What Think of Three Top-End Single Priming Tools?

[alcesgigas]

I'm referring to the Sinclair, K&M (with and/or without indicator), and the 21st Century SS model.

[boomtube]

Given that they are indeed top-end tools I think they work very well. But then so do others that install primers just as well and sell for much less. ??

[Mikecr]

I vote K&M w/gauge
It is completely unique

[Trickymissfit]

Originally Posted by Mikecr

I vote K&M w/gauge
It is completely unique

I have the K&M without the dial indicator (came out a year later I think), and have used the Sinclair a little bit (actually owned one for about three or four months). The Sinclair has an ever so slightly better feel to it, but also gave my old hands fits. The K&M was loaned to me one week, and by the second day I called Lock Stock & Barrel and ordered myself one. Dosn't Lester Bruno and either Hollands or Niel Jones also have one?

Anyway your gonna be hard pressed to get better than a K&M or a Sinclair
gary

[Mikecr]

Correct primer seating is not about feel or fit or looks.
It's about setting every primer(brand/type) to an exact condition -that your gun shoots best with. You cannot achieve this by feel, nor without regard to temps, pocket depths and striker operation/settings. This takes testing, measurements, and more testing.

Now everyone knows that fully seated primers usually go off. And everyone knows the point blank BR boys just squash em into pockets with no measure of it whatsoever. They go off as well.
But unless you limit to tiny 6PPCs at extreme pressures, you need to understand there are things that can go poorly for you with this approach. Or, just as bad, your primer seating can cause you to waste a bunch of load development efforts, and end up choosing loads that are not actually the best. You could choose a primer that 'seems' best(or better than the others tried) while missing that the performance variance was never about a particular primer at all.

I'm saying you can get the correct type of primer to bring the best out of a load no matter it's brand. As well, you can make good primers seem less than right for your gun.
A lot of it follows the common notions that primers are just a matter of trial & error brand/type swapping, and that abstracts in seating(like feel) are good enough.
I discovered otherwise a hard way, and there have been BR shooters who've found it(hopefully easier than I). Sometimes it's addressed with firing pin mass/spring/protrusion settings, trigger brand/hanger settings/action timing, and all of it ultimately falls(or rises) to consistent primer setting.

The K&M does feel good enough. But anyone using a gauged K&M knows that feel is meaningless to actual setting. It's really analogous to seating bullets by feel(rather than measure).
And THIS is what makes the gauged K&M incomparable to ANY other.

[dbhostler]

I use a Sinclair if I'm not on the Dillon.
db

[TOM H]

I have K&M's without gauge also Sinclair and you can adjust both for seating depth. I have one K&M for each case size I load for easy for me to keep track of seating depth.