I'm Going Back To Hand Priming

[Ninety Caliber]

You have to do it to appreciate it. Once you add the Safety Prime and the Pro Auto to a auto indexing Classic Turret and get everything dialed in just right then it all falls into place. There is no swapping of dies, you only touch the brass to put it in the shell holder and remove it, and a few strokes of a lever later you have created a completed cartridge. People bash that you have to pull the arm multiple times and it is true but it just works. There is no shell plate rotation to bungle up, priming is positive in a way I wasn't used to on a press, and it's very easy with a steady pace and an economy of motion it's easy to have a 200 or so loaded an hour pace. Now I admit it's easy to double that with a progressive but then you lose the ease of caliber change out, primer tray refilling, and no jamming. The Pro Auto with the disks is near bullet proof in that your powder volume doesn't drift any unless you run the powder too close to empty and the rotating turret really helps refill the cavity in use each time. It's hard to say it's a disadvantage but flat out it will never be as fast as a true progressive. But I swear I use my Classic Turret more than I use my Hornady LNL AP because it's just so much easier. If one wants to prime off the press then I won't argue but I will make the point that the Safety Prime while it can be a bugger to set just right is the best priming on the press I've ever used. On the rare occasion I don't use the turret and use a single stage I still like to prime on the Classic turret.

Absolutely agree. I have friends with the "blue" equipment and if you add ALL the prep time to the actual load time (loading primer tubes etc) a progressive is not that much faster. I've used several different progressives but on the Turret the Safety Prime is the bomb!!

[Scott1911]

I've had only minor problems with safety prime on my turret press. Once in a while I have a problem with a Winchester primer (softer than CCI ?), but only a few issues. After about 8,000 rounds I have a good feel for priming. I did wear one safety prime out and had to replace it (small primer), but other than that it's go/go/go

[Steve]

I just finished priming a thousand 380 auto cases on the RCBS bench primer. Did it while watching TV over the past couple days. I timed filling a primer tube, it took 1 min 52 sec for 100 primers so I don't find it very time consuming. And it's not time lost because like I said I did it while watching TV.

I enjoy the time priming/inspecting cases nearly as much as loading them. Tomorrow I will start loading on the Loadmaster which runs like a watch since I quit priming on it.