Was thinking about my journey with priming.

[dverna]

It has been about a 50 year trip.

Started with a Lee Target loader and seated every primer one at a time with that. It made great ammunition but was slow.

Upgraded to a Co-Ax and primed on the press. The Co-Ax is one of the worst priming set ups I have experienced so it did not take me long to buy a Lee hand priming tool. And I read back then that hand priming was better because of the "feel". I used that for a long time for seating rifle primers. Still works too!

Upgraded to an RCBS hand tool and it worked. Still prefer the Lee even though it is cheaper.

Anyway used them both for decades to prime rifle cases. All my pistol ammunition is made on progressives that work, so I prime pistol ammunition on the presses.

About two years ago got the RCBS bench priming tool. I really like it but I do not load a lot of rifle (40-50 at a time) so I still wind up using the hand tools for most of my rifle priming. The bench tool will be used for .223 as we will be shooting more of it in the future.

The worst part of priming has been filling primer tubes for the progressives. Got the Frankfort vibratory thing and it kind of worked most of the time. Then got another thing that looks like a 1911. Great reviews on it but mine is a ***.

My mentor bought a Camdex in the late 70's and it had a vibratory feeder (Syntron or something like that) and it was fantastic. It would march the primers up a spiral ramp on a bowl and every darn one would be right side up and feed perfectly. Wish I could get one of those for the 1050's

In my musings, it was interesting that I still prime most of my rifle cases the same way I did decades ago using simple hand tools. And that no one has come out with a better way for handling hundreds of primers than that feeder on the old Camdex. I might have to try to build one now that I have lots of time.

BTW, came close a number of times to buying the Dillon primer feeder. I used to load 20,000 pistol rounds a year and I normally loaded in batches of 2000....filling 20 primer tubes at one sitting is not fun. But too many users could not get it to work 100% of the time, so I never tried it.

[Three44s]

As a wee nipper I must of press primed on my RCBS Jr. (that is all I had then!)

I bought a Lee hand primer and it eventually broke.

I next went to the Bonanza Coax bench primer, not crazy about it.

Then I found my stride: The RCBS hand primer that takes standard 2nd generation shell holders! Still have the first one and acquired a second in a round about way.

Sometimes my hand is a little weak so I jumped on an RCBS Standard bench primer. This is the copy of the Lachmyer unit with a cam to raise the priming Punch. I seat my primers with the hand held and then put a finishing touch on the bench seater where needed.

I bought a Lee ram prime just for the just for the heck of it but have not tested it.

I have a Hornady LNL progressive that primes as well.

Best regards

Three44s

[slim1836]

I prime on the press, a bit slow but I can feel the primer properly seat.

Slim

[robg]

Started with the Lee round hand primer tried a few others but still use the Lee .I've goit one food large and one for small primers and bought another a few weeks ago from a guy who had stopped reloading .36 years of use ,thousands of cases primed only snapped 2 levers which I got repaired as they are discontinued now.simple to use no problems if you watch what your doing.

[mdi]

Like a lot of reloaders I started with a Lee Loader, and yep, at first I had some primer pops, but I worked that out and when I use one today, they are "pop free". My next priming method was on a Lee Challenger press, and I had no trouble, but didn't care for the feel". Over the next 3 decades I tried 3 different hand primers but none fit my hand and were very tiresome so I went with a ram prime. Excellent feel and very positive priming. I even installed a couple on my Lee turrets. I got a Forster Co-Ax and the priming system is just OK, sometimes difficult to adjust the jaws for some cases (45 Colt has thin, small rims and if not perfectly lined up, can be pushed out of the holder). I saw a Lee Bench Prime advertised soon after they came out so I got one. First 60 cases primed I had 3 OOPS!, way too many. I reread the instructions, looked at the tool and saw how it was supposed to work,then put 100 primers in the tray and primed 100 cases, non stop. Still occasionally use the Co-Ax primer but most of my priming is don on my Lee tool. Rough ball park guess is I've primed mebbe 2,000 cases 99% trouble free...

[country gent]

I started by seating primers with the lee load all set and using a mallet. Then converted an old bottle capper to a press for the straight line style dies and seating primers with them. I too used a original lee priming tool with the round tray. I then made a bench primer at work that was a rack and pinion drive. It gave a great feel and plenty of force to seat primers. Ive also tried the newer Lees rcbs and Hornady hand seaters. The Hornady fits my hand the best. I also seat primers with the lee ram prime set up in my summit press.

