Lee Precision ACP press scheduled for 2021

[Livin_cincy]

[CRracer712]

Mildly interesting. Other than that flyer, I'm not seeing much info. Obviously based off the APP.

[megasupermagnum]

Interesting. That must be like their ram prime, but for the APP press. I've been using the hand primer for so many years, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't like press priming, even on a progressive due to the lack of feel. I have used, and like the ram prime though, although it was horribly slow. If this is a fast version of the ram prime, I may give it a shot.

[BigAlofPa.]

Maybe they will come up with an add on for the APP press.

[kywoodwrkr]

Interesting. That must be like their ram prime, but for the APP press. I've been using the hand primer for so many years, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't like press priming, even on a progressive due to the lack of feel. I have used, and like the ram prime though, although it was horribly slow. If this is a fast version of the ram prime, I may give it a shot.

+1 Hate the press methods Herters, Lee, Dillon etc.etc. Ram prime machinery gives consistent primer seating for me!

[CRracer712]

Says shell less

[jessdigs]

Interesting, but I usually prime on the Dillon or hand prime for rifle bigger than .223 which I usually lead on single stage, despite having caliber conversions for the 550


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Dapaki]

I'm IN!

[Mollyboy]

I thought they should have called the App press the Acp. Automatic Coax Press. The app is smooth operating like the coax and wicked fast!

[GarrettP1]

Count me in.
My only complaint is that it's not powered.

[Dimner]

Maybe they will come up with an add on for the APP press.

That's my wish as well. I already have alot of time, effort, and treasure sunk into my APP when it comes to the automation of all the other brass processing steps. I'll stick with hand priming while watching movies with my daughter than buying yet another press for only one operation.

Advertising this as a big breakthrough because it's 'shellholder-less' is kinda lame. There are only, maybe, less than a dozen shell holders that cover 95% of reloading?

I'm coming of as super critical, but I don't really mean to be. Just seems like Lee is expecting a person's setup to be: APP -> ACP -> single stage or turret press. That's alot of hardware when one progressive could do the trick.

[dverna]

That's my wish as well. I already have alot of time, effort, and treasure sunk into my APP when it comes to the automation of all the other brass processing steps. I'll stick with hand priming while watching movies with my daughter than buying yet another press for only one operation.

Advertising this as a big breakthrough because it's 'shellholder-less' is kinda lame. There are only, maybe, less than a dozen shell holders that cover 95% of reloading?

I'm coming of as super critical, but I don't really mean to be. Just seems like Lee is expecting a person's setup to be: APP -> ACP -> single stage or turret press. That's alot of hardware when one progressive could do the trick.

Your comments mirror my feelings. If someone wants speed, buying a couple of machines that do specific operations quickly does not make sense to me. Double or triple handling cases is not the way to go. I see people "needing" to perform operations off the press because their progressives are temperamental. If a press cannot be make to work, sell it and get one that works.

And filling tubes is a deal killer unless you have a "helper".

[onelight]

It's an interesting tool for sure but it's usefulness will depend on each individuals preferred process to reload .
If the press feeds primers reliably the no shell holder is a great idea as far as I am concerned one less thing to deal with if you load a lot of different cases . On the app when de-capping I use the largest shell holder I have for everything , the controlled feed positions the cases very well to de-cap .
But I prime on the press 99.9% of the time for hand gun loads and for rifle I have the rcbs bench priming tool and the Frankfort arsenal hand tool collecting dust for the most part.
So if this new press works as designed it should be a big time saver for those that don't want to prime on the press. Time will tell.

[megasupermagnum]

It isn't so much that any press is temperamental, it's that no press I'm aware of offers a good priming feel. It doesn't matter if you acciently got a primer sideways, or upside down, or maybe the brass has a crimped pocket, it is hard to feel good from bad. You are blindly ramming a primer into a hole, with no feedback. My own opinion is that separate priming is worth that instant feedback, and any extra time it takes is minor for not having to keep an eye on and fill yet ANOTHER operation in an already focus intensive reloading that is progressive presses. If you are one who is willing to load dirty brass, you may not feel the same. I clean all my brass including primer pockets via ultrasonic cleaner, so priming separate is not extra brass handling for me. Loading tubes is easy with the case collator. I can have all 4 tubes filled in about 15 seconds.

