Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best Priming Set-Up?

If you got the cash the cps from Primal Rights is as good as it gets.

I can tell you which ones I don’t like. Hornady handheld(20 year old version), newer Lee handheld, and the new Frankfort arsenal handheld.

I think your's is the first downcheck here on the FA handheld. What specifically do you not like?

It looks like the primer tray is on the wrong side, to me

As to bench units, the Forster is interesting in that it uses an adjustable set of clips instead of a shell holder, and the primers load from a tray into the tubes. Adjusting the shell holder clips may take a few minutes when you change from say, .44 mag to .222, but it looks easy and simple to use in process.

Anyone here use the Forster?

Ditto for me.

DF

I have the 21st Century click adjustable that uses the newer square Lee Auto Prime trays. It's much better than a Lee Auto-Prime for priming really tight pockets like virgin Lapua brass.

I don't need the click adjustable function I just wanted the extra leverage and a tool I didn't have to load the primers one at a time.

Anything I can load on one of the Dillons gets primed via the Dillon.

Yes, that's the only negative I noticed. I got a second Lee Auto Bench Prime, after they fixed the trouble with misfeeds. It does not like tight primer pockets.

I started using the Lee press mounted priming tool after my RCBS universal broke, but only for tight pocketed brass.

Oh hell no...cut a small opening (for the tube) in to the side of a flip tray and cover, and use that to load the tube.


It is quick and simple...if you use the flat tray bed to load the tube you will throw the unit after the first session.


Oh...and I used my Forster for fifteen years of roo shooting.

Adjusting the unit is simple, hold an unprimed case on the relevant priming rod and simply move each of the three sections in to hold the case (slightly loose fit is required).

Bolt or screw the Forster unit to your bench and use it there.

Color me simple, same here.

I have the RCBS, but still keep a couple of the old, dangerous Lee units set up because the RCBS has trouble hanging on to certain cases. Other than that minor issue, the RCBS is fine.

RCBS hand held primer seems to work fine for my needs. No complaints as of yet.

If I had a nickel for every hundred cases I've primed with the original Lee Auto Prime while sitting here pondering the wisdom of the 'fire...

But often enough the good do die young

And great designs will pass away due to the ignorant or the careless...

Before others came along to me, LEE used to ship parts for their primer tools to me by the multiples of 3 or 5 at a time IIRC. We would prime 20K plus a year and those levers etc.. just would not hold up.


My favorite hand tool is the APS strip system from RCBS. I like the auto case holder but it doesn't really work that great at times on hard to prime cases.

Anymore now don't load more than 20-50 at a time and the press mounted one works ok for that.

Picked up a returned Forster Co-Ax unit. Will likely get the chance to try it this weekend.

It isn't just primers that are hard to find...

Put the Forster Primer Press to the test last night. I intended to use it primarily for handgun cartridges. Right off the bat I couldn't find my .44 shell holder so I did 200 rounds of .38 Special and then switched to rifle cartridges. Did 100 of .300 Savage, and then 100 of 7RM.

The press works very well with everything I've tried so far. 1 set screw holds the large/small primer pusher assembly in place and the switch over is dead easy. Love the adjustable clips that take the place of a shell holder. Also dead easy to set and use. A 5/32" Allen comes with the unit to adjust the clips

I wanna say that this is just as simple, and almost as quick as the Lee Auto Prime. And it's actually easier on my arthritic hands. If it makes a difference the LAP is easier to work from the recliner. I want a table or bench for the Forster unit.

I got the plastic flip tray with the unit and it makes loading the primers into the tube a snap. One small criticism is that the large primer tube isn't quite long enough to hold 50 primers so I had to do a third partial fill on each 100 large primers.

Overall a very positive experience, and I'd recommend the system to about anyone.

That .44 shell holder is gonna drive me crazy. Likely haven't used it since the 1980s, but i keep them all in the same little box. Seen it there hundreds of times. No reason for it to be anywhere else. Looked an hour for it last night and close to an hour this morning.

Walked into that room how many thousands of times, I always do a little inventory in my head. I've KNOWN the contents of that box for longer then we've lived here.
Maybe I'm getting old, but that throws me almost as much as stepping off a 2" drop off unexpectedly

I started out using the priming arm on the press, then got myself a Lee Autoprime (with the round tray). Then I tried the RCBS version of the same, found it better ergonomically and it has safety features the Lee does not have. I finally bough another just like it because I got tired of swapping the parts out to seat different primer sizes, and I liked that system the last ten or fifteen years...but time is cruel, and my hands ache a little more these days.

Based on what I've read here in this thread, I decided to give the RCBS bench mount priming system a try. I have to say---I am surprised at the ease of use and just how well I can feel a primer bottoming out in the primer pocket. Seeing the primer tube waving around is a little disconcerting at first, but after seating 50 I'm good with it. I wish I'd tried one when they first became available.

Some folks complain that the tube slams back after seating. Just ease the handle up to solve that.

I have several priming systems, and especially like the older Lee hand tool and the APS strip system Rost mentioned.

But since I often load pretty odd cartridges, one of my most-used is the inexpensive Lee Ram-Prime--which consists of a pair of small and large primer seaters, and a fitting for 7/8" press-threads that allows the use of any standard shell-holder. It ain't fast, but fits on any standard press. As long as you have a shell-holder for that cartridges (or something close) you're good to go, even when loading something like the 9,3x72R.