I have heard of this possibly being discontinued in the future.....anybody else hear the same? I am really hoping not, because when my lee hand priming tool breaks, I am planning to get the RCBS APS hand priming tool. It has a universal shell holder, and primes with primers attached to a strip. Anybody have this tool? How do you like it?
APS Priming tool
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dave5339
Member
My wife and I use one of the APS tools. We love it!
It works great. I like the idea of not having to chase shell holders all over the place when I want to prime a couple of buckets brass.
In fact I'm looking for a strip loader. Loading the empty strips with new primers can be a bit of a pain when done by hand.
Semper Fi
It works great. I like the idea of not having to chase shell holders all over the place when I want to prime a couple of buckets brass.
In fact I'm looking for a strip loader. Loading the empty strips with new primers can be a bit of a pain when done by hand.
Semper Fi
Here are a few articles from Real Guns, you might find usefull.
www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar76.htm
www.realguns.com/archives/aps.htm
www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar70.htm
Good Luck...
Joe
www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar76.htm
www.realguns.com/archives/aps.htm
www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar70.htm
Good Luck...
Joe
Thanks for the great articles. Good stuff. The reason I am looking to upgrade from my lee hand priming tool, is that because when priming there is a lot of play between the shell holder and the case, and this causes the primer to be seated somewhat crooked. I also like the idea of the primers being in strips. Is there any chance of these being discontinued?
griz
Member
Since the RCBS progressive press uses them I think they will be around for a long while. I've heard that they may get around to offering Federal primers packaged in the strips. I've got my fingers crossed.
I have a quick question about the strips. I currently have 1K Remington 7.5 primers, that I would like to load into the strips when I get them. However, there are 3 different strips for the small rifle primers. One for standard CCI 400 small rifle primers, one for the CCI BR4 primers, which is their bench rest primer, and one for the CCI No. 41 primer, which is their mil-spec primer. Which one will work for the Remington 7.5's? Thanks for any help.
DrDremel
Member
I have it on my PRO 2000 press. It is much safer as you don't need to worry about primer detonation of a stack of primers from pinching. I have seen this happen with many tube fed systems including many Dillons.
griz
Member
CCI color codes them, but any small primer will work in any small primer strip. Just don't loose track of what is what.
Standing Wolf
Member in memoriam
I bought one, and consider it a near-total waste of money. It's slow. It's unreliable. It's finicky. I do like the universal holder concept, but as soon as I finish the last of the strips I bought, the stupid thing is going into the box of bright ideas that turned out not to be.
Yo
Member
Triple Thumbs up on APS hand tool from me.
For the life of me, I can't understand the last post.
Perhaps Standing Wolf hasn't loaded primer tubes, or fiddled with flip trays, or inserted primers one by one into a fitting on a "benchrest hand primer". If he had, he'd understand how much better the RCBS APS hand primer is...
"It's slow"
What hand tool is faster? I can load a twenty-five primer strip into the tool in 4 seconds. Then I can snap in ANY case that I reload (from .380acp to 45/70) in another couple of seconds (no fiddling around looking for shell-holders).
I squeeze, primer seats. I release, primer strip advances. It will load as fast as you can slip a new case in and out. And if you decide to load less than 25 cases, just pull the strip out and put it in a box. Try that with one of the little flip tray units...
The APS bench unit is probably the only thing, shy of a full progressive press, that will prime cases faster. And if you're loading precision rifle ammo, that will not be done on a Progressive anyway.
"It's unreliable. It's finicky"
I suggest you send your tool back to RCBS and ask for a replacement. Mine has been like a hammer in terms of simplicity and reliability. Perhaps you were trying to load large primer cases with the small primer pusher shaft?
