Thread: Federal primers in Lee Safety Primer Feed

I bought a Lee Breech Lock Challenger Press off the forum and it came with the Large and Small Safety Prime.

In one of the older Lee manuals I saw the warning DO NOT USE FEDERAL PRIMERS IN A LEE AUTO-PRIME. Anyone ever had an issue with Federal Primers in a Lee Safety Prime?


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All LEE priming equipment and presses has the same safety warning in relation to Federal primers. On their progressive presses like the Loadmaster, you can actually buy a factory "blast shield" in case a primer accidentally explodes on the press.

Basically it's because Federal primers apparently have softer cups, as compared to CCI, Remington etc.

I won't advise you either way, but based on my own personal experience, I only used Federal primers for over 30 years on almost all brands of presses and hand priming equipment ( including Lee) without incident.

These days, I use a LEE Auto Bench Primer for almost all my priming with Federal primers, and never had a problem.

Originally Posted by Xpat

All LEE priming equipment and presses has the same safety warning in relation to Federal primers. On their progressive presses like the Loadmaster, you can actually buy a factory "blast shield" in case a primer accidentally explodes on the press.

Basically it's because Federal primers apparently have softer cups, as compared to CCI, Remington etc.

I won't advise you either way, but based on my own personal experience, I only used Federal primers for over 30 years on almost all brands of presses and hand priming equipment ( including Lee) without incident.

These days, I use a LEE Auto Bench Primer for almost all my priming with Federal primers, and never had a problem.

Thanks @Xpat


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Originally Posted by Mauser308

Ear protection, eye protection, point the thing away from your face or rig a clear plastic shield up to divert the gas away. Ear protection is a must, try loading up a primer only and popping it...

I am only planning to use the Lee Safety Prime on the Lee Press itself. Do you by any chance have a picture of what a shield like that should look like?


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In my reloading career I have had two primer detonations on the press, it does happen!
Once on a RCBS gren machine ...which is an inline press instead of a rotary style of progressive press. A bit of grit must have gotten under the platform as it travelled along to the priming station.
The primer in question was a Federal small pistol primer
The other was on a Dillon 1050, when the primer was punched out it was cracked so only the cup base came out, leaving in effect a ring within the primer pocket. when the pressure came on to seat a new primer..... bang.
The primer in question was a Winchester small pistol primer

On both occasions it was a hell of a shock, one of the down sides to loading enmass is that the time taken to inspect each case is minimal.
But probably wouldnt have prevented the event.

Used Federal primers in my Lee hand priming tool for 30+ years along with a number of other primer brands and have never had a primer detonation