Issues with White River Energetics Large Rifle Magnum Primers

So wanted to just get this out there…purchased 1000 of the White River Energetics Large Rifle Magnum Primers to hold me over until I could get my hands on some Gold Medal LRM primers. Reloading supplies have been sporadic lately, and combine that with how hard it is to get stuff in Alaska, and you have a decision being made to just buy whatever I can get my hands on. I decided to use these to fire form some .338 Lapua Improved brass out of regular Lapua brass. I loaded up 50 of them with some US869 and 300 grain Bergers to start making brass. So far I have fired maybe 40 shots, and of those, I have had a failure to fire on 14 of them. As you can see in the picture the firing pin is striking them good, but they didn't go off. I even tried shooting them a second time to see if it was a light strike or not and they still didn't go off. Not sure if I got a bad batch or not, but thank god my Gold Medal's are here for me to use from now on.

Mac

hopefully it's just a lot/batch issue and not going to be an ongoing issue with them! i'm wanting to give those and other newer brands a try and compare them to my 40 years of strictly cci use. how much were those?

mackgee said:

So wanted to just get this out there…purchased 1000 of the White River Energetics Large Rifle Magnum Primers to hold me over until I could get my hands on some Gold Medal LRM primers. Reloading supplies have been sporadic lately, and combine that with how hard it is to get stuff in Alaska, and you have a decision being made to just buy whatever I can get my hands on. I decided to use these to fire form some .338 Lapua Improved brass out of regular Lapua brass. I loaded up 50 of them with some US869 and 300 grain Bergers to start making brass. So far I have fired maybe 40 shots, and of those, I have had a failure to fire on 14 of them. As you can see in the picture the firing pin is striking them good, but they didn't go off. I even tried shooting them a second time to see if it was a light strike or not and they still didn't go off. Not sure if I got a bad batch or not, but thank god my Gold Medal's are here for me to use from now on.

Mac

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Try their CS so we know how they stand on their products.

M1A1ABRAMS said:

Try their CS so we know how they stand on their products.

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I had a similar situation with some primers requiring a double strike to fire the cartridge while fire forming some 250 AI in a TC encore. Once the brass was fire formed and filled the chamber they fired on the first strike. I apparently did not have the bullet seated far enough into the lands to hold the case solidly. The primer showed a good strike but the case must have moved forward enough to prevent detonation. It would be interesting if you tried them again once your cases are fully formed?

I have used their regular LRP and had zero problems. I have Not used the Magnum primers though.

Is it possible that the primers were not seated properly? Some primer brands take much more force to seat correctly especially in new brass.
I had the same issue with some starline brass and SRP in my 223 and it was me and not the primers.

With the improved cases, You need either a crush fit with the brass in the chamber, and/or jam the bullets to get consistent ignition and case forming.

Might just be the picture, but the primer strikes shown appear inconsistent. Agree with others, try them from the same sleeve in fire formed cases. At the aforementioned 25%+ failure rate, it shouldn't take many to see if that's the issue.

Lone Mtn Rifles said:

With the improved cases, You need either a crush fit with the brass in the chamber, and/or jam the bullets to get consistent ignition and case forming.

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This is where I would start looking. Strip FP and ejector from your bolt and see if it drops free on virgin brass. If so jamming and/or false shoulder is needed.

I understand the suggestions but given @mackgee experience and looking at the primer strikes, there definitely is a problem. I'm interested in finding out what the manufacturer says.

I agree with Birddog68 -- check your primer seating. I have had problems in the past with FTF even though the primer showed what looked like a proper indentation. Solved it by checking to be sure I was seating the primers to the bottom of the pocket. I was not. Especially if you're using a hand priming tool, you just don't have the leverage to get them properly seated. You don't want to go back and re-seat primers in loaded rounds, but maybe try another few loads with emphasis on really seating the primers and see if that changes things.

Yep that would have definitely been bad in a defense situation with big brown bear (Kodiak) when distance is paramount. Bears cover ground Quick!

pull the primers and stick them in fully formed cases and fire the primer and let us know how it works out. 95% of the time it is the fireforming set up that is the problem but if it is the primer that is the problem it will be good to know.

Look at the primers on the fired brass and compare the strike dimples.
It doesn't look like a primer problem.