[dverna]

It isn't so much that any press is temperamental, it's that no press I'm aware of offers a good priming feel. It doesn't matter if you acciently got a primer sideways, or upside down, or maybe the brass has a crimped pocket, it is hard to feel good from bad. You are blindly ramming a primer into a hole, with no feedback. My own opinion is that separate priming is worth that instant feedback, and any extra time it takes is minor for not having to keep an eye on and fill yet ANOTHER operation in an already focus intensive reloading that is progressive presses. If you are one who is willing to load dirty brass, you may not feel the same. I clean all my brass including primer pockets via ultrasonic cleaner, so priming separate is not extra brass handling for me. Loading tubes is easy with the case collator. I can have all 4 tubes filled in about 15 seconds.

No feedback needed on either the Star or Dillon 1050. Both prime on the downstroke and primer seats consistently. In the past, millions of rounds were made commercially on Stars; and today, millions more on 1050’s. If they were not reliable and consistent, commercial reloaders would not use them.

I have used two Stars, and three 1050’s. They plain work. With a properly adjusted primer system, primers do not get flipped or seated sideways. Upside down primers are more likely from being loaded that way in the primer tube than a press issue.

Even with the two SD’s, two 550’s and 650, there was rarely a problem. But they require seating by feel, or there could be problems with primer depth.

BTW, the very best progressive shot shell reloaders also require no feel when seating primers.

I do not load dirty brass. Cleaning pistol primer pockets is a waste of time. Take 100 cases, load them 20 times without cleaning the primers pockets and try it.

By depriming and priming as separate operations, and then loading on a progressive, the case has been processed two extra times for no gain. It reduces production by 50% no matter how efficient the depriming and priming operations are...it might be closer to a 65% reduction. Maybe not important for those who love the process...some of us just want ammunition as effortlessly as possible.

[megasupermagnum]

That's fair, but you asked why someone might want this ACP primer. A dillon 1050 can't even compare to the equipment I, and most others use. As far as home equipment goes, a 1050 is the top of the heap.

You talk about off press priming being slow, but that's only compared to a progressive. Myself, I only shoot a couple hundred a week. Its a bit much for a single stage, and a piece of cake on a progressive. The comfort off off press priming is worth the cost of time to me. Not everyone.

[Lloyd Smale]

Your comments mirror my feelings. If someone wants speed, buying a couple of machines that do specific operations quickly does not make sense to me. Double or triple handling cases is not the way to go. I see people "needing" to perform operations off the press because their progressives are temperamental. If a press cannot be make to work, sell it and get one that works.

And filling tubes is a deal killer unless you have a "helper".

I have 4 progressive presses and still hand prime and load my bottle neck deer rifle rounds on a single stage because its a bother to set up the progressive press to run off 50 rounds and loading bottle neck rounds on a progressive requires you to lube then size and deprime and reprime then take them all and tumble then and put them back on the press to charge and seat a bullet. Add to that that i dont trust progressive presses with stick powders and thats what i use in most bigger rifle cases. Only bottle necks i run on progressives are 556 308 300 bo. even the other ar rounds are round i dont shoot enough of to bother with loading them progressively. As to filling tubes it still would be faster then single feeding it and you could load tubes in advance and even on a progressive press you have to load primer tubes and unless your using a dillion progressive case feeders on lnls and lees just suck and its faster to hand feed them. Youll never get an arugment out of me that a 1050 isnt a jewel of a press. Hard to beat but not everyone can afford 2500 bucks for a loading press. Even as much as I love shooting and loading and dillions i could never justify that much money.

[GasGuzzler]

How many of you that commented have an APP or ever used one? My guess is those with negative comments do not/have not and never will because of the Lee bias.

