Winchester Primers, any issues with them?

[Dirt Sample]

I have used CCI primers on my 223/ 556 reloads since I started loading, and have had very few issues with them. With the current state of affairs, there have been no primers available at my local stores, and I was out of small rifle primers. Bimart got some Winchester primers come in, and I always figured, a primer is a primer, so I bought five boxes. I loaded a hundred rounds, and went plinking, and had 12 out of the 100 rounds fail to ignite. Went home and took apart the rounds, everything looked good, dry, sufficient powder. So I loaded 100 more and went out this morning again. This time, 26 of the 100 rounds failed to ignite. They all have nice solid dimples from the firing pin, and are seated properly. Any one else have problems with Winchester primers like this? Bad batch, maybe?

Read More

 

[nammac]

I thought Winchester primers were brass colored... At least all of mine are...

See, like these:

 

[Dirt Sample]

I thought Winchester primers were brass colored... At least all of mine are...

See, like these:
View attachment 683581

They are, dont know why they look silver in the pics.

 

[DizzyJ]

I've never used them for rifle. Seen too many people have problems with them being too soft causing piercing and blow by in the primer pocket area.

Yours is a new problem I've not personally heard of with them.

 

[Knebel]

I used them in my 38 reloads. I had issues seating them correctly and they produces light strikes. I had some that wouldn't go off at all, even when seated right. Switched to Federal and have 0 issues. I also bought cci primers and they seem fine too.

 

[nammac]

My personal experience with the Winchester Small Riflemprimers is limited to just several hundred in the .223/5.56/.300Blackout leadings and I've had no issues with them to this point.

I've used Winchester's almost exclusively for handgun reloading for decades. With the exception of the errant CCI's that find their way into my supplies. Never an issue with seating or igniting Winchester's.

Proper seating of the primers is important, had that issue with CCI's in 9mm that I traced back to the Lyman hand primer I was using, probably about 50 out of 200 were not seated properly, didn't find this til I was at the range with misfires. They fired on the second try, first try finished seating them, second hit made them go bang.

Place the loaded rounds rim down on a known flat surface and see if they wobble, if they do, it's a seating issue...

YMMV

 

[crossbow5]

I have used the bronze colored Winchester small rifle primers in the past. I never had any issues with them. I did have problems with CCI 400 small rifle primers and found out later they should not be used in cartridges fired in an AR. I've also used CCI #41, and CCI 450 primers in the .223/5.56 AR with no problems. Some people say the old silver colored Winchester primers were better than the bronze colored for small rifle primers. No problems with Winchester small pistol or large pistol primers.

 

[P7M13]

Yes, I just had that same problem, and posted about it on the forum here.
I finally took those rounds apart. Thought they had been CCI primers. Nope, brass, not nickel.
None were seating problems, none were ignited, NONE looked like they had any form of contamination. I thought, perhaps, the anvil was not set properly, which is essential to proper primer firing. I chucked 'em.
The only thing I didn't try was to take them out to the driveway and hit them with the hammer. I used to do things like that up through my 20's.
Edit to add: from now on, when I load the primer hand tool, I'm going to leave the container sleeve in the tool box so I know whence they came.

 

[No_Regerts]

There is/was a non-recall but will replace quietly thing with Winchester primers. I had the bolt face of a brand new rifle get all jacked up from gas cutting.

 

[P7M13]

There is/was a non-recall but will replace quietly thing with Winchester primers. I had the bolt face of a brand new rifle get all jacked up from gas cutting.

Do you have a link to info on this? I have about 18 bricks of Winnie primers.

 

[No_Regerts]

Do you have a link to info on this? I have about 18 bricks of Winnie primers.

Try going through this thread on a handloader forum. Lots of info.

Winchester Primer Recall... - The Handloaders Bench

There seems to be a longstanding recall that's still ongoing dating back to somewhere about 2010 to 2013 near as I've been able to find out, regarding

www.handloadersbench.com

 

[P7M13]

Thanks, I'll compare lot numbers.

 

[DizzyJ]

There is/was a non-recall but will replace quietly thing with Winchester primers. I had the bolt face of a brand new rifle get all jacked up from gas cutting.

That's what I was remembering. Gas cutting from blow by around the primer area, and or piercing.

 

[WillametteWill]

Until just recently I have only used Winchester primers in my 223/556 loads without any issues. Switching to Rem 7 1/2 having heard good things about them but would not hesitate to go back to the Winchesters.

The recall info in the above linked thread seems to be for mostly large rifle and possibly some large pistol. 90% of my large pistol loads are WLP. The old large pistol magnum were awesome in my .44 mag but no longer made (7M-111F if I remember correctly). Any storage issues possibly (around solvents, high humidity {like we can completely avoid this easily in the PNW!})

 

[gmerkt]

I've never had ignition problems with Winchester primers. I used them for many years. Then I got a brick of LR that were too small, wouldn't seat tightly in primer pockets. I wound up using them in military brass with crimped pockets.

On the other hand, yes, Winchester use softer cups. Which can be an advantage if you are priming some European-made Boxer primer rifle cases with tight pockets. Winchester used to nickel plate their primers, they had harder cups then.

As a general rule, I stick with CCI now. They have given me the least trouble over the years. I have some Sellier & Bellot (Czech) that I bought during one of the famines, they have been pretty good.

 

[ron]

I have used many thousands of Winchester small rifle primers for 223 reloads. I have noticed some gas cutting from
blow by around the primer area, and or piercing. I have switched to Rem. #71/2 or CCI #41 for 223. The Rem. #71/2
primers are the most common one used for competition. The CCI primers fit a little tighter than the Wins. But these days
you don't always have a lot of choices at the store. Sportsman use to have Rem. 7 1/2 BR for the same price as standard 7 1/2.

 

[aklaunch]

Something is bogus about this thread.

Maybe in a dream you can take a photo of bronze colored primers and they turn out silver.

Maybe in another dream you can look for product recalls from 2010-2013 even when you bought them in 2020.

I have shot 1000's of WW primers without issue. They due not like sharp firing pins and loads above NATO pressures very much. Inside of that, they normally work well, with most of the problems being "internet parroting" from high power shooters that actually have had problems with them, getting their 80 grain bullets to way fast speeds.

If i had that many problems i would call the manufacturer, not post crap online with pics that aren't even WSR primers.

 

[teflon6string]

I've returned substantial batches of faulty ammo directly to Winchester twice (rimfire and centerfire). Both times they provided paid shipping labels and stepped up to rectify the problem.

Once they sent vouchers for more Winchester products (???), so I got shotgun shells that worked fine.

Second time, they simply cut me a check, actually for more than what I spent on the bad ammo.

No requests for receipts or anything - it says Winchester on the product.

Bottom line? I don't believe they want to quibble over a few hundred bucks here and there only to see a lot of fuss about it in the media.

 

[Throckmorton]

over 20 years of reloading ,Winchester the only brand that had duds .I avoid them but if no other choice I buy them.

 

[ma96782]

For me....
I usually choose to buy primers based on my experience with them. YES, a bad batch could occur. So that being said, I'll usually buy primers in this order (size and/or type not being considered/rated here).

1) Federal
2) Winchester
3) Remington
4) CCI
5) Wolf

If I were desperate....
6) S and B

Aloha, Mark