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Loading Primer Tubes


Mountain Man Gramps

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I have a Hornady LNL AP press that works great.  But the worse part is loading primer tubes to drop into the primer feed tube on the press.  Does anyone know of a way to simplify and shorten the time needed, maybe even eliminate punching 100 primers into primer tubes?  I figure I'm not the only one with this gripe!

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I think that the Mr. Bullet feeder company makes a primer tube loading tool that will work with the Hornady press.  It works great with the Dillon.

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Keep your eye out for a Palvik primer tube loader. I found one on the Wire Classifieds about two months ago and really like it.

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I use a Frankfort Arsenal vibra-prime. I dont load into their tubes then transfer to Dillon tube, I took the end off Dillon tube and load it direct. You may need to polish off some rough edges in the feeder hole in the tray, then get the angle just right and they run down the tube like ants into a hole. Just takes a little experimenting. 

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 I use the Lee vibratory primer tube filler. It looks like a 1911. Like Mr. Hoss said, you have to get the angle right and smooth out a burr but when you do it works like a champ. I can load a tube in around 30 to 45 seconds.

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I don't get it. I can load a regular Dillon tube in about 45 seconds, don't need anything else.

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I have 16 small primer tubes and fill them while watching TV that will keep me loading nearly 3 hours and by then I am ready to stop anyway

I have tried the frankfort one and gave up on it.  I can load the tubes faster 

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Lots of good ideas.  Thanks everyone.

 

Amazon has the Frankfort Arsenal Vibra-Prime for $47.  Figured I’ll give that a try since it’s the least expensive. If I don’t like it, nothing lost, I can send it back.  From all the posts and ratings, deburring it seems to be the key to success.  Hoss, I like your idea of putting it on top of the press’s filler tube.

 

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A friend gave me a Frankfort Arsenal Vibra Prime when he found it would not work well with large primers (I mostly use small primers).  It works very well with small primers.  I contacted the company and they sent me a new tray for large primers but it still doesn’t feed well even after some sanding.

 

I found the Hornady 1911 style tool on sale.  It does a better job loading large primers but I find it more fiddly than the Vibra Prime.  

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PLUS ONE too Springfield Slim.

 

I have 10 Large and 10 Small for my Dillons (Plural).  It's no hassle at all to load a brick of primers all at once.  Simple Simon said the Primer Man.

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After a lifetime of picking primers by hand, I decided I wanted an easier system.

I tried a couple cheapo ideas and settled on the PALVIK after a demonstration by a fellow Cowboy.

It was/is the only system I have seen that allows "flipping" to proper position in its own tray; and absolute continual observation of each individual primer from flip to drop into the tubes.  the clear plastic lid lets me watch every primer throughout turning to dropping and notice any anomoly AND an easy stop and remove for any suspect primer before it drops.

 

On an earlier post I thought I was using about 15 minutes to fill  my 7 tubes,  BUT  I timed it yesterday and it took 8 mi. 37 sec to do 7 Dillon primer tubes.

 

 

Your mileage may vary..

 

Ol'  #4

 

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Double Alpha Primer Pro. I used a Frankfort Arsenal Vibra-Prime for years prior. You'll have to monkey around a bit with either from time to time, but I like the Double Alpha more than I did the Vibra-Prime. To each his own, but personally I HATE using pickup tubes.

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7 hours ago, Abe E.S. Corpus SASS #87667 said:

That would be a Hornady product.  I have one myself.

You are correct. Just had a brain fade at the time.

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I had a Frankford tube filler. With all the fiddling around I was faster filling tubes by hand. A few years ago I wanted to start shooting gunfighter. Since my left hand was my week and dumb hand I started making myself use the left hand to pick primers. I can now pick primers left handed as well as I can right handed. Even with all the left hand primer picking I still don't shoot gunfighter very well. 

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I gave up on the Frankfort Arsenal primer loading tool. Been looking at the Double Alpha machine.  

 

Currently loading tubes by hand.  I sit down with a brick of primers and 10 tubes and just fill 'em up. That lasts me 2 or 3 days if I'm on a loading binge. 

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39 minutes ago, Ripsaw said:

I gave up on the Frankfort Arsenal primer loading tool. Been looking at the Double Alpha machine.  

 

Currently loading tubes by hand.  I sit down with a brick of primers and 10 tubes and just fill 'em up. That lasts me 2 or 3 days if I'm on a loading binge. 

I have the  Double Alpha machine and I am very happy with it.

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Got this from Double Alpha

HI Bob,

 

I hope this finds you well.

 

Yes, we have something in the works for large primers, but it will be more of a manual operation, not fully automated. This should be available later this month/early next month. Keep a look out on our webstore.

 

Regards,

 

Josh Lentz
Sales & Technical Support
Alpha Dynamics USA

2908 Betz Court
Orefield, PA 18069
Tel: (610) 366-9752

 

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On 8/11/2020 at 2:23 PM, Mountain Man Gramps said:

I figure I'm not the only one with this gripe!

 

Howdy

 

I have probably been using my pair of Hornady Lock & Load AP machines for close to 20 years now.

 

I have three loading tubes each for large pistol primers and small pistol primers.

 

I have a short attention span and seldom load more than 200 rounds in a sitting. That means just filling two tubes up.

 

I do it the old fashioned way, picking the primers up one at a time after getting them all facing the same way in a shaker tray.

 

Takes me about 2 minutes to fill up 2 tubes.

 

Never been concerned enough about it to consider doing it any other way.

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10 hours ago, Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 said:

 

 

 

I do it the old fashioned way, picking the primers up one at a time after getting them all facing the same way in a shaker tray.

 

Takes me about 2 minutes to fill up 2 tubes.

 

Never been concerned enough about it to consider doing it any other way.

For me that does not seem fun.  I do the Old#4 Palvec method one tube at a time in the shop chair then stand up and 650 for a hundred then repeat.  I do 500 rounds at a loading session and then do something else.

 

Fordyce

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On 8/11/2020 at 11:32 AM, Yul Lose said:

Keep your eye out for a Palvik primer tube loader. I found one on the Wire Classifieds about two months ago and really like it.

I have had my Palvik for about 8 or 9 years works great love it ! Beats the hell out of loading them tubes by hand!

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44 minutes ago, Von Dutch, SASS # 7995 said:

I have had my Palvik for about 8 or 9 years works great love it ! Beats the hell out of loading them tubes by hand!

 

Unless you can find a used Palvik somewhere, they are no longer in production.

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Well, I received the Frankford Arsenal Vibra-Prime, smoothed out the burrs, and have loaded several hundred primers.  My verdict is that it will save considerable time which is my goal.  However, as Hoss and others said, it does take some practice.  You can't rush it and flood the "runway" or it will not load.  You need to feed the runway at just the right pace.  If you do, its pretty much like "ants running down the hole".  I can load 100 primers into the feed tube in 20 to 30 seconds.  For the $47 I [paid for it, it's worth it.  It's a lot faster than punching 100 primers into the tube.  I'm sure the Palvik or the Double Alpha units would work better, but the Frankfort Arsenal is less than half the price of a used Palvik if you can find one and one fourth the price of the Double Alpha.  For now it does the job at the most affordable price.

 

So far I've loaded only small pistol primers.  In the next week or two, I'll try some large rifle and see what happens. 

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I’ve loaded large rifle. No problem. 
to make lie easier take a sharpie and put an L on the large primer end if the tray. 
 

 

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