With the arthritis in my hands getting worse, I'm looking into different priming methods. The less expensive hand priming tools I've used are painful. I have not tried the high end hand tools, they may be better, but I'd hate to spend $165 on a tool to find out that I can't use it. I've read a few positive reviews on the Forster and a lot of negative ones. Does the Forster allow you to seat by feel?
Yes, and no. You can feel the primer being seated, but the piston automatically stops at the same "correct" seating depth every time, so what's the point of "feel?" If you stop short of full stroke according to "feel," you will have inconsistent primer seating depths.
I'm a big fan of Forster in general, but not for this product. It's time-consuming and persnickety to set up and the lever is spring tensioned so if you let go of it after seating it jumps and vibrates and spits primers onto your bench. Very annoying. It's difficult to align a case with a primer, so I have to turn the case with my left hand as I slowly start to seat the primer with my right. You have to be careful loading the primer tube into the tool or you will spill primers. The best thing about it is the built-in primer tray that flips primers very well. I'll be happy to sell you mine cheap if you want to try it, because I never use it anymore. Let me know.
I always liked the built-in primer seater on my Forster Co-Ax press, although changing primer size is also a time-consuming and persnickety hassle with it. If you only load one size primer like I do now, you can set it and forget it. You can also adjust seating depth with it, and it has a built-in stop to keep you from seating too deep. There is no primer tube, so you load and seat primers manually one at a time. It would probably be easy on your arthritis.
For the past year or so I have been using the K&M Deluxe Hand Priming Tool, and it's the best priming tool I've ever used. Seating depth is finely adjustable, set-up is easy and quick, swapping primer size is easy and quick, feel is great, and primer alignment is always perfect. It's a very high-precision tool. It does not hurt my old hands at all to use it, although I don't have arthritis yet. I use both hands to wrap around it with both thumbs on the lever, and then squeeze. I can easily prime 50 cases in one sitting with no issues. It's a single-load priming tool, so there is zero hassle with primer tubes. I wouldn't trade it. I use a squeeze-to-open tweezer to pick up and load the individual primers in the tool. You have to buy a Lee Auto Prime Shellholder separately to fit whatever case you want to prime with it. I see Midway has both on sale now, if you want to try it.