I believe priming is one aspect of reloading that normally dosnt get enough attention. Seating the primer will make or break good ammo. Its a simple enough operation to do but getting the right pre load on the anvil is important. To light and ignition can vary to heavy and anvils are crushed or pellets cracked or damaged.

[Jniedbalski]

I have used the lee hand prime round tray for years. Don’t believe that there is a better primer that’s cheeper/faster. That’s how much I liked it. I started to wear it out so I ordered a new and lawyer improved one. Pice of junk. I then got out my lee press ram prime I had for years that I have never used. I like it. Kind of slow but you get use to it and can speed it up. I liked the hand prime better but the lee ram prime isint that bad

[lightman]

My journey through priming goes something like this. I started priming on the press. After a few I developed a feel for it and got good results. Then we started having kids and I looked for ways to be around the family more. So I bought the original Lee pot metal hand primer. It worked well and I wore out or broke several of them. Later on my Wife surprised me with a Raiha. They advertised in Hand Loader magazine and it was a quality tool They use RCBS or similar type shell holders, which I like, and I still use it. Later on a Family member gave me a Sinclair hand priming tool for Christmas. Its in a whole different league. Its smooth, sensitive and very well built. The kids are grown now and on their own. I still like to spend time in the family room with the Wife and still hand prime. Even when I'm loading for volume on the Dillon. I usually resize my brass and tumble before loading. Hand priming fits well into this routine.

[EMC45]

Primed for many years with the RCBS hand priming tool. Feels good and works good. I have since in the last year been using the Lee press mounted primer in my Classic Cast. I prime on the down stroke and flare the case on the upstroke with a mounted flare die of the appropriate caliber. More time economy.

[Steve E]

I started with one of the 45 Colt Lee Loaders and beat many a primer into the case then went to the Lee Hand Primer tool and have used that ever since except when I had a Piggy Back II mounted on my Lee Classic Cast Press. After that I get a Hornady L-N-L AP for pregressive loading, mostly pistol and .223.I still use the Lee hand tool for rifle and small batches of pistol ammo. I have a large and small Lee hand tool for priming, they are simple, easy and provide a great feel for seating primers. I did just a little priming on my RCBS Rock Chucker and Lee Classic Cast presses.

Steve.........

[RP]

I have a few of the lee auto primers I think they may be called. It is a die body that holds a reg shell holder on top primers are feed by a ramp/tube with a tray on the end which doubles as the flipper tray. They come with a large and small feed ramps and rams also a punch fits in the ram where the shell holder normally goes that pushes the primer up in the case. As long as you make sure the primers are feeding/tube is full they work very well and I can feel them seat using my little lee press the smallest on they make that mounts.
They no longer make them that I know of and been lucky enough to get a few over the years in estate sales.

[Taterhead]

My priming began with an RCBS hand priming tool. Worked great. When I got a Pro 2000 progressive with APS, I now prime almost everything on that press - even for the stuff that I load in the SS. It is like a bench priming tool, but quicker! It is quick/easy to load APS strips -- even easier to buy them preloaded.

For ammo I load on the SS, I just remove the die plate. Changing priming size takes 20 seconds. About the same for shell plates. Insert a case in station 1, prime in 2 and let them auto-index around to the bin. It goes REALLY quickly that way not needing to take a case on-then-off the press. It has been very reliable for me.

I've done some priming on the SS presses, but not too fond of it.

[lotech]

I've primed on many presses and used a variety of hand priming tools since I began handloading in 1965. Never really found a press that didn't work well for priming, including the Co-Ax (though jaw adjustment may take some time).

I'm not really sure why I got away from priming on presses, but I tried a few hand tools that had shortcomings either immediately or eventually. I use a 21st Century now and won't go back to the other hand tools. Sinclair also makes a good tool.

[0802]

Any experiences with the T7 priming system?

I'm getting back into reloading and am running a Redding T7 and Forster Co Ax. I have bought the high capacity priming system for the T7. Neither seems to have a great priming system, so I am considering eBaying an old style lee hand prime to cover both. I'll mainly be loading rifle and low volume pistol rounds on the above presses.

I used to use the lee press priming system, which I liked. I may go back to it.

The T7 system is about the same price as a lot of the hand prime systems, though the hand prime systems seem more flexible for time and location as was mentioned earlier.


