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Offline markp

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Which hand priming tool
« on: March 22, 2011, 01:07:03 PM »
Loading   38 and 44. Which hand priming tool would you recommend ?

Lee Auto Prime XR. I use mostly CCI Primers  but  Lee says it  can  now load any brand primers.  RCBS universal hand priming tool or the hornady handheld priming tool  ?

Lee is half the price of the others.
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Offline dickttx

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2011, 01:12:37 PM »
Lee--they invented it, they work and you can get one for each primer size cheaper than one of the others.
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Offline bobg

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2011, 01:20:25 PM »
 Can't go wrong with the Lee. I have had one for more years than i care to remember.
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Offline pme166

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2011, 02:19:17 PM »


Just keep in mind that the lee's do break.  I find they are good from between 10 and 30 thousand rounds before they give up the ghost.  I know have 2 that I use and when they break, I save them up.  Once both break I send them in with the price for a new one and Lee sends back 2 more.  No big deal but just keep in mind what they costs.
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Offline charles p

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2011, 03:00:54 PM »
I use two Lee products.  Their hand primer and their case Lube.  Everything else I prefer is made by someone else.
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Offline Preacherman

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2011, 03:28:15 PM »
LEE has served me well.
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Offline drdougrx

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2011, 03:31:10 PM »
+1 for me too.  I have 2 of them...one for L primers, one for s primers.
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Offline necchi

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2011, 03:49:03 PM »
What?
 You must absolutely spend 2 to 5 times as much the cost of a Lee Auto prime for an RCBS or even better a Sinclair hand held primer!!
 Your primers or primed cases won't know the differance, but think of how you can impress your freinds and neibhors when you show that you now have complete control of the primer!!  ;D  :o

The guy's on this forum lead me too the Lee last year, and although it was hard to tear myself away from priming one at a time at my press because I was worried about "feel", my groups haven't suffered one i-outa and I can do 100 in the time it took me to do 20.

If I was a bench rest shooter it might matter, but the hunting rifles I shoot off the bench do just fine, I gotta say my thumb get's a little tired after about 50 or so, but that could just be the arthritis.
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Offline hillbill

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2011, 04:00:10 PM »
ive broke a couple of lee,s but it was on rifle cartridges.mil stuff that had tite primer pockets. my dad has used one for years on strictly 45 colt stuff.i got a rcbs bench mounted primer tool off ebay and love it. yu would have to beat it with a hammer to break it.i think it was about 50 buks.oh i also had trouble with the rcbs hand tool, just had too many moveing parts
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Offline markp

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2011, 05:46:51 PM »
I ordered  a  lee auto prime.



Thanks for the input Guys !!
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Offline saddlebum

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2011, 07:52:17 PM »
Guess it doesn't matter since you ordered one already, but here's my 2 cents anyway.
The Lee is great and works fine. I used one for a long time. I liked the feel when seating the primer........but!

I have since then got a little gift from older age called arthritis. Mostly in my right thumb, the one I levered the Lee with.
I now use the Hornady and like it even better than I did the Lee. I get a full hand squeeze on it and it doesn't hurt me. Also, it takes standard shell holders, unlike the Lee. Nothing else to buy. It is much more sturdy than the Lee and I expect it to be my last primer. I got mine years ago on sale, so that didn't hurt me so bad either.............Enjoy your new primer.
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Offline wncchester

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2011, 11:51:21 AM »

Fact is, they all work quite well....if the user understands what he's doing.  If not, he should get something made from solid steel or cast iron.

The photo in post #3 shows two Lee AutoPrimes that were massively abused, probably by trying to jam primers into problem pockets.  I suspect most of the old Lee hand primer's were broken trying to seat caps too deep OR in military cases that the crimp hadn't been properly removed from the pockets; that's not the tools fault...is it?  But,  whatever, Lee's newly designed autoprime tool is much stronger than the old one which, for most of us, worked fine as it was.
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Offline Drilling Man

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2011, 12:25:11 PM »
Quote from: wncchester on March 23, 2011, 11:51:21 AM
  I suspect most of the old Lee hand primer's were broken trying to seat caps too deep OR in military cases that the crimp hadn't been properly removed from the pockets; that's not the tools fault...is it?  But,  whatever, Lee's newly designed autoprime tool is much stronger than the old one which, for most of us, worked fine as it was.

  You'd be wrong, as i broke several of them myself and i did not abuse them.  Yes, Lee did replace them, but it was an PITA to have to deal with them.

  I do still have one of the old ones around, but i mostly use the RCBS seaters...  I have no idea how todays Lee's primer seaters are.

  DM
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Offline hillbill

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2011, 03:09:29 PM »
allthough i dont have a lot of lee stuff,i have ordered some parts from them and they were fast and cheap.
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Offline helotaxi

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2011, 06:29:34 PM »
With the previous version of the Lee Autoprime I would have chosen it hands down.  I've broken the lever on two of them but the weak lever was their only real flaw.  They fixed that flaw with the new version and added the convenience of a square primer tray making it easier to transfer primers from their packaging to the tray.  The other "improvements" that came with the new design rendered the darn thing almost unusable.  You have to constantly shake the tray around to make sure that the primers are getting through the entirely unnecessary maze from the tray to the "elevator" then you have to worry about the "elevator" flipping the primer upside down or tossing it overboard and then you have to deal with the primer not feeding into position to be seated or only halfway making it into position.  With the older version I could prime 100 cases in about 10 minutes.  With the new one it took me more than 30 because I had to closely monitor how the primers were moving through the needlessly complex mechanism and constantly "encourage" them to do what they were supposed to do. 

