Winchester primers

[lead chucker]

Hi. I just came into some small and large Rifle Winchester primers. I have never used them before. I have always used cci primers. Any one have a noticeable difference between the two. They were around $28.00 a brick. Here in Alaska I thought that was pretty good. The cci primers were $49.00 a brick. Seems like a big price difference. I hope Winchester primers are decent. When I say a brick that's 1000 primers.

[Outpost75]

I much prefer the Winchester primers over CCI if I can get them.

[TXGunNut]

I prefer Winchester primers over all others for pistol loads but have never used them for rifle loads, hope they work for you. For that price I'd probably try them. I've recently come back to RP primers for my rifle loads.

[Yodogsandman]

Winchester primers for both rifle and pistol are all I use.

[Shooter6br]

Tend to be harder . I get misfires with my Smith's

[Dframe]

In the interest of uniformity and consistency I use Nothing but Winchester primers. They're readily available and in thousands of rounds they've never failed me.

[mold maker]

At the C&E show yesterday, there were at least 4 dealers with good supplies of primers from CCI Winchester and a couple had imports. To my surprise there were also quiet a few dealers with 22 LR although the prices were still outrageous.
I didn't see anyone buying at those prices.

[DeanWinchester]

It's the only primer I use in Large Rifle. In the last decade, I have yet to have a misfire. I'll have to be in a real bind before I use anything else for Large Rifle.

[Petrol & Powder]

Never had a problem with Winchester primers.

[GT27]

Concur,never any problems here!

[TXGunNut]

Tend to be harder . I get misfires with my Smith's

If you're getting misfires with Winchester primers your hammer fall has too little energy and it will cost you accuracy as well as reliability. Federal primers were a little "softer" last I heard but offered no real advantage. Lightening up on the mainspring is easily overdone at the expense of reliability and accuracy. A light hammer fall, when it fires the primer, will result in vertical groups due to poor ignition.

[AlaskanGuy]

Hey Lead Chucker...

Matt, where, in our neck of the woods, did you find winchester primers??? I will gladly swap you for cci, if you wanna stick with them.....

AG

[Lead Fred]

Winchester primers are down on the hotness scale, but best for consistency.
Which is what reloading is all about, I only buy Winchester LRs

[lead chucker]

sports mans ware house. The boss was in Anchorage this weekend. They had lots of primers but nothing for powder. Guys seem to like the Winchester primers so I will give them a go.

[rexherring]

No problems here, I use them and CCI interchangeably and Federals for my light strike semi autos.

[jmort]

I will only use Winchester or CCI, rifle or handgun. In 209 primers Winchester best for me, but will also use Fiocchi 616.

[bangerjim]

I use W's and CCI and Remington.......no mis-fires. But.......had a batch of W's that went hard...I mean REAL HARD....into my 45 LC brass. New Starline cases. The CCI's and Remington's went in just fine, but the W's I had to put the Lee hand primer in a vise (with padding of course) to get darned things to seat completely ever so often.

Not sure if it was just a bad batch (400+) of them or what.

I do like the "silver" plated CCI's...do not corrode or oxidize.

banger

[Freischütz]

Winchester primers are not plated. In cases with tight primer pockets they often seat normally while plated primers must almost be deformed to avoid high primers.

[bangerjim]

Winchester primers are not plated. In cases with tight primer pockets they often seat normally while plated primers must almost be deformed to avoid high primers.


My results are just the opposite. I know W's are NOT plated....just plain brass....and those are the ones that go in very VERY hard. The CCI's are plated in slip in with the standard seating force......nice & smooth.

banger

[leadman]

I had some Wolf LR primers that look just like Winchesters, but they seem to be just a little larger and go in the pocket harder.
WW outsourced?

[Pirate69]

I think it is the nature of the Wolf primers to be just a bit larger in diameter. I use a lot of them and get as good of results as any other primer. Wold primers have one real advantage. If you have some brass that the primer pockets are starting to loosen-up, Wold is still a good fit. Save that brass for a few more loads.

[TXGunNut]

I use W's and CCI and Remington.......no mis-fires. But.......had a batch of W's that went hard...I mean REAL HARD....into my 45 LC brass. New Starline cases. The CCI's and Remington's went in just fine, but the W's I had to put the Lee hand primer in a vise (with padding of course) to get darned things to seat completely ever so often.
Not sure if it was just a bad batch (400+) of them or what.

I do like the "silver" plated CCI's...do not corrode or oxidize.

banger

Does sound like a bad batch but have noticed Starline brass is often a bit tight. I finally finished off an old lot of WW primers that was plated, they always seated easy. New lot of unplated primers seats just as nice for me. I quit using CCI's over 20 yrs ago because they were hard to seat and hard to fire as well. That's probably not the case now but I still don't use them.

[jrmartin1964]

I have used nothing but Winchester primers for the past 14 years. No troubles seating (none that were directly attributable to the primers), and no failures upon firing.

[retread]

I have used nothing but Winchester primers for the past 14 years. No troubles seating (none that were directly attributable to the primers), and no failures upon firing.
My experience also but for the last 54 years.

[jlchucker]

From the time I first started handloading, Winchester primers have been my first choice. If I can't get them, CCI or Federal, in that order.

[Bill*B]

They're great in my bolt actions, but I still get a occasional misfire in my '94 lever action, even after careful attention to the seating depth.

WLR primers need a good whack to light; just the ticket if you're loading for a Garand!

[jlchucker]

I've never encountered that problem, Bill*B, at least not in the five or six 94's I've owned, and not in those of my close friends, which over the years is probably a couple of dozen 94's. Maybe you've got a weakening spring? I did notice some misfires in a couple of Marlins, however. It turned out to be nothing more than some dirt in the bolt, interfering with the two-piece firing pin arrangement not hitting the primer hard enough on occasion. I've had a few misfires in a couple of bolt guns using Remington factory ammo, and so have a few members of my gun club. We kind of shy away from Remington primers because of that. I don't know if Remington is still offering component primers for sale or not.