Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters WLR how hot?

Picked up a brick of these, are they full magnum primers like CCl 250's or the Federal 215?


41

No.

A test that A-Square ran in the 1990s, in their piezo pressure lab, indicated that WLR primers were the hottest "standard" primers commonly available in the U.S. back then, and approached some milder LR "magnum" primers. Dunno if that's true, as I haven't bought any WLRs for a while. But do know they often work better with spherical powders, which are harder to ignite, than other standard LR primers.

I'm thinking there was a Winchester change around or a little after the 90's...I still have a few hundred, the label, white carton, says something like, Winchester Rifle Primers, for all rifle loads...standard or magnum.
Now they are labeled something like, Winchester Rifle Primers, for standard loads. Magnums are clearly marked, For magnum loads.

They just showed up here in Alaska. Been picking up my 4 box limit daily. $9 / 100 ct.

It's been WLR and WLRM for as long as I remember, but I'm "only" 61

Might also mention that Winchester only offers one small-rifle primer--which is a compromise between "standard" and "magnum."

Until the primer shortages of a a few years ago made any primer desirable, all I used were Winchester LR and SR primers. I never noticed any velocity differences, pierced primers or a higher failure rate with Winchester primers. I always felt that they were more reliable than the others.

Reloaders have to be careful that they do not let individuals lots of primers, powder or bullets colour their judgment. Just because a bad component lot may have been released and recalled, it doesn't mean that a product should be rejected for all time. Winchester primers flat out work.

WLR are definitely hotter than CCI200s or Fed210s in my experience. I use them a lot for lighter fill stick powder loads, and pretty much exclusively with ball powders.

Just a bit of reference in differences over the chrono across several cartridges

375 Win 200gr SH
N130 with CCI200 - 1576fps
Same charge of N130 with WLR - 1691fps

250 Savage 87gr HC
IMR3031 with Fed210 - 2910fps
Same charge with WLR - 2961fps

300 Savage 125 Sierra PH
H4198 with CCI200 - 2646fps
Same charge WLR - 2731fps

303 Savage 140 Monoflex
IMR3031 with CCI200 - 1999fps
Same charge with Fed210 - 2021fps
Same charge with WLR - 2060fps

I have a couple bricks of early nickel-plated WLR and WLRM in the white box that have been fine in every way. But both I and a friend got some more recent WLR, brass-colored primers in a navy blue box, that are almost .001" undersized in diameter compared to other LR primers. Normal once-fired brass felt like it had been shot with very hot loads when seating these primers.
I hope the latest lots of WLR have corrected this.

His book was pretty clear on that.

Is this the same with Winchester Large Pistol? They used to say “For Standard or Magnum Loads”. But the new ones in the red and black boxes don’t say that anymore.

I experienced that exact same thing and posted about it here. I was quickly told how wrong I was.
None the less, CCI LR primers quickly became my “go-to” primers. Glad I hoarded them when they were still available….

I shoot a bit of TAC and Biggame in cases 308 and below in capacity and as a default use WLR primers with good results. I have to say that my choice to do so was partly internet evidence like listed above. For varget etc I tend to use Fed 210's.

I am just about to start with RL26 in 7mm SAUM where I expect to top out around 60g- and am considering the starting with WLR which I have a lot of, or fed 215's which I dont.

I was just going to ask if anyone used WLR primers with Big Game. I'm working on loads in the 7mm-08 and 30-06 with the combo.

The problem was, AFIK they weren’t recalled, they responded to complaints as they occurred, and pretty well I think, but I asked a couple of dealers and neither had any idea that there was a problem, and there was a problem, no doubt. Once the range of bad lots were identified, they should have issued a recall of those lots and let the customer decide if they wanted to return them, or just take their chances.

A few months back I ran into more problem reports about WW primers, same as before. Didn’t chase down the details because I had moved on to others; it just confirmed my notions that Winchester the ammunition company had fallen off its formerly lofty perch. My most recent experience with their .22 LR ammo was also disappointing, and there are too many good choices to suffer crap, especially expensive crap.

I use Winchester wlr primers with Ramshot big game and Hunter powder with good results. 30-06

I noticed the feel of almost no resistance to seating the first time I used them working up some loads for my friend's rifle using new (pre-covid) blue-box, brass-colored WLR he provided. I had lots of other brands (and older WLR) on hand and did a check of the diameters. The micrometer doesn't lie, my friend's blue-box WLR are undersized, and so are my own, which I had not yet used, so hadn't noticed. I'm sorry you got told you were wrong - pretty asinine to say that about something one is in no position to assess.
I'm hoping this issue is corrected in the newest production of WLR. Anybody notice them feeling a little loose in the pockets?

Cheers,
Rex

I just bought some a couple weeks ago, but haven't cracked into them yet. I'll stick a few into some brass tonight to see how they feel.

I had that undersize issue with some pre-rona era Rem 9 1/2s.

You guys who are using WLRs with Big Game and Hunter: is that WLR or WLRM?