New Winchester Large pistol Primers black in color?

[Gary Wells]

Anybody know anything about Winchester pistol primers now coming in a black casing and in a purple box?
I'm in the SoCal area and looking for Winchester only large pistol primers. I have located some, unfortunately at $50 a K, and of a new design supposedly.
These are for sale by private party.

[amathis]

I use them, They seem to work pretty well. No problems yet.

[Randy 1911]

How long has it been since you bought Winchester Large Pistol primers? I have beed using them for years and they have always came in purple cardboard sleeve and black plastic trays. The last time I saw Winchester primers in white sleeves was 5-7 years ago.

[sandhills writer]

I just purchased 10M, they are fresh from the factory, and they are the same as always. 8-10 years ago they changed and now do not nickle plate them, so they are a dark brass color.

[Gary Wells]

Oops, my bad. Not a good description on my part. What I meant to say is that the primers themselves are black, (the cup) which used to be nickel plated years back, and then they went to what appeared to be copper plating about maybe 12 years ago. I was told on these that the primer itself is black, and the cardboard sleeve is purple. Does that make sense? At $50 a K, I don't want to go wrong.

[Bigtony]

The ones I buy come in a purple cardboard sleeve and the plastic insert they sit in is black, but the actual primers are brass color. The boxes used to be white and the primers were nickel color but that was quite a while ago.

[Gary Wells]

Anybody know of any primers that are black?

[Jim243]

No

[snuffy]

Ya made me go look! The large pistol primers I bough last month are still the same brass color, in a black holder, in a purple box,(1,000). I would certainly pass on those, sounds like someone has been altering them for some special purpose. They may even be contaminated to the point of not working.

[charlie-6]

May be talking eye glasses on the primers, just bought a brick of large pistol winchester primers still brass coated.

[floydster]

Something is very, very fishy here, black primers???

[Lost Sheep]

Straight line for so many punch lines...and all of them bad.

These must be the primers we heard about a couple of years ago that would expire after 12 months unless you fired them first.

These are special primers that are not supposed to be released to the general, civilian population. The "Black Ops" folks are the only ones supposed to get them. The guy selling them is obviously a rogue CIA agent.

It is part of an unadvertised Winchester line of "designer" ammunition components. These are the Coco Chanel primers in Basic Black. Soon to be released in Pristine White, Dior Diamond and Hot Pink. If these go over well, look for scented gunpowder in everything from Evergreen to Pumpkin Spice and Black Licorice (release date is April 1, 2010).

I heard someone tried to make "designer" primers that would look nice in replica single actions. He tried color case-hardening by heating them. Didn't work out so well. The next thing to do is just bluing them now. Are you sure these are not just very dark blue?

Seriously, though, would it be convenient to take a couple of pictures and post them? These, I have never heard of.

VERY UNLIKELY explanation is that is some sort of tarnish these primers have picked up from being exposed to fumes or from getting wet, perhaps with some chemicals leaching from the packaging. Without an explanation on the box or from Winchester, I think, at $50 a thousand, I would pass. On the other hand, if I was desperate for primers and I could test one by priming an empty cartridge case and popping the primer off, I might buy.....if I was desperate.

Lost Sheep

Please DO NOT take any of the first five paragraphs of this post seriously.

[Gary Wells]

No, I am going to wait.

[spacecoast]

I have a relatively new box of Winchester LPPs, the model is WLP. The box is purple, the trays are black and the primers themselves are gold (color).

[Uncle Buck]

Lost Sheep: You just aint right... I laughed so hard I almost spit the coffee out onto the keyboard.

Also, do you have any idea where they will release the first of those scented gun powders? I am looking forward to pumpkin spice and vanilla scented shooting.


I would think if the primers are black, like Lost Sheep said, it would be due to some kind of tarnish or exposure of the primer. I wonder if they still work?

[Scott_L]

$50/K? That's a bit high isn't it? The most expensive LPPs I've bought recently were Remington at $39.95/K and lowest were Federals for 34.95. Maybe these are special in some way...

[Magnum Mike]

Uncle Buck! I dont want new scented primers or powder. I love the smell the way it is now. BOY I love the smell of a freshly fired round. Wished they had candles like that for the home!

[snuffy]

Concerning smells associated with shooting.--Dad occasionally allowed me to shoot his 20 ga winchester model 12. He was using winchester paper loads, probably 7/8 ounce of 7½. I loved the smell of the powder mixed with the paper and wax, a thin wisp of smoke from a freshly fired shell! Create a perfume or scented candle with that smell, I'd buy a lifetime supply!

For the kids on here, that would have been 1956-60 era. And I was 10-14 at the time. I could handle the 20, but my SA brother thought it would be cute for me to try his 870 12 ga. A "duck" load which was a HV 1¼ load, knocked flat on my azz! But at least I got to sniff the empty, after I picked it and myself off the ground!