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[kmw1954]

I only load hand gun calibers and all of that is done on either a Lee turret press or a progressive press and everything is primed on the press. What I have a hard time understanding is why anyone would buy a progressive press and then preform half the operations off the press. Seems counter productive to me.

[kayala]

I'm priming on the press whether it RCBS RC or 550 or 650. I've tried FA vibratory primer and didn't like it, I've bought Dillon primer filler and after a few and unfortunately I can't trust it. All the time saved with Dillon is negated by the fact that I need to disassemble a few rounds where primers are upside down. So for my 550 and 650 I still do plucking with filling tube from a flip tray and RC is a nobrainer - just place them 1-by-1 :)

[pworley1]

I started loading with the Lee mallet dies, moved on to the Lyman single stage press and primed with it. I have tried the Lee , the RCBS, and the Hornady hand prime. I went through other single stage and turret presses with their priming systems and didn't really like any of them. Several years ago I started using the Lyman and RCBS ram prime systems. They are slow but there is never any doubt about the primers.

[dverna]

I only load hand gun calibers and all of that is done on either a Lee turret press or a progressive press and everything is primed on the press. What I have a hard time understanding is why anyone would buy a progressive press and then preform half the operations off the press. Seems counter productive to me.

Some progressive presses have issues with consistent priming. I owned an RCBS Green Machine that was pathetic. Some of the more modern presses still have issues...will not mention names as it causes such angst with those who own them. Then there are people who do not have the knowledge/patience to set up some of the more challenging progressives properly and after sufficient frustration give up and prime off the press.

Like you, I would not own a progressive that required me to prime off the press. Not everyone can afford to do that, so I understand why it happens.

BTW, that Green Machine was a good, but expensive lesson. It was $600 IIRC (a lot of money for a newly married couple back then), and a lot cheaper than the Star I wanted. I have been warry of trying to save money on a press since that experience almost 40 years ago. After buying another 12 progressive since then, I have never regretted spending the money for a quality press except for a MEC 9000. I had to get rid of it as I got tired of dealing with the operational problems. They were likely due to my incompetence, rather than the machine itself; but the PW 800+ and Spolar solved my shotgun shell reloading issues. Like I said, sometimes the operator is the problem, and some operators need a machine that is more forgiving.

[kmw1954]

Guess it's the folks buying 5 position progressives and then talking about depriming off the press then priming off the press then starting over and finishing the whole thing on their 5 position progressive press.

When I 1st started long ago I bought a Bonanza "68" single stage press that had no way of loading primers from a tube. They all had to be placed one at a time by hand. Also back then the guy who was teaching me warned to stay away from progressive presses. Funny because at that time we were both production machine mechanics so that sort of thing was normal to us.

[Walks]

My start in priming was sitting next to a old 3 legged milking stool that held a coaster full of primers, a can of sized/expanded cases on one side, a loading block on the other, in the family garage. I had a LYMAN 310 Tong Tool to prime 9mm or .38spl.

I was 4yrs old. Gave me a hecka of grip until the arthritis set in.

I graduated to the old LACHMILLER std priming tool on the bench in a few years.
I got the RCBS version for myself when I started my own reloaded setup.

I moved on to the LEE hand-priming tool with the tray, wore out 2 of them.
Got a single RCBS hand priming tool, upgraded to a RCBS with the tray.

Along the way I primed on presses such as a LYMAN Spartan & Spar- T, RCBS RockChucker & Green Machine( Remembering that thing still gives me the shivers ). HORNADY Pro-Jector & L-N-L.

I am probably one of the few here who has never used a LEE Loader. I have one in .44WCF that came in a trade. But I've never touched it.

So I still use the RCBS Hand Tool w/tray for 99.9% of my priming.

Guess I'll stick with my roots. I've never found filling primer tubes to be tedious. But just another way to check primers.

I like being able to see the anvil in the primer. I've had some dud factory ammo in center-fire cartridges that had no anvil.
I lost my only chance at a 100 Staright in a NSSA match be cause of a factory dud Federal 20ga shell when I was 17yrs old. When my DAD dissected the shell he found the primer body was completely empty, no anvil, no priming compound.
That dud threw me off so much I missed the option & the next shot. It was a Registered Match, so no reshoot. A 50 straight, a 23, and a 25 straight.

