Priming on down stroke with turret press . . .

P

Prof Young

New member
So I'm liking my Lee turret press a lot. But it does not seat primers as well as I would like on the "down stroke" primer seating function. I try to inspect every one and it's not uncommon to have to seat one deeper. Today I had one in the revolver that I missed inspection on and cylinder wasn't turning well cause primer was sticking out. I may go back to ram primer . . . we'll see.

Thoughts and words of advice are welcome.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I have the Lee CTP and when I prime on the downstroke, I prime then move the shell 180 degrees and prime again. This is especially important when using CCI primers. They seem to seat a little harder than others.

Russ P
 
But it does not seat primers as well as I would like on the "down stroke" primer seating function
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What is it you do not like? Some 50,000+ rounds on a Lee turret minor issues with priming.

it's not uncommon to have to seat one deeper. Today I had one in the revolver that I missed inspection on and cylinder wasn't turning well cause primer was sticking out.
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That is called a high primer. Not all brass is created equal. I am suspecting that there is inconsistencies in the amount of pressure you are applying on the down stroke. Pressure has to be consistent on the up and down stroke. You want to apply roughly 50 lbs of pressure on the down stroke for priming. Do not try to seat a high primer on a completely loaded round. Pull the bullet empty the case and then try to seat the primer to correct depth, between .004"-.007" deep. Picture attached are from trying to seat a primer on a completed round The piece of brass next to the dime is what the ER took out of my forearm. 7 stitches
 

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On my Lee Classic Cast turret it mattered how I oriented the shell holder if I was getting good primer seating. I normally have the shell holder pointed to the left for ease of installing the next case,but with this press I have to have the shell holder pointed more towards myself while loading to clear the primer seater plug. I'm guessing there is a clearance issue. Once I figured that out I had no problems at all using assorted cases from the major manufacturers. Also will add all I use are CCI primers.

Now the Auto Prime feature has been nothing but a struggle for me, but that is another topic.

Hope this helps.
 
I use to prime on the down stroke with the RCBS Rockchucker, I could feel the primer bottom , I uniform once every case with a uniformer all the pockets are the same depth. Now I use the RCBS ram priming tool. Works great.
 
Do not try to seat a high primer on a completely loaded round.

Don P., glad your ok. I get high primers on my Dillon 650 for the reason you stated. I've done but it's certainly not safe.

I recently had a case with a high primer damage one my side charging ARs. My first Kaboom in 25+ years of shooting ARs. The primer was a little high. I was aware but loaded the case and planned to ease the bolt down. But I let it fly. The case inserted into the chamber about 80% before it blew. Fortunately, the bullet went down range and with it most of the pressure. The case split and expanded at the base. Still stuck in the barrel. Hopefully it didn't damaged the barrel. Upper receiver and bolt appear to be find. But barrel extension may have a portion of one of the lugs blown out. The force was enough to rotated the barrel around slightly. Expensive lesson. A ER visit would've been even more expensive. I've learned my lesson. After seeing what a high primer can do, I won't try that again. Nor will I try and seat a high primer on my press again.
 
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^^^
Yikes!
Like many of us who reload, I've reseated plenty of high primers in live rounds.
Maybe not such a good idea, after all.
 
I have a couple ram primes on turrets for my Lee turret press. A couple turrets with free holes got a ram prime installed. It does take a bit of concentration and practice to get used to using the stock priming system on Lee's turret but the press needs to be solidly mounted and I would seat a primer, turn the case 1/2 way and apply a bit more pressure. I usually could get 100% good seated primers...
 
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I absolutely hate down stroke priming, a press is meant to work on upstroke, and there is no leverage going down.

I don't like the ram Prime all that much either, I always use my Rcbs hand primer.

That's not an answer for you. All that is is my opinion, my opinion that you are unfortunately stuck using what I consider to be the worst method possible. If you can, you should think about a hand primer tool that gives you absolute feedback, and an opportunity to check each one.
 
I have inserted 1000's of primers with the LCT system, and had only 3 instances where something was askew. Keep your eyes open, and the pocket of the primer plug clean, and you will have many happy hours of successful reloading.
 
I've primed both ways on my rockchucker and lyman turret. Never had primer alignment or seating issues on up or down stroke. Never had to turn the shell holder to make the primers work either. I "feel" the primers seat no matter how the stroke so I guess its a learned art.
 
