Priming on or off the press

Using the handheld primer is much faster and you get a good feel for seating if a primer happens to want to go in sideways. Plus you can do it while your sitting and watching TV.
 
I have a Lee Breachlock Challenger press and use it to prime all my rifle cases. For me it works well, I have developed the 'feel'. Its not the fastest priming tool by any means, you have to place a primer everytime. I can do 50 cases in about 15 minutes.
 
I'm a new owner of a 50th lee kit.. and The safety Prime that come with the kit Is quite impressive... As mentionned not the fastest but ... The safety prime kit that came with is cool you have one for small and one for large primers.. and you don't have to touch the primers with your hands.. on ly the push on a finger on the thing and Voilà... The primer is in his seat jsut waiting that you pull the ram up to seat it in the cartridge..You can also develop quickly the feeling with the press.. I love it won't change it.. It's sure if wanna goe to mass product a quicker way maybe good but I don't to go that fast...

My wife Isn't bothering me when I do relaod..so I take my time lollll...
 
summerside sniper said:
I'm buying one of the two Lee single stage kits this month. The 50th anniversery kit primes on the press while the breech lock challenger kit does not. Is there any real difference between the two? Is one easier, better, accurate, etc than the other?
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I've only used the hand priming tool so far, and once you get the feel for the primer seating, its fast. I think it wouldnt be hurt to have one of these handheld priming tools even if you want to prime on the press. Got 10 spare minutes before work?? There's 100 cases primed and ready for you later. If you havent looked on the LeePrecision website yet, check out the few videos of presses & priming in action. My .02
 
Ram primes and handprimers both get the job done, but the handheld one is a lot quicker and free's you up from the bench so you can watch TV...or surf CGN:)
 
For a single station press, definately use the Lee hand primer.
Look at it this way, Sinclair International (.sinclairintl.com) only sells 3 priming tools, their own (over 100 bux!), the Lee (for $17) and the RCBS (for $37), and they only started carrying the RCBS.
If the Lee is good enough for the folks that shop at Sinclair, it's good enough for me.
 
I have the 50th anniversary kit with the Safety Prime.

I guess some people don't clean their primer pockets after each use? That's the only way priming on the press makes sense to me.

I clean my primer pockets after decapping/resizing, so priming on the press is a separate operation. It goes like this:

- lube off the press
- decap, resize on the press
- trim to length, deburr, clean primer pocket, buff with steel wool off the press
- prime on the press (no die in place)
- charge off the press
- seat bullets on the press

So the hand priming tool would make much more sense for me.
 
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I prime with the press,I find that it's more positive.I don't like to use the hand primer for rounds that will be used in a semi-auto because sometimes the primer may not seat deep enough and may cause a slam fire situation.
 
I use the Lee hand primer for all my rifle rounds (single staged). I also use it to check all my pistol stuff after progressive loading to catch any high primers in case I got lazy on the prime cycle.
As said before it's fast & can be done anywhere. Don't have to think.
 
Lee Hand primer is one of the best inexpensive tools ever designed. I run my finger over the seated primer after seating, and never get a "high" primer. I like the delicate feel of the primer being seated to the bottom of the pocket. I have loaded at least 25,000 rounds this way, and do not prime any other way. Regards, Eagleye.
 
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