Lee Auto Prime, Why is it better?

[dolang1]

Recently, I had trouble priming some RG brass in 9mm. As I learned on this forum it was crimped and it was explained how to fix it with a chamfer tool that I already had.
I did about 250 crimped primers with the Lee Auto Prime because my Lee classic turret had so many problems with the chamfered pockets. I tried 3 different kinds of primers (CCI, Magtech, and Federal) thinking that was the difference, but the Auto Prime did all 3 the same, while the turret failed most of the time. I like my turret press and it works great on regular primer pockets. Why did the Lee Auto Prime out perform in these chamfered primer pockets? Later Don

[Rocky Raab]

Probably because of the MUCH reduced leverage. You can actually feel what's happening with the hand tool, but not with the press.

[rob45]

I'll agree with Rocky Raab; I always get better results when priming by hand. It's quicker, and one of those steps in the reloading process that can be done away from the reloading room. Nice to know that I can prime a bunch while watching the news.

The press is great for a multipurpose tool, but as Rocky mentioned, the leverage makes it nearly impossible to feel when priming. Think of it this way- if your press has a 10:1 leverage ratio, only five pounds of pressure from your hand will yield fifty pounds of pressure at the primer, and your hand will never feel the difference. You need to be able to feel when the primer is seated and if you've went "too far".

I do not know why your press seems to work fine on standard pockets, but not (previously) crimped pockets. I DO know that priming seems to be an operation that depends more upon feel than force for best results, regardless of other factors.

[John Guedry]

When I first got started reloading a friend told me to do myself a favor and get a Lee hand priming tool. I got one and have never seated a primer on a press again.

[jdgabbard]

I'm actually a big fan of priming on my Lee press. I tried the hand primer... I didn't really like the design. When I bought my new Lee press I got the single stage with the priming arm. I can feel when the primer seats fully, and its pretty darn quick when you think about doing it while you do another stage of the reloading process....

[MtGun44]

+1 for all priming with Lee autoprime. The Lee will break after about 100,000 cases or
so. . . . . so buy a new one for $15.

I have used several different press primers, and they work but are much more
finincky in my opinion. Only the Dillion 550bs use on-press priming. Not the Rock Chucker
or the Redding Turret.

Bill

[1874Sharps]

Dolang1,

In the Lee Auto Prime II instructions it talks about using only certain brands of primers. If those brands are not used, Lee warns that the primer on the ram can detonate and possibly cause the primers in the tray to go off. They are not kidding, either. I did not read those directions, of course, until after this happened to me! I was priming 100 cases with the wrong brand of primer and one of them went kaboom and exploded the 90+ primers in the tray. It went off like a plastic grenade and like an idiot I was not wearing safety glasses. Well, I suppose the good Lord watches out over fools because I did not lose an eye although I did have a couple of spots on my face where plastic shrapnel hit. The worst part was my right hand swole up and turned purple from the blast. Fortunately there were no lasting or bad injuries. I suggest to everyone that they read the instructions for this priming tool and take them seriously! I hope everyone can learn from my mishap.

[Mark Daiute]

Thanks for the warning. My instructions are long gone. I'm using Winchester LR and WLRM primers. Am I safe?

I was very thankful to get this warning because I have become too comfortable with the priming process and have not been wearing safety glasses. I just visited Lee's website but did not find a list of primers not to use, just one mentioned but more implied on the part of the site that I visited.

Thanks again,

Mark

[peter nap]

I always ue my auto prime. I don't have the primer arms installed on any of my presses. Now my gripe is...it won't feed Federal primers, which I use almost exclusively, so I have to single feed them.

No biggie since I was using a lee hand primer long before the invented the auto prime.

[Bill*]

My Lee press instructions (Pro 1000) said "Use only Winchester or CCI primers".

[Huntr Pat]

I use the RCBS hand primer with strips and it works great.

[wallenba]

I use the auto prime II and the only problem I have encountered is my own fault. Sometimes inattentiveness will let me double stack primers on the punch. Noticeable when the seated primer shows marks on the cup from the anvil of the one beneath it. Luckily none have gone off. I think allowing the ram to drop below the pick-up point will let another move into position with the frirst resting on the ram punch.

[ddeaton]

Keep 2 set up for both size primers and 1 for a spare in the closet. Cheap enough to do so!

