Shoulder pain from reloading

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I am a new reloader and have loaded about only 300 rounds of 9mm total. My shoulder has been in pain to the point I had to take ibuprofen. I think it comes from pressing in the primers with my lee turret press. Also I understand that winchester primers are hard. I think I am going to get a Lee auto bench priming tool https://www.midwayusa.com/product/97850 ... iming-tool Besides I have had a hard time feeding those damn primers into the holder, they tend to fall off almost as soon as the cup goes away from the feeder thing. I had one fall on the floor of my office and it took forever to find it (at least I have clean floors now) I was afraid that my 5 year old daughter might swallow it or that it would ignite if rolled over with my chair. The Lee auto bench priming tool seems to feed the primers much better than the safety prime. Does anyone have experience with it?

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Pomme wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 9:02 pm I understand that winchester primers are hard.
the "hardness" has nothing to do with installing the primer in the brass. It's a reference to how much it takes to set off the primer.

while a little bit of force is required to seat the primer is more of a firm push to seat, not a "bearing down" on the press. if you are expiencing pain, something is not right.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Meh, try different heights or even sitting down. If it hurts, you're doing it wrong...
I have the Lee turret press and don't have issues with priming brass. I'm sitting in front of the press and pulling down on the handle.

Maybe check using different kinds of brass or spend some time cleaning out the primer pockets.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I find Winchester primers easier to seat than CCI, though neither gives me any trouble with needing lots of force. I'm wondering what kind of brass you're using that's giving you so much trouble-- Sellier and Bellot is really tight and I've had trouble with priming on those, but not, say, Starline. If it's new brass, you might try tumbling it first with some polish such as NuFinish. New brass always wants to stick in the expander, but polishing takes care of that, and may help with the priming too.
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Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I prime on the turret press as well- you definitely should not be having shoulder pain from running it. Check bench height for sure, and the press operation should be nice and smooth. When loading the primer onto the primer cup, pay close attention to the angle of the arm, if it's out of alignment or off center, then the primer may pop out of the feed and fall on the floor. I have found some brass in 9mm to have crimped primer pockets- if that's the case I'd recommend junking it and finding some regular brass, as it's just not worth it on 9mm to remove the primer crimp.
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Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I will try putting the turet press at a different height, standing or siting on a stool at my workbench in the garage instead of at my desk in a comfy armchair.
I have been using range brass including some once-fired-by-me LAX brass which is a little thicker and heavier than other brands.
I did notice a dimple every now and then on the primer so I am probably pushing too hard.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I have had dimples before from a kernel of powder on the priming arm. Since you are using a variety of brass are they all uniformally difficult to seat? I have found WW primers to be excellent as good as Federal. CCI and Rem primers have the hardest cups but if uniform pockets no problems. I also have bad bersitis in both shoulders, never had a problem with priming.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Pomme wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 9:57 am I will try putting the turet press at a different height, standing or siting on a stool at my workbench in the garage instead of at my desk in a comfy armchair.
I have been using range brass including some once-fired-by-me LAX brass which is a little thicker and heavier than other brands.
I did notice a dimple every now and then on the primer so I am probably pushing too hard.
Any chance that part of the problem is military brass? it's really hard to seat primers until the pockets are swaged or reamed to remove the crimp or staking around primers on military brass.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I've tried, over the years, most types of priming systems. My experience has led me to adapt my loading sequence, even with my Hornady AP progressive press, to prime, 'off press'. Even if it means I have to remove the de-capping pins from certain dies.
My final analysis is that bench priming tools are the best, offering more leverage than hand priming tools without sacrificing 'feedback' feel.
The Lee is inexpensive and easy to set up and use, but has fragile parts, and the new 'flip tray', is a spill waiting to happen. The RCBS (not the one that uses the strips) is about twice the price, but mine has lasted close to thirty years. It's disadvantage is that you must use the pick-up tubes to load it, and has NO blast shield. The Lee does not really need one due to it's design.
De-capping, requires alot of repetitive movements too. You can lessen those by using a case kicker, available for most presses from Inline Fabrication. For those calibers that I shoot a lot of, I use an old Lee Pro-1000 with the case feeder and co-later and just a universal de-capping die. It goes fast.
I too have arthritis and limit my batches to around 50-100. I also get intercostal myalgia pain where my ribs attach to the sternum, very annoying. Usually that is when I've had a long break between reloadings.
Bud.

