Best handheld or other priming tool?
- Thread starter 45C
- Start date
Used this one too. Works great!
Thats my plan. Though I do own a few others. - dan
45C, I don't know how old you are or the condition of your hands, but if you have any arthritis in them, go for a table top primer press.
I have RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, and Lee hand held presses. All of them work well, once you figure out the slight differences.
The Lyman press is the smallest, and the old Hornady and RCBS are about the same size but twice as heavy, and IMHO, not quite as trouble free as the Lyman or Lee.
I have the Lee bench mounted primer press on a 6in wide x 10in long x 1/2in thick, aluminum plate that I clamp to my bench when I reload.
I have some arthritis in the ball joint of my thumbs, and I can easily prime a couple of hundred cases without pain. Yes, you can feel the primer seating.
I also have another bench primer press called the green monster, made by RCBS. It's even slicker and faster than the Lee bench press. It's major drawback is that it utilizes plastic strips to hold individual primers.
The primers for them were made by CCI and came inserted in the strips.
I really liked the system when I first got it, but CCI quit making the inserted primer type, sleeves of 1000, and I stopped using it.
I still have a couple of hundred strips loaded with inserted primers, but in all honesty, inserting those little bug--rs is a pain in the thumb.
The Lee and Lyman hand held presses are the simplest, the others are a bit more complicated, and the plastic used for the trays leaves something to be desired.
I used the original, round, Lee hand primer for years and primed thousands and thousands of rounds with it. I used it so much that I wore down the ram so that it would not seat the primer all the way. By that time the unit was discontinued and Lee didn't have the parts to replace.
I bought the new Lee hand primer, the rectangular one, and it was crap.
I have since purchased a Frankfurt Arsenal hand primer and like it very much.
I bought the new Lee hand primer, the rectangular one, and it was crap.
I have since purchased a Frankfurt Arsenal hand primer and like it very much.
I used a Lee round tray for 30+ yrs, one for sm and one for lg, probably 35-40k rds worth. Splurged and got a 21st Century for Lee rd tray around 2009, good unit, should have bought two. Had to get one that used shellholders as Lee or 21st would not accept a 450-400NE rim diameter. Grabbed a Hornady as it was handy, piece of junk, QC was absent that day, saw others with same problem later in time. Tried an RCBS, had to use Hornady shellholders, RCBS ones wouldn't fit over the nub, apparently QC was absent there that day, worked OK, but stayed setup for that ctge as I didn't want to fight with the shellholders, and they were a struggle. Tried a Forster bench unit, OK, but I kinda wanted to have adjustability again. Tried an RCBS bench unit on a cheap deal, didn't like it, didn't like seating adj or the movement of it, lots of ways to fix, but wasn't impressed with springs and rubber band fixes. Could have bought a Holland kit for it, too much money and I didn't much like it enough to spend that on it. Tried an FA, too heavy and I didn't like it ergonomically, didn't fit my hand.
Started losing hand strength after retiring, need to do something different. Refuse to handle individual primers by hand, so, Sinclair, 21st, etc were out. Kept seeing stuff on Derraco, finally broke down and bought one, not cheap, but not Primal Rights type expense either.
See the Hornady bench unit out there now, and the Lyman autofeed bench version, don't much like the Hornady, it's another copy of a different older one, and it's overpriced. Lyman is good from all accts, asked a few people who bought them what they thought, they liked it, worked properly and easily, they'd buy again. FA hand unit is OK if it fits you, RCBS is better ergonomically for me, universal is OK, didn't like the way brass cocked on initial seating of the primer. I tried a new Lee handprimer, it was a puzzle, could not get it to feed, multiple tries at it considered it a lost cause, which cancelled out trying their bench unit too. I still have 4-5 old Lee rd trays, the 21st and the Forster, can also use the Co-Ax or Rockchucker if desperate. But, the Derraco PCPS is a really well made and intuitive unit, well worth the loot. I can use it at home on the presses, or at the range, on a Lee hand press, or others.. Would like to have had it a lot of yrs ago.
Started losing hand strength after retiring, need to do something different. Refuse to handle individual primers by hand, so, Sinclair, 21st, etc were out. Kept seeing stuff on Derraco, finally broke down and bought one, not cheap, but not Primal Rights type expense either.
See the Hornady bench unit out there now, and the Lyman autofeed bench version, don't much like the Hornady, it's another copy of a different older one, and it's overpriced. Lyman is good from all accts, asked a few people who bought them what they thought, they liked it, worked properly and easily, they'd buy again. FA hand unit is OK if it fits you, RCBS is better ergonomically for me, universal is OK, didn't like the way brass cocked on initial seating of the primer. I tried a new Lee handprimer, it was a puzzle, could not get it to feed, multiple tries at it considered it a lost cause, which cancelled out trying their bench unit too. I still have 4-5 old Lee rd trays, the 21st and the Forster, can also use the Co-Ax or Rockchucker if desperate. But, the Derraco PCPS is a really well made and intuitive unit, well worth the loot. I can use it at home on the presses, or at the range, on a Lee hand press, or others.. Would like to have had it a lot of yrs ago.
I have been using RCBS hand priming for the last 10 years, always work and easy to do while watching movie. It takes sometime to get use to it but once you do, you will love it. It could hold up to 100 primers at a time, you could get different of holder for quick switching, Lol. No need for each shell holder either but you need to swap primer holder between small and larger primer.
Sinclair hand priming too is nice but there is no way, I would touch the primer and singlely hand priming each of them. Time is too precious for that.
Sinclair hand priming too is nice but there is no way, I would touch the primer and singlely hand priming each of them. Time is too precious for that.
- Location
- Kitscoty Alberta
I used the Lee hand prime for years, broke one part made up a piece and used it for quite a while , finally bought a Frankfort arsenal , I like it very much, should last me till I’m done reloading
