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Does anyone out there know where to find....


Tell Sackett SASS 18436

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Just got back from Trailhead and a real disaster-ammunition wise. 1st day-my wife and I had 3 bad primers in 2 stages.After the thursday side matches I topped off the pistol ammo box. Maybe 40 or 50 bullets. After the 1st 2 stages, no more bad ones, so I suspect the ones I topped off with.Box I topped off from I had just loaded that week, so I suspect the primers I'd just used. I have no way to know how many were used on rifle or pistol bullets. I'm into my second 1000 from a new case. I use Winchester small pistol. Have been for 12-13 years. Never had a problem like this before. Also, another shooter at Trailhead told me he had the SAME problem, with WSP also.

My question to everyone out there is there a website(Winchester, or anyone) where I can find out lot #s of bad primers? I've seen this addressed on the wire a time or 2, but at the time I had no problems. I'd like to be able to set aside bad lot #s, and not the whole case. I can use suspect primers for monthly match ammo, but I don't want to risk it at a big match again. Too discouraging and painful!

Oh, the other half of the disaster was a squib on the first shot of the second pistol on a stage. Match was a bust at that point.

Does anyone out there know where to find bad lot #s for Winchester primers?

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A lot of times what folks think are bad primers are primers not completely seated. These loads have what appears to be a proper dimple in the primer but it doesn't fire. The hammer loses a lot of energy just seating the primer. Make sure you are blaming the correct fault. Several times when shooters have had this situation, especially in rifles, I tell them to go look over their unused rounds and they sometimes find other high primers.

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I keep a log of every thing I load. That way I have a record of the primer lot numbers of every box of ammo and these boxes are identified by date, so if I have a bad primer problem I can set aside the suspect ammo. Might be something to keep in mind going forward.

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They were pistol bullets.We rotate the cylinder when loading to check for high primers, so I doubt that was the case. Good idea about keeping records. Never needed to before. Probably will now. Went and checked my promers. I'm about halfway through a case, and this is the 1st problem. Maybe it was just a glitch on the assembley line. Will set aside current stuff for monthly matches, and load new for the big match in 2 weeks with a different lot #. Am rather curious to see what happens next month when I use the suspect ammo. If it all goes bang I won't know what to think.

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No. 125 grain for pistol, 158 grain for rifle. 3 grains of Clays U. for P, 4.8 for R. Can't really see what that would have to do with bad primers. If the firing pin hits and it doesn't go bang, it's a bad primer.

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Sackett, If there is a bad Winchester primer lot ... will be on Winchester's website. Also the retailers would receive notice

 

If you saved the rounds, might want to pull the bullets and then deprime the case to look at the primer. If the anvil is crushed - bad primer. If not, put it back in the case and shoot the empty case in a different firearm to see if it goes off

PS: We have all had a few bad primers out of the thousands used ... so don't feel like the Lone Ranger!

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Lots of folks report finding missing anvils in their primers recently. When you get the primers on the alignment tray, anvil up, look them over carefully.

 

If it helps any, I've run into a few bad Winchester LP primers recently in one lot. Would be nice to find a failure rate table for primers, but its not something I've ever seen the manufacturers publish.

 

Good luck, GJ

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About ten years ago I ran into alot of bad Winchester primers, they were large pistol. They lacked the ignition chemical inside the primer cup. Was running about 5 bad ones every 100. What I did then was look at every primer in the flip try prior to loading into a primer tube. I also moved all of those primer to my practice loads. I did write to Winchester with the lot numbers and even sent a sample of the bad primers that were missing the chemical componet, Winchester never did reply back. Not sure but I think (Hope) that part of the winchester business changed ownership and improved.

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I intend to try the Winchester site later. Also thought about contacting the dealer to see if he knows anything. I do keep my eyes open for any irregularities when I load.

1 every now and then is one thing- 3 in 2 stages at a big match is something else entirely!

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