Used the old Lee tool forever, but finally asked the Birthday Fairy for the RCBS Universal, which honestly, I like better. Have two Lees in reserve if it should bust.
Was always befuddled by the otherwise unexplained claim that the Lee was "unsafe" with Federal primers. I suppose what they really meant is that one had to use a liitle care while loading them, being sure to keep the row being fed into the tray centered over the widest section of the tray. Don't recall ever dropping any. The Nanny System at work, "Don't ask questions, just do as we say". Certainly the Federal trays themselves have the safest design.
Have never used any tube-feed priming system; my imagination won't permit it. Have used the Lee single primer tool, as provided in the old Target Loader, a handy thing to have at times.
Not wild about hammering in primers with the Lee Loaders either. Even when those were my only loading method, I ponied up for the hand tool with trays. Keeping those well-lubed with Vaseline, or later white lithium, is the key to long service life.
Never had an unplanned "bang" while priming, so far anyway. My late brother was decapping live primers from .45 ACP cases, for reasons lost in time, using the punch from a Lee Loader. Predictably, one went off, sending the punch skyward into the ceiling. I have used that method a time or two, but with the punch chucked into a drill press, without incident.
