I'm sure.

 

[Saintsfan1977]

Lee has the Ergo primer which is what I have and I havent had a single problem with it. Got the new snap tray for free from Lee. I would buy it again. Its cheaper than the RCBS and I bought the shell holder kit for it.