Winchester Small Pistol Primers

Never having problems with both Remington and CCI SPP in a Lee Pro1000 to load .38SPL, I grabbed the first SPP I could get my hands on- Winchester. Many jams! Won't feed, or don't feed centered on the pocket. Jams!

Anybody have this problem before? Switched back to old stock of CCI, and all good. What's up with Winchesters?

Yes, WSP & WLP don't work as well in my D1050 as the CCI versions. Some say the CCI's are sometimes out of round but I haven't run into that yet. I won't even go into the cracked/split cups in one lot of WLP that damaged the breech face on one of my guns.

Before the pandemic, I was loading and shooting around 800 rounds of 9mm per month.  All loaded with WSP primers without any problems. I'm loading 9mm on a Dillon 550B. Maybe it's your Lee.

Not familiar with the lee, but I do about 10k each wsp and wlp each year in my 1050 and 650s. They are my goto brand.

I have been using WSPP for years now.  Lately when I needed some they were unobtanium so I acquired some Federal Match SPP's.

The difference between the two (handling not ignition) is night and day.  The Federals were easier to load in the pick up tubes, easier to insert in the case and had less mess left over.  I'm sold! No more Winchester sp primers for me.  FWIW I prime on an RCBS bench primer with modified Dillon tubes.  I could load maybe 300 Winchesters before my hand hurt.  Last sit down I did 1000 of the Federals with none of the previous hand discomfort.  bob

Greetings,

I have loaded 10,000+ Winchester Small Pistol with no issues?

The only priming issue I encountered was cleaning my brass "too clean" and the primers galled in the pocket during seating.

Now, I leave enough dish soap suds when I rinse the cases after tumbling with SS pins.

Problem solved.

Cheers,

Dave

I have loaded many thousands of rounds with my Lee 1000.  Now I use a Lee Loadmaster and have never looked back.  The biggest flaw with the Lee 1000 is the priming system.  The key is to go slow and easy, and ALWAYS keep the primer chute full of primers.  It needs that extra weight to ensure your primers are fully moved into position for seating.  I used mostly Winchester primers.  Keep a can of compressed air handy to blow out any brass slivers and debris.  I found that replacing the primer feeder after a few thousand rounds helps keep things moving smoothly.  They're not expensive and saves headaches.

Hi John, I bet it's your brass....if used with brand A for a while, a crud ring ( highly technical nuke term for Chalk River Unidentified deposit) builds up in the pocket and makes seating a different primer difficult. 

They can have slight differences in cup depth.

Interesting. I find Winchester primers the best at seating. Next would be CCI. Federal seem to be too soft and too easy to flatten, using them currently because it's all I could find. Absolute worse primers I've tried is Sellier & Bellot. I use a Lee Press if that makes a difference.

Maybe not germane but the WSP's I've used on my single stage required (I'm guessing here) twice the seating force than CCI SPP's for 9mm.  My primer pockets are free of residue after sonic cleaning.  The WSP's were the only available primers at the LGD's at the time and I'm glad I only bought 1000.

IMO Winchester primer quality, about the time they stopped plating them, is not what it was before.
The cups are more rounded and for me that causes issues getting them into the tubes and the tubes better be clean or they hangup. Then I ran into the lot were the cups would split at the shoulder, pitting the breech face with a mild load that I had used for years and thousands of rounds with no issues (and mostly with the plated WLP's).
I found the worst of the primer failures occurred in Remington cases with their larger pocket radius. But other brands had the splits as well just not as frequent. I had to dig through the top layer of a five gallon bucket of fired brass to fine the damaged primers so I may have missed a few. I caught the damage after only one range trip as I clean the breech face every trip.
Winchester pretty much ignored my inquiry's so I gave up. Later I found some threads on Enos's forum where others had the same problem, but my lot number was not the same as some listed. One guy did get Winchester to pay cost of replacing slide.
My gun still works fine and no more pitting after stopping use of that lot. I have 10k WLP still in the sleeves but they will be used only after I can't find CCI's.  

Not intending to bash Winchester here. Just my experiences.

Here's a link
https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/198468-severe-breech-face-pitting-caused-by-cracking-primer-cups-in-wlp/

FWIW there are some small winchester primers on gun broker that as of yesterday were bid up to more than double retail. It's starting......

Bill

Thanks all! Tweeked the zero adjust on the Lee, and am getting usable results, but an occasional no go primer. Never seen that with CCI.
Cleaning wet with SS pins in a vibratory with Dawn detergent. I've also taken to using a brass pocket brush.

I had used Winchesters for years but started having primers flipping in my 650.  Went to CCI because that's all my shop had and the issue went away.  Never went back to Winchester.  Also had good luck with Remington primers.