Winchester small pistol primers no BANG

I highly doubt you've run into a bad batch of primers.

How long have you had them? How have they been stored? Will they fire in a different firearm?

I've used over 100k primers in my lifetime, never had a "bad batch". The Winchester primers I'm loading right now are almost 20 years old.

Did they go off if you tried firing them again? If so it's like Walkalong said, Primers not fully seated.

If they do not go off on the second attempt, break them down for inspection. I've only ran cross 1 that did not have a primer compound. Had a 1 missing a anvil.

If you think you have bad primers smash a few with a hammer and see how many go bang. If they all go bang you have a different problem

It’s a very low probability you got a bad batch of primers unless they were mishandled in some way after the factory shipped them. Federals would be the easiest to set off with a reduced firing pin strike but you might be masking some other issue.

I'm into the low tens of thousands, and have never experienced a 'click' they wasn't caused by incomplete seating or oil-soaked ammo. My experience mirrors that of many on this and other reloading forums.

It's highly improbable that you have bad primers.

AJC1 said:

. . . smash a few with a hammer and see how many go bang.

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I'm going to wager that you've never actually done this, because if you had you would have discovered the same thing I have: primers require a rather particular mechanical initiation, much more particular than you can consistently provide with a hammer. The statistical significance of such an experiment is irretrievably low.

I would check primer seating depth first.
Had some "factory" ammo once every other round needed two hits to fire. Finally just pressed the primers in more with a bench primer and no more problem.

edwardware said:

I'm into the low tens of thousands, and have never experienced a 'click' they wasn't caused by incomplete seating or oil-soaked ammo. My experience mirrors that of many on this and other reloading forums.

It's highly improbable that you have bad primers.


I'm going to wager that you've never actually done this, because if you had you would have discovered the same thing I have: primers require a rather particular mechanical initiation, much more particular than you can consistently provide with a hammer. The statistical significance of such an experiment is irretrievably low.

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played with my 5 pound sledge a few times and they went bang. Not a lot but a few times.
Way louder than a cap.

Walkalong said:

Ear protection loud.

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Saftey glasses were applied as well

lonewolf5347 said:

Glock 17 must have gone threw 10,000 win primers no problems ... running a reduce striker spring 4 1/2 lbs

... now I been running into primers with a good hit but no BANG

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Before you switch primers, consider this.

You already went through 10K Winchester primers with no problems (So apparently been seating primers properly ) but now having "good hit" but no bang. So my guess is something changed in your pistol in addition to the reduced striker spring rate. If replacing the reduced rate spring with factory rate spring resolves the no bang issue, you found the problem. If not, read on.

Whenever people experienced lighter/shallower indent on primer cups with factory Glock striker, I have them inspect the wall behind the breech wall face for fouling build up. There's an opening (see white arrow in below picture) from the bottom of the slide that functions as a drain and caked on fouling build up hammered hard by the striker can limit striker tip travel decreasing the depth of indent on the primer cup. The fouling build up is so hard that I usually have to plug the drain hole and soak the striker channel with Hoppes #9 solvent for a while and really scrape/chip off with small flat head screwdriver.

Once this caked on hard packed build up was removed, striker tip travel was no longer limited and no more lighter/shallower primer cup indent problem.

There is a hole (See white arrow) designed to "drain" fouling and foreign matter down through but if you shoot enough rounds, especially dirty reloads, build up will happen.

So you're running a lighter than factory spring and blaming the FTF on bad primers?

my xdm started having occassional light primer strikes after several years of being my most used range gun. i fixed it by replacing the striker spring.

Another here. Have a Taurus PT92C that does not like CCI primers. Run them in this gun and get a 50% FTF result yet they will fire 100% in any other gun. While this PT92C will fire all factory ammo and Winchester and the old S&B primers.

lonewolf5347 said:

Going over my records I did install a 4.5 wolf striker spring on 6/2017
Will say 8,000 rounds fired since then.
I did change the spring last night to a 5.0 lb wolf spring
Heading out tommorow morning to see if that was the problem.
Yes it is my IDPA gun

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Good deal. That’s what I would have done especially after 8K rounds. Even just replacing the 4.5 with a new 4.5. Some things wear out with old age. Not me of course, but some things.

lonewolf5347 said:

gone threw 10,000 [Winchester] primers no problems.

... reduce striker spring 4 1/2 lbs ... now I been running into primers with a good hit but no BANG. I must of got a bad batch ... Time to change going to try federal small pistol primers.

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lonewolf5347 said:

LiveLife said:

Before you switch primers ... If replacing the reduced rate spring with factory rate spring resolves the no bang issue, you found the problem.

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Just tested the new 5lb striker spring with the same lot of reloads

100 rounds no problems gun ran like a champ

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Great!

I love happy endings.

lonewolf5347 said:

I loaded 2,000 rounds and now I been running into primers with a good hit but no BANG
I must of got a bad batch
My go to primers in my Glock 17 must have gone threw 10,000 win primers no problems.
Time to change going to try federal small pistol primers.
CCI is the best but running a reduce striker spring 4 1/2 lbs I choose a softer primer

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Likely the gun. I had a 3.5# trigger in my G21, and got light strikes with Win and CBC MagTech primers. I sold the gun (for other reasons) and shot them up in my 1911 without a hiccup.