New Lee Automatic Case Primer (ACP)

[EDG]

Anyone know this was coming?
This is Lee priming tool #6 or #7.
Maybe they got it right this time.

[OS OK]

Too much emphasis today put on 'speed' in hand loading. That was never my objective...top quality reloads are.

[EDG]

I notice many newbies want fast fast fast.
They don't really load because they like it but only to save money.

[OS OK]

I notice many newbies want fast fast fast.
They don't really load because they like it but only to save money.

I know, I hate to see this ... oh well! Some of us have to learn the hard way at times.

[XDROB]

After deciding to start reloading I looked around online read a bunch of reviews and articles. Bought a couple of reloading books. Then went to Cabela's to touch and feel. Unfortunately this was week after Sandy Hook in CT. I live in CT. The ONLY thing in 5he shelf was a Hornady LnL. I bought it. After setting up and started learning how to actually use it. I came to the conclusion that it would be better for a beginner to learn in a single stage press rather than a progressive. I have done well and so far have Not loaded any squibs or over charged a round.

I did read a post on how to shim the baseplate. But have lost it. Does anyone have a link to that post. I believe it was about a year and half ago. Thanks in advance for any help.

Rob

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

[onelight]

Got a link to this this morning https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/0000691610/automatic-case-primer-(acp)?trk_msg=PQOGGO05J0C4N5QDIDV19C3JBS&trk_contact=JFLQG76CLN2GNT6P98TPA2UQ30&trk_sid=CIBRCER7GGS0G2J2N53786K7AS&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=turn+on+images+to+shop+lee+acp+press&utm_campaign=NEW+Lee+Automatic+Case+Primer+Now+In+ Stock!
For any that may be interested

[kerplode]

Lee generally makes nice stuff, but their priming tools have always been sketchy. Adding speed to one of their plastic chutes and ladders, Rube Goldberg, machines doesn't seem like something I want to mess with.

[megasupermagnum]

Lee generally makes nice stuff, but their priming tools have always been sketchy. Adding speed to one of their plastic chutes and ladders, Rube Goldberg, machines doesn't seem like something I want to mess with.

Lee has always made the best priming tools available to reloaders that I have found. What specifically are you referring to? I'm not aware of a better tool than a Lee auto prime hand primer, or their ram prime for presses. Even their safety prime for utilizing the on-press system is gold. I've never found a Lee priming set up that I thought was sketchy or dangerous.

I still use my Lee auto prime. I started using one way back because I thought the RCBS rockchucker primer tube set up was the most bizarre and fiddly thing I've ever seen. Before that I had used Lee hand tools, and the primer they send with those kits is just like the auto prime. They work great too, but slow.

[kerplode]

I nearly blew my self up with one of their goofy press mounted contraptions from the 90s. It jammed constantly and was just generally a pain in the butt, but one day it grabbed a bit of the next primer in the chute while it was seating the one on the ram and crushed that second primer between the ram and the body. It's a minor miracle it didn't detonate itself and all the others in the tray. That was the last straw. I tossed the Lee junk in the trash and bought an RCBS handing priming tool. The RCBS has seated countless thousands of primers for me with not a single issue.

The RCBS uses standard shell holders and has a sliding metal bar that separates the primer on the ram from the others in the tray, so there's no chance of feeing 1.5 primers and blowing the whole thing to smithereens like that crappy Lee nearly did.

But hey man, if you like Lee priming stuff, more power to you. I think there are much better priming tools out there...Both more well thought out and better made.

[dverna]

Too much emphasis today put on 'speed' in hand loading. That was never my objective...top quality reloads are.

Have to disagree with that my friend. Adequate quality is the goal not top quality.

How silly would it be to uniform primer pockets, trim to .005” case length, sort cases by headstamp, check for bullet runout, drop charges and trickle to exactly the same weight, weigh every bullet etc etc. What a waste of time that would be....just pointless effort....

For the pistol ammunition we reload.

And, if we are honest, for the vast majority of hunting ammunition we load. Heck, if top quality ammunition was the goal, we would never shoot another cast bullet.

Nothing wrong with folks wanting to reload efficiently. It does make them unsafe or foolish. I am one of them. Over 95% of the ammunition I have reloaded in over 50+ years has been on progressive machines.

Good enough is good enough.

[megasupermagnum]

Have to disagree with that my friend. Adequate quality is the goal not top quality.

How silly would it be to uniform primer pockets, trim to .005” case length, sort cases by headstamp, check for bullet runout, drop charges and trickle to exactly the same weight, weigh every bullet etc etc. What a waste of time that would be....just pointless effort....

For the pistol ammunition we reload.

