Thread: Nothing wrong with old primers

Did some load development for a new club member at our fullbore club. All that was available were some old white packet Winchester LRP's. Made for "standard or magnum loads ". Got to be 35yrs old at least, generously at $5 a sleeve. With the proviso that they might not all go bang.

Hit the magic 3000fps with a155 grain HBC (3001fps to be precise) an extreme spread of 10 fps and standard deviation of 4 fps. Chrono was a Lab radar 5 shot group.
A slightly higher load was

3019 fps
ES 14 fps
SD 6.4 fps

So absolutely nothing wrong with old primers.

I've got a few of those from the mid-90's as well as some CCI small rifle in the tiny tray

Originally Posted by johnd

Did some load development for a new club member at our fullbore club. All that was available were some old white packet Winchester LRP's. Made for "standard or magnum loads ". Got to be 35yrs old at least, generously at $5 a sleeve. With the proviso that they might not all go bang.

Hit the magic 3000fps with a155 grain HBC (3001fps to be precise) an extreme spread of 10 fps and standard deviation of 4 fps. Chrono was a Lab radar 5 shot group.
A slightly higher load was

3019 fps
ES 14 fps
SD 6.4 fps

So absolutely nothing wrong with old primers.

I dare say that they would be better than the new Winchester primers.

Originally Posted by Cigar

I've got a few of those from the mid-90's as well as some CCI small rifle in the tiny tray

Those wee trays are great aye, i am onto Remington 9 1/2s now and they are in those little trays. you can store a whole lot more of them in your secret underground bunker. Whoops

Originally Posted by johnd

Those wee trays are great aye, i am onto Remington 9 1/2s now and they are in those little trays. you can store a whole lot more of them in your secret underground bunker. Whoops

You got one of those too ha ha, those primers should be good so long as they a stored well.

Will never use Winchester primers ever again! I will forever have the etched bolt faces as a reminder!

Originally Posted by johnd

Did some load development for a new club member at our fullbore club. All that was available were some old white packet Winchester LRP's. Made for "standard or magnum loads ". Got to be 35yrs old at least, generously at $5 a sleeve. With the proviso that they might not all go bang.

Hit the magic 3000fps with a155 grain HBC (3001fps to be precise) an extreme spread of 10 fps and standard deviation of 4 fps. Chrono was a Lab radar 5 shot group.
A slightly higher load was

3019 fps
ES 14 fps
SD 6.4 fps

So absolutely nothing wrong with old primers.

I agree. I’m on the white box ones myself and am then changing over to ADI berdan primers using L2a2 berdan brass. I think it’s 70s vintage. On the .303 front I’ve started to use the shortage as an excuse to start loading more berdan cac mk 7 brass using kynock primers (ex cac factory).

Ya gota save the modern ones for when they hit the same price as gold!!
The nice thing about the newer blue box Winnie’s is that you can spot them easy via the brass finish
I have one box of the crook ones but have had no gas cutting to date.

Still use RWS large rifle which have been with me for close to 30 years from an estate so don't actually know when purchased, no miss-fires so far.

Originally Posted by Bert 71

Will never use Winchester primers ever again! I will forever have the etched bolt faces as a reminder!

Im with you mate, and the retailers wanted nothing to do with it

These white boxed silver coloured primers pre date the faulty batch by a couple of decades. Mind you NZ retailers can be a shifty bunch. I bought Win LRP's about 3 years ago....got bolt face burns, checked the batch number ...holly shit , manufactured in 2008! (Thanks GC)
That is information you don't see until you open the box.

Anyway the original point was that if stored appropriately older primers can give good results still.

Just had a count up have about 150 win lrp left from a box of 1000 I bought about 1985 with a then new ruger m77 in .25-06, rifle gone but they still work OK in my 270wsm

Originally Posted by omark

On the .303 front I’ve started to use the shortage as an excuse to start loading more berdan cac mk 7 brass using kynock primers (ex cac factory).

Here's a man after my own heart, been doing this for some years now, a lot of fun & the CAC Mk 7 is good brass once its annealed. How do you get the fired primers out. I've been using a pick I made from a concrete nail like Ramset guns fire through timber into concrete. It works Ok.

Originally Posted by shananah

Here's a man after my own heart, been doing this for some years now, a lot of fun & the CAC Mk 7 is good brass once its annealed. How do you get the fired primers out. I've been using a pick I made from a concrete nail like Ramset guns fire through timber into concrete. It works Ok.

I’ve tried lots of methods including the rcbs tool (painfully tedious) so I use a hydraulic decapper and hammer. Most have a sealant around the primer which makes them hard to move but a candle will soften them. I then ream the crimp off using a case deburring tool which i flattened the nose on, size, Anneal and prime using a ram prime with a larger stem.

It’s amazing how much if it’s still around. A while ago I got given a small batch that was dated 1917. I’ve only had one split so far.

The stuff comes up like new.

I’m rocking those primers got a heap when I brought my set up. So far they’ve been brilliant no issues have a few deer on the deck and killed plenty of steel.

Three or four years ago I shot a mate’s SMLE with ammo stamped 1911. Every one went bang. That said, the target end of things wasn’t too flash, but the rifle was pretty rough, which could be the cause.