Posted By: Kawabuggy
Anybody Else Have Problems With New RCBS Hand Primesr? - 01/17/16 09:17 PM
I've had an RCBS hand primer (both the universal & caliber specific) for years and never had any problems. They both ran great right out of the box.
Recently I've been loading a lot of 6.8SPC with small primers and wanted a dedicated hand primer for the small rifle primers. Bought a brand new RCBS (cal. specific) so that I would not have to convert one of my existing hand primers back and forth between large & small primer.
Got the new hand primer in and it comes set up for large primer. The small primer parts are included in the box. No big deal. Took all of 2 minutes to swap everything over. Here's where the problems start.. The primers will not move all the way into the channel. Without a case in the case holder, you can lean the tool over to allow the primers to feed into the load window and they keep stopping halfway. They will not come over fully into the window. As you can imagine this locks up the tool because the priming pin can't come up as the primer is wedged half-in, half-out of the window. It occurs to me that I could start widdling away at the plastic to see if I can open the channel a little larger-BUT-should I have to do this with a brand new product?
I thought maybe using it a little bit would loosen it up. I would basically lean the tool over and let a primer start to feed in, then when it got stuck, I would pull the primer tray out and then push the primer fully into the feed channel with a small screwdriver. Well, after doing this 20 times, I just gave up. I can see that two plastic pieces that are pinched together and held together by the case holder just are not formed/machined very well. I guess I could wait and call RCBS on Monday and I'm sure they will send new/replacement parts out to get me going but I really needed to prime 300 cases TODAY.
The other thing-has anyone else noticed how cheaply the primer trays are being made now? When I was first trying to get the primers to go fully into the feed channel I lightly-and I mean very lightly-tapped the primer against my knee.. Immediately the cheap plastic cover popped off and all of my primers spilled to the floor. I could see it coming off if I was whacking on it, but I gently bumped it against my knee and the cover just popped up and primers rained down. I remember now why I kept a rubber band on the old tray to keep the lid on, and all the primers in place. Even just moving the hand primer around in my hand the lid wanted to pop up and the primers in the tray were flipping over. It looks like RCBS has gone the same way with their quality as many other companies. The fit, finish, and function of this newest hand primer pales in comparison to my two older units. It's a shame too because I spent more on it than I would have had I gone cheap and bought a LEE unit, and the Lee unit probably works better.
Recently I've been loading a lot of 6.8SPC with small primers and wanted a dedicated hand primer for the small rifle primers. Bought a brand new RCBS (cal. specific) so that I would not have to convert one of my existing hand primers back and forth between large & small primer.
Got the new hand primer in and it comes set up for large primer. The small primer parts are included in the box. No big deal. Took all of 2 minutes to swap everything over. Here's where the problems start.. The primers will not move all the way into the channel. Without a case in the case holder, you can lean the tool over to allow the primers to feed into the load window and they keep stopping halfway. They will not come over fully into the window. As you can imagine this locks up the tool because the priming pin can't come up as the primer is wedged half-in, half-out of the window. It occurs to me that I could start widdling away at the plastic to see if I can open the channel a little larger-BUT-should I have to do this with a brand new product?
I thought maybe using it a little bit would loosen it up. I would basically lean the tool over and let a primer start to feed in, then when it got stuck, I would pull the primer tray out and then push the primer fully into the feed channel with a small screwdriver. Well, after doing this 20 times, I just gave up. I can see that two plastic pieces that are pinched together and held together by the case holder just are not formed/machined very well. I guess I could wait and call RCBS on Monday and I'm sure they will send new/replacement parts out to get me going but I really needed to prime 300 cases TODAY.
The other thing-has anyone else noticed how cheaply the primer trays are being made now? When I was first trying to get the primers to go fully into the feed channel I lightly-and I mean very lightly-tapped the primer against my knee.. Immediately the cheap plastic cover popped off and all of my primers spilled to the floor. I could see it coming off if I was whacking on it, but I gently bumped it against my knee and the cover just popped up and primers rained down. I remember now why I kept a rubber band on the old tray to keep the lid on, and all the primers in place. Even just moving the hand primer around in my hand the lid wanted to pop up and the primers in the tray were flipping over. It looks like RCBS has gone the same way with their quality as many other companies. The fit, finish, and function of this newest hand primer pales in comparison to my two older units. It's a shame too because I spent more on it than I would have had I gone cheap and bought a LEE unit, and the Lee unit probably works better.