Maybe you tried to load hundreds of rounds with the tool in one session. That will be tedious. But that's not its purpose. There is a dedicated bench tool for that. I started loading on a single stage. I used a Lee auto-prime. Hated the round flip trays. It didn't balance well in the hand. It was flimsy, sometimes primers got sideways in the feed unit. So I switched to an RCBS bench unit (Pre-APS). It worked quite well, if you maintained a rhythm, but sometimes one of two primers would get lodged in the thing, or catch on the detent on the bottom. I also though the process of picking up primers one by one with the tube was just primitive and time-consuming. Also much too easy to grab an upside down primer if you aren't paying attention.
Then I got the APS hand tool as a complement to my RCBS 2000. Now I prime all my pistol stuff with the progressive while match rifle rounds are done with the hand tool. I also have a unit that screws into a Rockchucker if I ever need to prime a few hundred rifle cases at once.
Of all the tools on my reloading bench the three I can recommend unequivocally are the APS hand tool, my Midway set of case gauges, and my calipers. I suspect Standing Wolf's unit was flawed in some way. The thing is just so intelligently engineered and user-friendly, I just don't understand how he came to the conclusions he did. Using mine I've never had an inverted primer, never a sideways primer, never a bent or crushed primer, never a high primer. The "feel" when seating is excellent and nothing has ever broken.
For the life of me, I can't understand the last post.
Perhaps Standing Wolf hasn't loaded primer tubes, or fiddled with flip trays, or inserted primers one by one into a fitting on a "benchrest hand primer". If he had, he'd understand how much better the RCBS APS hand primer is..."It's slow"
What hand tool is faster? I can load a twenty-five primer strip into the tool in 4 seconds. Then I can snap in ANY case that I reload (from .380acp to 45/70) in another couple of seconds (no fiddling around looking for shell-holders).
I squeeze, primer seats. I release, primer strip advances. It will load as fast as you can slip a new case in and out. And if you decide to load less than 25 cases, just pull the strip out and put it in a box. Try that with one of the little flip tray units...
The APS bench unit is probably the only thing, shy of a full progressive press, that will prime cases faster. And if you're loading precision rifle ammo, that will not be done on a Progressive anyway.
"It's unreliable. It's finicky"
I suggest you send your tool back to RCBS and ask for a replacement. Mine has been like a hammer in terms of simplicity and reliability. Perhaps you were trying to load large primer cases with the small primer pusher shaft?
Maybe you tried to load hundreds of rounds with the tool in one session. That will be tedious. But that's not its purpose. There is a dedicated bench tool for that. I started loading on a single stage. I used a Lee auto-prime. Hated the round flip trays. It didn't balance well in the hand. It was flimsy, sometimes primers got sideways in the feed unit. So I switched to an RCBS bench unit (Pre-APS). It worked quite well, if you maintained a rhythm, but sometimes one of two primers would get lodged in the thing, or catch on the detent on the bottom. I also though the process of picking up primers one by one with the tube was just primitive and time-consuming. Also much too easy to grab an upside down primer if you aren't paying attention.
Then I got the APS hand tool as a complement to my RCBS 2000. Now I prime all my pistol stuff with the progressive while match rifle rounds are done with the hand tool. I also have a unit that screws into a Rockchucker if I ever need to prime a few hundred rifle cases at once.
Of all the tools on my reloading bench the three I can recommend unequivocally are the APS hand tool, my Midway set of case gauges, and my calipers. I suspect Standing Wolf's unit was flawed in some way. The thing is just so intelligently engineered and user-friendly, I just don't understand how he came to the conclusions he did. Using mine I've never had an inverted primer, never a sideways primer, never a bent or crushed primer, never a high primer. The "feel" when seating is excellent and nothing has ever broken.
Standing Wolf
Member in memoriam
I've done all that. I use an RCBS priming tool with a tray. It's a little less than 100% convenient and reliable, but is still much more reliable than the tool with the strips. I'll admit it took a few tries to get the hang of flipping the tray and making sure the lid is on tight before inserting it into the gadget.
You couldn't pay me to go back to primer tubes or use a press to seat primers.
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