Foster CO-AX Primer Seater

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abintx

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Forster CO-AX Primer Seater

Has anyone used this primer seater ??? I'm looking for some relief for my aging / arthritic hands. The old hand held, especially with the Wolf primer, is taking its toll. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Art :)
 
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Art,

My arthritis mightn't be as bad as yours but I know what your problem is. I found that my velocity spreads weren't what they used to be, so I went to the half way house & use a K & M dial gauge seater. Now I know I'm somewhere near seated with the primer again, though I admit that I use both thumbs on the lever with Wolf primers in Lapua brass.

Years back (40 pus comes to mind), I did use the RCBS coaxial rig. It was way better than the thingee on the press, but sometimes it tended to get out of setting & flatten the bases of the Remingtons I was using at the time. I might have been a tad less particular as a lad though.

John
 
My soft flesh of the inside of my forearm still tingles at the vary thought of priming with a co-axe press. That is one operation with the co-axe I avoid like the plague. The other thing that really upset me was the adjustable shell holder. Sure is upsetting see another stuck shell in a die. That for me and the time it takes to remove a stuck shell from a die caused me to sell off the two I had.
 
The CO-AX press is a big beast. Priming with one, one at a time, wouldn't be much different than using any other press to prime with.

I've never had a case stuck in a die with the CO-AX. I've never had any trouble at all with the sliding plate shell holders.
 
Art...

abintx said:
Has anyone used this primer seater ??? I'm looking for some relief for my aging / arthritic hands. The old hand held, especially with the Wolf primer, is taking its toll. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Art :)
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RCBS makes a small table top mounted primer. Its sort of auto with a tubular primer holder and a hand lever. You rotate the lever up, it drops a primer in the shell holder, insert a case and push down on the lever and it seats the primer. Good feel to it also. Probably see one in Sinclair or Cabelas online. Its not their hand held one. --Greg
 
Big Al, Wayne, Greg ...

Big Al, Wayne: The CO-AX Press and CO-AX Primer Seater are two different tools. But thanks for your comments. I use the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press for my F/L Sizing. It's a heavy press that makes things easy. The CO-AX Primer Seater is a separate table top unit. I've provided a picture below.

Greg: I'll take a look at the RCBS Automatic Priming Tool. And, a glimpse of the RCBS APS Bench-Mounted Priming Tool. The trouble with the APS Bench-Mounted is that you also need two other items, APS Unprimed Primer Strips and the APS Primer Strip Loader.

Thanks. Art :)
 

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  • Forster CO-AX Primer Seater.jpg
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When I was shooting a lot I have used the Co Ax seater in the old version using a shell holder and the new version with the adjustable jaws... they both worked fine. Read about them and there are some excellent safety features.

I don't reload near as much now and use the Co Ax press for seating primers. I would not buy a press just for that function (short stoke with good 'feel' and in line) but it does that job better than most other presses.
 
Art..

abintx said:
Big Al, Wayne: The CO-AX Press and CO-AX Primer Seater are two different tools. But thanks for your comments. I use the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press for my F/L Sizing. It's a heavy press that makes things easy. The CO-AX Primer Seater is a separate table top unit. I've provided a picture below.

Greg: I'll take a look at the RCBS Automatic Priming Tool. And, a glimpse of the RCBS APS Bench-Mounted Priming Tool. The trouble with the APS Bench-Mounted is that you also need two other items, APS Unprimed Primer Strips and the APS Primer Strip Loader.

Thanks. Art :)
Click to expand...

the RCBS tool uses regular primers you drop or load into the feed tube. Again, its not their hand held unit. Good luck.
 
abintx said:
Has anyone used this primer seater ??? I'm looking for some relief for my aging / arthritic hands. The old hand held, especially with the Wolf primer, is taking its toll. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Art :)
Click to expand...

I'm just happy to read about one of the few problems I haven't had, yet. Heck I thought I had them all. :D
 
The tool pictured

abintx said:
Big Al, Wayne: The CO-AX Press and CO-AX Primer Seater are two different tools. But thanks for your comments. I use the RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press for my F/L Sizing. It's a heavy press that makes things easy. The CO-AX Primer Seater is a separate table top unit. I've provided a picture below.