I love my turret, but do all my priming off the press. I deprime brass, tumble clean, prime, then size on the press with the depriming Rod removed from the sizing die. This is for pistol rounds, for rifle all brass prep is done off the press, on the press I charge, then seat, then crimp and have one open station.
 
Yikes!
Like many of us who reload, I've reseated plenty of high primers in live rounds.
Maybe not such a good idea, after all.
Click to expand...

If my story and photos can change one person from trying to seat a primer deeper on a completed round that would be great. Folks I shoot with regularly even after seeing and hearing my adventure continue to try and re-seat primers on completed rounds. Truly foolish. With how far the brass piece traveled into my arm I'm just glad it didn't hit me in the face or torso. Safety glasses would have not stopped that from doing significant damage to the eye. Then came the insurance company, they denied the claim. I had to write a letter to the insurance company explaining what happened before they would pay the ER visit, by the way was a touch over $2,000 plus my out of pocket expense and 1 day loss of work due to being in the ER. Call me a sissy, lesson learned the HARD way:eek:
I found the bullet some 3 months later under a chair in my re-loading room. It hit the bottom of the turret and seeing the amount of damage to the lead bullet I am convince if it had hit me it would have penetrated the skin. I'll take some photos of the bullet and post them
 
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In all of the years I've handloaded. I've never blown a primer. I guess that that would be 0/10,000 or even 0/30,000.

To have one blow while carefully reseating a primer (I can't even guess how many times I have done that, but it probably isn't even 100. The probability of a cartridge going off as the primer is pressed a bit further must be absolutely astronomical, literally on in million, maybe billions. I would have to say that your chakras were misaligned, and the universe HATED you.
 
Dont do it.

I consider taking risks with loaded ammo such as reseating high primers or tumbling loaded rounds to be like playing russian roullette. Yeah you only got an 18% chance the cylinder will be hot. However,the consequences of that 18% are too high. My reloading room is directly below my sons bedroom. Nope. Nope. Not taking that chance. But in response to the original poster: ive used a lee classic turret and a lee classic cast. They both did ok with priming but neither one seated the primers exceptionally well. More often or not i would have to reseat (on an unloaded round) at least 1/3 of a batch. I now use the lee auto bench prime. Much better. Even with the auto prime though i visually inspect the primer depth then i set the brass down on my table which is perfectly flat and try to wiggle it. If it doesnt wiggle i know for sure the primer is flush with the brass.
 
I've never had a primer blow when reseating a high primer on my press. But I'm always careful and slowly increase the pressure until it seats. But after my experience at the range, I count myself lucky it's never happened on my press. Never again will I attempt to reseat a primer on loaded ammo. Too risky. I will pull the bullet, dump the power and then reseat the primer.
 
If you don't like your press's priming system, get an RCBS Bench-mounted priming system or get a hand-riming system.
For ALL press systems, priming is the biggest issue many have.
Experiment, call the manufacturer, prime separately, or sell the press.
For me, all my problems were from not using enough "force" on the handle—usually due to looking at something else going on at the press and not even really thinking about getting that darn primer seated.
Now, with my 1050s, high primers are due to a little wear in the system. Some day I'll have to take them in to Dillon for inspection and replacement.
 
I had a Lee hand primer which work pretty well, but haver a couple thousand primers it got to the point that even at full stroke it would not seat the primer all the way down. I bent the handle a touch (a dicey proposition with a cast iron piece) and got it to work again, but have since switched to a Ram prime. That was before I got the turret press. Will work with turret priming a bit more before I decide to switch back to the Ram.
Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I like the priming system on my 650. But when cranking the handling to pump out loads, I don't push hard enough LOL.
 
I had several high primers recently, which caused one of my revolvers to lock up temporarily. We cleared the gun, and set aside the rounds.

I gingerly pressed the primers in using the Dillon 550B. I did it with maybe 5 rounds.

Sounds like I was lucky.
I was wearing eye protection, but in a case like that it probably wouldn't have helped.

Since it happened, I take extra care to ensure the primer is seated fully. I even check the brass by standing it up on the bench to make sure no wobble exists.

I never had it happen before. I'm chalking it up to advancing age and not putting enough effort into the stroke.
 
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