Hand priming tool, which one?

I hate hand priming. It even hurts my young hands if I do it long enough.

I was using a K&M hand primer, which is one of the better rated units. I've heard really good things about the 21st century hand primer, and that sinclair one that someone posted on the first page seems like a nice unit.

I've recently moved on to the Primal Rights CPS unit. It's a bench mounted unit, and it's awesome. My first time using it was the only time I've found that I wanted to prime more brass at the end of a priming session. It's fun and simple to use. Hard stop, with a method of precise seating depth. It's definitely a luxury item when it comes to the reloading room, but damn, it's made priming actually fun. I use to dread using my hand primer. Now I look for excuses to prime brass.
 
kthomas said:
I hate hand priming. It even hurts my young hands if I do it long enough.

I was using a K&M hand primer, which is one of the better rated units. I've heard really good things about the 21st century hand primer, and that sinclair one that someone posted on the first page seems like a nice unit.

I've recently moved on to the Primal Rights CPS unit. It's a bench mounted unit, and it's awesome. My first time using it was the only time I've found that I wanted to prime more brass at the end of a priming session. It's fun and simple to use. Hard stop, with a method of precise seating depth. It's definitely a luxury item when it comes to the reloading room, but damn, it's made priming actually fun. I use to dread using my hand primer. Now I look for excuses to prime brass.
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I remember you mentioning this Primal Rights CPS in some other thread a few weeks ago.
Since I upgraded my scale, press, & dies last spring, this is now at the top of my list reloading equipment upgrades.
 
Munkey1973 said:
I remember you mentioning this Primal Rights CPS in some other thread a few weeks ago.
Since I upgraded my scale, press, & dies last spring, this is now at the top of my list reloading equipment upgrades.
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This thing is awesome. It makes priming fun, and I never thought I would say that before the CPS.

The owner of the CPS makes claims that optimizing seating depth can improve ES/SD. That claim I'm a bit skeptical about, but I loaded some rounds up with different primer seating depths to try it out for myself.

Overall, it's a really nice and well thought out unit. I would definitely consider it more of a "luxury" item though. If it does improve downrange performance in any way over the hand primer, then I'll be impressed, but I'm not expecting it.
 
Excellent thread, I'm in the want-to-upgrade boat too. I have the square tray Lee hand primer and find it pretty good but not great. I bought the newer Lee bench prime and it hasn't been good. Like another poster, I have to keep tapping the tray to keep primers feeding but it also has trouble feeding primers down into the ram as well. It creaks and squeaks a bit and doesn't have the greatest feel. Overall it wasn't what I expected after watching a Gavin Toobe review. But I got what I paid for. I like the RCBS but don't want the universal version. I have a Trim Pro 2 with universal jaws and I'm not the biggest fan. I'll take traditional shellholders for speed.
 
supernova said:
Excellent thread, I'm in the want-to-upgrade boat too. I have the square tray Lee hand primer and find it pretty good but not great. I bought the newer Lee bench prime and it hasn't been good. Like another poster, I have to keep tapping the tray to keep primers feeding but it also has trouble feeding primers down into the ram as well. It creaks and squeaks a bit and doesn't have the greatest feel. Overall it wasn't what I expected after watching a Gavin Toobe review. But I got what I paid for. I like the RCBS but don't want the universal version. I have a Trim Pro 2 with universal jaws and I'm not the biggest fan. I'll take traditional shellholders for speed.
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That Gavin fella just seems to run infomercials for reloading gear companies.

He provides no information that you can't get out of a companies sales brochure. I'm surprised he's as popular as he is.
 
I used the round Lee AutoPrime for years. Replaced parts as they wore out. Then they changed and the new one is crap.

I bought a Frankford Arsenal and love it. I prime 1000 cases at a go. It does not end to flip primer and install upside down, as the Lee did.

The Frankford has a rather stiff return spring in it. I clipped one coil and find it more user friendly now.

I have heard good things about the RCBS, but have never used one myself.
 
kthomas said:
That Gavin fella just seems to run infomercials for reloading gear companies.

He provides no information that you can't get out of a companies sales brochure. I'm surprised he's as popular as he is.
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I tend to agree and have a different perspective when watching his videos nowadays. Not bashing the guy but he only shows things in a positive light. At any rate I'm ready to pull the trigger on the Frankford Arsenal hand primer. I uniform anything intended for accurate ammo so I feel the adjustable seating depth gives the best bang for your buck.
 
supernova said:
I tend to agree and have a different perspective when watching his videos nowadays. Not bashing the guy but he only shows things in a positive light. At any rate I'm ready to pull the trigger on the Frankford Arsenal hand primer. I uniform anything intended for accurate ammo so I feel the adjustable seating depth gives the best bang for your buck.
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The only review that I liked and had helped me finalise my decision to buy is the video that went over the Autotrickler V3 and actually had Adam there talking about its features and how it works.... that was awesome shill.

