Lee pro 1000 and federal primers.

[smkummer]

In the past, I only bought CCI or Win. primers as they were always available. A friend has a good supply of federal and is concerned about those primers in the Lee 1000. Thoughts?

[wilecoyote]

The thoughts are concretized in the considerations of Richard Lee, who advised to avoid them in his priming devices

[smkummer]

Has anyone here had a primer other than cci or win go bang in the press? Wish we could be picky on primers.

[gwpercle]

If it's dangerous to use the Federal primers in the Lee 1000 ... prime the cases off press and then finish reloading on the Lee 1000 . If Federal Primers are all you got ... then you have to do something . I prime with Federal Primers with an old round tray Lee Hand Priming Tool or I use the little Lee Ram Prime Unit in my Lee Hand Press to prime cases with Federal primers ... I have never had a primer pop , of any brand including Federal , while using either of these tools ... but I'm careful when I seat primers and don't go all Magilla Gorilla on the tools ... use a gentle hand and a deft touch !
Gary

[BLAHUT]

I only hand prime off press

[ReloaderFred]

After loading around 500,000 Federal primers through various priming mechanisms, I'd say they're perfectly safe. I've had primers go off on a motor driven loading machine (AmmoLoad), but they were Winchester and it was many, many years ago. It happened twice, but on a machine that loads a couple thousand an hour, things are likely to go wrong at some point. I've loaded about 400,000 other brands of primers, too. As long as you're careful, they're safe to handle.

Go softly and don't bang any brand of primers, since they're designed to go off when struck, or excessive pressure is exerted.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[smkummer]

Thanks everyone

[slughammer]

Depends on the brass you're putting them into.

If it's commercial all the same headstamp, you'll get a good feel for the seating pressure and have no problems.

If it's mixed brass that was previously crimped,......go slow and be careful. Consider prepping all your pockets.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[Kenstone]

Folklore is that Richard Lee asked Federal for (free) primers to do load development for Lee's loading manuals and Federal declined.
Richard Lee retaliated by advising reloaders using Lee equipment to avoid Federal primers as they would blow-up!
That said, I have read but cannot verify that Federal Primers are more prone to ignite from a static charge than other primers.
More prone to ignite because they shed more dust during handling.

I'm sure others will post here to confirm or deny what I have posted.
jmo,
.

[Goldstar225]

Lee in their manual says not to use federal primers. A close friend of mine had a tray of federals go off in his pro 1000, fortunately he was wearing glasses and saved his eyes.

Believe who ever you want, make your own decision. It won't have any effect on me.

[wilecoyote]

luckily I didn't have many left but, incredibly, it keeps me from Fed. mainly the fact that they are the only primers that didn't fire in my .308 because they were a few years old.

[Sasquatch-1]

I know of at least two, at the club I belong to, that have had primer tubes on their Dillons detonate while loading .45 acp. I don't remember if they were using Federal or Winchester. I know when they contacted Dillon, they were told there is a specific manufacturer they recommend not using due to the softness of the primer cup. Dillon did replace the parts for both.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Lee has a primer shield for the Loadmaster, have not checked if it fits the Pro 1000. I have used Federal primers in Lee equipment without incident, but I don't get in a hurry or strongarm my reloading tools.

[30calflash]

On the Lee hand priming tool they state not to use Fed primers. From what I understand eit is adifferent compound that is used with more brisance.

Other brands and types have limitations, 10 or 20 at a time or some are fill with 1 hundred. manufacturers recommendations.

If the priming off the press won't work for you maybe run a smaller number to avoid a big bang.

[Electrod47]

Quote: Folklore is that Richard Lee asked Federal for (free) primers to do load development for Lee's loading manuals and Federal declined.
Richard Lee retaliated by advising reloaders using Lee equipment to avoid Federal primers as they would blow-up!

So, Richard Lee after years of developing a reputation for affordable reloading equipment and communicating personally with his customers is going to stiff a major supplier of components to the very field of his endeavor for a couple hundred bucks worth of freebee's.
OR just maybe, in a profound sense of safety for his customers, had noted something that repeated itself in his testing and wanted to relate it to his customers. If anything, it points to a certain weakness in his gear concerning that primer, and one should be extra careful..At least he was being honest about it. Its not like he's cheating Federal out of tons of primer consumption, these are Lee hand cranks after all. Jeeeez

[Kenstone]

Quote: Folklore is that Richard Lee asked Federal for (free) primers to do load development for Lee's loading manuals and Federal declined.
Richard Lee retaliated by advising reloaders using Lee equipment to avoid Federal primers as they would blow-up!

So, Richard Lee after years of developing a reputation for affordable reloading equipment and communicating personally with his customers is going to stiff a major supplier of components to the very field of his endeavor for a couple hundred bucks worth of freebee's.
OR just maybe, in a profound sense of safety for his customers, had noted something that repeated itself in his testing and wanted to relate it to his customers. If anything, it points to a certain weakness in his gear concerning that primer, and one should be extra careful..At least he was being honest about it. Its not like he's cheating Federal out of tons of primer consumption, these are Lee hand cranks after all. Jeeeez

It seems your cut and paste quote is from my post. :coffee:
I could agree with you here, but we'd both be wrong.
It does say "folklore"...
jmo,
.

[Kenstone]

Lee has a primer shield for the Loadmaster, have not checked if it fits the Pro 1000. I have used Federal primers in Lee equipment without incident, but I don't get in a hurry or strongarm my reloading tools.

That loadmaster shield is at the TOP of the press because the Loadmaster primes at the TOP, not so for the Pro 1000.
Any shield on the Pro 1000 would need to follow (be attached to) the tray up and down
so, there's that,
:wink:
.