Blr s tip of the day

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Blr s tip of the day

Post by Blr243 » 18 Jul 2021, 2:30 pm

I prime with an old lee hand priming tool. And I probably will do so till the day I die simply because it Is the way I was taught. ....but some primers being harder to seat, age and arthritis I can’t do it with the strength of one thumb anymore so it Is a two handed operation now .....I decided to add a little few drops of oil to the internal parts of the lee tool and bugger me it makes a huge difference and my thumbs are loving it ......what I thought was primer / Pocket resistance Was actually a tool issue. Now the priming process is so much quicker and easier the primers are nearly jumping into the pockets all by them selves
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by ZaineB » 18 Jul 2021, 2:34 pm

bravo, now you can go back to enjoying reloading instead of lamenting the repriming hehe.

I can remember absent mindedly priming brass and grabbed a few of the 223 hornady frontier shells and wondering wtf is wrong with this thing, the frontier ammo has crimps on the primer pocket, luckily primers were cheap and a plenty then, looking a bit scarcer now.
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Bugman » 18 Jul 2021, 2:48 pm

I too, use a hand primer regularly. Good tip and thanks for the good oil. :thumbsup:
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by deye243 » 19 Jul 2021, 12:40 am

Blr243 wrote:I prime with an old lee hand priming tool. And I probably will do so till the day I die simply because it Is the way I was taught. ....but some primers being harder to seat, age and arthritis I can’t do it with the strength of one thumb anymore so it Is a two handed operation now .....I decided to add a little few drops of oil to the internal parts of the lee tool and bugger me it makes a huge difference and my thumbs are loving it ......what I thought was primer / Pocket resistance Was actually a tool issue. Now the priming process is so much quicker and easier the primers are nearly jumping into the pockets all by them selves


This is why I use these .

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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by animalpest » 19 Jul 2021, 9:18 am

I too now need to use 2 hands.
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Gamerancher » 19 Jul 2021, 11:37 am

I've primed 10's of thousands of cases with the old Lee hand primers, never had a problem until a mate lamented that they break the handles.
Yep, you guessed it, handle broke the very next time I used one, ba$tard jinxed me. Luckily at the time you could still buy replacements for that model, ( $4 )
bought a couple of spares and haven't broken one since.
A bit of maintenance, they need cleaning occasionally and some lube and they work just fine. Had a bloke visit once so I could help him with load development for his Sharps blackpowder cartridge rifle, he reckoned he'd never used a better tool for priming, wanted to buy one off me, no chance mate.
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Blr243 » 19 Jul 2021, 11:48 am

I was always nervous about handle breaking too being cast alum .. I don’t think it’s possible to buy the old model any more Now with lubed internals it’s less likely to break
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by GQshayne » 22 Jul 2021, 8:37 pm

I never liked the Lee tool, so just used the press to seat them. I now have a hopper to fit on the press that holds quite a lot of primers, and find it works well. I was using the Lee tool as a teenager, so perhaps as an adult I may have liked it better.

Old now, and have bad hands, so its too late to go back to it! LOL
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Blr243 » 22 Jul 2021, 8:43 pm

Threw some winny primers In some new star line 4570 cases a couple of days ago And I was back on the one thumb Only required method thanks to the oil in the guts of the tool , not done it single handed for decades
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by disco stu » 22 Jul 2021, 9:13 pm

And all this time you thought you were getting weaker!
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by boingk » 22 Jul 2021, 10:48 pm

Thats the way mate, maintain those tools and you'll be sorted forever!

If you ever want the ultimate non-fatiguing lubricant get your hands on some Lanotec which uses lanolin from sheeps wool as the lubricating element. Its in a sky-blue and white pack and is under $20 a can from Supercheap last time I bought some. The bloody stuff is unkillable. Smells good too IMO.

I do ram-prime with the turret press. Spent cases to ready rounds in a few pumps, love it.
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Tiger650 » 22 Jul 2021, 11:03 pm

I have two "autoprime" hand tools and both are s#it.
Primers jam in the feed trays and half feed etc, waste of money.
I prime on the press with a Lee die, easy to tell when a primer has bottomed, also easy to pick up a primer pocket that is a little loose.
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by bigpete » 24 Jul 2021, 10:04 am

Yep,bit of lube goes a long way ! ( thats what she said )
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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by Oldbloke » 24 Jul 2021, 5:02 pm

Tiger650 wrote:I have two "autoprime" hand tools and both are s#it.
Primers jam in the feed trays and half feed etc, waste of money.
I prime on the press with a Lee die, easy to tell when a primer has bottomed, also easy to pick up a primer pocket that is a little loose.


So, are you using the Lee Ram Prime tool? Been wondering about them.

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Re: Blr s tip of the day

Post by boingk » 24 Jul 2021, 8:18 pm

Oldbloke wrote:So, are you using the Lee Ram Prime tool? Been wondering about them.

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No as fast as a good handheld or the integrated ram-prime-n-feed press system on my Lee turret press, but considering its a cheap part it works well.

The fact its included with the Lee hand press kit makes that kit in particular bloody good value - you get a press, priming tool, powder funnel and proper sized tube of case lube for about $120. Some hand primers alone run more than that.

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