What Priming Tool to Buy

[nettle]

I have never owned a primer that had an adjustable setting. I would venture it would take a little time to get used to the feature.

 

[Benchrest Braxton]

I have never owned a primer that had an adjustable setting. I would venture it would take a little time to get used to the feature.

my method is:

take around 10 random cases and primers and measure each of them.

take deepest primer pocket measurement (ex - 0.130)
take thinnest primer thickness (ex - 0.128)

you would need to be 2 thou below flush to ensure primer anvil contact to the bottom of the pocket.

I go 2 thou below that yet (4 though below flush) to ensure each primer is crushed and sensitized no matter the scenario.

 

[Conaso]

I don't understand how these precision primer seaters maintain consistency. Primer pocket uniformers baseline is the bottom of the rim, where the name/caliber is imprinted. Don't these precision units base themselves off the top of the rim. Won't variable rim thickness cause inconsistencies unless rim thickness sorting is accomplished? Buying quality brass will mitigate the issue.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

-Gen III Super Precision Click Head Bench Rest Priming Tool

Primer seating is an often overlooked yet important aspect of reloading. How a primer is seated affects the safety, reliability and accuracy of a load. Primers consist of three main components: the primer cap, the impact sensitive priming mixture, and the anvil. The anvil is three pronged and...

21stcenturyinnovation.com

 

[boltfluter]

I don't understand how these precision primer seaters maintain consistency. Primer pocket uniformers baseline is the bottom of the rim, where the name/caliber is imprinted. Don't these precision units base themselves off the top of the rim. Won't variable rim thickness cause inconsistencies unless rim thickness sorting is accomplished? Buying quality brass will mitigate the issue.

Your assessment is right on the money. All is for naught if the primer pocket is not uniform in depth. In reality, all these expensive, high leverage priming tools are just crushing the primer to make the numbers appear impressive to the end user. Think about it........before you dismiss this simple statement. Now you can throw me under the bus! Lol. Carry on.
Paul

 

[Mastershot]

nice set up! how are you liking it so far?

Love it, I retired my rock chucker and went with the zero press on black friday sale. I just got my ugly’s setup last week, been playing around with it on dummy loads while checking seating depth.

 

[p5200]

All my shooting habits can be satisfied with just my RCBS hand primer. Having what's called trigger fingers and a trigger thumb, it gets quite painful anymore lol! Especially when a couple fingers lock closed. Using the other hand to pull them back open really sucks. I'm suppose to be getting set up for surgery before long. Hope the results are good.

 

[Mastershot]

All my shooting habits can be satisfied with just my RCBS hand primer. Having what's called trigger fingers and a trigger thumb, it gets quite painful anymore lol! Especially when a couple fingers lock closed. Using the other hand to pull them back open really sucks. I'm suppose to be getting set up for surgery before long. Hope the results are good.

I am done with my rcbs hand primers, I have two torn rotator cuffs right now. Just do not have what it takes to prime virgin brass.

 

[p5200]

I know what you mean, those injections I get in both of mine are a real pain. They help for a while but that's all.

 

[p5200]

My Forster Coax Press has a primer at the top of it. It seems like a lot of trouble to set up for use. I gave up trying to use it and started using my hand primer.

 

[bozo699]

A dead bear is like a bowl of jello, the rope is so I can drag out the bear or hang myself, whoever gets treed first.

If this thread keeps going you might opt for number two
Wayne

 

[jpjulian]

My hands are giving me more and more problems. I ordered a PCPS and a couple shell holders from Amazon today. It's going to take me a month or so before I can try it out, (still on winter hiatus in Florida away from my equipment). The Primal Rights unit is just too rich for my blood.

 

[muleystalker]

All my shooting habits can be satisfied with just my RCBS hand primer. Having what's called trigger fingers and a trigger thumb, it gets quite painful anymore lol! Especially when a couple fingers lock closed. Using the other hand to pull them back open really sucks. I'm suppose to be getting set up for surgery before long. Hope the results are good.

I know your pain, I have both trigger fingers and thumb, I have done injections in the past and they helped but lately I can feel it coming back especially my thumb. Hope it works out. Thats the reason I went with the CPS primer tool.

 

[TylerFromMS]

I just got done with my first 200 out of the uglyannealing primer. I’m sold. Stuck it in a Zero and when it hits the bottom of the die, no matter how hard you push, it’s in as far as it goes. Bonus points- you can use same shell plate/holder for priming as pointing bullets.

