I've been really happy with my Hornady handheld priming tool, fits all my lee shell holders perfectly.

I'm not adverse to getting a priming tool, but I have learned a lesson. I just primed 50 30-30 cases without incident earlier this week, and I've primed and loaded all the rest of my .45 LC as well. It only takes a couple of relatively soft taps with the mallet to seat the primer, not the 3-4 harder ones I was doing. I've also started wearing the glove, and I've always got glasses on in any case.

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to get back on the horse, but after experimenting a bit with how much was necessary to seat a primer, I'm reasonably confident. I also think I may have figured out what happened with the first one that popped. I've noticed if I try to place the primer directly in the tool's pocket, it frequently gets cocked & needs to be reseated. I think this may be what happened, I tried to seat the brass over a cocked primer. However if I place the primer on the tool's surrounding flat surface and then slide it into place, it almost always drops in clean. This is what I've started doing, so far without further incident.

Until the next time.

BTW, "glasses" are poor protection all alone. Unless they are ANSI spec and have "side shields" your eyes are still at risk.

The nice part about hand priming tools is the natural tendency for them to be angled AWAY from your face while squeezing. Not so easy when using a "Whack-A-Mole" setup.

I wear industrial grade ANSI glasses reloading. Good point though. Stuff can and will happen.