Primer seating

I have been back and forth on primer seating. With large rifle primers it wasn't ever a big deal to pick them up, set them in the press and seat. I never had any problems.

Now I have moved to small rifle primers and they are harder to pick up without touching the reactive bits. i would also like a little more feel to seating them. I am currently priming in an Rcbs partner press.

What do you use and how do you like it?

I am looking for a handheld, maybe even something similar to the k&m tool with a dial to indicate seating depth.

I use the RCBS hand primer . the one I have has the round tray , and uses shellholders . I've never had any problems using it . if I needed one today , I'd buy the same one again .

I use a Lee Auto-Prime "XR". It separates/relocates the mass of primers during the priming event like most other handheld primers do, BUT it requires different shell-holders than what most presses use. I DONT like that.

112, perhaps try the RCBS Universal hand priming tool. You'll not have to touch the primers and no need for shell holders. They are $20 more than the round tray at $64. Uniforming primer pockets will help also.

Dosh said:

112, perhaps try the RCBS Universal hand priming tool. You'll not have to touch the primers and no need for shell holders. They are $20 more than the round tray at $64. Uniforming primer pockets will help also.

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That is what I am looking at. There are a few that are in the $90 range and seeing if there is anybody using them. I know a guy that uses the k&m setup and it is really nice, caters to my ocd, but may be more trouble than its worth. I have only seated a few primers with a friend's k&m but I don't know what it takes to setup and how repeatable it is.

I uniformed these primer pockets after the first firing, I clean them each time but probably won't uniform again unless things get weird.

Mines same as jimbries works great !!!

I think I remember reading the square tray RCBS tool , that does not use shellholders , will not work on the bigger cases such as 338 Lapua and larger . this would be something to check into if you use any of the bigger cases .

I had the same issue with small primers. Best solution I found was the Forster co-ax primer seater.

https://www.brownells.com/reloading...y&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=749-006-946

I use a Sinclair priming tool. It is relatively slow but very precise with great feel. Personally I never touch primers with my hands. I pick them up one by one with tweezers and place them in the tool. Sounds tedious but moves pretty quick once you get in a groove.

For dozens of years I used nothing but the Lee hand priming tool. Never had an issue, never had an 'unexpected kaboom' and never had a mis-fire from any round loaded. Wore that tool out. Bought another, but that wore out in 1/2 the time. Tried another and it wasn't reliable.

Did research, as I prime off-press for rifle & pistol. Tried a friend's RCBS with the universal 'spring system' in lieu of shell holders and the force needed was 2X my old hands could muster ... with no feel at all either.

Finally bought the Frankford Arsenal priming tool from Cabelas and love it! Comes complete in a set with all most common shellholders included. There is a depth adjustment on it too, which is a nice feature. So far I like it as much as the older generation Lee tools, which were de bomb, as far as I'm concerned.

I've used the indicated K&M from the moment it became available.
This allows me to set primers to exactly preload(crush) as read on the dial indicator. Contrary to popular notions, you cannot do this with 'feel', and merely 'having no issues' does not mean you have the best primer seating, nor the best performance from your ammo.

But the indicated K&M does not solve handling concerns. In fact it increases handling of primers beyond that of standard priming operations.
Sorry

Mikecr said:

Contrary to popular notions, you cannot do this with 'feel', and merely 'having no issues' does not mean you have the best primer seating, nor the best performance from your ammo.

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Give me a break ... as I can guarantee you that my scores in high power shooting across the course, in Schuetzen shooting BP cartridge rifles offhand @ 200-yards ... are more reflective of the shooter than the ammo!

I run Dan Newberry's optimal charge weight method on my high power c'fire rifles and they're all sub-MOA. I'm even a newbie F-Class shooter at my club's range, limited to 600-yards. If I had a precision ammo issue ... respectfully, I'd know it sir .

A benchrester I'm not ... so I frankly, I don't need the K&M tool. But I am very glad that it works for you! Keep at it and I'll see you on the range.

It your choice, But if you buy an RCBS tool that uses the same shell holder as your press. Buy your shell holders in sets of 2. To me it is not worth the trouble for the price of a shell holder, Putting in and taking out the shell holder on small batch load development sessions.

Lefty223 said:

Give me a break ... as I can guarantee you that my scores in high power shooting across the course, in Schuetzen shooting BP cartridge rifles offhand @ 200-yards ... are more reflective of the shooter than the ammo!

I run Dan Newberry's optimal charge weight method on my high power c'fire rifles and they're all sub-MOA. I'm even a newbie F-Class shooter at my club's range, limited to 600-yards. If I had a precision ammo issue ... respectfully, I'd know it sir .

A benchrester I'm not ... so I frankly, I don't need the K&M tool. But I am very glad that it works for you! Keep at it and I'll see you on the range.

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Could you summarize this in one or two clear sentences? Because we have no idea what you expressed, or if you intended to make any point. Other than you seem to disagree with the Post you responded to...