[Dale53]

I swage all of my military primer pockets in stead of reaming. Using a Chamfering tool will "kind of" solve the problem but doesn't do the BEST job. The BEST job is done with a good swage. I use the RCBS but the Dillon tool is the "nuts" (but a bit pricy). The advantage of the swage is the primer pocket is reshaped into an ideal funnel for seating the primers (just like the non-swaged factory pockets).

After swaging, I have NO problems with my press mounted primer seating tools.

FWIW
Dale53

[lwknight]

I just throw the crimped brass in the scrap pile. I don't get enough of it to be worth farting with a pocket swager

[Super38]

I use the Lee reloader press for priming only and then store them until I know what load I want to try out. It's a slow process but I check for correct depth of each and every one. I tried to use the hand press but it felt like it was going to break in my hand.

Super38

[captaint]

It's funny how we all develop habits and don't change, and I'm as guilty as the next guy. Thirty some years ago I must have read that installing primers with the Lee auto prime was the way to go. I have never seated a primer with my Rock Chucker. I have a Lee and a Sinclair priming tool and that's it. I do have an old hand written note in the Lee box that says "Winchester and CCI only". I just got some Federals, so I'll have to remember to use the Sinclair for those.!!! Enjoy Mike

[TAWILDCATT]

I have used the lee since it came out and with what ever primer I could get. never had a bang I am not heavy handed.when you feel resistance STOP and find out why.I read about breaking tools,never broke one.I have 15 presses and some are before WW2.:coffeecom

[Super38]

I have 15 presses and some are before WW2.:coffeecom

NOW, that is a serious reloader - 15 presses!

Super38

[Green Frog]

Like Wildcatt, I have a bunch of presses of various types and ages and I still haven't found a way to beat hand priming. One of the older guys who mentored me when I was getting started reloading got me into using the 310 tool to prime, even while I was using various presses for my other operations. I tend to go with my Simmons tool most often now for rifle cartridges, but still like the Lee if I want to load a bunch of .45s or .38s because of the the faster feed.

Froggie

[1hole]

Lee says not to use Federal caps in their autoprime tools so I don't recommend it. But, I have hand Auto Primes set up for both large and small, and an Auto Prime II on a little Reloader press and use mostly Federals. Thousands of them, for decades. Have never had any reason to be concerned nor have I broken a tool. Maybe tomorrow?

I'm not perfect but I'm not stoopid. If there is any difficulty seating a primer I stop and find out why; using the "Tim Taylor" techique of "more power" is a poor way to do anything in reloading. Perhaps those who work that way would do well to use factory ammo?

[Recluse]

Dolang1,

In the Lee Auto Prime II instructions it talks about using only certain brands of primers. If those brands are not used, Lee warns that the primer on the ram can detonate and possibly cause the primers in the tray to go off. They are not kidding, either. I did not read those directions, of course, until after this happened to me! I was priming 100 cases with the wrong brand of primer and one of them went kaboom and exploded the 90+ primers in the tray.

Whew.

First off, glad you came out okay, less a swollen hand, a bit of a pockmarked face and some (probably, if it were me) somewhat soiled underwear.

My first Lee reloading set-up was (and still is) a Pro1000 I bought for $99 back in 1988, I think. I remember reading on the instructions back then to only use Winchester or CCI primers. A year or so later, I bought a Lee Challenger press to sit next to the Rockchucker, and with it, I got the Lee hand priming tool. I thought it was the cat's meow--and still do.

And again, the instructions said only Winchester or CCI primers. However, I've run Remington small rifle primers and recently Wolf small pistol primers with zero incident or problems.

I'd heard several stores along the years. A popular--and absolutely believable--one was that Richard Lee had a long-standing feud with both Federal and RCBS. He disparages RCBS every chance he gets, still to this day. So hence, only Winchester or CCI primers in the "universal" priming tool.

Curious if the same warning is on the RCBS hand priming tool? I've never owned one, so have no idea.

For what it's worth, I actually prefer Lee's priming system over the blasted pickup tubes Dillon and RCBS use. Long time ago, I figured out how to slick up the primer troughs and slightly elevate them to eliminate primer mis/non-feeds.

:coffee:

[DLCTEX]

I have four or five Auto prime tools that rarely get used since getting the Lee Classic Cast Turret with the Safety Prime. Fast, with plenty of "feel", and plenty of separation between the case being primed and the other primers held in the dispenser. To just prime cases, lift out the indexing rod and use it as a single stage. Changing primer sizes takes literally seconds to do.

