Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Blown Primer (Win WLR) in Fieldcraft

Took my son to the range today, and we sighted in 4 Fieldcrafts. He was shooting his 6mm CM suppressed with factory ammo and ringing the small (6"?) gong at 150 every shot. I was doing the same with my 223AI Rem 700....until he took that one over and shot up all of those reloads. The Fieldcraft 22-250 with 75 Gr AMAX's was the funnest for me.

I had sighted in the Fieldcraft 243 (105 AMAX and Rel 17 in Lapua brass) and was ringing the gongs with it when I noticed one round had more recoil it seemed. Very hard bolt lift, and when I got the shell out, I noticed the primer was gone. Not sure what happened with my load....I had shot maybe 35 rounds when I found the bad one. Never had it happen before.

But the Fieldcraft handled it very well. There is some erosion on the bolt face, but not bad. Everything appears to be fine, and all of the gases were diverted downward through the hole in the bolt body. I felt no gas or anything when I pulled the trigger. Worked perfectly.

Glad nobody was hurt, and thanks for the report.

J

Likewise.

What primers Steve?

I’ve had that happen myself with a couple CCIs. Not a knock on them by any means cause they are about all I use, but I reckon a “soft” one can slip in anywhere at anytime with any manufacture.

Or coulda been the nut at the bench....grin...

Glad ya weren’t hurt.

I believe they were the newer Win WLR primers that I’ve heard are smaller. I’ve used thousands of them and never had a problem. I don’t think it was a primer or primer pocket problem. I was loading amax seconds from Midway that I’ve had for a long time.

I’ve gone over it a hundred times in my head. Round wasn’t hard to chamber. I always visually check my powder loads before I seat bullets.

I will check the case again and mic it. All I can think is maybe the bullet set back in the case before firing or maybe there was an off size bullet in the bunch. I was using new Lapua brass. I don’t size new Lapua before loading.

I will probably also run the rifle by a local smith to check it with headspace gauges. But I’m pretty sure it’s okay.

Thanks guys. I had one more round and decided not to shoot any more until rifle was checked out.

WLR primers have a history of this from three or four years ago. Was this a batch of older new style (brass colored) primers? Several discussions on here back then.

Yes. I checked again. Brass colored in the blue boxes.

Hmm.....Wish I had seen this sooner. I'll be doing more research and will call Winchester.

Winchester WLR bad primer replacement thread

Check your firing pin protrusion win. primers are a little taller than the other manufacturers

Several other threads on here as well. Just have your lot number ready when you call.

I guess all I can do is laugh. I had used 300+ of these gold colored WLR primers after using up all of my silver plated WLR's. I thought I was prepared for the rest of my life and my son's life with 20,000+ LR primers. I guess I'll start over. I do have some FGM LR primers that I'll use until I can get these replaced...either by Winchester or buying another brand.



ETA: Actually seated 220+. I have found them all and will punch them out if unfired. Funny thing is, I had primed most of the 50 rounds of 243 I shot with the older silver primers and ran out. I finished up with these newer brass colored and had a problem quick.

Hey Steve, I had the same exact thing happen with these primers. I called Winchester and they asked for the lot # and said they’d replace them. I haven’t followed up on it but I bet they’ll take care of you.
It happened in a .308, 7-08 and something else.

You could visually detect erosion of the bolt face?

After I cleaned up the carbon ring. Yes. It may make a trip to Gre-tan.

That's worrisome.

[align:center][/align]Talked to a guy at Olin, and it looks like I'm stuck with 20,000 primers that I won't use because I would be worried they're not safe. All brass colored, but since they didn't have those same lot date codes in the computer, they will not reimburse me for them.

There's an obvious widespread problem and they aren't volunteering to take care of it.

I have 10,000 Federal 210M's on the way. I guess I'll just eat the $800 or so and learn not to buy any more Winchester products.

Not sure that it's worth it to me to send back the 700+ primers in the lot # that I had a problem with. I'm starting to think I should have lied. LOL.

The lot # they're reimbursing is XLL183G

The lot #'s they're not reimbursing are:

BKL355G
BKL342G
GML431G

I had a blown primer a month or 2 ago. Federal Match magnum primers. Don't know if my load was on the warm side. Waited for hunting season to end and I will download and see if I still get the cratering. May eventually send it to Gretan once I am sure of the problem. It is the only one that did that. Ejector got pushed in but that was an easy fix. Killled 3 deer after that episode. .257 Weatherby mag. Bartlein barrel. Super accurate gun

Man, it sucks to hear that.

I had the same issue years ago, and they took care of it with no questions, even though my lot #s weren't on their list. I probably had < 1,000 of 'em, but they took care of all the return shipping for 'em, & stroked me a check.

They offered to pay for the rifle repairs, too, but the Marlin came back from the repair place in IL with no charge. In my case, the ejector was broken and the bolt face etched. They didn't see the need to replace the latter. In any event, the rifle continued to shoot with accuracy far, far past its price point.

Here's hoping you can get them to reconsider.

FC

Had that issue with primers I bought in 2008-2012 year range.Burnt the boltfaces on several rifles.Those seated much looser than the new ones.Winchester paid me for the primers I sent back to them.They would have paid to have my bolts worked on.I talked to a gunsmith about it and we both agreed that it was cosmetic and did not affect the accuracy of the rifles.