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure"---- Dan Quayle, 1990.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I started reloading using the Lyman press mounted plunger tool on a Lyman orange crush press. I didn't like the procedure to change over from small to large primers. You have to loosen a set screw and hope the pieces don't fly across the room. Also the press was used and didn't come with the tubes and tool to rapidly load primers so I had to do them by hand one at a time. I bought a RCBS ram prime unit and still had to do the primers by hand one at a time but there was no small parts to lose. I have since went to hand priming tools. The Lee auto prime is easy to use and the RCBS universal hand priming tool is easy although it has small parts it's much easier to change primer sizes. I still use the ram prime unit as a back up.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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eelj wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 11:33 am I have had dimples before from a kernel of powder on the priming arm. Since you are using a variety of brass are they all uniformally difficult to seat? I have found WW primers to be excellent as good as Federal. CCI and Rem primers have the hardest cups but if uniform pockets no problems. I also have bad bersitis in both shoulders, never had a problem with priming.
I have noticed a couple of my Lee press primer rams had protrusions in the center where the parting cut did not face it off all the way. I assumed that was how they were made. They left dimples. They filed off nicely though. I cleaned them up knowing that I'd probably never use them.
Bud.

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure"---- Dan Quayle, 1990.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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I ended up installing the press on a bench in my garage at a taller height and attaching a stick to extend the handle and it works a lot better, for me. The standing position is gives me more mobility and I can stand right in front of the lever. I still miss my office chair though. I did 100 rounds. The other problem is with the Lee safety prime, half of the time it dosen't click the primers in place and they fall out of the cup when I lower the ram, I am used to putting my hand under before they fall on the floor.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Man... things are all falling apart on your Lee Turret. I don't think half of us who own the same loader have had as much trouble as you have.

Check to see what's not working or out of adjustment. If you narrow it down to the chintzy plastic feed lips on the primer loader, call Lee and they'll probably send you a new one for free.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Related to your other issue of primers dropping, I had that issue with the first thousand rounds I loaded. Each session one or two primers would hop out of the cup as the auto primer slid off. It stopped happening and I don't know if the tool broke in or I got better at priming (or both). I stuck with one brand of primer, S&B.

Like most have already said, shoulder pain is likely a result of bench and / or seat hight.

Good luck

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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+1 Bisbee.

My Lee safety primes work well now, but it took a bit of silicone spray on the plastic, and a bit of fidgety trial and error getting the alignment just right. If the primer 'pez head' is moving straight onto the primer cup, things should run pretty well. I still occasionally drop a primer, but it's when I push the arm to one side.

edit...silicone, not silicon. Sand spray won't help much. :lol:
Last edited by AndyH on Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Primer Pez Head... perfect description!

My pez dispenser usually feels like a positive "click" when the primer drops into the cup. The times when a primer didn't seat well I could almost anticipate the primer will fall out because the feeling was kind of mushy, not positive as if the dispenser head wasn't going forward enough.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Understanding the mechanics of your body motion as you operate the press ain't easy. Not always obvious what the best way to do it is. Also, you might just be dealing with repetitive motion stress, which can cause pain in short order, especially if your ergonomics are less than optimal.
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The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
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Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Update six month later: My pain comes and goes due to repetitive motion, years of construction and motorcycle crashes. I will load small batches, 25 or 50 and come back a few hours later and so on. The primers occasionally popping out was still an issue so now I deprime, give it a second tumble and prime by hand using the auto bench prime while watching netflix. I still have two primers that are unaccounted for and I wonder if one day I will be moving something around in the garage and something will go bang, hopefully nothing too dramatic.
I am starting to understand the Lee turret press limitations and I have been starting to long for a Dillon 550.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Pomme wrote: Tue Dec 04, 2018 10:24 am Update six month later: My pain comes and goes due to repetitive motion, years of construction and motorcycle crashes. I will load small batches, 25 or 50 and come back a few hours later and so on. The primers occasionally popping out was still an issue so now I deprime, give it a second tumble and prime by hand using the auto bench prime while watching netflix. I still have two primers that are unaccounted for and I wonder if one day I will be moving something around in the garage and something will go bang, hopefully nothing too dramatic.
I am starting to understand the Lee turret press limitations and I have been starting to long for a Dillon 550.
I have owned a Dillon long enough that my customer number with them is in the very low 10,000 range. I have a square deal and although it is a very fine press I really wish that I had popped for the 550. The 550 is the only manual advanced press on the market right now and the auto advance feature on my square deal has given me the most problems. I think you will be quite happy with a 550.

Re: Shoulder pain from reloading

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Bought a used 550. Amazing press really. Now I have a second 550 I bought for a steal.
First 550 was 200.00 of Craigslist with 40 cal set up.
Second I paid 575.00 but came with all the bells and whistles. Strong mount, roller handle and case feeder.
I now load 9,40,10,38,357,44,223,3030,308, 300 wm, 762x39. Caliber swap in minutes. I leave the powder drops attached to the heads. Now all I got to do to swap calibers is Shell plate and tool head swap.
Yes a 550 is a great investment for reloader.
For whats it worth? I get pain in my elbow from turning out a few thousand rounds a session.

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