S&W 500 and Winchester primers???

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jjohnl

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Gents

I got a bit of a head scratcher here. I bought a new 6.5” 500. Well I thought I got a dud. Light primer strikes, even had a squib load if that what you call it. Bullet enters part way into the forcing cone, primer is out of the pocket, cylinder jammed up tight. I get it apart, pull the empty out of the cylinder and the powder falls on the floor. Upon closer inspection it looks like rust. Partly ignited I guess. So I try just shooting primers only, no powder or bullet. I get a psssst not the usual loud crack of a primer going off? I loaded some Federal 210, no problem gun goes off like a champ. I tried the Winchester primers in my Desert Eagle, no problems. Funny this recent recipe is the same recipe batch that worked in a Performance Center 500 I had before I sold it. So I tried the usual tightening up on the main spring screw, it was tight, put a spent primer with out the anvil under the screw to get more of a purchase, but no change. I took the gun to a S&W factory authorized center, they tried factory Hornady ammo, gun worked great. So the bottom line I can’t my new gun to shoot Winchester LRP primers? Any ideas other than the obvious (changing to Federal primers), I got 10,000 of the Winchesters. Thanks
 
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I don't know what to tell you. I've been shooting the 500 Mag for 15 yrs and reloading for it all that time, every reload has been a Winchester WLR primer and NEVER an incident.

I use what I think is excellent reloading data from Hodgdon's and all their data, from Trail Boss "plinkers" to max loads uses WLR.

What brass are you using? Hornady has had issues with their 500 Mag brass, use Starline.

You do not need magnum primers by the way.
 
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Maybe a longer firing pin? The shortest one you want will be .495. A lot of factory ones are shorter, I've seen down to .482. If the same primers worked fine in another gun, it's probably something about the gun.

If this is a new lot of primers since you sold the other 500 gun, it might be the primers. If it's the primers, maybe Winchester would trade you for some good ones.
 
Dieseltech56 said:
I don't know either. I have been using WLR primers and Starline brass in my brothers 500 with no issues
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Like I said a real head scratcher. Starline brass, WLR, 440gr gas check bullet, 37gr of H110. Shot thousands and thousands out of the Performance version. Shot so many rounds out of that gun in fact I had the barrel liner backed onto the cylinder causing a jam. S&W reset the barrel but to 12 thou. This new gun has a cylinder gap of 9 thou. Anyway I’ll get some Federal primers in the meantime and order a Cylinder and Slide longer pin. Failing that I’ll sell it and get a Freedom Arms in 50 Wyoming Express
 
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jjohnl said:
Like I said a real head scratcher. Starline brass, WLP, 440gr gas check bullet, 37gr of H110. Shot thousands and thousands out of the Performance version. Shot so many rounds out of that gun in fact I had the barrel liner backed onto the cylinder causing a jam. S&W reset the barrel but to 12 thou. This new gun has a cylinder gap of 9 thou. Anyway I’ll get some Federal primers in the meantime and order a Cylinder and Slide longer pin. Failing that I’ll sell it and get a Freedom Arms in 50 Wyoming Express
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Are you using Large Pistol primers? All cases sold by Starline, Inc. after July 28, 2003, will contain a large rifle primer pocket to accept a large rifle primer. Starline cases will have an "R" after the "Mag" on head stamp to signify rifle pocket.
 
625smith said:
Are you using Large Pistol primers?
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OP mentioned Fed 210 which are large rifle primers. I don't have any experience with federal (only been using CCI LRM) but my 7.5 PC had light strikes out of the box. A trip to mothership fixed that problem.
 
iouri said:
OP mentioned Fed 210 which are large rifle primers. I don't have any experience with federal (only been using CCI LRM) but my 7.5 PC had light strikes out of the box. A trip to mothership fixed that problem.
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Well in Post #5 the Op said he is using WLP. "Like I said a real head scratcher. Starline brass, WLP, 440gr gas check bullet, 37gr of H110"
 
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My bad - missed that part; I guess pistol primers may go way too deep in rifle primer pocket to cause a light strike.
 
I had some 460's where it was getting light primer strikes with the revolver but would fire in the TC pro hunter, turned out I wasn't seating the primers hard enough.
 
[QUOuTE=625smith;139986187]Well in Post #5 the Op said he is using WLP. "Like I said a real head scratcher. Starline brass, WLP, 440gr gas check bullet, 37gr of H110"[/QUOTE]


Yes Winchester Large Rifle primers, they no work. (I accidentally typed wlp when I meant wlr in a earlier post) Federal Large Rifle primers are a go.
 
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I'd pull a large sample.....

I'd take a couple of primers from several boxes, load up some empty cases and see if ALL of the Winchester primers don't work.

Do you have access to another firearm that you can test them in, too?

You say the powder looked RED??? Do you suppose that it had gone bad? It's just too complicated and trying to eliminate as many extraneous details as possible.
 
rwsmith said:
I'd take a couple of primers from several boxes, load up some empty cases and see if ALL of the Winchester primers don't work.

Do you have access to another firearm that you can test them in, too?

You say the powder looked RED??? Do you suppose that it had gone bad? It's just too complicated and trying to eliminate as many extraneous details as possible.
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Primers worked great out of my garand and desert eagle, absolutely no issues at all. The red rust looking powder is only from the incomplete ignition of the squib load, I pulled the others that are loaded with H110, the powder is a nice and shiny slippery etc as it should be. I recently told my reloading buddy about my saga and he has had similar issue but not with S&W. He told me that sometimes a light primer strike can cause partial ignition of the primer but not enough for a burn of the gunpowder. The rust look is soot and chemical change so something like that, sounds funny to me but hey what do I know. I’ll switch to Federal for this gun
 
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