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One bad primer

998 Views 34 Replies 32 Participants Last post by  fredgarvin
Out of the last 18,000 rounds loaded, I have had one bad primer. I always use Winchester primers, so my question is, what is everybody's track record on primers?

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Kevin
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I have loaded thousands and I cannot recall having one bad one. I have used Winchester primers up until recently and now I am trying Federal in my rifle loads.
I've struck maybe 25,000 winchester primers. Zero failures. I'm pretty picky about handling them. I clean my flip try and tubes w/ alcohol every couple months and always wash hands before touching them (which is minimized).

Ty
Nothing but problems with CCI primers using Dillon 550 press. No problems winth Win or Rem. Surprised so many think CCI are OK. Not my experience but then I guess that is why there is more than one manufacturer. Incidently more to the point the CCI primers that seated properly all did fire, just there were in the batch I had to many out of spec. Win primers have never given me problems.
I roughly 140,000 rnds loaded since I started keeping accurate records and my pro2000, I have only had problems with winchester primers. Since I switched to cci's, I have not had a single primer problem that I was sure was not the operator's (me) technique. Usually I would over seat the primers on the down stroke.

I don't worry about primers any more. They are such a rare failure, other then a quick inspection of the strip (cci's) for missing anvils etc, no problems.
Nothing but problems with CCI primers using Dillon 550 press.
Those who report problems with CCI primers seem to be using Dillon or similar progressives. I suspect it may be due not so much to a problem with CCI primers per se, but something that makes CCI primers and Dillon equipment not play well together.

This is the same kind of thing I see with Winchester large pistol primers in the Glock 21--I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the WLPs, it's just that they're not a good match for the Glock.
35 years reloading, over 50,000 rounds, mostly Federal and Winchester primers, never had a single failure to fire.
20,000 + rounds with Remington large pistol primers. No failures.
Ceemack

The problem I had with CCI primers was they were just out of spec. I measured them and several were larger than they should have been. As a result they would not seat in the pockets. As I recall in a 100 on average the lot had five that were odd sized. Nothing to do with the press I can assure you. I must also say that I have used CCI primers from another brick that worked fine. I guess, since I have had no problems with Win and REm primers I decided to stick with those.
I've only loaded maybe 5,000 rounds, but have not had any failures with Rem small rifle, Rem small pistol, or Fed 150 large pistol primers. I never touch one, just dump into the Lee primer tray and shake. Now that I've said that, I imagine I'll have a dud soon. :biglaugh:
20,000 plus Winchester WLPs with no failures. 20,000 Federal 150s with one failure to light. Aproximately 20,000 CCIs of various types with several issues: One box of 1,000 CCIs about 5 or 6 years ago with 15 or 20 failures to light well in the cold, (0 deg f.), one box of 1,000 CCIs with many of the cups not even. These had one edge of the cup higher than the other and were very difficult to seat well. One box of 1,000 CCIs with "high" anvils. These would "trip" coming out of the primer feed tube and wind up spilled, upside down or sideways. Seating them single stage had a crunchy sort of feel which made me a bit nervous so I called CCI and they made good on them. BD
1ppm failure rate is impressive for any manufacturing process. I got one possible bad primer in over 25 years. I don't remember the brand but it could have been a reloading error. I also have a new brass shell with no primer hole but I caught that one before loading it. I use mostly Winchester and Federal. The CCIs need to be whacked harder so I don't use them anymore. - Phil
Yeah, I second what Ceemack says. My G30 does not get along with WLP's. Get about one light strike every 50 rounds. I switched to Federals and all is well.
Bronson7
No failures with Winchester or CCI or Remington pistol primer. I think I have used about 20,000 of them. At one time I could not get CCI primers to seat in my Dillon 550, so I switched to Winchester and have never looked back.

I have only used Remington primers in .40 S&W with no problems.

Rifle primers have given me exactly one failure to ignite in the last 25 years. It happened about nine months ago as my daughter and I were practicing for the upcoming deer seasson. It was a CCI 200 from some ammo that I loaded about ten years ago. A second hit got it to ignite. Makes me wonder if the firing pin struck it hard enough. I immediately took the bolt apart (Mod 70) and cleaned it.

Shotgun primers, however, have given me several fits over the years. I have used Federal and Winchester, both giving me a way too high of a failure rate.
41,000 various CCI primers with 0 failures...9,000 Wimpchesters of various sizes with 4 failures to date(2 small rifle, 1 large rifle, and 1 large pistol)...ill stick with CCI
I always used CCI primers and never a bad primer. I went to a funshow and they had Winchester primers cheap so I picked up a brick.

Out of that 1000, I had 4 primer failures, BOOOOOOO!!!!

That and the brass colored primers with Winchester (cant tell if you have reloads or new ammo cases you pick up at the range) made me go back to CCI.
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