Hand Primer suggestions??? I have issues??

[folsoh]

I have an RCBS universal hand priming tool. The one with the square tray. It works great for priming large primers and magnum primers.

It is a nightmare however for priming small primers. I know how to switch them out and have even had replacement parts sent to me but it is still impossible to prime small primers with this thing. Out of 100 I will have 20 or so that dont seat correctly or have a crease in the primer. I have these issues when trying to prime 5.56 and .300 blackout brass. I ream the snot out of the primer pockets and still have issues. I am using federal gold metal match small primers #205M. Its like the automatic shell holders dont hold the small shells perfectly centered to insert the primer. It a guessing match. The primers wont go all the way in the pocket or it crushes them partially. If you press to hard the shell just flies off the tool with the primer not seated correctly and you cant try and reseat it. You have just wasted a primer.

A friend of mine uses the regular RCBS hand primer that uses exact shell holders and he has no issues with small primers. I have thought of purchasing one of those and one shell holder for about $45.00 total and just leaving it set up for small primers and use the universal just for Large and Magnum primers.

Then I saw a Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Perfect Seat Hand Priming Tool that comes with all the shell holders in a kit for $59.00 but I dont know anyone who uses one.

I was just thinking that having a tool that uses a shell holder would help my small cartridge alignment and seat my small primers. I dont want to buy all new shell holders though, but I could buy one for just 5.56 and .300 blackout.

What is everyone else using????? Any thoughts??

 

[JO JO]

I hade that exact same issue with 223 and the universal rcbs primer, I ended up buying the rcbs standard primer and a shell holder and I just leave it set up for 223
I do not load 300blk but I would think that the same shell holder would work as it’s the some brass size at the head of both calibers ,

 

[Bfh_auto]

Wiggle the brass as you start. I had the same issue with 32-20. Now I use a Lee tool.

 

[Jack B.]

I gave up hand priming years ago and now do all my priming on a single stage press. I've gotten used to how it feels and it has been flawless. I know it's not for everyone but works for me.

 

[Varminterror]

4 tools I personally would use for priming, 3 of which are hand primers.

Bald Eagle Adjustable Bench Primer
K&M Adjustable Hand Primer
Sinclair Adjustable Hand Primer
Lee Round Tray Hand Primer

Everything else I have tried just drives me bonkers. I prime on press in progressives and Turrets, with their respective systems, but most often I prefer to use one of the 4 above.

 

[LiveLife]

I am still happily using old Lee Auto Prime which has been discontinued. I only broke one handle and bought extra handles before they stopped making spare handles. I may even make my own replacement handle out of steel if I break all the handles.

I also use Lee XR hand primer (now replaced by "New Auto Prime") which is made to nearly impossible to break the handle. It takes more thumb pressure than the old Auto Prime but I can seat primers to .004" with one thumb and even to crush depth of .008" with two thumbs.

If hand priming becomes an issue, I am thinking about using the Lee bench primer.

 

[Whiterook808]

My Lee Ergo prime was giving me fits, so right now I am using a Lee ram prime on my single stage press. Yes, you have to handle each primer, but the feel is really good. I have an RCBS automatic bench priming tool on order and I am hoping I get a similar feel with the automatic primer feed.

Crossing my fingers.

 

[Muddydogs]

First I have to point out that there are large and small primers, magnum primers come in both large and small sizes so I assume in your first sentence you are referring to large rifle primers in both the standard and magnum variate's.

I don't have your problem with small primers but I do with large primers, I don't think its so much the primers as it is the universal jaws and how they hold the case. With large primer cases I find that if I put the case in the primer shell holder then pull the case mouth just a touch away from the primer tray that it lines up the primer hole in the case with the priming ram just fine. Also when I seat a primer if I feel any resistance that's off I push the case away from the priming tray just a tad which lines up the primer hole. It took a little time to figure out but my universal primer works just fine with all brass and I don't even think of the little tweak I do to get large primer brass to line up just right.

What brought the issue to light was I was helping a buddy load some 30-06 ammo last week and he was having a heck of a time priming his brass with my priming tool, I eventually took over priming and figured out what I was doing to make my priming easy. Kind of funny how the hands know what there doing without thinking about it.

 

[243winxb]

RCBS Ram Prime.

 

[Walkalong]

Sinclair Adjustable Hand Primer

If you don't mind doing one at a time, the Sinclair is great.


I am still using an old RCBS hand primer for most priming, and it leaves a little crease in small primers, but they never fail to fire. It's from the slop in the hole in the plastic piece that holds the shell holder. I got a new one but the hole wasn't any smaller. I have primed thousands of primers with a crease using the RCBS and no issues. I thought a new plastic piece would have a tighter (new) hole through it and would fix the issue, but no luck.

 

[cfullgraf]

There are one or two cases I have trouble with on the RCBS universal shell holder but they are 45 colt, brass 410 hulls and 25 ACP. All others work fine.

If you spit the case out of the shell holder, the case is not lined up with the primer. As mentioned wiggle or rotate the case a little to let the springs center the case.

If the seating pressure is too high, stop, center the case until the primer seats normally.

Make sure you have removed any primer crimps.

You do know there are two seating stems, one for small and one for large primers.

I do have two priming tools and keep one set up for each size primer.

Going to a tool that uses a shell holder would reduce your issues but it is so nice to not have to scrounge around looking for the correct shell holder.

 

[ms6852]

I use the same RCBS hand priming tools with no issues. You mentioned that it happens with the 5.56 brass. I believe that the issue could be that some of the brass may have had crimps to hold the primers in. By swaging the primer pockets and or reaming the primer pockets this should alleviate your problem. The key is to completely remove the crimp from the primer pocket.

