Lee Auto Bench Prime

It is said that age brings wisdom. Unfortunately, it also brings a decline in physical ability, stamina and often, mental agility. Thankfully, my mental state does not seem to have gone down quite as fast as my physical capacity – although my wife might give you an argument there. I have noticed, however, over the last couple of years an increase in pain in my hands when gripping anything and no more so than when using a hand held priming tool. All of my reloading is done on a couple of single stage presses, so my first resource was to purchase a pair of Lee Ram Prime tools. Certainly easy to use and while time is not of great importance, loading primers and cases one at a time is a bit slower than the hand primer.

Enter the Lee Auto Bench Prime with the primer capacity of the hand held tool and ease of use of the Ram Prime. The device is extremely simple to set up and use and even allowing for cutting and drilling the piece of wood I was priming cases within thirty minutes of opening the box. It can be permanently mounted on a bench, used with a piece of wood and clamp (as here) or in the Lee Bench Plate system. Two bolts with washers and nuts are supplied.

The folding plastic primer tray holds a full box of one hundred primers and fills very easily. There are large and small primer assemblies, which are swapped over quickly and the unit takes standard Lee shell holders, these being changed in seconds. It can be mounted for left or right hand use. Body and handle are metal, while the tray and primer assemblies are plastic. They may seem a little lightweight but I was using my first Lee hand held priming tool – bought in 1988 – up until about three years ago, so I have no doubt the Bench Prime will give many years of service.

The long curved handle gives good leverage and the pressure required to seat a primer is extremely light. If the dreaded arthritis is setting in and you don’t need an all singing all dancing priming set-up, then I would recommend that you give this tool a try. You may just find it’s what you are looking for. Find it at your local Lee stockist for around £29.00.

I would like to thank Henry Krank for supplying the Lee Auto Bench Prime for test.