My Lee hand held priming tool is a bit worn out. Before just buying a new one from Lee I was wondering if anyone preferred a different tool other than the Lee. Hornady or RCBS maybe ?

By the way for doing one primer at a time I have K&M tool that I use and like. But it is not a tray type.

Thanks

BigB

If your lee is like mine I wore out the connecting rod. Lee sells that part for about $3. I turned mine over and got another several year from it.

I did replace it with an RCBS. Don't know if it is really any better from a simple function standpoint. But I do like not having to have both loading and priming shell holders which is why I went to the RCBS when I bought a new one.

I have used a Lee AutoPrime for years. I then bought an RCBS to "upgrade" a bit in terms of build quality. Sadly, I liked the RCBS tool a lot less than the Lee (e.g. difference whether you use thumb or rest of the fingers to create pressure for priming operation), and I returned to the Lee. These days, I keep 2 AutoPrimes set up for large and small primers respectively. On top of that I have a couple of spares in case one of the Lees should die on me - hasn't happened yet, though.

I have not tried the Hornady tool, although I have read positive comments on it.

- mike

Yo Big,

No expereince with the Hornady tool.

I've got the RCBS Bench Mounted Tool. I purchased mine prior to their price spinning off madly into Outer Space somewhere .....



But I've used both the Lee & RCBS and agree completely with Paul & Mike above.

I consider the Lee more user friendly although I despise their forced requirement to use proprietary special priming tool shellholders AND the metal parts appear to wear quicker.

The RCBS doesn't sit as well in (my) hand; although (IMO) the parts last longer and their shellholders are the same as used for a press. You may be surpised to note that many other (especially Lee) shellholders will not fit (at least in mine).

Good Luck with your decision.

You can buy three Lee Auto Primes for the price of anybody else's tool; so what if they wear out after a few ten-thousands of rounds? Lubricate the contact points of the connecting links with Vasolene now and again and they'll last for many years.

I've found no one's design to match that of Lee's, so I would advise you to just go get another one. As MHO does, I also have two units, one set up for .177" primers and the other for .210" primers. If I ever wear them out I'll spend the $3 for replacement parts.

I am using the Hornady Auto Prime. It is good quality and gives you a good feel of the seating process. Only problem was that Lee shell holders did not fit. Use it now with only RCBS and Hornady shell holders

My hand priming tool and press are RCBS. I use nothing made by Lee. Why in the world would I want 2 sets of shell holders of which the one needed would become misplaced or lost? In addition, IMHO, your Lee primer tool would fail to function just when you need it most. My attitude is to spend money for quality/reliability once & be done with it.
Bear in Fairbanks

Okay, for the unititiated, here are a few "factoids" about the Lee tool:

1. The shell holders are identical to the upper portion of the standard press shell holder. If you have multiple standard shell holders for a given head size (as most of us who have been reloading for a while tend to accumulate) you can make one into a Lee-style shell holder by simply grinding off the bottom portion.

2. The Lee tool won't "break" any more suddenly than any other tool. It will eventually wear the contact points (if not kept lubricated) so that it will not seat the primer as deeply as desired. This happens over a long period of time, giving you plenty of warning that you need to replace the parts.

3. Other makes of tools similarly have wear points, some of which might well give it up before the Lee does.

But buy and use whatever you wish. If you already own a Lee, you will likely be a bit displeased with the feel and performance of its more expensive competitors. And do give Lee credit: No one bothered to produce a hand-held priming unit until Lee hit the market with theirs. Every other tool is a "copycat" to one degree or another, and in order to avoid infringing on the patent of the Lee tool, all of those copycats have to approach the same task in a slightly different, and sometimes inferior, manner.

I've used both Lee & RCBS hand primers & whilst the Lee does the job well enough, it can be broken & to me is less ergonomic than the RCBS.
The Lee's primer tray is smaller too, which makes tipping primers out of the new, larger packaging a pain (the RCBS tray is plenty large enough).
If cost is a major factor, the Lee is unbeatable value for money & will prime many thousands of cases without any problems, though IMO it will tire your hand sooner.

I have been using the Lee auto prime since they came out. One for small primers and one for large. I bought a back up (in case one broke at an inopportune time) which still sits on the shelf.
BUT, I'll bet if I tried hard, I could spend more money to accomplish the same thing.

The Lee is cheap and cheaply made. But since it is cheap and works, just buy the replacement parts and keep using it. That's what I do.

