Lee Auto Prime XR

[jim36]

About a week ago I wanted to order a new connecting rod for the standard Auto Prime. Lee CS told me that they no longer made the rod for the older hand loader, but if I would sent back the old Auto Prime they would send me a New Auto Prime XR for $12.49. I liked the idea and did what was asked. I rcvd the new Auto Prime and was pleasantly suprised at the new one. Quite an improvement ofer the older one. Nice feel when seating the primer. I had posted earlier about having a problem seating the Wolfe primers. Well this new one does a fantastic job on the Wolf primers. I am certainly happy with this new one.
Hats off to Lee and the new XR. The $12.49 included shipping.
                       
                                             Jim   <")))><

[McDerry]

Whats the differance??

[Lon371]

 Lots of people do not care for the Lee reloading stuffs. I am a new reloader on a serious budget. I got a Lee scale used. It will not zero with out messing with it. I shot them an email. Wanting price on parts. They instructed me to send it in and they would repair and calibrate it and return it. AT NO COST. This after I told them in 2 emails I bought it used!

 Is there quality as good as others? Maybe not, but their customer service is.

Lonny

[Doublebass73]

Being a single father with custody of 3 kids (I know, hard to believe) I do all my reloading with budget Lee equipment. It gets the job done and I reload accurate, quality cartridges in 45 Colt and .38 Special.

[Glanceblamm]

My old Lee Auto Prime is still in service after years of use.

Many here use them and it is a case of getting high quality results out of a budget price tool.

I did note that the "arm" on mine was starting to show some wear, caught it in time though and use a dab of white grease where the smaller cam slides into the handle and the larger round cam depresses the plunger and this stopped the wear.

The thing to remember when using the Auto Prime is to Never dble clutch that lever. To do so will result in the tool picking up two primers and I believe that this is responsible for Lee's warning to use glasses as some users reported a primer popping when the case was primed.

[calvon]

I recently bought the Auto Prime XR and after fighting with it for a couple of hours laid it aside and picked up my old Lyman Nutcracker and primed my brass. First, I have to use both hands to work that little short lever on the XR. Second, If I don't hold it just right, the primer that is second in line, the one that rides up on the elevator will fall off onto the floor.

The feel of the Nutcracker as the primer goes in and bottoms out is much more precise than that of the XR and it is easy to operate with only one hand. The only drawback is that each primer has to be placed in the tool one at a time but I can live with that.

This on top of a full length sizing die that sets the shoulder too far back which creates excessive headspace. No more Lee tools for this old man.

[lakota]

Wit the exception of my scale which is Lyman and one bullet mold which is also lyman I have all Lee equipment. I have an 18 year old turret press that is still going strong. 2 years ago I bought a Challenger Breech lock press and I love it.

I will admit though that I do like my Lyman bullet mold a little better than the 1/2 dozen Lee molds I have but not enough to replace all the lee molds with Lymans.

On my Auto Prime I did have to "tweek" it a little bit by polishing the feed channels on the plasitc trays with very fine sand paper so the primers would feed better.
The only 2 Lee tools I ever bough that I absolutely hated were the safety scale and the perfect powder measure.

I think they make excellent tools at a great price.

[Larry L]

It didn't get all positive reviews at Midway USA. I like the idea of the square pan to put the primers into instead of the round one that's not big enough. But it would appear that they cut the throw on it and it requires more hand power to seat a primer. Another issue was that the unit had to be held at a specific angle or it wouldn't feed the primers to the ram. I have several of the old style and I've been more than pleased with them. I bought an RCBS thinking it was a better one- wrong. That was a wreck waiting to happen. Even my old Shell holders wouldn't fit it. RCBS was kind enough to say they would send new ones but geez, I own almost all of them and that's a lot. I just sent it back for credit. I didn't like having to take it all apart to change shell holders anyway. Lee makes some find products at very reasonable prices. I love their pistol dies but I'm not fond of their rifle dies. The pistol dies are far easier to adjust and if you need to change seating depth, just turn the knob. No screw driver required, no need to tighten anything, just turn the knob. Their factory crimp dies are also primo.