Thousands of rounds down range and I had my first primer misfire. Winchester small pistol primer reloaded for 9mm. Tried to fire it a few times without luck.

And your point would be what?

A certain percentage of failures is considered acceptable just as with any other product. With primers my recollection it that the acceptable failure rate, assuming minimum energy is applied to the primer, is something like 1-2 per 10,000. You just found yours.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

It does happen but not as often as you would think. I have been shooting since 1953 and reloading thousands of rifle and pistol rounds a year and even more shotgun shells. In all of the factory including 22 rim fire and reloading I may have had 12 to 15. The failure rate went down once I started using the lee prime all so touching them was no longer an issue!

Back in the 80's I had a few misfires from the same box of primer, I THINK they were CCI in my model 10 which always gave a perfect strike. I also used Winchester and some Remington. A Winchester popped on me while reloading with a Lee Hand Load and a mallet. I used thousands of primers over the years and haven't had any more trouble. I think the last few years though, I've been hearing about what must be QC issues.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Of the many thousands of primers I have loaded over the years I can
only remember one that truely failed to fire. It was one of the many
thousands of Winchester shotshell primers I have loaded for Trap.

I've been reloading for a long time and have had only one instance of failed primers not being my fault; Winchester small pistol primers fired in a striker fired 9mm. All other primers (CCI, Wolf, Remington) functioned properly in the gun and in other applications, Winchester primers worked quite well. I thoroughly cleaned/checked the firing pin channel and very lightly oiled it, and cleaned/checked all other areas of the bolt. The gun functioned properly with a couple makes of factory ammo, and all my other reloads.

My solution was to "pre-load" or "sensitize" the primers. After seating, completely to the bottom of the pocket, I would add a bit more force to the primer. After this I got 100% reliability from the Winchester primers in that particular gun...

BTW; Actually, I can't recall any "bad" primers in nearly 30 years of reloading. Ninety percent handgun ammo and 4 different rifle calibers...

My car battery died once.

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Still Running Against the Wind

If you mail them the dud primer(hazmat applies) and include a prepaid return mailer(hazmat).

They will send you a replacement primer.

It happens.

I posted last month that I was having some duds with WSP primers. Normally I just toss them in the dud bucket at the range but brought one home and pulled the bullet and dumped the powder and removed the primer. Hmm nothing in the primer but the anvil. Didn't call Winchester it wasn't worth the effort. My lazy bone acts up quite often as I get older. Don

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USN Retired/VN VET
M&P X5

I bought a case of Federal small rifle match primers. First box of 100 has stains where the primer leaked in about 4 of the pockets. I had a number of misfires but cannot pin down the cause as I was using "one shot" to lube and may have primed a wet case from either the lube or not completely drying the case after sonic cleaning. If I find another tray like this I will have to return the case to Federal. I might add I am new to reloading and cannot expect perfection on my part. Still the primer solution is in the tray.

Reloading since 1988. Never had a failure.

Failures are usually caused by either light strikes from the firing pin/striker, or by the primer not being fully seated to the bottom of the primer pocket.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

I just had one last week, in a 9mm, also a Winchester. I think only the 2nd one I have ever had in over 30 years of reloading.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Welcome to the club................

Now, aren't you glad you found it before you really needed it to go "Bang" .

I had a spate of failures in Winchester SPPs a few years ago. I quit using Winchester and the problem went away. I ran a couple hundred of them last year because it was all I could get at the time. No problems with them. I still try and avoid Winchester primers. Especially after all the problems I have had with their .22lr.

How can I say this......whoo hoo!!!!!!!

Work at any gun range for any length of time and you will have a fairly nice collection of factory ammo that didn't go bang when the trigger was pulled.

Years ago, touching primers with sizing lube on your fingers was supposed to render them inert. I've never tested this.

All my primer failures were my fault. Some guns have trouble setting off a primer that's not fully seated. I've also had problems in Marlin rifles with CCI primers, known to be hard. Switching to softer federal primers solved that problem.

I now ream all my primer pockets so the occasional high primer situation has been resolved.

Usually caused by guns that give a light strike to the primer.

