I am fond of the Lee ram prime but have just purchased a lee hand prime tool at the last gun show so I am eager to give it a try.I like the feel of the ram prime when seating.

Hand priming is the way to go, unless your using a progressive press to mass produce some plinking rounds. I also have a Lee hand primer and I prefer to use it over priming with any of my presses. Only drawback is you better have a strong hand, because after a few hundred rounds you start to feel the burn.

Welcome to the Hunting Nut kbfortier pull up a chair and stay a while!!
Joe

Welcome to the best Hunting Forum on the net kbfortier. As Joe says....pull up a chair and stay awhile....don't forget to grab a beer too mate.

Feel free to jump in and pass on the benefit of your knowledge and experience.

Cheers, Vince

I use the Lee Auto Prime II mounted on a dedicated Lee single stage press. I have looked at and used a hand priming tool and you can keep them. Too many people seem to go to their TV to hand prime cases and that worries me a bit. All my loading equipment is in one room except my tumbler which is down in the shop. I just flat prefer the feel of a small bench mounted press when seating primers. You are able to maintain a more constant pressure on the procedure and have a lot more control of what is going on.

Welcome aboard kbfortier...Vince pass him a beer...

I like the feel of hand priming and find the Lee Auto Primer to be a very good, yet fairly inexpensive and a very reliable piece of equipment.--tr

I had problems with RCBS hand primer not fully seating primers. (The one with round primer tray).
Here is someting I ran across and I am checking into.
Just thought I might share the info because I am pretty sure this has been my problem all along. Difference in shell holders!!!


FAQ - Priming

Q. I'm having trouble with the Hand Priming Tool not seating the primer deep enough. What am I doing wrong?

A. You probably aren't doing anything wrong. The usual cause for "high" primers is caused by the shell holder not sitting down tight on the Primer Feed. This usually happens with older RCBS and other brands of shell holders--they simply do not have enough chamfer on the inside of the primer hole. To check to see if this is a problem, install the shell holder on the primer feed. If you see any daylight between the bottom of the shell holder and the primer feed, the shell holder must be replaced. If the shell holder was manufactured by RCBS, call for a free replacement. If you are unable to locate the problem, call RCBS Customer Service for help at 800-533-5000 (Mon-Thurs, 6:30am-3:00 pm Pacific time), or e-mail us your questions.

I seat primer fully on any method. Primer depth is a function of primer pocket depth. Never had crushed primer or accidental primer igniting.

The only FTF's I get are on .22 rimfire & 2 weeks ago on some really old ammo which was 100 percent a few months back.

The hand tool is good when you want to deprime/size at the bench & prime elsewhere like at lunch the next day at work.

I have used a Lee hand tool to prime for several years and have never had a failure. IMHO I get a better feel for the primer when it seats. And to make sure the primer is not sticking out past the case head I will place the primed case on a very flat surface to see if it wobbles. Also the hand tool saves me alot of time when loading a large batch of rounds.