After those 100 cases, I said "never again."  For my rifle calibers that I didn't load progressively (.243 and .308 mostly) I just removed the tool head from my Dillon 550 and set the shell plate and stops up for .45 Auto and used it as an "automated" priming machine.  Motivated my to add 4 more tool head setups to the collection to load .243, .308, .300AAC and 6.8SPC.

ETA: Neither of the Lee Autoprimes that I broke was on crimped or problem primer pockets.  IIRC, the first one was on .45C virgin Winchester brass and the second was on virgin 6.8 SSA brass.
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Offline bilmac

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2011, 07:20:55 PM »
Sorry to hear the "new improved" version is junk, that so often is the case, I'll have to be very careful with my old ones. I have an RCBS hand primer and don't like it. It makes my hand tired way faster than the Lee..
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Offline saddlebum

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2011, 08:56:14 PM »
Don't know if you guys do or not but I'm thinking some kind of lube on the wear points on the Lee would make it easier to use and last longer. I know I never thought of it when I used one. Maybe a little grease or something that would stay put.
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Offline quickdtoo

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2011, 09:41:41 PM »
Read #4 of the instructions for the Lee Auto-Prime.  ;)

Tim

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/PT1023.pdf
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Offline saddlebum

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2011, 09:47:12 PM »
Well if all else fails........Read the instructions!   ::)
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Offline McDerry

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2011, 09:56:45 PM »
I use the ball of my thumb to run the lee auto prime.  Significantly less fatigue.
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Offline Doug B.

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2011, 02:10:58 AM »
I recently purchased the Hornady and aside from a somewhat "cheesy" design to attach the cover to the base of the primer tray, it works very good.
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Offline SHOOTALL

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2011, 02:30:21 AM »
Quote from: pme166 on March 22, 2011, 02:19:17 PM


Just keep in mind that the lee's do break.  I find they are good from between 10 and 30 thousand rounds before they give up the ghost.  I know have 2 that I use and when they break, I save them up.  Once both break I send them in with the price for a new one and Lee sends back 2 more.  No big deal but just keep in mind what they costs.
Had two do the same thing , they may have invented it but RCBS improved it and when they have a problem they fix it free. I have broken and lost parts RCBS replaced free. When the two  Lee tools broke they charged for the parts and shipping. I will use RCBS .
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Offline Glanceblamm

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2011, 04:37:35 AM »
Quote from: saddlebum on March 23, 2011, 08:56:14 PM
Don't know if you guys do or not but I'm thinking some kind of lube on the wear points on the Lee would make it easier to use and last longer. I know I never thought of it when I used one. Maybe a little grease or something that would stay put.

Ditto, I use just a dab of white grease where the lever seats on the pin and also a little more on either end of the cam.

The compound leverage that the Lee tool provides is excellent allowing one to feel when the primer stirrup just does touch the bottom of the pocket. If that pocket and flashole are uniform, It will IMO hold trump over the likes of using a trickler to top off the powder charge. I take my time when using the Lee but it is still very fast.
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Offline gypsyman

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #23 on: March 24, 2011, 04:38:14 AM »
I use the Hornady hand primer. Uses the same shell holder as the press, and, after 3 years and probably8 or 9,000 rds, still feels tight. Had to modify it a little when I first got it. My Redding shellholders have a knurling around the outside edge, and didn't want to slip into the body of the primer. So I took my Dremel, and opened up the inside of the primer body. If you figure that you don't have to buy the special shell holders that are required for the Lee, price isn't much different. But, a much stronger unit. gypsyman
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Offline SHOOTALL

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #24 on: March 24, 2011, 06:02:47 AM »
Of course I lubed the lee tool. Its appears to be made of pot metal all the lube in the world won't make it stronger. That said why won't they stand behind their products like RCBS, Redding etc ?
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Offline huntducks

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #25 on: March 24, 2011, 07:36:24 AM »
Quote from: hillbill on March 23, 2011, 03:09:29 PM
allthough i dont have a lot of lee stuff,i have ordered some parts from them and they were fast and cheap.

You are right lee is cheap....

I dropped my RCBS hand primer and broke the primer try off called RCBS to buy another instead they sent one for FREE....
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Offline markp

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #26 on: March 30, 2011, 08:22:35 AM »
I received my lee auto prime and used it to prime 50 cases this morning. I will say this. It seems cheaply made.
I don't have anything to compare it to except the back stroke of my rock chucker press and so far  it seems a pleasure
to use and much faster then the rock chucker. The price was right. So long as I don't drop it or use it to beat the cat over the
head I should be in business. If I still like it after a thousand rounds or so I ll buy another  one and keep it in storage for
the day my first one gives up the ghost.

For now consider me happy and well  primed.

What a great forum where you can get so much input and experience just for the asking.

Thanks

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Offline necchi

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #27 on: March 30, 2011, 09:17:45 AM »
Just a tip for added longevity.
The cam and plugger hook up area should be lubbed with a grease type lube, something that'll stick.
I used a little anti-seize grease.
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Offline quickdtoo

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #28 on: March 30, 2011, 11:24:57 AM »
Yup, it's been mentioned at by at lesat three others so far, as Saddlebum said, read the instructions.  ;)

Tim

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/PT1023.pdf

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/PT1204.pdf
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Offline buffermop

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Re: Which hand priming tool
« Reply #29 on: March 30, 2011, 11:54:49 AM »
RCBS is the only one. The newest model only uses one shell holder that fits all.
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