Well, I got burned by the Win copper primer pinhole today!

[kraky1]

I had some of the copper-colored wlr primers that were close in lot number to many of them that were reported.... I hadn't had a problem with any of them and today I had 2 go bad and do it in 5 shots. At least it was just my Marlin 270 bolt action and I got a little burn pit in 2 spots on my bolt face. I probably wouldn't have known anything happened except the second one took out my extractor.
This was a test lot of 5 Winchester shells and I had made a note on the reloading label not to reload the Winchester primers next time cuz they seated ez.... next loading would have been federal primers.
I stopped by my Gunsmith and showed him the extractor pieces and he thinks he can put it back together for me and clean up the boltface. He seemed very aware of the pin holing problem and said the Remington copper primers can do the same thing.... he feels it's related to the loose primer Pockets giving too much expansion at the edge of the cup which is already made poorly with the thin metal. An ignition a pinhole pops up on the edge of the primer and you have a tiny blow torch making a pit in your boltface. Bottom line is he said you wouldn't have had a problem if these were one or two Fired cases with good tight primer pockets. I've got about 300 of the Winchester primers left and they're going to get buried in my flower garden!

 

[gerry]

Seems there have been numerous problems with Winchester primers. Haven't heard it about the Remington primers though. Makes me glad we have mostly CCI primers and a few Federal's as well.

 

[kraky1]

If you've seen the pictures of the tiny pin holes on the rounded edge of the primer it's pretty bizarre. Mine was just like all the pictures I've seen on the internet and that tiny pinhole becomes a miniature torch and burns a little pit in your boltface. Just a couple weeks ago I had pulled all the guns I've used Winchester primers in and checked the boltfaces and had zero problems. Now to have two failures in a five-round test batch I have to think my gunsmith is right when he says it only happens on Looser pockets. I almost always make a note on my labels if the pockets are getting loose so I know to switch to a different primer next time so I'll be on the lookout for any more ammo like this. And This was a pretty mild load I was shooting some 100 grain AccuBond in my 270 Winchester at about 3170 fps.... quickload had it pegged at about 53 K pressure tops.

 

[truck driver]

Yup I had the same thing happen but with Remington brass and Winchester primers. Primer pockets weren't loose but the mouth of the primer pocket was beveled to much and I would get a tiny rim on the primer so it was a combo of both bad brass and primer.

 

[69gto]

In 1972 I started using nothing but Federal primers, so 44 yrs. and thousands of primers later I have had zero issues, not even a misfire.

 

[kraky1]

Dang... just checked my son's almost brand-new Browning X Bolt..... two very tiny pits in the bolt face.... found the offending cases and they had been loaded three times and there was just the tiniest tiniest pin hole on the edge of the primer... I never even knew it was happening. I understand if you make a fuss Winchester will pay to have your bolt redone I put in my book they should have put out a warning or recall .....I think there's a lot of this going on and people don't even know. I've got a funny feeling that Winchester knows this has been going on for years.

 

[truck driver]

Well when it happened to me I called and emailed pictures to them they asked that I return the offending primers and also would have a gunsmith repair the rifle. I declined the repair but sent the primers back and they sent me a check to replace the primers with money left over.

 

[kraky1]

Well being that it was happening to everybody else I figured it was going to get me too so I feel a little blame here too.
Being I only have 300 primers I'm not going to frog around looking for more.... I guess I don't want any more of their primers...lol!
Pretty sure my gunsmith will treat me right on cleaning my bolt face... I feel a little bad about my son's almost brand-new Browning but they're pretty tiny... I'm not even going to tell him so he doesn't feel bad either.... the damage happened last fall before I knew about this stuff.
Fwiw there's a guy that works in a ballistics lab on another forum......I p.m.'D him and asked if he'd ever seen a pinhole leak on a virgin brass win primer.... he said they pushed stuff pretty hard up to getting pretty flat for primers and never a pinhole leak.
It must really have something to do with slightly expanded pockets.

 

[DrMike]

I've had this happen on several occasions. Your assessment is correct in that primers made with a brass cup are the ones that permit a leak. When Winchester used a steel cup, they were superb. Both Winchester and Remington cups, being brass, have given me instances of hot gases jetting past the primer and pocket. It was always in an instance when the primer pocket had enlarged slightly. Now, if I don't feel a slight resistance, I'll switch to either CCI or Federal primers if possible.