People that review products on Youtube that get the product for free for themselves have no incentive to be 100% objective in their evaluations... I generally tend to put more faith in the guys with fewer subscription #s and had purchased the product and/or services on their own dime as they have no reason to be forgiving.
 
I picked up a new connecting rod for my Lee priming tool today, so now a usable tool again but the Lee is going to get shelved. I will get to that in a minute. As per a couple of comments made by others and by my own experienced, the Lee does have an issue. The Lee has a habit of flipping a primer upside down, I've also had primers go in sideways. No biggie but an annoyance nonetheless.

Lee.jpg


I also purchased the Frankford Arsenal priming tool. At first glance, it appeared the #4 shell holder was missing but the #4 was already installed in the tool. The Frankford is much more robust and heavier compared to the Lee, making the Lee feel somewhat more delicate. The primer depth adjustment on the Frankford I think is going to be a useful feature.

Tool.jpg
 
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If your hands have a hard time with the hand held there is this bench option.

Short and long video of the bench option. RCBS in this case.

Not promoting one over the other just for info.
 
ShootingNewbie said:
When I set up a designated reloading bench, I wanted a bench-mounted priming tool, as I never loved the Lee hand-held I'd used for the last 10 years; looked at everything that was available, and decided to try the Lee Bench version out, as it was about 1/3rd the price of the other options (and like 1/15th of the Primal Rights one...). Figured I could afford to maybe buy twice - cry twice, in the worst case scenario...

Bottom line: the Lee Bench Primer works well enough, but the primers tend to hang up in the tray, such that I need to rap the tray every 5-8 primers to get the next set of primers into the tool from the tray. Not the end of the world, but I was hoping for something a bit more smooth-operating... (Put it this way - needing to rap the thing randomly didn't add to the enjoyment...)

So, about a month ago I decided to buy the Forster Co-Ax Bench Primer out when X-Reload got a couple in stock - I had gone back and forth between the Forster and the RCBS one, and the opportunity to buy the Forster came up first. Haven't tried it yet, as I've been waiting for some decent weather for shooting for a while now (wind! snow! defective scope! locusts!), and have nothing to load as a consequence... Will post a review when I get a chance.

Am really hoping it's not going to be buy three times - cry three times...
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If you're a little bit handy, use a piece of sandpaper or a file to smooth out the spots the primers hang up on. I have had to do that with mine and so has everyone else I know of that has one. After some TLC from you, the unit will operate as intended.

I guess it's how they keep the price of the unit down, with lower quality control standards.
 
Model: 9460
AUTOMATIC PRIMING TOOL
5 out of 5 Customer Rating
5.0 star rating
7 Reviews
$118.31

This one ^^^^ I have wore out Lee and RCBS hand primers as well as the Lee bench model :( Wish I would have bite the bullet 40 years ago and bought this one. I would never go back to the other primer systems. Do use Dillion primer tubes much nicer the the RCBS stuff.
 
bearhunter said:
If you're a little bit handy, use a piece of sandpaper or a file to smooth out the spots the primers hang up on. I have had to do that with mine and so has everyone else I know of that has one. After some TLC from you, the unit will operate as intended.
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Just had a close look at the Lee tray, and I'm pretty sure that the hanging up comes from the primers all getting bottle-necked at the same location in the tray, near the exit - i.e. it seems like the jamming is a function of the geometry of the path, not of any rough spots, but I will give it a go with a linty cloth and some sandpaper tomorrow, to see if it helps - thanks for the idea.

Note: I've got one Lee tray and one (very slightly) modified RCBS tray that I use with the Lee Bench (one for BR-4's, one for 450's); both work about the same (i.e. the room sounds like it's been visited by Poe's Raven, with all the tap-tap-tapping going on...). I suspect that they'd both probably work better if the trays were sitting more vertically than just at 45 degrees - I may try tilting the stand that I've mounted it on to see if that helps as well.

(Apologies to the OP: had missed the focus on hand priming... sorry for going a bit off-topic.)
 
I have the RCBS single hand primer tool like shown above and the RCBS Rock Chucker attachment. I recently ordered and received the LEE Ergo Primes and had nothing but stuck primers in the small rifle thingy causing me so much frustration. I have not used it since. I tried every angle and way to stop this from happening and I might get 10 in row...then spend 10 minutes pulling it apart to get trapped primer out of spring mouth are or in frame (yes I was using small rifle primer holder). So I am back using the RCBS Single stage for small, and large on RCBS single use hand held primer.

1 of 10 for LEE Ergo Prime
 
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