And, if we are honest, for the vast majority of hunting ammunition we load. Heck, if top quality ammunition was the goal, we would never shoot another cast bullet.

Nothing wrong with folks wanting to reload efficiently. It does make them unsafe or foolish. I am one of them. Over 95% of the ammunition I have reloaded in over 50+ years has been on progressive machines.

Good enough is good enough.

For hunting/defense loads only I do.

I don't trim pistol cases anymore. I used to trim revolver cases, as it would effect the crimp. I've found ways around it now. I do sort by headstamp. I don't check for runout on handgun cartridges, no way for me to control it anyway. I do trickle and weigh every load. I do weigh every bullet. I do hand sort by eye every bullet. This applies to cast or jacketed, or whatever. My best accuracy has always been with cast bullets in handguns. If I got better accuracy with jacketed bullets, I would shoot them. I don't uniform primer pockets, I simply use good brass. I would not use CBC brass for a hunting load. I do ultrasonic clean brass.

This is not what I do for the bulk of my loading, but it is what I do for serious ammo. It does make a difference, a surprising difference. Those variables stack up. The progressive press is not the problem, you could load ammo just as good on a progressive if you wanted. I can take the same load I like in 45 acp. If I do as I state above, that load will shoot 3" at 50 yards using open sights off a bench. The same exact load, but using dropped powder charges, mixed brass, unsorted bullets, etc. I get around 5" groups at 50 yards.

Good enough is good enough, but "good" depends on needs. Not everybody is the same.

[tankgunner59]

I have seen evidence of these newreloaders and how they haven't changed from their ways. They want it all and they want it now. All they want is instant grtification. That sounds like a lot of people getting hurt and calling it an accident when it will simply be ignorance.

[GarrettP1]

I want the same thing for reloading that I want for my surgical practice: accomplish procedures more safely, more quickly, more easily, and with the desired outcomes.
There have been some marvelous developments in my specialty to allow that to happen in the OR. I could never go back to the days when we didn't have computerized navigation to guide us precisely (within 1mm) of tumors.

I would love to be able to set up for priming, and do 1000 cases in a straightforward, nonstop fashion that didn't involve several steps.
I also don't want to spend $3K for a commercial (automated) priming machine (to be fair that navigation device I described above starts at $100K and goes up from there).

Except for very specific hunting/competition loads, I wish I could just dump 1000 pieces of brass in a hopper and come back in 1 hour to 1K loaded cartridges.
I love handloading, but I don't love it enough to want to spend hours and hours doing it.

[VariableRecall]

I've now loaded around 900 rounds with my Lee Hand press, and I'd have to say that it was probably the best decision to start with that. I don't have the space for a permanent tabletop setup, so the Lee Hand press was perfect for my needs. The Breech lock bushings made swapping dies simple and made maintaining seating depth easy.

Then again, I had to spend around an hour to load 50 cartridges if I started from primed brass, but it was well worth the time to get it right.


I may be part of the "instant gratification" crowd given my age, but I know the risks of reloading and I don't want to do anything that's going to be too risky. Besides, a progressive press assumes that you have a pile of brass, bulelts, and primers that are ready to roll, and one of those crititcal items is in short supply, so even if I were to whir up one, there would not be much a point to it in the first place.

[Lefty Red]

I started off reloading with a LEE hand press for pistol and a couple of their Loaders for rifles. I have used high end Dillion, owned a few mid and lower end Dillons, owned and used most progressives out there for various pistol calibers. I’m back down to a turret press and a couple of single stages for dedicated operations. The circle of life.

Now back to our regular scheduled program.......I like a bench mounted primer over a handheld one. LEE’s had always served me well, and maybe even better than other colored handheld primers. But RCBS ‘s bench mounted primer has to be my favorite.

Lefty

[jonp]

Started with a Lee Whack A Mole, powder, primers and reading a manual over and over. Graduated to a Lee hand press then a bench mounted one. Best way to learn to handload is with a something that makes you do each step by hand including weighing each charge and constructing each round one at a time.

[Baltimoreed]

Got to agree with you kerplode, [I’m sure Rube was a LEE stockholder] don’t see any advantage with the $100.00 ACP-keep it simple and just prime brass on your press duh. I do use an old Lee Auto Prime for my 30-06 and krag rifle brass but I load that on a single stage press. I have done repairs to the easily broken pot metal handles that seem to be holding. Jbweld to the rescue.

[GarrettP1]

The advantage of the Lee ACP is feeding of the cases and primers into the work area. Every pull of the handle is a primed case.
Very easy to do 1000 cases at a time, and for those of us shooting semi-auto that is exactly what we need.
The Russians aren't invading but I'm shooting 200-300 rounds when I do tactical style drills with my AR (in an hour or less).
The Lee ACP will get me my 1000 cartridges faster than anything else I have (as the first step in that particular reload).