Just don't really trust a shell unless I see the anvil & priming compound. Just too many duds.
Winchester had a bad run of the first SP primers they made when they switched to a brass coating on the primer cup in the early 2000's. Had 25+ duds in a 5000 sleeve. My kids were ticked off.

[3856imp]

A lot of variables rim thickness, pocket depth , the primer needs to seat and then you need to swage it a bit.

[44magLeo]

I as others have used several types of priming systems. I don't like primers in tubes. A bit to much rattling around and priming compound sifts out and can collect in the tube and get set off. Then the whole tube blows.
I like the Lyman priming system as used on the 310 tool. A bit slow but you can actually see what is happening.
I tried the original Lee round tray and loved it. The only thing I didn't like was the handle pivoted wrong. When the came out with the Ergo-Prime I got one of those, much easier on the hands.
When Lee brought out their bench prime I deliberated for quite a awhile before trying one. Best money I ever spent. Dump the primers in, shake. close, install and prime away.
I did have a few problems at first but soon realized that if a let the handle jump back up on it's own, it jiggled the primers enough to feed right.
Since then no problems.
Leo

[BillP]

30 some yrs ago I started with a Rockchucker with auto prime and liked press priming over hand priming. A couple yrs later I went to a Lyman ST turret with the auto prime and still use it...and definitely don't plan on changing to hand priming.

[rbuck351]

For pistol I prime on the 550b. For rifle I prime on a Lyman AA by hand placing a primer in the primer punch cup. I takes almost no extra time as I dump a box of primers on the primer flipper and then insert them on the primer punch as the ram goes up to size and decap. Ram comes down to prime and on to the next step. The AA press has a primer punch that is very easy to access and primes at the bottom of the ram stroke so no extra ram movement to seat primer, raise ram to release primer arm and then lower ram. It's my favorite press for loading one round at a time.

[Bait O' Eggs]

Enjoyed this read,,,

My rockchucker has been priming all my shells one at a time for 25+ years. Its a pain to load them one at a time to prime, but I always knew it was in the casing. Keeping my fingers clean and hoping I dont foul the primer with case lube off the casings as I handle them one at a time.

I fairly recently got a LNL progressive. I hate the feel of the primer going in on the down stroke of the turret. I swear every 3rd or 4th shell didnt prime, I find myself pulling out a lot of casings to look to see if it is primed, they always are. Well they always are, unless I dont notice I ran out of primers. :killingpc

I have never used a hand primer, dont know why I never tried one. Probably the money :sad:

[David2011]

Two things I’ve learned about priming: 1. A little grease on the friction points of a Lee priming tool, especially the cam, makes easier to use and it will last much longer. 2. If the bench for a progressive press is not very stiff and mounted to a wall or is otherwise immovable primers will flip within the press.

[Mike W1]

I have a few of the lee auto primers I think they may be called. It is a die body that holds a reg shell holder on top primers are feed by a ramp/tube with a tray on the end which doubles as the flipper tray. They come with a large and small feed ramps and rams also a punch fits in the ram where the shell holder normally goes that pushes the primer up in the case. As long as you make sure the primers are feeding/tube is full they work very well and I can feel them seat using my little lee press the smallest on they make that mounts.
They no longer make them that I know of and been lucky enough to get a few over the years in estate sales.

Probably the AutoprimeII which I still use and like.

[greenjoytj]

Press prime —> ram prime on press —> APS off press system—> RCBS Universal hand priming tool—> LEE Auto Bench Prime, my latest and favourite.

[MT Chambers]

I am reloading for precision not speed and I find priming on the Co-ax gives me the most feel and consistent priming.

[Shawlerbrook]

Started with the Lee whack a mole in 222 Rem. Then primed with my Rockchucker, but now my RCBS Bench primer.

[danmat]

Any experiences with the T7 priming system?

I'm getting back into reloading and am running a Redding T7 and Forster Co Ax. I have bought the high capacity priming system for the T7. Neither seems to have a great priming system, so I am considering eBaying an old style lee hand prime to cover both. I'll mainly be loading rifle and low volume pistol rounds on the above presses.

I used to use the lee press priming system, which I liked. I may go back to it.

The T7 system is about the same price as a lot of the hand prime systems, though the hand prime systems seem more flexible for time and location as was mentioned earlier.


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I prime on my t7 mostly small batches of handgun ammo working up loads, works fine for me.
Dan