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USAF, 69-92
Vietnam, 72-73

Like alwslate, I used to shoot trap competitively and went through about 12,000 Remington 209 shotshell primers every year. I had one failure perhaps 15 years ago while shooting some practice at the Grand American tournament and gave the reloaded shell to a Remington rep. I received a letter from the company explaining that my primer's anvil was tilted, causing the misfire, and a coupon for 100 primers I could redeem at any gun shop.

When you consider how many primers of any type the companies that make them turn out in just one day, the percentage of failure is super slight. If only all things in life were that good!

Ed

The only bad primers I've ever had have been Winchester. But I've only had 4 bad ones out of several 1,000. i use CCI 300 Large pistol for my 45ACP and 45 Colt rounds and have never had any bad ones out of more than 20,000 primers spread over 12 years of handloading.

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gunfighter48
NRA Life Member

Second primer misfire today. I will now be avoiding the purchase of Winchester primers.

Over 40yrs of reloading more than 250k rds, I bet I haven't had 5 true misfire primers.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Been reloading 60 years, I had one small pistol primer (CCI I believe) fail to go bang many years ago. I removed the primer from the case and it was clean with no priming compound.

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State of Jefferson
Jim

I said that I've had several primers misfire early on, but it could just have well have been my fault if I didn't seat them all the way. My method of seating primers was a good bit more crude back in the early 80's. I use a hand primer now and check each one after it's seated.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I use a hand primer while watching the boob tube to prime my cases and it's become a habit to peek at the primer before putting the case in place. Because there have been times when I haven't gotten every single primer flipped to the correct orientation. One day I gave a peek and thought a brass primer that wasn't flipped had somehow gotten into my box of nickel plated CCI primers. A closer look revealed that the anvil in that primer was missing and that "brass" was actually the raw priming compound. I'll bet you a dollar that particular primer wouldn't fire no matter how many times it was hit and I normally don't bet. Stuff happens and there are two things that keep me loading Single Stage. One is because I only shoot about 250 rounds per week so a progressive really isn't necessary. The second is that Stuff Happens and loading single stage gives me the time to see Stuff before it becomes a Problem.

When you switch to another brand and have a misfire will it be the end of those primers also?

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Still Running Against the Wind

If you live in the Northern Tier of states your battery will die every 3rd winter on the 3rd day of seriously low temperatures -- the Rule of 3.

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S&WHF 366

You will run out of primer brands if you keep this up.

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S&WHF 366

It has to be the equipment or product, never the installer.

I need new Golf Clubs, Tennis Gear and Fishing equipment.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I've been using a lot of different brands over the years. Winchester happens to be a favorite over the years. However, since they no longer nickel plate the primer cups, there have been a large number of complaints about Winchester primers of various types. WLR's have gotten lots of complaints on the M14 forum. Now WSP's although there is no mention of whether these are the copper colored primer cups which are newer or the older nickeled cups.

They are the newer ones, never had a misfire with the older nickeled ones.

Second primer failure, I suggest you check your primers for correct seating .

Over 10,100 rounds fired in 9mm, more in .38 Special and .380 without a problem. Several thousand more in .45 ACP, large primers if you are counting, never a problem. Both failures had good solid primer strikes, it was not a fault of mine.

I've shot 10s of thousands of my reloads, so far, without a dead primer. Must be lucky...

I'd estimate that close to 85-90% of my reloads have been done with Winchester primers. I also use some CCI and Federal, but prefer Winchester. They work well for me.

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NRA Life Member

I had a FTF last week, on a 45LC. Looked on the bottom of the box and they were loaded in 1990. Thought to myself "did you not put powder in the case?" Disassembled and found powder, so I guess it must have been a primer failure. The box has been in and out of storage three or four times in 25 years and some of that storage has been in uncontrolled temp. storage sheds. I can't remember how many primer failures I have had with my reloads but it isn't many. Had way more with factory ammo (several with factory match ammo) that cost me big time during match shoots. It is a man made item and stuff happens. If you can narrow it down to one brand and one lot of primers maybe an email to customer service will result in them discovering a problem that they didn't know they had. I would probably set that box/lot of primers, aside and use another brand or another lot. Maybe use them for something other than self-loaders.

