Winchester primers
 

hi all,

Several reloads (AA, GC, STS, Nitros) using winchester primers have resulted in pierced primers rendering the gun difficult to open. it does not happen all the the time, but ramdomly in a round of clays (50). i was told winchester primers are soft and i should switch to CCI, Federal, Fiocchi, or Remington. Or have the pins trimmed. I am very reluctant to alter the firing pins, as this has not happened in the past. Has anyone had a similar experience with Winchester primers and has anyone substitued Fiocchis. I was also told most of the imported primers are oversized stretching the pocket, so that American primers fall out. This are low pressure, 3/4 once relaods using either 700x, Clay dot, PB, or remaining 7625.

thanks,

John

I've never had a problem with Winchesters. Am just now finishing up the last of a sleeve of primers (5,000) without a hiccup

A number of things can cause pierced primers. Among them are thin primer caps (or a substandard production run), misshapen firing pin tips, excessive protrusion, etc.

You don't specify the gun you're using. I assume a Parker. Still, I'd simply make a switch in brands and see if the issue goes away. Personally, I prefer Federal 209A. In addition, I would discourage you from the Fiochhi brand. Imports tend to have thinner caps. Especially the vile Cheddite primers.

I use nothing but Winchester primers in every load and numerous guns and never had a pierced primer that I know of. However, the last sleeve of primers I used I did notice a few that appear to be missing the sealant over the flash hole. I happened to notice one when loading the primer tray and then started watching more closely. After that I found one tray with two missing the sealant. What effect does it have? I have no idea but does say something about quality control.

I just had a hammer gun pierce every primer in RST shells (Cheddite) but the same gun never pierced a WW 209 primer in any reload no matter the load, from one ounce to one and a half. I would not suspect the WW 209s.

On the hammer gun I could see a sharp point and I took it down with "beauty shop" emery boards (600 then 1000) until the point was gone. which did stop the RST primer piercing.

I have also had a couple of my Parker hammer sixteens pierce some RST Cheddite primers - but never on my other Parker hammer sixteens. Never happened on any of my hammerless sixteens or any other gauges. In fact, the only pierced primers I have ever experienced were RST sixteens.





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Thanks all. I,ll try to post some photos. As per advice, I,ll switch brands, have some Noble sports, and work through the process of elimination. It seemed to happen more frequently on the left barrel, again randomly, and the depression on those not pierced was no deeper than the right. The gun is a Scottish James Crockart, Blairgowrie, box lock. Never did this before and the unpierced eject just fine. I only use WW 209s. Had some lite strikes with an LC 16, but never anything like this. A few penetrated well into the primer so I could see the anvil. They were from an old sleeve, production run, and were reloaded AAs old style, 3/4, 700x, in 2015. Would excessive pressure seating the primer during the reloading process have an affect? I sometimes push hard on the seating with the Mec 600.

thanks again

I will throw this out there for what it is worth (probably not much in this case). Of late Winchester has had some qa problems with their rifle and pistol primers. Not sure what the cause was, but there were lots of complaints of pierced or cracked primers. My last batch of 5000 pistol primers will show an occasional crack and leak of gas at the edge of the cup. This occurs with very modest loads. It is annoying but not a big issue. I have read that they will replace them. It might be worth a check with Winchester to see if this problem also occurred in their shotgun shell primers.
C.G.B.

As a long time Ansley H. Fox shotgun user, a gun that doesn't have rebounding hammers, I've had a lot of problems over the decades with firing pins sticking in Winchester 209s, making the guns hard to open. Never have that problem with Remington shells or my reloads with Remington primers. Remington primers are more expensive around here, but to me it is worth it for the lack of problems.

Having seen way too many empty hulls, the ones that are pierced the most are the cheap Winchester Universal shells. The firing pins tend to pierce sometimes, other times just become "embedded" in the primer and keep the gun from breaking open. I have used all sorts of primers in my reloading including Nobel, Fiocchi and Cheddites. Never had an issue of pierced primers with any of them. When I compete with the SxS guns, I use either Fiocchi or RST shells. Once again, never had an issue. I've even used (many, many times) domestic primers in Fiocchi or Cheddite hulls with no issue of primers backing out due to being under sized. But that's just my experiences.