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Reloading Basics: Pushing Primers

Reloading Basics: Pushing Primers

Having looked at the primers themselves last month, here I look at the various types of seating tools that are available. Primer seating is an operation that benefits more from care and caution than from speed and quantity; so, I would always recommend priming methods that work well, rather than just work fast. When priming, please remember to wear eye protection!

All the well-known manufacturers of reloading equipment make their own priming tools, but the basic principals are pretty much the same. Whatever make of reloading equipment you choose, it is best to use the same brand of priming tool, just for consistency’s sake. Across all the makes, the tools available all fall into the same basic categories; on-press, hand-held and on-bench; they generally have interchangeable parts for seating large and small primers. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to Lee equipment, but the general principals will apply to the equivalent products from other makes. However, please do read the instructions that come with your purchases in every case. The key to priming, whatever tool you use, is to use the correct amount of pressure. Too much pressure will crush the primer, too little and it will not seat fully into the primer pocket.

Priming on the press

Single stage presses, and turret type presses, include a priming system within the ram of the press. With the press in the up position, a small arm swings out, exposing a small cup-shaped primer guide, where a single primer is placed, in the ‘anvil up’ position. As the ram is lowered, the arm returns into the centre, lining up with the underside of the case in the shell holder, and as the ram continues to drop, it drives the primer into the case in the shell holder. Lee now produces a separate feeder system, which can do the job of placing the primer into the guide if required. It is simply swung into position each time you want to prime a case and a primer dropped into the cup.

Progressive type presses prime the cases at the same time as all the other reloading stages are taking place, with primers being fed into the system via a tray or tube system. The tubes have primers stacked in them, nose to tail, and in my opinion should be avoided at all costs, as they are a mass detonation just waiting to happen. Fortunately, they are not very common. The downside of priming on a progressive press is that, due to all the reloading stages going on simultaneously, it is difficult to feel if the primers are being seated correctly.

Hand-held priming

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The advantage with this type of priming tool is that you get a better feel for the primer seating operation. The tools are smaller and you are using just finger pressure, rather than the weight of the ram on a press. Primers are placed into a feeder tray on the tool, which includes a facility to flip all the primers over into the anvil-up position with a simple shake. This tray then feeds a single primer at a time into position under the shell holder. A case is inserted and a lever on the tool in gently squeezed to seat the primer.

You really feel the primer seat into the pocket with this type of tool and it is very easy to detect when it hits the bottom of the primer pocket. Any extra pressure past this point will just crush the primer. With this type of tool, Lee’s newer models include an added safety feature, which isolates the primer being seated from the others in the tray. This means that if the primer being seated were to detonate, the likelihood of a mass detonation of all the primers in the tray is greatly reduced. These are my own preferred type of primer seating tool.

Bench priming tools

Like the hand-held tools, this type is also used to prime the cases separately from the reloading press. They are bench mounted and use a lever to seat the primers in a very similar way to the hand-held tools. Again, the ‘feel’ of the seating operation is better than on press mounted systems. The way that the primers feed is usually from the same tray system as the hand-held tools; however, RCBS have their APS priming tool, which is fed differently. It uses primers held in plastic primer strips, either ready filled with primers (from CCI only) or filled with a primer setting tool available from RCBS. This is intended to avoid you having to handle the primers during the reloading process, but if you prime the plastic strips yourself, prior to using the strips in the priming tool, you have added an additional stage to the reloading process.

Manufacturer’s warnings

You will find that the manufacturers of some priming tools advise you not to use certain brands of primers with their equipment, or at least recommend keeping the number of primers loaded into the tool to a minimum. They have obviously carried out a lot of research and testing in developing their tools, and if they consider it necessary to include these safety instructions, it would be wise to adhere to their advice. There are plenty of examples of the damage that sympathetic detonation of a whole tray of primers can do available on the internet, so be warned!

Conclusion

I have only outlined the basic types of priming tools available, the choice of brand and type is up to you. But the most important thing to consider when selecting such a tool is to read the instructions, follow them and the safety advice on types of primers to be used with it, and take the time to develop a feel for the amount of pressure required to seat a primer correctly. Done correctly, priming can be safely and easily carried out, without any serious problems.

Contact:

Henry Krank Ltd www.henrykrank.com for all Lee reloading equipment.

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