 

[fotheringill]

I also have the RCBS ram primer that screws into my press. Tedious, but it gets the job done with the same depth each time. Not ofr everyone since it takes at least four times as long for me.

 

[Offfhand]

I try about every new loading tool that comes along, especially primer seaters, and have used a bunch. As noted above, the Sinclair tool is excellent, as is the 20th Cent. tool. For bragging rights, the Magnum Metal is tops because of beautiful construction and features, but be prepared for sticker shock. Among bench mounted tools the old Gun Clinic tool is in a class by itself, but no longer made and hard to find at any price. The tool made by Ferris Pindell (Of PPC fame) utilized a different concept of primer insertion. The one I use most of all is the OLD model Hornady (Current model is worthless.) and are widely used and eagerly sought by benchrest shooters. I expect the Frankfort Arsenal tool will sell by the tons as it is pretty good and comes with all the shell holders, but a bit clunky. Attached are a few photos to mix and mach.

 

[bikemutt]

I use the Frankford Arsenal hand priming tool, so far so good. When I switched to a Forstner Co-Ax press I didn't want to prime with it as it's too slow for me, that's why I went to hand priming. On balance, having primed with a Lee Classic turret for years, the FA unit is just as fast if not faster and has less issues than the Lee had, which were few and far between.

 

[PaFrank]

I have worn out three of the original Lee Autoprime tools.. They were just too cheap to bother to return.. Then I got one of the "new and improved" ones with the square tray.... What a POS that is... frequent jams, and inverted primers.. I don't know how that happens? Then they came out with the "New AutoPrime".... It works just fine for large primers, (45, 06, mags, etc) but terrible for small primers.. same problem as the square tray model... frequent jams and inverted primers.. Too many. But I do like the feel and convenience of the tool for large primers.. fortunately I don't shoot much that uses a small primer.. I usually will prime a bucket load while watching TV.. Maybe I'll get a bench model for back up and to see how it handles the small primers.

 

[Zendude]

Had too many issues with the Lee ergo prime. I switched to the RCBS hand prime (not the universal) and have been very satisfied with it.

 

[FROGO207]

Guess I am spoiled. Have three of the old Lee round hand prime tools, one spare, one set up for large, one set up for small. Boy I will cry when I finally break the last one. I also use the CH4D ram prime unit for the WSM and 500 S&W brass as the hand primer does not work with those. Still I am not loading hundreds at a time either with the ram prime tool.

 

[Walkalong]

I expect the Frankfort Arsenal tool will sell by the tons as it is pretty good and comes with all the shell holders, but a bit clunky.

I use the Frankford Arsenal hand priming tool, so far so good.

On sale at Cabelas with free shipping. (Code: 38free)

https://www.cabelas.com/product/FRANKFORD-ARSENAL-PERFECT-SEAT-HAND-PRIMER/2261955.uts?slotId=12

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have an original Lee hand primer that I like and one of the Lee square tray hand primers which I don't care for. I also have an older RCBS hand primer that uses shell holder which I do like a lot.

The newest Lee hand primer with the triangular tray looks good but I'm not in the market right now.

That Frankford Arsenal hand primer look's great but like I said, I'm not in the market but it's tempting since it's on sale plus free shipping.

 

[Dudedog]

Lee Round Tray Hand Primer

I liked the old round tray one better to.
The square ones were a pain.
The latest one isn't bad "safer" but I liked the old round tray best.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I learned to reload using the RCBS hand primer with the universal jaws. It was enough to make me swear off hand primers forever. I even gave hand primers a second chance with a Lee and had similar results.

For plinking ammo, I prime on my progressive press.

For match ammo, I'll either use a Co-Ax Bench Primer or the new Lee Auto Bench Prime.

The Co-Ax works more smoothly and has universal jaws, but they take a bit to set up. If I only needed them for one cartridge it would be perfect. It feeds from a flattened primer tube, but only holds 50 primers. It isn't inexpensive.

The Lee uses the Lee Priming shell holders, is easy to set up and pretty smooth once you figure out it's idiosyncrasies to aid feeding from the triangular tray. I only paid $25 for mine

 

[Walkalong]

I learned to reload using the RCBS hand primer with the universal jaws. It was enough to make me swear off hand primers forever.

It does make one get the brass just right and for those of us (Like me) who are going fast, we'll pop a case out here and there, no doubt. What got me the most about it though was how much more strength it took to prime with and how much farther in the hand must close to prime with it. It hurts my hands to do 500 at a time where I can do many more than that with the old RCBS hand primer without issues. Now, my Universal one was the strip primer, and I "assume" the rest of it is the same, but may not be. The regular Universal primer may be easier. But again, I am assuming the shell holder part is the same as well, and may be slightly different. Either way, I gave up on it and have been popping the primers out of the strips. Bought 10K in strips on sale a $20 per K.

 

[LiveLife]

For match ammo, I'll either use a Co-Ax Bench Primer or the new Lee Auto Bench Prime.

The Lee uses the Lee Priming shell holders, is easy to set up and pretty smooth once you figure out it's idiosyncrasies to aid feeding from the triangular tray. I only paid $25 for mine

Since I already have a set of shell holders for Auto Prime/XR hand primers, I think I will get the Bench Auto Prime when hand priming is less of an option.

Using 'fingers only" pressure to seat primers is appealing.

 

[Ruger 15151]

I use the Lyman Hand priming tool if I am not priming on my Redding Turret press.



I have no issues with large primers. Have to hold it at an angle to feed small primers smoothly. The reason I like it is that ergonomically is easier on my hand than the other primers mentioned.

I would probably use the RCBS Automatic Bench Priming System if I was going to buy another priming tool.


It seems very smooth to prime and there are no trays that need to be shaken because the primers jammed. The primers feed vertically the same way my Redding system does so there are never any chance for primers to flip or jam up.