Problem with Winchester LR primers

7

74challenger440

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I experienced pinholes in the edge of WLR primers at virtually starting loads with 8208XBR and another powder, an IMR enduron powder (which one escapes me). It did not happen on every cartridge, only one out of ten or so. It was in 22-250 with Nosler varmagedon 55g bullets. I thought at first it was pressure signs. It looked like soot around a leaking primer, but closer inspection revealed the tiny holes!

Do I have bad primers?
 
I had the same issue on my .260 with WLR's using a proven load that I had been using for years. They also caused pitting on my bolt face. Same load and cases work fine with CCI primers. These are the primers with the bronze finish
 
I had this problem a few years back. I googled it and found it was a problems with a few lots of primers. Mine was that lot. I contacted Winchester and they refunded me some money. And yes the bolt faces on some of my rifles got pitted because of this. I now do not use Winchester primers anymore. I still find some of these now from rounds I loaded years ago.
 
Thanks guys, I'll get hold of Winchester next week and see what they well do for me. This really stinks. I'm needing this rifle for a p-dog hunt a couple of months from now. This has caused damage to the ejector and bolt face that I'm not going to have time to get fixed!
 
There were a few lots of primers that were causing problems 2-3 years ago. Winchester didn't feel it was bad enough to do a recall, but based on what I'm hearing they are working with those who complain. If the lot number on the ones you have matches the lot numbers they say are bad.
 
I had the same problem with Win LR primers in my .308 bolt rifle and mild loads with Varget. I think they had some bad lots back in 2012 and 2013. Lots of complaints on the internet. They damage the bolt face on my rifle.
 
Yes, a few years ago there were quite a few complaints of bolt face damage from using WLR primers. I'm a little surprised to see the problem still cropping up.
 
I've never had problems of any kind with any primers in 45+ years of loading ammunition, I checked to see if I have W-W primers and I do not. Sorry to hear of the problem with Winchester primers, currently I have CCI and Federal primers only!! William
 
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The Winchester small rifle primers are known to be garbage, but I have always been happy with the LRM primers from them. But next time I will probably go CCI or Remington.
 
mixed feelings

Boy am I glad to see this thread because I have most certainly been having problems with WLR primers. Not so glad since I have 7k plus of them.

As best as I can tell, I have not had any pierced primers, but I have had plenty that had gas blow by between cup and primer. You must pull the offending primer and take a magnified pic and then view under higher magnification to actually see the gas cutting along the side of the cup, otherwise it looks like a pin hole.

loading 168gr HPBT over Varget in 308/7.62 LC brass had leaks as low as 39.5 grains. Certainly not an excessively hot load.

I had been using some demiled LC Top Brass and thought the problem was that TopBrass cuts out the primer crimp rather than swaging. So I thought perhaps they had removed too much metal. Then I picked up 1K of Diamond K LC brass and carefully swaged the primer pockets with a Dillon Swage to just enough to reliably seat new primers, and still had a leaking primer with 39.8 grains.

So far all of my problems have been from one 1K box, Lot# GHL339G. Hadn't thought about trying a different lot#. Maybe good is that 5K of my primers are Lot#GDL233G. I guess I need to work up some loads with these.

I got these primers several years ago and seriously doubt Winchester will help me. Besides I got these from a now mostly defunct big box store for $3.96 per 1K!! (that's a whole different story I'll have to explain to St Peter.) So I can't complain too much, except for damaging my bolt face.
 
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loading 168gr HPBT over Varget in 308/7.62 LC brass had leaks as low as 39.5 grains. Certainly not an excessively hot load.
Click to expand...

It could be a very hot load if you are jamming the bullets into the lands.

I had a problem with a load for the 308 Win once upon a time.

I seated the bullets 0.015" deeper and the problem went away.
 
It doesn't hurt to give Winchester a chance to make it right. It costs nothing but a phone call. Those that I have spoken with who had similar issues with Winchester primers had positive experiences when contacting them. Winchester offered to replace the primers or pay for the remaining stock (and at a reasonable price too). Those with bolt face damage claimed that Winchester was ponying up the repair costs.

The only thing that Winchester didn't do, which they absolutely should have, is issue a general recall of all known affected lot numbers.
 
These are copied from another site and represent only some of the known bad batches of WLR primers.

BLL375G
CAL401G
CFL486G
CLL555G
DAL594G
DDL670G
DEL 688G
DFL717G
DGL731G
DHL766G
DKL801G
DML834G
DNL 837G
DNL836G
EAL234G
GDL 225G
GEL 250G
HFL 590G
HEL 374G
HLL692G
YKL270G

While reports from US suggest that Winchester is doing the right thing there, DownUnder both in Au and NZ, Winchester basically told their customers to FO which is why I take my business elsewhere now.

Federal make good primers and I am about to buy another 10K.
 
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well I sent an electronic inquiry to Winchester but have not heard back yet.

I have always been a CCI fan but at the time finding any primers was a challenge at best. So at the time and at the price, buying was a no brainer.
 
reference:
It could be a very hot load if you are jamming the bullets into the lands.

I had a problem with a load for the 308 Win once upon a time.

I seated the bullets 0.015" deeper and the problem went away.
Click to expand...

my COL is 2.80" and my problem is occurring in a Savage FCP10 and a Rem 700, so I doubt that is my problem, but I will do some more checking/measuring. But you would think I would be seeing flattened primers.
 
Winchester called

got a call from Winchester and they are replacing the 400 primers remaining from the lot (GHL339G) that I was having problems with.

They also asked about the bolts for my Savage FCP10 and REM700. I said yea, got some gas cutting but not so bad as to be an issue (well after the call I thought sure to be a resale issue). At any rate, my lot is not one known to be a problem, but they want them back and any cases in which the pierced primers occurred. I gotta say the guy sounded knowledgeable and was much interested in resolving the issue.

At this point I gotta give Winchester a thumbs up for wanting to learn aboiut and resolve an issue!
 
I'm glad you called and that Winchester took care of you. Sounds like the experiences of others whom have had issues. Winchester made it right in the end.
 
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