The Easy Way To Load A Lee Primer Tray

The easiest way I've found to load a Lee primer tray is to place the box of primers face down in the tray, slide back the cover half way to dump the first 50 primers, slide those primers to one side of the tray, then repeat the process for the last 50 primers, shake the tray until they're all flipped over, replace the tray lid, and tilt the primers to the side away from the opening, then tip it back toward the opening so all the primers slide over and create a logjam at the opening. Too fast or too slow and a primer or two will slide out the opening. Once you get the hang of it, you can usually create the logjam of primers in one or two tries. Once the logjam is formed, the primers won't readily come out of the primer tray, so it's very easy to load the primer tray into the primer feed trough.

In the past, I used a tool similar to the end of a pencil to try to keep the primers in the tray while I reached back behind the press and tried to insert the primer tray into the trough. Sometimes, a primer would flip as I was removing the tool that was keeping them in the tray. The no-tool method is much faster and easier for me. Once the primer tray is in place, I tap it a few times to fill the trough, although the normal action of the press would do that just as well.

The only trick to forming the primer logjam is the angle the tray is tipped. It's the sort of thing you'll determine quickly by trial and error. Large primers logjam much easier than small primers. Keep your thumb over the outlet of the primer tray to catch any primers that try to escape and you can practice until you get the hang of it. It's actually a fun little game I can play every hundred primers! :^)

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• Primer
• Tray
• LoadMaster
• Load
• Master
• Pro
• 1000
• Pro-1000
• AutoPrime
• Auto
• Prime

[nozzano22]

Any chance you are making and selling these?

[Liberty4Ever]

@nozzano22 Lee Precision makes a lot of reloading supplies including the primer tray shown in the video. The tray works with their priming systems. Some other reloading manufacturers make trays with the ridges that flip the primers when agitated, but most of them use the flip trays to orient primers before loading primer tubes, which feed more reliably than the tray that feeds primers via an inclined chute.

[blownhemi]

It's actually easier if you lay the primer tray on the bench rather than doing it on your leg. Imagine primers everywhere it it falls off your leg. :)

[Liberty4Ever]

True. There were a couple of other changes I made for the sake of a close-up video that aren't my usual practice. Normally, I dump all the primers at once instead of two different times. Shaking the primer tray is faster than trying to keep as many oriented correctly as possible. The important part is the log jam, and it's not as easy with small primers.

[shadowdog500]

Wow, im doing it that way from now on! Do you mind If I modify my video to show this method instead of the funnel?

[Liberty4Ever]

If you try the primer logjam and like it better than what you're doing, feel free to modify your video. But you need to send a $.02 royalty to me every time someone views your video. :^) Actually, I thought the funnel was clever, avoiding all that fussiness loading the tray.

[KillFrenzie]

Primers. They ignite gunpowder in cartridges.

[waif69]

I like the idea of loading half a box at a time, every time I would ump a whole box, I would drop a few.

[puffsters269]

wait what are those? and what do the ydo?

[LineRiderPro333]

what r those

[tnekkc]

Owee,  how many times have I done that?