Least Useful Equipment

[dtknowles]

I have the old design and never had too much trouble handling individual primers. I dump a few into a small plastic bowl then sit in front of the TV and prime away. I seldom load more than 200 of anything in a single session so just wasn’t an inconvenience for me.

Yeah, it did not slow me down much but I was thinking I should not be touching primers, I guess if you wash and dry your hands you would not kill any primers. If I don't touch the primers I don't have to worry if my hands are clean. I often have oil or lube on my fingers, I am just a dirty bird.

Tim

[dtknowles]

The dies I have for calibers that I don’t have the guns that shoot them.

Well, that does not make them useless. If you got them for a good price they are an investment. Yes, I have a few die sets that I don't have guns for but I might someday or I will sell them for a profit some day. Just don't over pay for them.

Tim

[kevin c]

Least: The Lyman EZee case length gauge I bought my first year reloading. I have literally NEVER used it. Ditto every Bore Snake I own (one for every caliber).

Most: Gotta be the Dillon SDB I bought over a quarter century ago. Every part except the dies and ram has been replaced gratis by Dillon, some parts two or three times. I’d have to check my reloading logs, but it must have averaged at least 10K rounds a year over all that time (the only press I’ve used - I even had a 750, looked at it for a while, and turned around and sold it without ever putting it together).

[Land Owner]

I don't understand if you want to hear what is the least useful to me, or what is honestly not useful to hardly anybody.

It is all academic anyway, whether to you or to everyone. It's entertaining, something to write about, gripe about, "praise" from the other side, maybe find a "simple fix", or through "enough" gripes, avoid.

[Rich/WIS]

Toss up between a lead hardness tester and chronograph. Once I satisfierd my curiosity about my alloy and velocity of my "standard" loads haven't used either in years. Reading some of the posts it is interesting to see what members use and don't. Guess I'm an odd ball as my favorite seating dies for cast bullets are the Lyman P-A dies.

[NObamain2012]

My Hollywood turret press. Does not have compound leverage, 7 Inches of ram travel, and too clumsy for any normal cartridge. If I didn't inherit from my passing grandfather, it would be some one else's a long time ago.

[perotter]

I once owned the original RCBS handprimer because I didn't like the difficulty changing the shell holder. I preferred and still prefer the old Lee handprimer. I think my RCBS Piggy-Back is a close second. It rarely could index by itself and it too additional effort to rotate the turning unit by hand.

My two picks also.

[uscra112]

Well, it would be a progressive loading machine if I had one, but I don't because it would be so useless. The most useless tool(s) that I DO have are the Lee dies with the Slip-o-Matic decapping stem. But they can be made useful by tackwelding the stem to the nut once it's adjusted.

[M-Tecs]

I find these types of threads interesting and grounding. It's easy to get tunnel vision thinking the way I am doing it is the only or best way. Some of the listed list least useful items by others are my most useful items. Same for what I find most useful. Other have no use for them.

[Shawlerbrook]

Bullet puller( watch the next reloading session I will finally need to use it),

[Harter66]

I've not used a hand priming tool .
I do have the Lee ram prime it is acceptable , probably should have bought the RCBS.......

I have a Herters , Forster , and RCBS pro trim each of which have met my needs . I bought the Forster for a cartridge I was forming that left a neck doughnut that reaming wouldn't fix so I would be able to neck turn the cases . Found a better donor case no more lumpy necks . I do salvage a lot of cracked necks via the ever shorter case and not popular/available cartridges so these extra trimmers get a fair bit of use in their preferred areas .

The Lee chamfer deburring tool is without a doubt the single both creative designed tool that is pure genius on paper and wasted space in hand , this wins most useless .
The RCBS and Lyman bullet style tools run a close second as the indiscretions of youth and broken hand and wrist bones catch up with me . The fancy 2 piece storage tube design with 4 tools of the Lyman VLD tool is a major improvement.

The canlure tool has been used once since I bought to check it out . I needed it for a project that changed direction . Very useful just unused .

[MostlyLeverGuns]

RCBS Sonic Case Cleaner, very slow, cases do not look particularly good, very slow cleaning primer pockets. Forster Case Trimmer, slower than the L E Wilson trimmer and not as accurate.

[Jtarm]

Steel pin cleaning of cases. I have the Harbor Freight tumbler. Too much work. Plus there are boxes with their wares in them all over my shop that are equally useless to me.

Second that. I asked for a Frankfort FART for Christmas a couple years back. It’s been used once.

I couldn’t even tell what dark corner of the shop it’s currently taking up space in.

[ascast]

Any form of "primer pocket reamer" made of metal. Does anybody actually use these? Handheld, gauging- cant possible uniform anything. I use wood dowels to clean pockets.

[imashooter2]

A Lee Ram Prime. I have a fair pile of equipment from all makers including Lee, but that Ram Prime is just not a good tool.

[G W Wade]

I have read everyones critique of useless reloading tools and have done a lot of thinking. I do not buy extras without feeling a need to improve things. Finally, last night it hit me. The most worthless item in my reloading equipment is the spent primer catchers on both my Dllon 550's and the Rockchucker. GW

[uscra112]

Good point. The "catcher" on my RCBS Junior actually catches about one in ten.

[jetinteriorguy]

Well, it would be a progressive loading machine if I had one, but I don't because it would be so useless. The most useless tool(s) that I DO have are the Lee dies with the Slip-o-Matic decapping stem. But they can be made useful by tackwelding the stem to the nut once it's adjusted.

It’s easy to fix the decapping stem in Lee dies so they only slip when needed to protect the pin. First, make sure both the collet and stem have absolutely no oil or lube on them, even the slightest hint of oil will make them slip. Second, use some rough sandpaper to rough up the stem for added resistance to slipping. Then proper adjustment of the collet will hold under any normal circumstances while still slipping if you hit some kind of obstruction. This does take a little effort and some playing with the collet tension but once set works well. I use the Universal decapping die so you don’t have to set every sizing die, I just crank the sizing decapping pins fairly good so they are tight enough to clear the flash hole of any possible debris such as a piece of polishing media.

[jetinteriorguy]

There are a couple of neat primer catcher add ons you can get on Etsy pretty cheap. In reply to post #56, this is for the Dillon 550.

[uscra112]

"Proper adjustment" of the collet nut still requires a 10" box wrench on the nut and equally long open-end on the die body. Ridiculous. I designed fixtures and tools for automotive plants during in my engineering career, and I'd be ashamed if I'd turned out something like that. GM would have thrown it back in my face, too, and rightly so.