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Any thoughts on what hand held priming tool might be easiest to squeeze?

alanw

Somehow I woke up old. (Three weeks to eighty.) I have a screw in each wrist and severe wrist arthritis. I have been using
strip fed RCBS hand priming tools for years and years but now with new cases I use both hands and still almostcan't seat a primer,
not to mention the pain. Any suggestions are welcome. I know I can seat with a press or one of the bench mounted lever
tools but would like to stay with a hand primer.

Thanks for your ideas.
 
I've used Hornady, RCBS and the Frankford. They all take about the same effort.
I like the Frankford one because primers don't flip over in the tray or in the section where the ram rod is.
 
I agree that the Frankford is the easiest of the hand held primers. I see that Lee makes one that is mounted to the bench that might make the operation easier.
 
alanw said:
Somehow I woke up old. (Three weeks to eighty.) I have a screw in each wrist and severe wrist arthritis. I have been using
strip fed RCBS hand priming tools for years and years but now with new cases I use both hands and still almostcan't seat a primer,
not to mention the pain. Any suggestions are welcome. I know I can seat with a press or one of the bench mounted lever
tools but would like to stay with a hand primer.

Thanks for your ideas.
Click to expand...
I use a Lee but it's mounted to a board, very easy. I had a hand held but it gave up the ghost.
 
A table mount like the Lee or RCBS would definitely be your best bet. Just mount it to a board that you can clamp down to your bench. When done priming, you can get it out of your way.
 
rijndael said:
My only wish is that it had a larger handle (girth), but that's easily fixed.
Click to expand...
You guys certainly beat me to it. I had to quit with a handheld priming tool for several reasons. Rijndael certainly hit it on the head. The width of the lever does make it a little painful since I had hand surgery but that can be easily remedied with a little American ingenuity. You do get seating force feel feedback with this tool. I bought an inexpensive primer flipping tool to help orient the primers to pick them up With the tubes.
 
Rheumatoid Arthritis has near totally paralyzed my left hand. Fortunately my right hand is still usable. Lately with multiple drug changes over the past 6 months I am now getting some use from my left hand. Point is...

Took one of my RCBS hand priming tools and put it in a vise. The tool may tip but set it so it wedges against the screw in the vice. Then I used my good hand to hold and move cases and primers while the bad hand side arm just pushed the lever to seat the primer.

It worked and I really did it for a couple months. Not shooting much if at all then but wanted to get cases ready. This weekend I am going to Manatee and trying to participate in a steel match. You have to adapt and the vise really did work.
 
David Milisock said:
I use a Lee but it's mounted to a board, very easy. I had a hand held but it gave up the ghost.
Click to expand...
I had an old Lee hand primer that was very good. I damaged it somehow and the new Lee I got just wasn’t as good as the older model. Then I tried a Lyman and didn’t care for it at all. Plus seating primers in military brass can be tougher than commercial. I had to give up on hand held primers anyway so went to the table mounted RCBS And haven’t looked pack.
 
CaptainMal said:
Rheumatoid Arthritis has near totally paralyzed my left hand. Fortunately my right hand is still usable. Lately with multiple drug changes over the past 6 months I am now getting some use from my left hand. Point is...

Took one of my RCBS hand priming tools and put it in a vise. The tool may tip but set it so it wedges against the screw in the vice. Then I used my good hand to hold and move cases and primers while the bad hand side arm just pushed the lever to seat the primer.

It worked and I really did it for a couple months. Not shooting much if at all then but wanted to get cases ready. This weekend I am going to Manatee and trying to participate in a steel match. You have to adapt and the vise really did work.
Click to expand...
Amen brother. There are really only two choices. You quit and waste away or you adapt. I have a friend that I fish with that’s fighting rheumatoid arthritis. I broke my back years ago but they got me back walking at least. We make a sorry looking pair but we get it done.
 
Last edited:
Following...because unfortunately, old Arther is catching up with me too, especially my hands and elbows. I seated 600 primers in September at one time and thought it was terrible. It's gotten worse just since then.
 
David Milisock said:
I use a Lee but it's mounted to a board, very easy. I had a hand held but it gave up the ghost.
Click to expand...
I agree. For years I used the Lee "Hand Prime", I had/have 2 of them. But like the OP I'm getting older and my hands hurt. So about a year ago I bought a Lee "Auto Bench Priming Tool". It has some shortcomings (primers don't alway feed smoothly), but overall I am extremely pleased. Very little effort, yet great feel when the primer bottoms out. Plus they are only about $50.
 
wkdickinson said:
I agree. For years I used the Lee "Hand Prime", I had/have 2 of them. But like the OP I'm getting older and my hands hurt. So about a year ago I bought a Lee "Auto Bench Priming Tool". It has some shortcomings (primers don't alway feed smoothly), but overall I am extremely pleased. Very little effort, yet great feel when the primer bottoms out. Plus they are only about $50.
Click to expand...
Only thing I can say is that I was there when a friend had primers go off in the tray of a Lee. Lucky it wasn't worse than it was and they might have fixed it since then. I suppose it could happen with any of them that hold a tray of primers but the safety gate, for lack of a better word, left a lot to be desired on his. It's easy to second guess things after something like that and hard to forget.

I've always been happy with my old rcbs hand primer but it takes some effort with newer brass and a bunch to do.
 
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