I recently got a new case of WW209 primers and I have had nothing but trouble with them feeding in my Apex. The primers would bridge in the primer tray, sometimes they would tip over and block the cog that rolls them into the primer drop tube and in general they caused many problems. After having the came problem occur in all of the first three boxes (100/tray) I knew Winchester must have changed something.. Out came the dial micrometer and the problem's cause became very easily identifiable.
The rim on older primers measured .030" and had a slightly rounded edge while the newer lot were only .025" thick and had a much sharper and rougher edge. These new primers can work their way under adjacent primers and make it much more likely to create a bridge where the primers will not slide easily down the tray and can slightly tip the adjacent primer where they will push up into the primer tray lid. Sometimes this tipping will even cause a primer to fall on its side inside the tray.
This problem slows the reloading process because of having to clear bridges and get the tipped primers back upright or else jams occur.
Given these problems, I will probably try to use up the existing lot of 4500 primers and hope that the problems clears when I get into other boxes but, unfortunately, I suspect that this problem will continue through the entire case. If it does, Winchester primers will NOT be my next purchase.
I have noticed, but been able to accommodate another problem Winchester seems to have created in that the lengths of the shells in the HS cases have a greater variation than other brands and this variation causes some of the shorter shells to have a small hole in the middle of the crimp but the longer shells will completely seal the crimp.
Given these two conditions, it appears that Winchester has loosened it quality control standards. They, with the old AA CF case, were the gold standard in shotshell reloading but now I am thinking that they seem to have abandoned that idea and let quality standards slide.
The rim on older primers measured .030" and had a slightly rounded edge while the newer lot were only .025" thick and had a much sharper and rougher edge. These new primers can work their way under adjacent primers and make it much more likely to create a bridge where the primers will not slide easily down the tray and can slightly tip the adjacent primer where they will push up into the primer tray lid. Sometimes this tipping will even cause a primer to fall on its side inside the tray.
This problem slows the reloading process because of having to clear bridges and get the tipped primers back upright or else jams occur.
Given these problems, I will probably try to use up the existing lot of 4500 primers and hope that the problems clears when I get into other boxes but, unfortunately, I suspect that this problem will continue through the entire case. If it does, Winchester primers will NOT be my next purchase.
I have noticed, but been able to accommodate another problem Winchester seems to have created in that the lengths of the shells in the HS cases have a greater variation than other brands and this variation causes some of the shorter shells to have a small hole in the middle of the crimp but the longer shells will completely seal the crimp.
Given these two conditions, it appears that Winchester has loosened it quality control standards. They, with the old AA CF case, were the gold standard in shotshell reloading but now I am thinking that they seem to have abandoned that idea and let quality standards slide.