[vincewarde]

According to the current Lee reloading manual, Federal primers use a much more sensitive priming compound than other brands. That's why the don't recommend them for use in any of their auto priming devices.

I love the auto-prime. It works great for Winchester primers. CCI is another story. In several different kinds of brass, it just doesn't seat the primers fully, resulting in misfires. The first strike would result in no fire, but apparently would seat the primer fully, because the next strike would fire the weapon.

I really like to prime as a separate operation, so I ordered an Auto-prime II and one of the small Lee bench mounted presses. This solved the problem, without sacrificing the ability to feel the primer seat.

[Dale53]

I have had many interesting "primer experiences" over the years. My first progressive handgun reloader was a STAR reloader. Mine was a caliber specific for the .38 Special. I was shooting LOTS of PPC at the time and it did a REALLY good job. However, the Star had it's idiosyncrasies, also. It could be argued that it was a bit TOO precision made. It really was made for Remington and Winchester factory primers. Remington and Winchester did not make primers especially for the reloading trade. It was absolutely incidental to their business. There was some evidence that they really preferred not to but were kind of "forced" to make primers for reloaders.

New cases had/have tighter primer pockets than many times reloaded cases. The pockets just simply get a bit larger each time they are loaded.

CCI primers came into being because during the Korean War, primer supplies were denied to reloaders (for the war effort, doncha know - {sound familiar?}). Speer's business was dependent on reloaders. So, CCI (a division of Speer) came into being at this time to satisfy the needs of the reloading fraternity (and to support Speer's customers). Since CCI's primers were built for "used" cases, they were deliberately made about .002" larger to remain TIGHT in the cases for a longer period of time. For the most part, this did and does work as designed.

Back to the Star:
The Star was built to such tight tolerances that it had problems loading with the "new" CCI primers. It worked perfectly with Remington and Winchester primers but would jam with CCI's. It was no small matter - when a primer jammed in the Star you had to dismantle the press and it took about 20 minutes (if you were good) to clear a jam.

You would think that the solution was just to use Remington or Winchester primers. However, I had a friend who was a commercial loader. He had the same problem with his auto presses. His solution became my solution - CCI supplied OEM spec primers "to the trade" and I got them from my friend at distributor prices buying in bulk. The primers stated "OEM - not for resale" right on the box and were the same diameter as the Remington and Winchester primers. They worked perfectly in the Star press and "jam city" was a thing of the past. OEM CCI's saved me a good bit of change for several years.

Just a thought or two on a past primer situation...

Dale53

[watkibe]

Keep 2 set up for both size primers and 1 for a spare in the closet. Cheap enough to do so!
That's what I do, too. Recently the plastic covers over the primer tray finally became loose fitting, so I ordered more from Lee. It was ridiculously inexpensive, and they were in stock, so I got them in just a few days.
I tried to talk my brother into using the Lee hand priming tool, but he has spent his working life as a carpenter and his thumbs give him trouble, so it was painful for him to use it. He did go for the hand tool idea, though, just the RCBS model, where I guess you squeeze the lever with your fingers instead of your thumb.

[rickster]

Wore out the piston rod (or whatever you call it) on the first I owned. That part used to be made of pot metal. Now its steel.

I now have one for each primer type.

Another method that works real well is to seat them using a drill press. Chuck up a beheaded large nail (or equivalent), scatter some primers on the drill table, and go at it. Very fast with pistol size cases and leaves the primers perfectly flush.

[canebreaker]

I broke the lever on my Lee auto primer today.
Good thing I have both sets here at home.
But ordered 2 from Lee tonight.

[Ben]

Take the Lee Auto Prime, seat 10 primers to the same identical depth in 10 different cases. Can't be done.............. ! !

A primer seater with a built in stop is needed for seating primers to avoid high and low primers. Unfortunately the Lee Auto Prime tool doesn't have a built in " Stop ",

[stiles]

Hay Ben you'll never get consistent primer crush with a stop based priming (forster, dillon 1050 and the like) system because there is way too much variation in primer height.

The only way I know to get consistent primer crush is with the K&M priming tool with the indicator because you calibrate it to both the individual primer pocket and the primer each time so when the indicator hits .000" you are bottomed out.