Well here is some of my real-world experience. I have an APP and I used it to de-prime, then size, then swage 3K 9X19. That's 10K pulls. Why would I do that when I have an LCT? Because that's the way I wanted to do it. Also I sold about half the prepped brass for enough to pay for part of the cost of the press. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

My APP started to have feed problems around the 10-12K pull mark. Got a new track and trolley free from Lee and made one slight adjustment to the four-tube case feeder to get 7.62X39 through it consistently. It's been fine since EXCEPT ... I feel I got duped by Lee's original advertisement about the APP and its ability to size cases. Sizing is one of the main reasons I bought the APP. After I blew the threads out of the shell holder adapter thingie around 8K cycles, Lee sent me new parts for free and told me not to use the APP to size cases. I am a Lee fan but am wary they will come up with caveats to the APP as a priming machine like they did concerning sizing.

[onelight]

GasGuzzler a rinse with amourall ultra wash and wax leaves a nice coat of wax on the cases after drying and offers enough lube that sizing in carbide dies is much smoother , a tip offered buy guys here on the forum that has worked great for me I even rinse new brass to slick up loading .

[dverna]

I have 4 progressive presses and still hand prime and load my bottle neck deer rifle rounds on a single stage because its a bother to set up the progressive press to run off 50 rounds and loading bottle neck rounds on a progressive requires you to lube then size and deprime and reprime then take them all and tumble then and put them back on the press to charge and seat a bullet. Add to that that i dont trust progressive presses with stick powders and thats what i use in most bigger rifle cases. Only bottle necks i run on progressives are 556 308 300 bo. even the other ar rounds are round i dont shoot enough of to bother with loading them progressively. As to filling tubes it still would be faster then single feeding it and you could load tubes in advance and even on a progressive press you have to load primer tubes and unless your using a dillion progressive case feeders on lnls and lees just suck and its faster to hand feed them. Youll never get an arugment out of me that a 1050 isnt a jewel of a press. Hard to beat but not everyone can afford 2500 bucks for a loading press. Even as much as I love shooting and loading and dillions i could never justify that much money.

Lloyd,
I load rifle on a RC (used to deprime and size machine gun brass) and Co-Ax. The progressives are for pistol calibers. I got a deal on a .223 conversion for the 1050 in case I want to swage a few thousand primer pockets efficiently, or ever decide to load a bunch of 5.56 for the AR's, but I have never used it. I do not shoot a lot of 5.56, or .308, but would have no issue with loading rifle cases on a progressive. If I had to load rifle blasting ammo, being off a bit on powder drops would not matter. Like you I may load 25-50 hunting rounds at a time. Not worth the bother.

I have owned three 1050's and am down to one. Sold the ones I got rid of for as much as I paid for them or a bit more, so they cost me nothing. I have been loading on one for well over 20 years. I think I paid $1300 for it IIRC. I used to shoot 12-20k rounds of pistol ammunition a year and worked long hours. Not "wasting" time reloading (shooter not a reloader) was worth it. Even if the machine was worthless, my cost has been $70/year....but in reality I will make money if I sold it.

15% of the "addicts" on this forum shoot less than 1000 rounds year. They "need" nothing more than a SS or turret press. So, my comments are aimed at guys that want to gain productivity as their shooting goes up. A 1050 is not needed for that. The 550 will be 6- 10 times faster than using a SS press, APP and ACP; and 3-5 times faster than a turret.

But this thread is about the ACP and priming off the press. The use of a dedicated priming machine. If someone "needs" to prime off their progressive press to make it work, they should learn to tweak it, or get rid of it and get something that works. They have wasted time sizing/depriming. and priming when a processive press should do that as part of its function.

For example, a guy who cannot get the Hornady AP to prime reliably. They are selling for $1000 new, so he can likely get over $600 on eBay. But he decides to get the ACP for say $100 to "solve" his problem.
Case One
He "invests" another $100 to get the ACP
He needs to depime/size on his AP (say 600/hr)
Then he needs to prime on the ACP (say 600,hr)
And then reload (say 600/hr)
Yielding a production rate of 200/hr

Case two.
He sells the AP and buys a Dillon 550 for $500. He is ahead over $100 and does not need bench space for another tool.
The 550 will load 300/hour for a 50% increase in production.