Any issues with Winchester Primers?

I read once that Black Hills Ammo expects to find one defective primer in about every 200,000. Personally, having loaded well beyond that number, I've only seen two clear (major) factory screwups: one was a Rem. 7 1/2 with no anvil, the other a Rem. 45 ACP brass with no flash hole.
 
We and another forum have had threads on actual defective primers that the factory replaced at no charge, and knew they'd had a bad run. I believe it was Winchester, but I'm not sure. I'd have to find it again. The other was about some foreign primers, and again I'm not sure of the make, but when the boxes were opened some loose anvils fell out. So it's not never, just unusual.

Winchester stopped plating their primer cups as part of their response to complaints about inadequate sensitivity. The tradeoff was easier piercing, apparently. This as all awhile ago—15 years, at least. I bought some primed bulk .223 brass of theirs around 2003 or 2004 that had the brass cups and they all worked fine, but I wasn't pushing the pressure envelope any. I never had issues with their original nickel-plated primers, either, but that's a long time ago, now.
 
Current Win primers appear to me to be bronze color rather than brass and would or could be quite hard. I have had trouble seating a few in 327 Federal, and the cup proved to be really tough.
 
Interesting. Mine were all brass cups without plating the last time I got some. They've probably been working on them. Allan Jones commented that primers change more often than people realize.
 
The only issues I have had with any primers over the years was running out of them. Especially when the shortages were going on. Other than that I had a primer blow out in a .223 Rem so bad it cut the spring on my firing pin. Later research into things afterwards led me to think that somehow a small pistol primer was mixed in there. No other problems since.

I like when the Winchester primers go on sale. I tend to buy as many as I have the funds for when I can.
 
Winchester pistol primers I've used take more effort to seat fully than Federal, Remington or S&B. I'll use up what WW primers I have when only priming 100-200 cases. More than that and I use my precious Federals or maybe some Remingtons.
 
What you described is the classic symptom of the primer not having been fully seated. The first strike of the firing pin finishes seating the primer and the second strike ignites it.
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Yep...that'd be my thought. In 50 yrs of reloading, I can count the number of "dead" primers on one hand...and that includes some from rounds inadvertently run through my wife's less than tender washing machine. Rod
 
My only issue with Win primers when compared to CCI's is the fact the Win primers sometimes will feel just a tad softer as far as seating effort. I have experienced situations where the Win primer felt just a bit too loose pressing into used brass, where as a CCI felt more stiff. This is not a comment across the board as adversely I've used Win primers that press in perfectly.
 
@Road_Clam, are you sure that was a result of the primer and not the primer pocket in the brass? I use mixed range brass for pistol reloads and i always run into a case here and there where the primer goes in easier than normal, i check and its seated correctly and they all shoot fine.
 
One other rare possibility that hasn't been mentioned is undersized or to shallow primer pockets.

Years ago I ran into an new batch of Winchester 30-30 brass with that problem. Bad factory QC let out a batch that had pockets so small that it was impossible to properly seat a primer. I normally use a small single stage press (RCBS Jr.) for priming since it lacks compound linkage and gives a good "feel" to when the primer hits the bottom of the pocket. Applying several times the normal force, I still could not get the primers below the case head.

I did not attempt any measurements so I can't tell you if the problem was undersized diameter or shallow depth of the pocket.

I used a primer pocket uniformer on all 100 cases and could not believe the amount of brass that was removed from the pocket. After that, all of the primers went in using just normal pressure.
 
I've been reloading around 7 years and never had a problem with primers. But had my first problems with Winchester's LR primers in my Savage .308 bolt rifle. Started last summer when I started getting pierced primers. Was also using new Winchester brass. The loads weren't hot either since was fire forming the brass. I searched the internet and found this was a common problem with some Winchester primers manufactured back around 2012/2013. I bought those primers back then because that was the only brand available. I'm done with Winchester primers.
 
ed308 said:
I've been reloading around 7 years and never had a problem with primers. But had my first problems with Winchester's LR primers in my Savage .308 bolt rifle. Started last summer when I started getting pierced primers. Was also using new Winchester brass. The loads weren't hot either since was fire forming the brass. I searched the internet and found this was a common problem with some Winchester primers manufactured back around 2012/2013. I bought those primers back then because that was the only brand available. I'm done with Winchester primers.
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Same here.

Damaged a new bolt and Winchester Au basically told my dealer to tell me to effoff because they were old stock primers.

I bought the 5000 slab of primers a few years ago and had only just started using them.

Didn't want compensation for the bolt, just replacement of the primers.

I'm also done with Winchester and I was buying around 40000 SP a year.
 
I was reading Lee's book on reloading and reading what reloaders were saying on the Internet. From what I read I decided Federal made a powerful primer because Lee said so and a UPS driver blew his thing off (tail gate) with a box of Federal primers so? I decided Federal primers were my favorite because they were powerful and dangerous; I respect things that are powerful and dangerous. And at one time I was the only reloader that loaded 100 primers into my Lee round tray without spilling 'a one of them'.

F. Guffey
 
I have killer firing pins, I do not have primer friendly firing pins. Many reloaders have all day for the firing pins to take off and hit the primer and then drive the case, powder and bullet to the front of the chamber; not me. I want my primers crushed before the case, powder and bullet know their little buddy, the primer has been hit.

And then one day a drunk hit the van behind me and destroyed both of the bumpers, when I checked for damage I found my back bumper was destroyed and my front bumper was like new.

F. Guffey
 
I learned the hard way do not run Win primers in FC commercial brass. FC brass is soft and the first thing to go is the primer pockets. I blast etched my 308 boltface from not having a good "feel" for correct fitting primers. I've been told that Wolf primers are even tighter fitting than CCI's (although I have no experience loading with Wolf primers).
 
Winchester is my go to primer brand. i've used tens of thousands of Winchester primers. Can't remember my last misfire.
 
Only primers I use exclusively for my pistols (white box/red & orange banner) Win brand that were purchased quite some time ago.
Large rifle are (black boxed) Fiocchi which I recently purchased.
Small rifle are Federal. Bought some where's in between Win & Fiocchi purchases.

The best primers I've ever used were> Alcan brand.

I've never used Remington primers. "I just never got around to trying them."
 
I don't know about any specific issues with Winchester primers other than what I found & returned to Winchester (and they replaced, plus two bricks of primers that had the same issues).

SR had burrs on the cups, kept hanging up in the progressive feeder.
Then SP I had about half a percent didn't ignite on the first firing pin strike.
This was an unacceptable failure rate, replaced and didn't have issues with replacement.

I keep my primers in a humidity & temp controlled cabinet, and they get rotated frequently.

I had an issue with out of round primers at one point, but that was 20 years ago.
The last two or three years, I've avoided Winchester to an extent, when they get their act together I'll try again...
 
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