Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Blown primer

I was trying out a load of 60.2 grains of Reloder 26 with a 150 grain Sierra Gameking in the 270 Winchester. The first, and only, shot fired registered 2975 fps on my chronograph but also blew the primer. There were no other signs of excess pressure except for the primer - even the velocity seems reasonable. As for the primer itself, it was still in place but I had leakage along the edge of it in one place. Is there anything that can cause this other than excess pressure?

Winchester primer?

excess headspace, or causing the pressure if the bullet was seated into the lands, or loose primer pocket. just to name a few.

If the case has been reloaded several times, I would say loose primer pocket. Any history of issues before? Headspace, could be a bad primer, Winchester primers from a few years ago had a recall.

It was in fact a Winchester primer....why do you ask? I haven't had problems before but I'm getting the impression that there is something I need to know about.

I hadn't considered headspace but I do have gauges so I will check that. Bullet seating seems to be fine. Using marker on the bullet of a loaded round I didn't see any marks from seating into the rifling. The brass (FC) has seen about five firings but perhaps I should try new brass.

Do a Google search on Winchester rifle primers. You will see plenty. That being said I have used them with no issues, but mine were not in the lots that had issues. Could be the brass as well.

I had a bad brick of WLR primers from Obama scare 1. The primers would sometimes (3 to 6 in 100) blow out on the edge of the primer cup in long standing loads. This happened in pressures from .30-30 to .30-06. It scared many bolt faces, but was not over pressure. YMMV.

Thanks for a good tip. I just did a search for "Winchester large rifle primer problems" and the first search result was a discussion of the same problem that I experienced with a small hole being burned through the edge of the primer.

Some where in the search you should find the exact lot numbers that were suspect. If they match your lot then you have an answer.

Winchester has been good about replacing/reimbursing for the suspect primers.

Or you could contact Winchester with the lot number, they appear to be pretty good about refunding money for the bad primers.


ETA: Ha! 5sdad beat me to it by a half minute.

For a while, a person could get Winchester primers cheap. I loaded (no pun intended) up on them. I have not had an issue with Winchester primers, though quite a few evidently did.

I've heard that Winchester will not only reimburse for the primers, but also for any damage.

They will, but who wants the hassle?

They were my go-to primers for a long time, but apparently they made no effort to get the bad ones off the shelf, which means any in stores are still suspect. I moved on to others.

I've had no issues with the ones I have either.

They were ready to pay for my repair, but Marlin charged me nothing. Firing pin was replaced, bolt head left in place with a mark etched into the face.

Also, my primers weren’t in the lot numbers that were identified as being defective, but they comped me for them with no questions asked. This included primers I had already loaded into ammunition, but not get fired. I was very pleased with Winchesters response.

FC

I have been using Winchester large rifle primers since I started reloading about 53 years ago, and have never encountered a bad batch. That doesn't mean that it never happens, but the odds are that if you get some bad ones, Winchester will make it right.

FWIW, I have blown only one primer--the first load fired in a very nice custom Model 70 by a well-respected builder. Although the rifle was not advertised as "unfired", I believe that it had not been. Sure enough, the culprit was excessive headspace. After a quick tweak by my gunsmith, the rifle gave me good service for over twenty years, and it now resides with my son-in-law--the only rifle that he uses.

I too have dad issues with leaky Winchester primers. Several years ago I had a bad brick of them according to the lot number.

Maybe 15 or so years ago I bought some Winchester primers that were undersized (didn't know at that time) and I could seat them into the case with finger pressure alone. I thought I had overloaded my cases and that the brass had expanded, but turns out not to be the case. The primers were unplated brass (copper colour) and I think that they were intended to have the plating and were sized for the plating ie undersized without it. I normally use CCI but had to buy the Winchester because that's all that was available at the time. I don't think I'll risk using Winchester again. I've never had issues with CCI or Federal or S&B or RWS.

Disagreements with a parent are always troublesome.

I had 5000 that were bad. They pitted up the face of the bolt on my silhouette rifle. Winchester replaced them with - guess what? More bad primers! I still have them. I just use them for low pressure cast bullet loads.