Have a Lee for years, switched RCBS, the Lee is collecting dust now. I like the grip the tray and adjustable depth of the RCBS.

Rich

Much of the time, I still use the priming tools built into most presses, including both the priming arms and the multiple feed tubes. They work fine and cost little or nothing extra, depending on the brand of press.

I also have Sinclair and Lee priming tools. I used to have an RCBS similar to the Lee also, but didn't like it and sent it back soon after buying it. It didn't feed primers at all well. I have heard that problem was cured by the RCBS re-design shortly after the original hit the market, but I didn't see any need to spend money to try it when they had already gotten the first one wrong.

As to the Lees wearing... Well, they used to wear out pretty quickly if you were loading thousands of rifle rounds a month as I was. But that was no problem....I'd just send the worn parts back to Lee and they'd mail me new ones, no charge other than the cost of my mailing the worn ones to them.

Nowdays Lee has made the parts (the ones that wear quickest) from harder material and I have no wear problems at all with mine anymore.

I use my Sinclair priming tool in benchrest matches "just because I can"....and as it is made of steel, I never have to worry about it breaking when I need it most.

Whatever turns your individual crank.....

I used to use a Lee priming tool until I broke the handle. Now I use the RCBS one. Took me a while to get used to the RCBS but it works well. The RCBS only works right with my RCBS shellholders. My Lee shellholder in it and it wont seat the primer fully.

I still use the old Lee hand prime tool with the screwing shell holders. I think I bought it in 1969. The connecting rod is pretty worn but I have a couple of replacement connecting rods. I also have about 5 more tools just like it that I keep different shell holders in for quick use.
I also have the K&M tool which I don't much like.
My fall back tool is a RCBS bench tool. - Not the auto feed model just the simple one at a time hand feed version. It works with all shell holders in case I need to prime 43 Spanish or some other hull that I do not have a Lee shell holder to fit.

I've got two Lees. The one has been working for more than 20 years and at one point I was loading fairly high volume handgun with it.

I bought a spare connecting rod but have never needed it.

I think longevity may be a function of feel and a bit of grease on that rod.

I recently looked at others and that's when I bought another Lee!

I have used Lee and RCBS, ended up throwing them all away and replacing with K&M. It uses Lee shell holders and will last a lot longer than I will.
C.G.B.

I bought my first Lee hand priming tool 29 years ago and it is as good as new. I would hate to think how many thousands of rounds that little tool has loaded. I now have two Lee priming tools. I keep one set up for large primers, and one for small, that way I never have to change.

I've used the Lee (older version) round top and liked it a lot. I also had 2 of them set one for large primer and one for small primer. After 6 years and a lot of priming, one broke. The new one I ordered is the square top. Havent used it yet but have heard mixed reviews.

I tried the Hornady and the RCBS. Did not like either of tme compared to the Lee. And I'm not a Lee fan at all.

I'm hoping the new square Lee is as good as the older ones!

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
I still the old Lee hand prime tool with the screwing shell holders. I think I bought it in 1969. The connecting rod is pretty worn but I have a couple of replacement connecting rods. I also have about 5 more tools just like it that I keep different shell holders in for quick use.
I also have the K&M tool which I don't much like.
My fall back tool is a RCBS bench tool. - Not the auto feed model just the simple one at a time hand feed version. It works with all shell holders in case I need to prime 43 Spanish or some other hull that I do not have a Lee shell holder to fit.

I've got a couple of those tucked away in the drawer. They worked well, but the single-loading of primers was a pain compared to the convenience of the auto-feeding tray. However, in their day, they beat the whacky out of using the priming arm on most presses.

I do keep a Lee kit (can't remember what they call it) which screws into a press like a die and accepts the press shellholder, using an adapter where the shellholder normally goes in the ram to hold the primer. This kit allows you to prime any cartridge for which you have a shellholder. I use it occassionally with some oddball head sizes. For instance, I used it to prime the only batch of WSM cartridges I ever loaded as the WSM case, although its rim fits the regular belted magnum shellholder, is too fat to fit inside the opening of the Lee Auto Prime. The Lee press primer kit works better than most built-in press primer arms. Again, it is cheaply made of aluminum, but will never wear out or break, so what's the issue?

Thanks for all the replies, never thought of just checking for replacemnet parts for the one I have. Will do that and maybe buy a new Lee tool as it has provided good service and the K&M tool uses Lee shell holders.

BigB