Greg: I'll take a look at the RCBS Automatic Priming Tool. And, a glimpse of the RCBS APS Bench-Mounted Priming Tool. The trouble with the APS Bench-Mounted is that you also need two other items, APS Unprimed Primer Strips and the APS Primer Strip Loader.

Thanks. Art :)
Click to expand...

is a whole lot like the RCBS greg has written about. The CO-AX looks interesting, I must say. It appears one can load primers into the upright tube thingy, not unlike the RCBS. I am considering the RCBS because I am starting to have arthritus pain in my right hand and where I do most of my loading at home, the Bench models wouldn't be that hard to use.
 
I ordered a Forster CO-AX Primer Seater from Cabela's on Friday. I thought I'd give it a try first. At $58.99 it appears to be a bargain at Cabela's vice the Forster retail price of $90.00. If it doesn't meet my expectations I can always return it, and then give the more expensive RCBS bench-mounted seaters a chance to prove their advertised attributes. :)
 
Gentlemen ... and any ladies out there.

Received my Forster CO-AX Primer Seater yesterday. After taking about 35 minutes to open the box, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS (yes, I do that sort of thing), set the jaws precisely to match my 6PPC case heads, and a change out from the large primer assembly, to the small primer assembly, the Seater worked flawlessly. :cool: This is not a large piece of equipment. It's a compact 6 inches long X 2 inches wide X 2 1/4 inches high. No more squeezing with my arthritic hands. A smooth very short movement of the spring loaded lever downward and the primer is seated. This is a KEEPER. A real nice tool!! Art :D
 

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  • Forster CO-AX Primer Seater.jpg
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Forster

makes some dern nice stuff, from what I have seen. They are even amenable to "Special work", which I found to be very nice. Their Ultra Seaters are as good as they get from my experience.
 
CO-AX tips

adintx,

Your primer seater will work great for you I'm sure. I have limited use of my hands and both the Forester press and primer seaters have been the best investments I've made and have used them for years. I have several of them and I might offer a couple tips.
1. buy two. have one set up for large rifle and one for small rifle.
2. mount them on something very solid. I clamp mine in the vise on my drill press.
3. wrap the handle with a cloth tape or something to let you get an easy grip.
4. wear a glove on the hand you push down on the handle with.
5. proper set up for your case is key.
6. be careful with the primer tube feeder. It is very soft and can be bent to make the primers feed easily in and out. Have a little screw driver or something to help the primers fall down if gravity doesn't do it.
7. watch every primer fall. This system works so fast it is easy to miss a problem.
8. like any system you will develop a feel for it so don't apply more pressure than necessary.

For anyone with hand and shoulder problems the co-ax presses and primer seaters are easy to use and produce a loaded round to benchrest standards.
 
I have had mine for 14 years now.....no issues...same for my Co-Ax press..

The primer seater is in the bottom left side of the first pic...has the red handle sticking up at a 45 deg. angle to the right..to the right of my Dillon Square Deal!!


ben4.jpg


ben2.jpg
 
If you mount that Co Ax deeper in the bench so the handle when down just clears the front edge it is a lot nicer to use... did that with mine 37 years ago...
 
Has anyone here used *both* the Forster Co-Ax primer seater and the RCBS bench-mounted primer tool? I got the RCBS a while back, and I do like it a lot. I still have my K&M hand tool for some stuff, but squeezing 210M primers into tight Lapua .308 primer pockets started getting not-fun a while ago - and I'm younger than most of y'all ;) The biggest grip I had with this unit was the primer tubes that came with it were so rough inside that I couldn't get a primer all the way through them! RCBS sent me two new ones that work pretty well... but compared to say, my Dillon 550 primer tubes they are still awful tight and loading them is a lot more work. If the Forster is significantly easier to load the tubes for I might be tempted to switch... it'd match my Co-Ax press then ;)

FWIW, my stuff (including my Co-Ax press) are mounted to boards with allen head bolts and threaded inserts... and in turn mounted to the bench with big C-clamps so I can fudge them around and get 'em where I want 'em. They seem to stay put once tighted down, though.

Monte
 
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