Abstract: A hand-held water filter priming bags for priming a high performance gravity fed water filters has a flexible water container portion permanently sealed to a threaded filter connector component. A handle extends longitudinally along at least substantially the entire diameter of a base section of the filter connector component. The handle comprises a continuous flange spanning substantially the diameter of the base section and surrounding an outlet extending through the base section. Flexible water container portion is sealed to the continuous flange. An interior of the water container portion is in fluid communication with an exterior of the bag via the outlet. The bag outlet is configured for highly targeted pressurization of high-performance filters. A priming bag system includes the hand-held water filter priming bag. Methods of priming allow for efficient fully priming of high performance filters.