Winchester Match Primers

J

jpbaker

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What are peoples experiences with these primers.

I have used Winchester in the past and swore I would never touch them again after ruining a couple bolt faces.

Primers blew out with starting loads and that was the end of Winchester for me. After that I switched exclusively to BR2, BR4, and Rem 9 1/2.

I was wondering if anyone has had any real experiences using the newer Winchester Match Primers.
 
Just keep on doing what you're doing.

I can't comment on late manufacture Winchester primers, because I haven't purchased any for at least 5 years.

I didn't damage a bolt face, caused by gasses flowing past and cutting. However, I noticed they were extremely easy to seat and after shooting a few a ring was definitely visible on the bolt face, with slight black marks around the primer.

I had been using Winchester Magnum primers for years, having purchased 20x5k cases from a gunshop closure due to retirement. They were all fine, but that was from 15 years ago.

I bought a 1k sleeve of new Winchester primers to see if they had changed much. I still have 980 of those primers left.
 
I had a bolt face messed up by Winchester primers as well therefore I have avoided them since. The federal and CCi primers have given me no issues to date.
 
hunter5425 said:
I had a bolt face messed up by Winchester primers as well therefore I have avoided them since. The federal and CCi primers have given me no issues to date.
Click to expand...

We had the same problem, suddenly modest loads that we'd been using for years were popping tiny holes around the curved edge of WLR primers that we purchased around two or three years ago. We switched to Federal and haven't had any problems since.

jpbaker said:
What are peoples experiences with these primers.
I have used Winchester in the past and swore I would never touch them again after ruining a couple bolt faces.
Primers blew out with starting loads and that was the end of Winchester for me. After that I switched exclusively to BR2, BR4, and Rem 9 1/2.
I was wondering if anyone has had any real experiences using the newer Winchester Match Primers.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that you are referring to the "USA Ready," Winchester Match Grade Primers in the red box? I was wondering the same thing. It was time to buy more LR primers so I picked up a box of the USA Ready #WMGLR primers to cautiously try them out. I've never seen them before and I haven't heard anything about them either. I haven't loaded any of them yet and I was also wondering if anyone out there has and what were the result's? I'm guessing that probably they'll work fine without any issues.

https://alflahertys.com/winchester-match-grade-primers-large-rifle-wmglr/
 
todbartell said:
I've shot thousands of WLR & WLRM primers, no issues here
Click to expand...

Same here. But over my 50+ years of reloading, I have had those "blowouts" at the primer
radius happen several times on different primer makes including CCI, R-P, RWS, and Alcan. This is
not a new phenomenon, and we all hate what it does to our boltface. Dave.
 
The issue I had with them was over half of the primers were blowing out at side. With mild or with starting loads. I’m guessing I had a bad batch of LR primers from them. Literally 6-7/10 would do this. At one point my ejector was pushed back into my bolt face and jammed. The ejector pin also being jammed because of the spring being all messed up inside the bolt head.

I have used lots of Winchester pistol primers with no problems.


Yes RVG_don, I was referring to the newer Winchester “USA READY” Match primers. I ordered a couple thousand and was wondering if Winchester fixed their QC.
 
After Remington and Winchester lost the contract to produce ammunition at Lake City they both fell on hard times. The Remington and Winchester brands I grew up with are now a hollow shell of what they once were. Winchester sold off its brass making factory and Olin only makes fertilizer, and General Dynamics took over Remingtons powder making plant.

That being said the only bad primers I ever had were Remington 9 1/2 primers and they were recalled. This was in the late 1970s and Remington replaced my bolt and gave me a new brick of primers.

I now use pin gauges to check my primer pockets on questionable brass and make sure the primer pocket is a smaller diameter than the primer.
 
jpbaker said:
The issue I had with them was over half of the primers were blowing out at side. With mild or with starting loads. I’m guessing I had a bad batch of LR primers from them. Literally 6-7/10 would do this. At one point my ejector was pushed back into my bolt face and jammed. The ejector pin also being jammed because of the spring being all messed up inside the bolt head.

I have used lots of Winchester pistol primers with no problems.


Yes RVG_don, I was referring to the newer Winchester “USA READY” Match primers. I ordered a couple thousand and was wondering if Winchester fixed their QC.
Click to expand...

Sounds familiar, at one point I had 3 out of 5 or so shots with popped primers and that was it for me. Since then I have been dismantling a lot of reloads and depriming cases. Ya from your post I figured you were referring to the USA READY Winchester Match primers hopefully they will be problem free. In the meantime maybe someone who has tried them will post on here with a good review. The last thing I need is more bolt face damage. I'm going to load some up ready to return the balance for a refund if I run into problems.
 
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