Hand Prime or Press Prim?

Wallbass45

New member
New to this and going slow to be right/safe.
All the reviews ive seen on Hand Primers were not where it said buy me. and was thinking about a single stage primer die to get consistent depth. Reloading .223 only so wont be changing back and forth. also don't want to pay huge bucks for a primer tool. So the Q is Which is best Hand or Press ?? and what brand ??
Thanks,Jeff
 
I use both a RCBS and a Lyman reloading press, and prime all my cases on those. I have never used a hand primer, so I can't make a comparison between the two. But, I've primed thousands of cases on the presses, and aside from getting carried away and not paying attention, and placing a primer upside down, I can't see a reason to do it any other way.
 
I like to feel my primers seat by hand. I won't use anything but a quality hand primer.

However, that's not important to everyone so there's really no best way.
 
I use RCBS, and Lee hand priming tools. We also load at the rifle range, so there I just use the priming tool on the rock chucker.

The hand primers give you a "feel" for how tight the primer pockets are.
 
Priming on a press, I recommend a Ram Prime unit. Better feel by using the upstroke of the press. My hands don't like the thought of 100's of rounds squeezing a hand primer. Best option by far in my experience is a bench mounted priming tool like RCBS's Bench Mounted Priming tool. I have the pick-up tube model and some like the priming strips. Best feel and just the right leverage to seat primers. Wouldn't prime on anything else.
 
Originally Posted By: rg Priming on a press, I recommend a Ram Prime unit. Better feel by using the upstroke of the press. My hands don't like the thought of 100's of rounds squeezing a hand primer. Best option by far in my experience is a bench mounted priming tool like RCBS's Bench Mounted Priming tool. I have the pick-up tube model and some like the priming strips. Best feel and just the right leverage to seat primers. Wouldn't prime on anything else.

This ^^^
 
I like doing it with a hand primer. The reason being is I can feel the way the primers are seating and the nice thing is that I can seat the primers in the easy chair watching TV.
 
I have a primer seat in my Forster Co-Ax that I use if I have a lot of brass to work...Much easier on the hands when seating the small primers...It's a pain to change over to large primers and since I shoot relatively few of those, I use the hand primer seating device...The press unit, I prefer since the seating depth, IMHO, is more consistent and I've never crushed a primer, as I have with the hand priming tool...It kind of depends on the number that you normally will be seating..
 
Use a Dillon progressive and a single stage press, but prefer the Lee hand primer whether loading hundreds of rounds for matches or a box of hunting ammo. I'm sure the high dollar hand priming tools are better, but have had no issues w/the less expensive Lee and have loaded thousands of rounds over the years.

I like the ability to feel loose pockets and the primer bottoming.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: cahunter805Rcbs hand primer works very well for me. I like the universal one that doesn't use shellholders.

The thing that concerns me about this loader is I watched a video on it and every once in a while when fed into the unit the case/primer would go flying across room
 
RCBS hand primer, much better than the Lee hand primer. (have both)
The primer step is the quickest, just confirm each primer is a few thou lower than case head.
 
Originally Posted By: OldTurtleI have a primer seat in my Forster Co-Ax that I use if I have a lot of brass to work...

I've used the Co-Ax, the Lee hand primer, and the Sinclair.
I keep coming back to the Co-Ax.
 
Hand primers, I use K&M or Sinclair and neither has a tray. I also have RCBS bench mounted primer and I use that when I was doing volume PD shooting. Back then I may do up to 500 cases at one time for couple varmint rifles.

Now that I'm not shooting PD as much it's back to hand priming for my varmint rifles.

When I first started reloading I used press to seat primers and I never had a problem doing that. I got into BR and we loaded at the range and that's what got me using hand primers otherwise I might still be using the press to seat primers.
 
I think my oldest Lee hand primer tool is 37 years old and still works but then I have bought newer ones that break after a few months. I like the older style with rounds tray and have 5 setup for most calibers and occasionally when I load an oddball case that I do not have a shell holder for I use the Fortster press.
 
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