Dead Primers

[CJB]

FWIW, back in the day, we did run into a batch of WW primers that had no anvils... here and there... made for @#$@# at the range for couple of months - because we rotated ammo, and didn't do "lots", just dumped 'em in the crate to get boxed when the last crate was empty. I think it was 9mm's so it would have been small pistol primers, no anvils on maybe couple of dozen out of 10,000

[Bongo Boy]

My experience is limited to about 20,000 rounds loaded. Of that, I think I've used 2-3,000 Winchester, 1-2,000 Wolf and I believe the rest have been CCI. The ONLY loads I have that routinely fail to fire are Wolf and Winchester primed loads. It is as predictable as can be.

Both brands consistently cause me problems during the loading process--problems I have never experienced even once with CCI. Both are difficult to seat and both tend to jam up my primer shuttle. Often, they seat just enough to allow the shellplate to start rotating, but not enough to allow it to rotate freely--I then have to fight to get the case over the primer plunger to force it home.

For the Wolfs, I'd say the failure rate for me is about 2-3%, and for the Winchesters maybe half that.

These are all large pistol and all in 45ACP, 10% in a Lee Turret Classic, 90% in Hornady LnL. I've had several folks say they use Wolfs almost exclusively and never have any problems at all, and I expect even more folks use Winchesters with no problems. For me, it is so certain I'll have misfires, I don't buy them. The Wolfs have been significantly worse than the Winchesters though, but both seem very tight in the brass I use--which includes about 7 brands of used range brass.

In shooting some stuff I loaded a year ago, if I open a box and see brass primers (as opposed to nickel finished), I know I'm in for some malfunction drills.

[cobrasjp]

Everything suggested so far makes sense.
But I thought of one more thing. Do you use any sort of case lube? If so, could that contaminate the primers if there is too much of it on the case when when you are priming?
Just a thought.

[getsome]

Well I finally got to shoot 50 rounds of newly loaded light .44 mag target loads using the Lee hand primer tool instead of the press and all went bang this time...I also used latex gloves to touch the primers with as suggested by several folks and was careful to clean the primer pockets and pressed hard on the tool to fully seat the new primers so hopefully the problem won't happen anymore...Thanks to all for your help in solving this problem...