Author Topic: Lee auto prime warning (Read 1137 times)

longwinters · « **on:** March 25, 2004, 02:52:19 PM »

A buddy of mine just ordered a Lee Autoprime from a major sporting goods chain and was told that they were issueing warnings concerning using the Lee Autoprime with Federal primers. Not that you can't use them but that they do not reccommend it. What gives? I have been using mine to load Federal primers for 308 and have seen no problems. :?

long

jgalar · « **Reply #1 on:** March 25, 2004, 03:10:08 PM »

Read the instructions that came with it...there is a warning that only CCI or Winchester primers should be used. I bought mine about 10 years or so ago and it is in the instructions that came with mine.

michbob · « **Reply #2 on:** March 25, 2004, 03:18:35 PM »

Howdy.

That warning applies to any Lee priming tool that has a tray to hold the primers. The Ram Prime, the little arm on the presses, and the Improved Tool are all single loaders and can use the Federal primers, according to Dick Lee's book.

Michbob

PS: Was this winter terrible up in The Yoop, like it was here? Manistee topped 140" of snow. :shock:

Bullseye · « **Reply #3 on:** March 25, 2004, 04:26:00 PM »

I think they say that the brands other than those two can sometime detonate. That is the main reason I trashed mine and bought the RCBS Hand Primer. I use CCI primers, but what if I wanted to switch sometime. I have to question the design of any tool that comes with a warning like that. I also never liked the fact that the Lee primer requires a special shellholder, it was just something else to buy when gearing up for a new caliber.

MGMorden · « **Reply #4 on:** March 25, 2004, 04:30:35 PM »

In their newest ads I saw a mention of an "improved" priming tool safe for use w/ all brands of primers. Not sure what they did, and I only found the one reference to it, but it was there. My just-purchased Auto-prime came with the warning though.

The only reason for the warning in any even though, is that all the primers are kept in that holding tray. Federal and Remington primers were found to be a bit more volatile, so if one of those detonated, all of them in the tray would detonate. CCI and Winchester generally wouldn't do this, and only the one primer would go off. There's no issue with either being anymore likely to go off, just that it would be a lot worse if one of them went off and the whole thing blew up in your hand. I've use them before and had no trouble (if you've never had a primer go off on you then there will be no trouble). If you're really worried about it, just load the Federal primers into the tray one at a time. Slow as molasses but it gets the job done if it's your only priming tool, and if it happens to go off there are no others there to go off with it.

Catfish · « **Reply #5 on:** March 26, 2004, 01:55:10 PM »

I used to think that those Lee primer was great, till I wore out the secound one. :cry: I findly swore that I would never buy any Lee loading equipment again. All of the Lee junk I`ve ever owned has disapointed me.

T/C nimrod · « **Reply #6 on:** March 29, 2004, 06:02:09 AM »

catfish - what wore out on your auto prime? I'm just curious - I've had one since approx. 1988, without issue. I don't handload high numbers of rounds in a years' time, anywhere from 1300-1500 rounds. Maybe 20,000 rounds isn't enough to worry about yet?

Catfish · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2004, 01:23:50 PM »

The bushing around the pin that does the priming. The hole would get so large that it was about imposible to get the primer into the case. I know load on a Dillon 550 and can turn out a loaded round in about the same time I spent just priming with the Lee, and I seem to get better accuracy from the ammo loaded on the Dillon.

barber · « **Reply #8 on:** April 12, 2004, 05:40:16 AM »

I have a Lee autoprime, work fine for .44 primers, but for my .357 it puts them in sideways, upside down etc, Is the RCBS priming tool that much better? Thanks

PA-Joe · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2004, 05:54:39 AM »

Since Remington now owns CCI does that mean you can't load CCI's any more?

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #10 on:** April 12, 2004, 12:02:04 PM »

ive primmed many thousand cases with lees and using fed primmers and never had had a problem

Bullseye · « **Reply #11 on:** April 12, 2004, 02:16:28 PM »

barber

In my opinion from using both, yes. But you know what opinions are like and we all have one of them too! :grin:

John Y Cannuck · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:14:29 PM »

I've used the Lee auto prime for close to thirty years, never a problem, I've used the dreaded Federal primers, and Remingtons too. About 1 case of each. I use mostly Winchester, and CCI.

Barber, I'm guessing you have not installed the small pistol adapter.