I just purchased a Lee Reloading manual and it seems that Lee has something against Federal primers. Is there a long running feud between the two companies or are Federal primers as dangerous in his primer tools as he lets out to be.

My buddy had a Federal 210 go off when seating with his RCBS tool. Apparently they are a bit sensitive

Federal has a rep. fo rmaking a sensative primer. This is either good ro bad depending on the use. I load Federals in my Dillon w/ no problem. Lee is just doing CYA incase someone touches off an entire tray.

Interesting. All I ever use are Federal primers in my Lee autoprime tool. Never had a problem.
Seems to me that the primer doesn't care what tool seats it.

Don

On my Lee, the lever that seats the primer is narrow at the contact point, should be wider, I think. It is easy to distort the primer with a setting a little too tight.

Lee claims that Federal and Remington primers "dust" too much, making for an unsafe
condition with their primer feeds

quote:

Originally posted by MichiganScott:
Lee claims that Federal and Remington primers "dust" too much, making for an unsafe
condition with their primer feeds

What does "dust" too much mean?

Don

quote:

Originally posted by wymple:
On my Lee, the lever that seats the primer is narrow at the contact point, should be wider, I think. It is easy to distort the primer with a setting a little too tight.

The seating plunger of the Lee tool is the full diameter of the primer, either .210" for large or .175" for small. Whatever could you mean by "the contact point should be wider"? You can't make the contact point effectively any wider than the primer. In fact, unless you could contour the plunger face to exactly match the radius of the primer, a flat face plunger, no matter what its diameter, will only contact the flat portion of the primer cup's bottom face.

quote:

Originally posted by rltaylor:
I just purchased a Lee Reloading manual and it seems that Lee has something against Federal primers. Is there a long running feud between the two companies or are Federal primers as dangerous in his primer tools as he lets out to be.

Federal primers are supposedly softer/easier to set off than CCI's, for example. But I have never had a primer of any kind fire when it was being seated in a cartridge case, using a variety of different priming tools, including the Lee. Just take it easy, and nothing horrific will ensue......

I never had a problem with Federal Remingtion CCI or Winchester primers, then again I never used Lee tools either. I always thought of them as being a bit on the junky side. RCBS I have some tools that I still use and I bought them in 1968. Of late I been a real fan of Redding and Sinclair. In just about 40 years of Handloading, I had just two primers not light the fire. Both were Remingtons, one didn't have the anvil and the other my guess case lube got to that one. One of the few times I ever used that fancy RCBS bullet puller I bought in '69. Back when I started handloading it was must have or so they said at the store.

I have loaded several hundred thousand rounds of handgun ammo with a Star Progressive Machine.

Any machine with a primer tube can have a build up of primer dust.

Just clean the tube and the automatic primer seating mechanism every 3 to 5 thousand rounds or so and you will not have any problems.

I've never seen any primer dust in either of my Lee Automrime tools. And, I've seated thousands of primers with them.
As mentioned above, seating primers responsibly will never result in a primer exploding in the tool, whether it be a Lee or any other tool.

Don

I've never had a problem, issue, kaBoom, etc. with Federal primers in my Lee AutoPrime and I use Federal primers exclusively.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by wymple:
On my Lee, the lever that seats the primer is narrow at the contact point, should be wider, I think. It is easy to distort the primer with a setting a little too tight.


The seating plunger of the Lee tool is the full diameter of the primer, either .210" for large or .175" for small. Whatever could you mean by "the contact point should be wider"? You can't make the contact point effectively any wider than the primer. In fact, unless you could contour the plunger face to exactly match the radius of the primer, a flat face plunger, no matter what its diameter, will only contact the flat portion of the primer cup's bottom face.

I use the large primers, apparently have the smaller plunger. I'm new at this, did not know there were 2 different plungers. It's the only one that came with my Lee Master Loader.

quote:

Originally posted by wymple:

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by wymple:
On my Lee, the lever that seats the primer is narrow at the contact point, should be wider, I think. It is easy to distort the primer with a setting a little too tight.


The seating plunger of the Lee tool is the full diameter of the primer, either .210" for large or .175" for small. Whatever could you mean by "the contact point should be wider"? You can't make the contact point effectively any wider than the primer. In fact, unless you could contour the plunger face to exactly match the radius of the primer, a flat face plunger, no matter what its diameter, will only contact the flat portion of the primer cup's bottom face.

I use the large primers, apparently have the smaller plunger. I'm new at this, did not know there were 2 different plungers. It's the only one that came with my Lee Master Loader.

When you order the Lee Autoprime tool, you can specify whether you want one for large primers or small.
All you need to do is call Lee and order a Large plunger to convert yours. I bought two Lee auto prime tools, one set up for each type primer. Saves screwing around changing back and forth.

Don

I asked the question because all I've ever used are Federal 210 and 215 and I have never (knock on wood) had any problems loading them with my Lee Primer tool. Recently I bought an RCBS priming tool so I quess the problem is solved but I was curious as to why Lee was so adamant about the issue. Thanks everyone for your replies.

Funny Lee never said anything about this with the original primer tool which has been around nearly 40 years. I have use one to load many thousands of primers with never a problem....except when I seated one upside down....

At one time Lee advised not to use Federal primers with their tool. I think this started the fued. Its kinda the same with Sierra, they advised agains the Lee factory crimp dies and now Lee is often critical of Sierra bullets. The old tit for tat.

Federal primers are a little more sensitive, so I suspect that is the rub. When I bought my Lee Autoprime it came with both plungers, so I never worried about it.

When I had a trigger job done on my 657, the smith did ask if I was going to use Federal primers so he could determine which spring to put in. When I said CCI, he put in a heavier spring.

quote:

Originally posted by BearHunter 62:
At one time Lee advised not to use Federal primers with their tool.

Here is the verbatim warning from Lee's website:

"Users have reported that the primers in the tray of an Auto Prime can explode for various reasons, some of which include: a cocked primer, or an attempt to prime a case which has a primer already in place, or more than one primer on the punch, or priming a military case with the crimp not completely removed. Should an explosion occur, our tests have demonstrated that safety glasses will normally prevent serious injury to the user if CCI or Winchester primers are used, because the explosion is minimal. Other primers, however, can explode with sufficient force to seriously injure the user, or persons nearby. We do not take any position with respect to the quality or performance of primers available on the market. However, only those primers manufactured by CCI or Winchester are recommended for use in the Lee Auto Prime, and when loading those primers, safety glasses should always be used. No other primers should be used with the Lee Auto Prime."

Heeding Lee's clear warning caused me to buy the RCBS hand primer. It is a safer design and included both size priming plugs.

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