RCBS hand priming tool is driving me nuts.

I bought it because my lee hand primer will not prime my 500 S&W cases.

I thought the RCBS would be nice because it uses regular shell holders.

So far out of 22 cases I have put one primer upside down and three in sideways. I am now taking a break trying to get third sideways one out.

I got it out with a pocket knife and primed 50 cases being careful and watching for sideways primers. Saw two more flip over. The barrier bar flips them.

I thought I was going to retire my Lee hand primer but I can see it will still get most of the action as I will only pull out the RCBS when I absolutely have to.

Rant over, back to reloading.

I've tossed up which of these to buy for a time, I have the Lee primer tool in its single shot function & like it, I would like to go to an auto version & thought I might upgrade to the RCBS, probably won't now. I'm not familiar with the 500 S&W, (sounds scarey ) does it use big or small primers? just wondering if your problem may be related to primer size. If its doing it with big ones, then I'll for sure stay with the Lee.
Steve.

I am using small rifle primers.

My lee priming tool is the auto one. I had to modify it with a dremel tool to get it to feed WSM and Ultramag cartridges but the 500 S&W is just too big.

RMiller. I've got a RCBS hand priming tool that does not use shell holders. I've used it with both large and small primers without any problems. You might contact RCBS about any problems you're having. They have GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE...

I modified my Lee prime tool to take 416 Rigby cases in the days before anyone carried components for them, opened out the shell holder seat & used 45/70 shell holder, seemed to work just fine.
I wonder if the RCBS tool is happier with LR primers. If you ever get to trying this combination a report back would be good.Thanks.
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by RMiller:
RCBS hand priming tool is driving me nuts.

I bought it because my lee hand primer will not prime my 500 S&W cases.

I thought the RCBS would be nice because it uses regular shell holders.

So far out of 22 cases I have put one primer upside down and three in sideways. I am now taking a break trying to get third sideways one out.

I got it out with a pocket knife and primed 50 cases being careful and watching for sideways primers. Saw two more flip over. The barrier bar flips them.

I thought I was going to retire my Lee hand primer but I can see it will still get most of the action as I will only pull out the RCBS when I absolutely have to.

Rant over, back to reloading.

From your observation of the primers "tripping" over the barrier, I propose that the problem lies with insufficient clearance for these Rifle Primers (taller than pistol primers, right?) to get past the barrier. Perhaps the barrier is slightly out of position and you could fix it by some judicious tinkering.

I have a friend loading for his 500 S&W who has had no problems with his (brand new) RCBS hand priming tool. So I think it probably is something that RCBS will fix for you (probably by replacement with a new one that works) if they cannot fix it immediately over the phone.

Lost Sheep (Larry)

Been using two RCBS primers for years. One set up for small primers one for large. No problems. Make sure the lid is all the way down and stays that way. No way primers can turn if properly positioned to start with and the lid is in place.Also be sure that the tray discharge chute fits snugly into the loader (but not too far to prevent the primers from dropping).

quote:

Originally posted by RMiller:
I am using small rifle primers.

Make sure you are using the proper pieces when using small primers. IE. the two pieced plastic unit the shellholder sits on

Is it possible you are using the assembly for large primers inadvertantly?

To clarify a couple things.

I have only used small pistol primers so far.

Small pistol primers are the same height as small rifle primers. It is the large primers that have the height difference.

I did have the right parts in. Small primer parts are white.

I will go ahead and load some 454 casulls with it and see if it acts up again.

The only thing that I can see is maybe I did not have the feed tray all the way in. Otherwise the barrier bar is simply flipping the primers around.

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The primers it was flipping are the small pistol primers I was loading for my 25-20.

The RCBS tool just has a lot more quirks to it.

My lee primer I pressed the bar with my thumb. Which would do three things. It would allow gravity to feed the primers, shell plate opening would face me for easy loading of cases and the casemouth would be facing away from me.

It is a blow and go operation. It can prime as fast as I can move the brass.

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The RCBS tool seems perfectly built for a left hander. In my right hand I have to flick the tool to get a primer to get passed the barrier bar then I have to sqeeze the handle some to make sure an upright primer will be seated then I have to place a case and point the casemouth away from me best I can and set the primer.

Is is not blow and go. It is just slowed a bit by a couple extra steps. It helps to be able to position the shell holder in any position.
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O.K. I think that I did not have the feed tray all the way in. I only had 12 Casull cases to prime but I did not have to flick my wrist this time to get a primer to the loading bay. They just lined up like they are supposed to do.

Going to take some getting used to the new priming tool.

Must be operator error,mine works great,never a problem!

I had a Lee handprimer that broke after years of good service.

I then bought an RCBS because I was told -and believed- that is was of higher quality.

It´s OK but the Lee was better. The RCBS tends to sometimes seat primers unevenly and to leave a crecsent figure pressed on one side of the primer.

I´ve mostly used magnum rifle primers, large and small primers give me less problems.