Priming Tools

[DaveB]

I retired my Lee round hand primer and moved up (I thought) to the new square one. I would highly recommend no one purchase the square one and went back to the round one. Then I decided I was going to go bench mounted RCBS and picked one up at Grafs.

Assembled and mounted its kind of embarrassingly easy to prime a lot of brass very quickly. The cost is a bit steep but I figure it will last a long time and still be a reliable piece of equipment.

Here is the old one-from the mid-1980's


The square one has the disturbing habit of jamming two primers into the same space, flipping them wrong side up, and requiring repeated disassembly.


and the new one assembled but not bolted down

 

[cdw338]

I have one for using it form 70 and have no problems.

 

[TiminTN]

Don`t toss the old one, I`m still using one and would love to have any old Lees for spare parts.

 

[Deer Assassin]

i love my rcbs hand held

 

[GOODWIN]

Good deal. In the past I've just used the rcbs hand primer until I got a forester press. Its got a great priming system built it.

 

[Hardwoodmaterials]

I have the RCBS universal hand primer that has a square tray and have no complaints about it at all.

 

[mr.big]

my RCBS hand primer is about had it,,think I am gonna get a Sinclair or Century21

 

[Hunter 257W]

I've wanted one of those bench type RCBS primers for years, DaveB. I'm sure it's a pleasure to use.

I used the primer arm on my Rockchucker for years then got an RCBS hand tool, which is what I've used for years. The only problem with it is that it leaves the primers high unless you partly unscrew the seating plunger to make them a little longer. I guess I could drop a #9 shot pellet into the threaded hole then screw it back together to see if that will give me the correct length. I don't really like having a tool operating with a threaded fastener that is loose, and prone to moving, like that.

 

[DaveB]

My Lee is so old I cannot prime some brass, the case is too large-even my powder funnel neck is too small. And the square Lee is one great big gargantuan royal PIA that requires more squeeze to properly seat a primer and just getting to that point is an excruciating adventure in how to lose patience. My Boy's identified the problem right away-the cover lifts allowing a primer to go sideways and then upside down.

The RCBS is working fine. No hand cramps which is the real reason why I bought it. I can go through a lot of brass very quickly and after doing 50 without looking at the results took some time and examined closely. One thing I kind of liked, you cannot attempt a prime stroke when you have two primers in the mix. I had to hand-set the 2nd primer, I could not get the tool to place two thus creating a potential problem.

 

[Snowwolfe]

Started out with the press mounted primers, hated it. Then changed to the RCBS bench mounted and loved it. Thought I was missing something so went to the RCBS hand held units and they are OK. But old habits are hard to break so I went out and bought another bench mounted RCBS tool as I sold the first one.
But, had the new bench tool for over a year and haven't mounted it yet, so maybe I am happy with the hand held, lol