Let’s face it: sometimes we need to reload the shell casings that we’ve bought over the years. This can be a great way to save money, because pre-primed shells can be much more expensive than shells you prime and reload yourself. In any situation, reloading casings for your firearm can be made easy by using a dedicate hand primer.
What Exactly is a Hand Primer?
A hand priming tool is a device that you can use to reload shell casings. These tools prime a casing, which prepares it for firing by seating a small charge of gunpowder into the base of the projectile. For the most part, how you prime a casing will depend greatly on the casing’s caliber. If you have a larger caliber casing, you’ll need larger primers and the same can be said with smaller caliber casings. Larger primers tend to grant more velocity to the projectile as they tend to utilize a larger amount of gunpowder and have a stronger ignition on the powder charge.
Today, you’ll find two types of primers: Berdan and Boxer. Berdan primers have the anvil inside the casing, whereas Boxer types of primers have the anvil inside of the primer itself. Berdan type primers tend to cost less, so you’ll find that many foreign militaries utilize this type of primer. Because of this construction, Berdan cases cannot be reloaded without an extensive and dangerous conversion process.
Safety
Safety when working with any type of primer is of the utmost importance. Simply put, these items are loaded with deadly gunpowder, which can cause you injury if you’re not careful. First and foremost, when hand priming ammo, utilize eye protection; it can save your vision. Also, ignited primers can produce a truly deafening sound, so when hand priming, be sure to also utilize the appropriate level of hearing protection. Typically, you can use the same earplugs or headsets that you use on a trip to the range or while hunting. The need for safety cannot be overstated; take every precaution that’s possible, the convenience of reloading your ammo casings isn’t worth injuring yourself with exploding primers.
The Process
Reloading a primer can be a relatively easy process. You simply purchase your large or small rifle or pistol primers; these typically come in a small box of 200 or so primers. For some hand primer devices, you’ll have to simply toss the primers into the tray and shake them so that they land heavy side down on the tray. For these types, you might even have to manually move them so that all of the primers are properly oriented. On the other hand, some priming devices can be loaded by simply pressing the primer holders onto the square shaped tray of the hand primer, which ensures that all of the primers are positioned with the same orientation.
Once in the tray, you’ll need to place your shell casing in the holding mechanism. The type of shell holding mechanism will vary based on whether or not you are using a universal hand primer or a shell holder-type hand primer. Our next section will explain how these work and how to prime from this point on with each.
Universal vs. Shell Holder Types
Universal: As the name suggests, this type of hand primer is designed to work with multiple types of casing brass. At the very top of the device, you’ll notice two jaws that are spring loaded. These jaws are meant to hold the brass ends of your casing, so that you’ll not have to constantly replace the shell holding assembly when working with multiple calibers and shell sizes. You simply load the shell into the jaws and squeeze the handle to seat the primer. Unfortunately, many gun owners feel that this type also has a couple of drawbacks.
Firstly, the jaws are spring loaded, so you can accidentally knock the casing off center. When this happens, when you try and load the primer, the mechanism can accidentally send your casing flying across the room, which is not the best situation. In addition to this, these types tend to use a thumb grip, which most users feel is not easy to close with just the thumb. When using this type, many indicate that a second hand is needed and when you are priming hundreds of bullets, your hand can become fatigued at best, and at worst become blistered.
Shell Holder: This type of hand primer requires a bit of extra work if you plan on priming casings of multiple sizes and calibers. Typically, the shell holder section of this device will need to be changed out when you need a different casing caliber. This isn’t very fatiguing, and most shell holder types snap on with ease. Since the holder is designed for the casing, you will be far less likely to have the case become misaligned during the priming process. Also, rather than a thumb grip, many shell holder, manual types have a finger grip that you squeeze with four fingers. This tends to be something that can be done with one hand and isn’t nearly as fatiguing or blistering as thumb-type grips. Unfortunately, many models of this type have no separation between the primers in the tray and the one being loaded, so if one goes off by accident, the others can cascade dangerously as well.
Top Rated Hand Priming Tools
Now that we have an idea about the priming process as well as the type of primers on the market, let’s take a look at some of the top models of hand primer on the market today.
Hornady Handheld Priming Tool
Our first product is by Hornady, a company that specializes in muzzle loading, ammunition, and reloading products. For this product, you’ll have to assemble it before your first use, and it’s during this assembly process that you’ll choose between the two included reversible primer trays, load in the primer grip system, load in the large and small priming mechanisms, and finally attach the shell holder. As mentioned previously, this device comes with two trays, a black one that is great for Hornady shell holders and a green tray designed for older and non-Hornady shell holders. Once assembled, you’ll find that this device is easy to grip and prime, with a system that uses gravity to load the primers into the shell holder for priming. In addition to all this, it’s really easy to prime with this device as it uses a finger grip system.
RCBS Universal Hand Priming Tool
RCBS specializes in bullet reloading, gunpowder, and casings. This unit is one of the better hand primers on the market and RCBS included a great universal casing holder that works very well with a plethora of casing types. This universal holder has a range that will accept 32 ACP to .45-70 government issued casings. The device comes with two primer trays for larger and smaller primers. Intelligently, each tray is ribbed so that all you’ll need is a few shakes for the bottom heavy primers to orient themselves for loading. In addition to this, RCBS even has included a patented safety gate that suspends each primer before loading. This ensures that when the unfortunate occurs, you won’t have an exploding primer that causes a chain reaction among its brethren. Like the Hornady model, this is an easy to prime device that uses a finger grip for priming.
Lee Precision Auto-Prime XR
Lee Precision’s site says that they are the “innovative leader in reloading equipment”, and clearly reloading is at the center of their corporate mindset. The Auto-Prime XR has a bevy of great, innovative features that make priming your ammo a cinch. Firstly, the tray features a channel that allows you to feed your primers into the priming assembly with relative ease. Like the RCBS model, this hand priming tool has a ribbed surface on the tray so that orienting your primers is easily done with a few shakes. This is a shell holder-type, so you may have to make additional purchases in order to accommodate different shell types. Also, while this is an absolute great model of hand primer, you’ll have to use your thumb when priming; a process that can cause blisters and fatigue.
Lee Precision Ergo Prime
This time around, Lee designed this hand primer to be a bit more ergonomic and easy to prime than the Auto-Prime XR. Using a finger-type grip will allow you to prime several cases without a whole lot of hassle and hand pain, making it perfect for those gun owners with aging hands. The tray type is virtually the same as the Auto-Prime, which is great considering that that model has an excellent tray design.
Reloading your casings is great once they are deprimed and ready for the process, but we can’t express enough how important safety is when you are hand priming your ammo. In addition to the models of hand primers we’ve featured here, you should invest in a loading block for your casings, a shell holder set if you are intending to purchase a hand primer of that type, and some protective gear for your face and ears.
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