Hand Priming Tool

Demonical

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What to buy? I was checking out a few to buy, as my old Hornady is miled out.

Lee Precision auto bench prime. $125, looks pretty decent.
Lyman E-Zee universal, $69.
Frankford Arsenal perfect seat hand primer, comes with a dozen shell diff size shell holders, it's $119.
Hornady, which I am familiar with, $113.
RCBS, hand priming tool, $120.

Or is there some other brand out there better than any of these?


Frankford Arsenal.jpg
Frankford Arsenal

Hornady.jpg
Hornady


Lee Precision.jpg
Lee Precision

Lyman.jpg
Lyman

RCBS.jpg
RCBS
 
Forster Co-Ax makes a bench priming tool. I don't have one, but am also currently looking for a new priming tool

This pairs nicely when you have their press. No shell holder required! If you get it make sure you get the primer loader. Small red tray to mass dump your primers and load the primer tube.

Only problem I have ever had, and I wrote them about was the large rifle primer feeder tube is limited to less than 50 primers. Most all loading blocks I use are 50 rounds so its nice to load in groups of 50. Had my son 3D print adapter so I could load 50 primers and not have to stop and reload part block. They said no one has ever mentioned that to them before, which blew me away, and kinda wrote me off.
 
What to buy? I was checking out a few to buy, as my old Hornady is miled out.

Lee Precision auto bench prime. $125, looks pretty decent.
Lyman E-Zee universal, $69.
Frankford Arsenal perfect seat hand primer, comes with a dozen shell diff size shell holders, it's $119.
Hornady, which I am familiar with, $113.
RCBS, hand priming tool, $120.

Or is there some other brand out there better than any of these?


View attachment 881970
Frankford Arsenal

View attachment 881971
Hornady


View attachment 881972
Lee Precision

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Lyman

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RCBS
Lyman works great for me
 
So I read reviews and decided to get the Frankford Arsenal, based on like 4,000+ positive reviews.

I know any of these would work.

As to the Hornady, it always had an issue with 2 small pins that would fall out. Today when I went to use it, sure enough one of those damn pins is gone (in the wife's vacuuming I bet!) and could not be located. So that's why it's toast. But it had been giving me issues, not seating primers properly anyway. Worn out, which is the likely cause of the 'play' in those pins that was letting them fall out. Damn soft aluminum.
When it was new it was great.
 
The only hand priming tool I have used is the RCBS. It works fine, but imagine most of them do. I like that the feed from the primer tray can be closed off. I don't like that any changes requires complete disassembly. For example, if I have a tray half full of large rifle primers, and I've just finished priming a bunch of .250 Savage, and I want now to do some .303 British. It's a simple shellholder change, but to change the shellholder, you have to remove the primer tray, remove the priming ram, remove the linkage screw, and remove the linkage, so you can free the shellholder mount. Now, swap the new shellholder onto the mount, then replace the mount in the frame, replace the linkage and screw, replace the priming ram, replace the primer tray.

Every time I use the thing, I think someone else must have designed a better one.
 
I have a shellholder type RCBS like in the first post. The linkage arm keeps wearing a groove and I don't know why. It wouldn't bother me so much if it hadn't gotten to the point where it began to "click". Not badly but it was there. One day while priming a small batch of brass I got to hear how loud a piece of primed 9mm going off right in front of my face is. After that I really can't recommend that particular product.
 
I have the frankford arsenal and it works well. Easy depth adj and it takes a few secs to change shell holders. Never tried the others mentioned.
 
So I read reviews and decided to get the Frankford Arsenal, based on like 4,000+ positive reviews.

I know any of these would work.

As to the Hornady, it always had an issue with 2 small pins that would fall out. Today when I went to use it, sure enough one of those damn pins is gone (in the wife's vacuuming I bet!) and could not be located. So that's why it's toast. But it had been giving me issues, not seating primers properly anyway. Worn out, which is the likely cause of the 'play' in those pins that was letting them fall out. Damn soft aluminum.
When it was new it was great.
I have an FA, as well as a couple of the original Lee handprimers, and a couple of their newer ones. Honestly, I prefer the Lee originals, but they are getting tough to buy parts for, and once you use them enough, they wear out. I have no real issues with the FA, does the job well. Just heavy. - dan
 
I used a Lee for a while and have used a couple of those, they all work OK. Super for doing 3 handloads at the range or w/e.

Then I found out I could prime right on the press and that was that.
 
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