winchester wsr primers for ar15

I've burned through a bunch. No problems. Good primers.

JBrady555 said:

Do you think that will be OK with the wsr primers or should I stay on the low side to prevent a puncture/damaged firing pin. Thanks in advance for any info.

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It's not how hot you load the round that causes problems, it's the free floating firing pin hitting the primer when the bolt slams home on a fresh round.

I have used Win SRP before but that was before they changed them. They are supposed to be softer now. I have not tried the new win primers in the AR platform since they changed them. (and probably won't)

I use, in this order:
CCI-#41
CCI-450
Rem 7 1/2
CCI-400

There are others and it you can't find those I would suggest using a Magnum primer for the harder cup, like mentioned by Walkalong. I'm sure the Wolf primers are just fine but they can be a bit confusing. They have something like 4 different small rifle primers.

JBrady555 said:

Correction I have h4895 not imr4895. Almost made a boo boo. Unless those powders are identical I don't know why one of them doesn't change their name. Judging by the differences in load data, I'd say mistaking one for the other could be dangerous. Just loaded my first ever rifle rounds. Did 20 55gr hornady fmj-bt, 23.7gr h4895 @ 2.215.

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Both IMR4895 and H4895 are different powders but not so different where interchanging them would be dangerous. Not good but not very dangerous either. Just a note, AA2495 is also ALMOST identical to the two 4895 powders and AA2520 is the ball powder version of the three. (of course with slight differences in charge weights)

I have used Winchester primers for the last 10 years on all my rifle loads including about 3,000 223's and never had a problem or a punctured primer.

Jim

I also use the "new" blue box Winchester primers without problems.

Same here, plenty of WSR's have gone through my AR's. Interesting side note, I have had a few punctured primers with Tula KVB-223 primers recently. Pretty close to max loads with those though.

Prior to 1999 I was happy using the old nickel plated WSR and then I bought a sheaf of the new brass finish WSR. They pierced something awful at loads that never bothered the old nickel WSR. I had to cut loads by 1.5 grains before the piercing stopped, and the small handful of firing pins that were dished, I am using those as punches.

I could use the same loads with CCi #41's and CCi #400's without issues.

NRA competitors load hot because they are trying to get the most out of this wind sensitive bullet. I have picked up Marine and AMU brass that was so hot that the primers leaked and the pockets expanded on the first firing.

AMU




Marine Team



For some people, only using brass once is fine.

Develop your loads, working up and advancing about 1/2 grain at a time, if you encounter primer piercing, cut the load by 1/2 to 1 grain and you should be fine.

I used 3000 'old' WSR primers in AR-15 without issue.

I used hundreds of 'old' WLR primers in various rifles. I used 'new' WLR in my Remington 40X with a load developed with the 'old' primers and got 12-14 blown primers (at the skirt) in a 70 round match.

I retested this load with a 40 grain lighter bullet and was still popping them. Etched the crap out of my bolt. I would not trust the new primers. This load is safe with 'old' WLR and CCI. What a PIA to pull down and reprime 300 cartridges.