Many years ago, I had trouble with a bunch of commercial reloads, by one of the "big boys" in the field, at that time. I called them and talked to one of their techs. They denied any issues but I have done my homework and knew that they had been using a certain brand of primers and that several of those lots of primers were reported to be "Hard". Those primers would require two or three strikes before ignition but they did fire. I never got them to admit a problem but did get them to take back and replace a significant quantity of ammo (out of the goodness of their heart) Never had another issue with that company and still use their products today. Primers are probably the weakest link in the reloading process but to this point no one has come up with a better system.

Okay all is forgiven for now. Just received an order of 15,000 small pistol primers, Winchester had the best price and shipping was free. All from the same lot and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Shot my last 100 rounds from the failed primer lot and BINGO another failed primer. Hopefully, this new lot will not give be problems.

Had one this week. Out of about 120 rounds, misfire, ejected cartridge, loaded and hit it again. No good.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Had another primer failure a month ago. I normally shoot between 100 and 200 rounds per range trip, numbers depend on conditions. I usually carry a few spare rounds to keep an even count, but not this time, I'll have to start that up again.

14,400 rounds through my 92FS.

So what brand (s) of .22LR don't you buy?

Remington has given me the most miss-fires of the brands I have bought.

Well finally, this clears up the whole situation!

It's the guns fault!

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Still Running Against the Wind

Well, back in '92 (1892 that is) I had a primer that was a dud. It seemed I had stored the ammo too close to the horse manure pile and the ammonia fumes leaked through and killed the primer. Remington-Peters wouldn't recognise my complaint, so I just pulled the rest apart and used the powder in my old muzzle loader for my "big critter loads" along the Rio Grande during my horse trading days...

I succeded in deactivating a large pistol primer in .45 ACP with a liberal dollop of RCBS case lube applied during priming on an old Rock Chucker Jr. with the old timey priming arm. Worked like a charm. The good old days before carbide dies and automatic priming tools.

I test-fire all my primers. It's problematic.

Had a few bad primers. Mostly shotshells and if I remember correctly Federal. They changed their primer designation to 209A after some manufacturing difficulties. I also had some troubles with Win pistol primers I had. Wooden trays for certain and a high humidity area(Eastern Shore of Md). But this was in the late 50s...so it may have been my fault. Having oldtimers prevents me from remembering too well. I also got some of those old style primers in a box lot at an auction here in Wyoming 4 yrs ago... All fired just fine. 60 year old primers stored in wooden trays and they still worked. I had to use them. got 40 some thousand primers for 5 bucks or so. What can I say... I'm cheap! I have some old DCM Frankfort Arsenal primers for 06 and 45 auto dated '49. Gave some to a friend. He loaded some in the appropriate cases and they still went bang. Who knows how they were stored? Surprisingly with all the many millions that are made there are very few duds. I even had primers given to me that had obviously gotten damp some years previously dried out and still fired just fine. Heck I have half a pound of L'il Gun powder that had been filled with water by a misguided widow. I dried the powder and have loaded it in 410's and some 22 K Hornets and it still shoots fine. Ain't we lucky? We have some good primers and ammo. Heck even the Russians made primers and ammo that worked... even when they couldn't make 10 working light switches in a row.

Inspect ALL your primers to be sure the anvil has not fallen out.

I read on the Internet that it happened to someone, somewhere at some time!

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Still Running Against the Wind

I suppose one could check their primers visibly by getting them anvil side up/cup side down and look for the anvil and any difference in color under the anvil that might be a lack of priming compound. It would only take a minute or two to inspect 50 or 100 of them. If you seat primers with a tube primer magazine, you have to have all of the primers cup up or cup down to load the tubes, anyway, so not hard to do if you were so inclined because of primer failures in your history.

I might do this if I was loading for serious carry or loading hunting ammo for a big hunt. I don't know if this would give any realistic help but at least you would feel better about your primers.

It was "sarcasm" AKA a joke
But really did read it on another forum

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Still Running Against the Wind

Dunno about other reloaders, but I inspect all the components I use. I measure the diameter of my bullets, I check all my brass (and 45 ACP small primed cases aren't any trouble for me!). I double check powder before I dump it in the powder measure. No big deal to scan a tray of primers and I don't think it would be too much trouble to put primers in a "primer flipper" and look at them before I stuffed them in a tube...

FWIW; I use the same care for reloading my "plinking" ammo as if I were reloading world class competition ammo. Thinking of reloads a "just plinking" ammo can lead to sloppy practices and eventually squibs or an OOPS!