old-style primer seating tool vs. new

[Jeff Mayhew]

Originally Posted by Mark Landskov

I have a few antique priming tools of varying quality. Some of them have cupped anvils and do not distort primers, while others are flat, and yet many seem to have a convex anvil that craters the primers. I have two complete, unused loading outfits from BGI and UH Co that have priming tools with the convex anvil. Studying catalogs gave me the impression that these tools were their bargain sets. My E. Remington and 'more expensive' BGI priming tools look as though they would not distort primers. It would seem with antique loading tools, you certainly got what you paid for! In my shotshell collection, I have some 19th century brass shells that were obviously primed with tools 'of the day'. Also, early brass and paper shells used primers, such as the No. 2, that was, basically, a standard large size primer for shotshells and handgun cartridges. Battery cup primers came about much later. I do not want to venture a guess without consulting my catalogs. Cheers!

This tool is from an unused BGI "Eureka" set; clearly not top-of-the-line, but complete in the original box.