Winchester Primer Questions

[Charlie98]

Are there other possible causes for this? The primer pockets for instance?

In my case, no. You can see from the primers they were not hot loads, and this was in RP .41 brass, brass I've been loading for nearly 30 years, and in mix master .45ACP brass. I don't 'prep' my handgun brass pockets. I'm still shooting that brass today with no issues... and CCI primers.

So how long or how many bad primers does it take to cause that degree of damage? Seems to be a progression not just one or two, right?

I want to know what to look for.

It's easy to catch in the revolvers... but not so much in the lever-action, and certainly not in the autos until you recover it and examine it.

 

[Jim Watson]

I have not had a problem with Winchester primers, lucky maybe.
I have READ of problems.
Back when WW changed from plated to bare brass cups, there were complaints from CAS. Seems it would take a very bad primer not to go off in a SAA or lever action.

There was a recent spate of complaints about "black Winchesters" that is with black lacquer internal sealant instead of red. I have loaded out of two different lot numbers with no misfires. Lucky, maybe.

 

[Barmcd]

Are there other possible causes for this? The primer pockets for instance?

Not to in my case. I experienced 5-6 failures per 50 with mixed brass, new Starline brass and Federal and Winchester brass. I prefer CCI primers, but had to buy what was available and I ended up with a lot of Winchester. After the failures, I loaded 200 cases of the same brass using CCI primers and had no failures.

 

[Barmcd]

I loaded 100 rounds of 38 special yesterday using a different lot number of Winchester primers. It’ll be very obvious if this kit has problems too.

Another data point, I bought a box of 50 “Small Batch” brand in 38 special at Republic Range in Waco. Turns out they are reloads using Winchester primers and 8 of 50 failed to fire.

They said they were having issues with the ammo, but would only give back 10% of the purchase price. I told them to keep it, I wouldn’t be coming back and they ought to be ashamed of themselves for selling it.