 

[BoydAllen]

I don't understand how these precision primer seaters maintain consistency. Primer pocket uniformers baseline is the bottom of the rim, where the name/caliber is imprinted. Don't these precision units base themselves off the top of the rim. Won't variable rim thickness cause inconsistencies unless rim thickness sorting is accomplished? Buying quality brass will mitigate the issue.

There is one hand priming tool that does not index depth off of the front of the rim, the Sinclair. To use it you unscrew the top about a quarter turn, screw it down until the case is tight and then prime. A very good test of depth consistency was done that showed that the Sinclair was the most consistent, a lot more consistent than a $600 bench model. As a personal aside, I do not seat by depth, but rather by feel. I own the Sinclair tool that was used for the test.

 

[TylerFromMS]

@BoydAllen I’m going to throw this out there- measure the rim to bottom of primer pocket measurement. Easy enough with a shellholder and a depth mic down the middle of it. They’re usually stupid consistent.

Think about the shellholder on a “traditional” priming tool- 21st century, rcbs, CPS, etc… Another thing that grabs a case like that is the extractor on your bolt, which holds it in place, especially if you have a spring ejector.

Which is more important to ignition/timing: Case head to primer or primer to the top of the rim?

I have no clue, but it’s one of those things that I wonder about. I use Pandas with the TG ejector, so it’s a moot point to me anyways

 

[BoydAllen]

@BoydAllen I’m going to throw this out there- measure the rim to bottom of primer pocket measurement. Easy enough with a shellholder and a depth mic down the middle of it. They’re usually stupid consistent.

Think about the shellholder on a “traditional” priming tool- 21st century, rcbs, CPS, etc… Another thing that grabs a case like that is the extractor on your bolt, which holds it in place, especially if you have a spring ejector.

Which is more important to ignition/timing: Case head to primer or primer to the top of the rim?

I have no clue, but it’s one of those things that I wonder about. I use Pandas with the TG ejector, so it’s a moot point to me anyways

I doubt that my Viper's extractor (same extractor style as a Panda) has so tight a clearance on the rims of my cases that it is what determines the position of the case with the bolt is closed, since my bump is usually no more than .001 as compared with the measurement of a case that is a tight fit shoulder to head. BTW for my action the difference between the bolt handle dropping (no ejector, FP assembly removed) and the bolt handle staying where ever I put it, with minimal resistance is only .0005.

 

[nettle]

I did make kinda a critical mistake that I will need to make a
part 3 to resolve.

After getting a few comments from some folks saying they don't need to pull anywhere near as hard as I was on the primal rights unit to get good consistency, I decided to revisit this by trying a few cases out by just going to the bottom of the stroke with normal force.

By not putting significant amount of force this time, I was coming up about 2 thou short of my old set point. I dialed it 2 clicks deeper and voila, back to my old seating depth setting without the extra effort.

My thought process as to why I believe I was unsuccessful with this before is because the unit was brand new and still had some tolerance stacking that needed to be broken in (primal rights states this)

Overall I still give the win to the ugly/derraco unit due to the price point when it comes to precision.

Carl is working on something to speed up the process with the ugly/derraco unit. Whenever that gets released I will make a part 3 speed test.

My primer die came today. Set it up a tried a few rounds. A Ginex LR primer hasn't got a chance with one of these dies in a T7. Seating is effortless and smooth as butter. Much better than my RCBS Bench Primer.

 

[Benchrest Braxton]

I don't understand how these precision primer seaters maintain consistency. Primer pocket uniformers baseline is the bottom of the rim, where the name/caliber is imprinted. Don't these precision units base themselves off the top of the rim. Won't variable rim thickness cause inconsistencies unless rim thickness sorting is accomplished? Buying quality brass will mitigate the issue.

did you watch my video? i had +/- 0.0005" though with ease.....lapua brass though

 

[Benchrest Braxton]

There is one hand priming tool that does not index depth off of the front of the rim, the Sinclair. To use it you unscrew the top about a quarter turn, screw it down until the case is tight and then prime. A very good test of depth consistency was done that showed that the Sinclair was the most consistent, a lot more consistent than a $600 bench model. As a personal aside, I do not seat by depth, but rather by feel. I own the Sinclair tool that was used for the test.

even though i highly respect bryan, i feel his assessment of the cps was erroneous. some sort of user error, his consistency numbers were WAY out of line with what that unit is capable of.

Only way his numbers were that bad was if he had the worst lot of brass for rim thickness in history. did you watch my video where i achieved sub +/- 1/2 thou consistency with my cps and ugly pcps?