[Land Owner]

I do what suits me and I like it that way. I am no "example" but what works for me is personal and I own it. Lessons were learned with inexpensive Lee Loaders for 3 years in 30-30 then 270 then 45 Colt and 45 ACP. Lee Loaders CAN make exemplary ammunition, one at a time, and ALL rudimentary reloading lessons are learned through repetitions - though it is not paramount to start with a Lee Loader.

Now I have both a Rock Chucker and Lee Classic Cast single stage presses and all necessary "parts and pieces" for a dozen "standard" calibers, a Piggyback II for the RC (which some don't consider to be a "progressive" though it is) and am happy in my non-competitive, sniper hunter, reloading world. I don't aspire to tell others what they should or should not do, unless they come to me for council with an open mind to learn reloading, repetitively, one round at a time, to start.

I ham-handed and broke my RCBS Posi-Primer after "abusing" its pot metal handle by not adjusting the final cam to be at the top of the stroke - don't be like me. I struggled with the "auto-primer" of the Piggyback II, and took priming cases off-line with an RCBS Automatic Priming Tool, a misnomer imo, as there is NOTHING automatic, other than filling a tube with 100 primers.

You set a primer off in a Lee Loader, its loud and blackens the meat of your palm - nothing more. You set one off in the Auto Primer tube and IDK - never done that, and don't know how it could. The Indians that sold them to us thought a while before manufacturing and marketing them - to be safe. I don't use the Hand Primers of any Mfg. and that is personal preference.

[XDROB]

I totally agree. When I started reloading it was a week after Sandy Hook. THE ONLY press on the shelf was a Hornady LnL. The shelf's looked like the bread aisle before a storm. As I struggled to learn how to use this cool machine I realized that a beginner should start on a single press. Not a progressive one.

But learn I did. As I started producing some good rounds. Luckly or through my diligence I have not had a over or under charge round... I have added Inline Fabrication led lights and the Hornady Powder Cop die to my set up. It only takes a few seconds to adjust it to a different caliber.

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[John Boy]

Regardless of what make of “automatic” primer feeder one uses ... you have to LOOK. To insure one is not trying to load a primer with one underneath it in the primer channel.
You can’t load them blind with your eyes closed and then post on the forums they don’t work as I read too often.
Have been using the Lee hand autos with round and square trays for a long time with no issues
Remember, that primer underneath didn’t get there by itself... You put it there!

[gbrown]

I agree with John Boy. Your eyes are on what you are doing at all times. I have Dillon SDB, and a 550, their priming systems, once adjusted are great, but ya gotta watch them, still. I've had strange things happen. I have about 10 old Lee single primer priming tools and a slew of the screw in shellholders. Slow, sure and easy. Have 2 Lee auto prime, never used them. Have several 310's, the priming chambers are fun to use. I started out with the whack a mole back in the 60s. Used them a couple of years before getting my first single stage with a priming arm. Thought I was in Heaven!

[Livin_cincy]

"I have been loading on my single stage RCBS Rock Chucker since 1972.

Just thought I would add another nonsequitor comment to the pile.

[sghart3578]

I must be the only redneck in the country that doesn't have a problem with Lee priming equipment. Thousands and thousands of rounds on a Lee Hand Prime, Lee Classic Cast, Lee Classic Turret and two Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro's.

And when I say no problems I mean no more problems than I had on my RCBS Turret press or my Dillon 450


Steve in N CA

[onelight]

I must be the only redneck in the country that doesn't have a problem with Lee priming equipment. Thousands and thousands of rounds on a Lee Hand Prime, Lee Classic Cast, Lee Classic Turret and two Lee Auto Breech Lock Pro's.

And when I say no problems I mean no more problems than I had on my RCBS Turret press or my Dillon 450


Steve in N CA
Your not the only one , I prime on my LCT and ABLP both work great for me .

[robg]

always used a lee auto prime round tray myself but helped people set up using newer lee hand and bench primer tools all have worked fine , i guess i have been lucky.

[onelight]

I have a couple of the round primer trays left over from 20 years loading on the 1000 and they sit in a box . I use the newer type they both work for me . I like the cutoff button on the newer ones.

[buckwheatpaul]

I have two Dillions and two single stage presses.....more often than not I find myself gravitating back to single stage as I feel like I have more control over the process and enjoy the process. I do like the Lee Priming tool though but not sure on the new ACP and dont believe I would use one as my hand held Lee Priming tool is great!