Winchester primer issues

[Howdy Doody]

Now I remember why I got away from them.
The story is that I had the primers light off on my Dillon. They were Federals. I went and bought a 1000 winchesters and loaded up a few hundred. Then I get to a shoot and I had at least 6 out of the about 120 I used at the match totally fail to fire. I hit them at least twice and they had a really big and deep dent in them. No fire. I showed the problem rounds to a few really knowledgeable folks and they could not believe it. They did however tell me that they had no problems with Federals, so back to the Federals I go.
Is this common still? I remember a few years ago there was issues, but I thought that was all taken care of. Either I have one of the old batches or there are still issues.
What experience have you pards had?

[Ozarks Ranger]

I've only had two bad winchester primers in 5 years. but I put mine in one at a time winth a hand press.

Snake Eyes

[Cyrille]

I also have only had two(2) Winchester primers fail, but then I too 'handload' mine I have been'handloading' for almost a year now. I find, however that Winchester primers are, as a whole, much more 'sensitive' than Federals. Because of that fact I will be using Federal and/or CCIs after my Winchester primers are used up.

[Sagebrush Burns]

I've loaded thousands of Winchester primers using a Dillon 550 and a single stage RCBS and never had a bad one.

[Russ T Chambers]

Been loading for Cowboy for over fifteen years now and have used nothing but Winchester LP primers.  Never had one fail on me.

[Wills Point Pete]

 I've been loading Winchester primers for handguns for decades, started using them almost exclusively when I bought a Ruger GP100 that wouldn't shoot CCIs. They work fine. I prime with an RCBS hand tool.

I now use a lot of PMC primers in my cowboy action loads, my Colt Clones and Navy Arms 92 Win Clone will make anything fire. And my mule ear double would probably make a fired primer pop again, those mainsprings are STOUT!

I still use Federal GM Match primers in my varmint and big game rifles.

[Doc Shapiro]

Howdy, the only problems I have "failure to fire" with are Winchester.  I don't use them for match ammo.  I do have a bunch that I use for practice.

[Camille Eonich]

Howdy, the only problems I have "failure to fire" with are Winchester.  I don't use them for match ammo.  I do have a bunch that I use for practice.

Ditto what Doc said.  Well, with the exception that I don't have a bunch to use for practice.   

[Howdy Doody]

Pards, it looks like a lot of folks have some great luck with the Wins. I can't expalin what the issue is with this brick I bought a few weeks ago, but I am not going to shoot any more of them from that box. It is a little disheartening to have to go around and then after doing that, still have the primer not go off. Same thing with rifle. I would cock the hammer and hit them a second time and nothing and have to jack the round out and load off the belt.
I can see where handloading would give you a better feel for seating and all, but my problem was not high primers or any kind of seating. These primers were really dented.
I will just go back to Feds and chalk it up to maybe a bad batch or something. I have found a number of Remington caps that had no gel in them, but it is easier for me to see that when I load the percussion caps into my capper. I dump primers onto a tray and just shake them until they are all turned over and then load them into the primer tubes. I threw away the loaded rounds that did not go off in a place to do that at the range. Next one that does not go off, I will remove the bullet, dump the powder and see if I can tell why I had this problem. Thanks for the input pards, I appreciate it.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Mr Doody

I remember a few years ago when the reports of bad lots of Winchester primers surfaced. Lot numbers were published at the time, but of course I did not save it. Maybe someone else did. This must have been at least 3 years ago, but I suppose you might have gotten one of the old bad lot numbers.

Just curious, did this happen with a specific gun, or several guns?

I've been using Winchester primers since about 2001 or so, all Large Pistol primers. The only failure to fire I've had with them can be attributed to light hammer strikes. I have a Colt with a particularly light hammer spring, and because of that I only use Federals for my pistols. My '73 just got slicked up to within an inch of it's life. I never had problems with light hits with it before, but now that the hammer spring has been considerably lightened, I am still getting a few light hammer hits with it. But that is totally because of the light hammer spring, and not the primers. I'm slowly 'tweaking' the adjustment screw for the spring, until I get no more misfires. Thought I was there already, but I had one more light hit the other day. But so far at least, I've never had a light hit on a Winchester Large Pistol primer fail to go off with a second hit.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Howdy, check with Col. Dan, he may still have those lot numbers in his files. I had them printed out, but don't remember where I filed them........Buck

[Doc Shapiro]

Driftwood, the only fail to fire's that I've had with Winchester primers have been the small pistol size!

Interesting, eh?

[Hell-Er High Water]

Been using Winchester large pistol, small pistol and large rifle primers for years without any problems.  Maybe I'm just lucky but they have always been good in my firearms.

HHW

[Howdy Doody]

Pards, maybe that is it. Maybe I purchased some that were bad and were left over stock or something. I might just research that a bit more. Col. Dan huh? Yup I have his email and can contct him.
I am pretty turned off on Win primers because of this, but I like their brass. I am sure not loading any more out of this box of 1000.
Hell'er'high Water, thanks for the input. It seems like a million years since we have shot together. I look forward to seeing you at maybe High Sierra if you are shooting it.
Driftwood, I was shooting RVs with #19lbs springs and a Marlin. I really never had any problems with Federals, but after that reloading incident, most thought I should not load Feds on my Dillon, so I got the Win primers.
Maybe it is the size, they are small pistol primers. I haven't had any problems with Win in 209 for shotgun or large pistol and I even load large rifle. It has only been this one bunch and 6 out of 120 is pretty bad.

[Hemlock Mike]

I use Win Large and small pistol and large rifle.  For over 10 years never a failure.
I load on a Dillon 550B and never a bang there either.  I buy them 3000 to 5000 at a time.

Will the demise of Winchester also effect ammo and primer availability ??

Mike