Winchester Sp Primers?

[revchuck]

Folks - I can't get Federal 100s unless I order them, and that's not economically feasible for one case with hazmat plus shipping. My guns have "duty" action jobs, rather than full-race ones. Should I be okay with Winchesters? I can get them all day long.

TIA!

[38superman]

FWIW,

I shot S&W revolvers with factory actions for years decades with CCI's

Never had a misfire in more rounds than I could begin to count.

Unless you have lightened your springs the Winchesters should be fine.

Tls

FWIW,

I shot S&W revolvers with factory actions for years decades with CCI's

Never had a misfire in more rounds than I could begin to count.

Unless you have lightened your springs the Winchesters should be fine.

Tls

[pskys2]

Check Wideners, I think the Hazmat fee is on a shipment. So if you buy a bunch it can be spread out. There is a max that can be shipped under 1 hazmat, I believe, but it's over 20m.

[Carlos]

Reason Federals go off when other primer brands fail is the fact that Federal uses a different priming compound than the other big 3. Might have this backwards, but Win/Rem/CCI use "normal" while Federal is the only one using "basic" compound of lead styphnate.

Given that the other 3 use the same compound, it appears CCI also uses a harder alloy in the primer cup and makes that cup slightly taller - making the CCIs tougher to set off in revolvers and glocks.

You should be OK w/ winchester or remington given your "duty" action job.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I tried the Winchesters in my 646 and they did not go bang all the time. I think the revolver may have had trigger work done at some point. Saying that the Federals go bang everytime without fail. I would give the Winchesters a try and see. I would have loved for the Winchesters to have worked for all my 40's but that's how it goes. Hope this helps. Thanks Eric

[Drachen27]

Folks - I can't get Federal 100s unless I order them, and that's not economically feasible for one case with hazmat plus shipping. My guns have "duty" action jobs, rather than full-race ones. Should I be okay with Winchesters? I can get them all day long.

TIA!

The only times that I've had failures with Winchester is with guns I've lighten the trigger on (competition guns). So you should be fine.

Several of my friends and I have gone in on a group order for powder and primers from powdervalley and have split the hazmat charge. It worked out quite well, and we all saved money. Even splitting it between 3 or 4 or us, we still saved a bunch.

[Bubber]

Revchuck, I was feeling I would be in the same predicament, No Federals available. I had some Winchester Small Rifle primers from some 6 years ago so I loaded 8 in my super light Randy gun. 8 pulls 8 bangs. YMMV. The small rifle are supposed to be harder than the small pistol.Grab a hundred and give er a try. Can't hurt. I used to shoot Winchesters all the time with my K frames and had one not go bang at a big match so I swithced. These K frames were lightened trigger pulls. I did find the Federals local and got only 3 thousand but he said he could get more in a couple of weeks. Good luck. rdd

[revchuck]

Bubber - I've got a case of Federal 205s looking at me. I might oughta try them.

[Carmoney]

The Winchester primers will probably work just fine, as long as the mainspring tension hasn't been reduced too much--your duty actions should light 'em up. When I recut the ejector on my 627-4 to work with 9mm WWB ammo, I found I needed to increase the mainspring tension just a little to get 100%. Just make sure you're fully seating the primers to below flush, that'll make more difference than anything, I think.

[sargenv]

All this talk about Federals in short supply has me thinking that maybe the extended firing pin inmy tuned 627 may light off the WinchestersI have in stock. I'm going to load say 100 or so and see if it lights them all. If it does, I can burn the winchesters for practice and use the federals for big matches. Until Federal can get back in stock that is. I've also had good luck using Small pistol Magnum federals in place of standard small pistol, every one of the magnums also lit off.

Vince

[Bubber]

"Just make sure you're fully seating the primers to below flush, that'll make more difference than anything, I think." Yep I think you are right Mike... I know I will be sorry for saying that... . I have my 550 set up to fully seat the primer below flush and it makes a difference.

[Jaxshooter]

Has anyone tried Federal Large Magnum Pistol Primers with a pistol that has had an action job? Are they harder than the standard or just hotter?

Thanks

[dirty whiteboy]

Good luck finding Federal primers!

Edited March 27, 2007 by dirty whiteboy

[sargenv]

I would think since federal small pistol magnums worked, large pistol magnums should work also. Federal also makes large and small pistol match primers, butt they cost a few bucks more per k.

Vince

[sargenv]

Ok, last night I wanted to do a bit of testing. I loaded 200 rounds of my 38 special ammo with Winchester small pistol primers. I have a lightened action job with a 13 pound main spring. The main spring is tightened to it's maximum. Out of 200 rounds loaded with Winchester small pistol primers, I had 3 light strikes. At this point it could have been due to primer hardness or it could have been attributed to a dirty gun. My 627 uses the +.005" firing pin, so generally it's going nice and deep. I don't have any issues igniting the federal primers. Since it was 3 out of 200, I think I will load my practice ammo with Winchester primers and load my match ammo with Federals. Haven't checked velocity difference, if there is any, and I'll report that back some other time.

Vince

[Carmoney]

You can always bend the mainspring to give it just a little more tension with the strain screw tightened up, it probably won't take much to make it 100% with the Win. primers.

That's exactly what I did with my 627-4 so I could shoot WWB factory ammo. Yeah, the action is a little heavier, but you don't really notice the difference very much when shooting the gun--it's still pretty light.

Remember, the nominal weight of the mainspring (e.g. 13 pounds) means almost nothing. There are too many variables, not the least of which is the strain screw length, and the springs in each specimen really should be individually tuned to make the action as light as possible and still leave enough margin to work 100% with the desired ammo and give the correct trigger rebound.