Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles I just ordered a Lee Auto Bench Prime

Actually I can see the advantage of that setup over priming on the press. Probably quicker getting brass in and out of that unit. Thanks for the photos. I'd be curious to hear how it works for you.

Graf has these as being in stock. Looks interesting, I may be ordering one too.

I just threw this priming tool in the garbage.

I don't know how many cartridges I load in a year, but whatever the total, the design of this tool made priming a chore. I was constantly clearing jams. It didn't work properly almost from the start, and didn't last. I had one problem with the primer tray and another with the adapter (feed ramp) that the primers ride, on their way to the shell holder.





In the first pic, you can see the switch marked ON-LOCK-OPEN. It wears quickly. I figured it would when I first saw it, but you have to use it to find out. The plastic switch (2nd pic) moves from the ON position (allowing the primers to feed from the tray), to the LOCK position (blocking the primers from feeding). As a result, primers jammed around the plastic switch, which made it to difficult to open and clear. Sometimes, I could shake the tray and the primers moved away from the switch, sometimes they wouldn't. I had to use a dental pic to move the primers away from the switch.

I suppose I could have lived with that. A piece of tape to keep the switch from sliding to the LOCK position would have worked, but there was a second problem. About every 10th primer would jam up inside the adapter - the part between the tray and the tool - and the primers wouldn't feed. I had two primers inside the adapter instead of just one. To clear the jam, I had to remove the tray, remove the adapter from the tool body, and tip the adapter backward. The primer would fall out of the chute where the primer tray is installed.



Did I just get unlucky and buy a bum priming tool? Perhaps, but the adapter is also used in their hand priming tool, and frankly, I think it needs a redesign. I will use one of my older Lee hand priming tools or a RCBS universal hand priming tool. With a good selection of other priming equipment on the market, it's pointless, IMV, to bother with this one.

For anyone else who has had good or bad experiences with this item, I'd like to hear about it.

Thank you for saving me the time trying the priming tool, Thought this looked to good to be true. I have tried others that I could not get rid of fast enough any one want a hand held APS, When I cant use my RCBS universal hand primer I found in a box of junk a OLD RCBS bench mount tool one primer at a time uses standard shell holders NEVER fails but is SLOW

You're welcome. I would like to think that I was unlucky, but the plastic tray bends, allowing the primers to jam in places where they shouldn't be. The same with the adapter. Perhaps thicker or stronger plastic might help. At any rate, it's gone.