Winchester Reply concerning light primer hits, WWB ammo

As you folks know so well, many of us with these new guns, Ruger SR9 and SR9c, have been plagued with light primer hits. Some of us have blamed the gun; some of us blamed the Winchester White Box ammo.
On May 13, I sent in to Winchester Div, Olin Corp, a selection of four light primer strikes (one-hit each) as well as four normally-fired cases, and ten fresh cartridges from the same box. I explained what problem some of us have been seeing with our new semiautos.
Winchester replied today. I have included pertinent portions of their letter.

"OUR EXAMINATION OF THE AMMUNITION RETURNED REVEALED A LIGHT FIRNG PIN STRIKE. THE AMMUNITION WAS DISASSEMBLED AND INSPECTED. WE FOUND THAT ALL OF THE COMPONENTS MET OUR MANUFACTURING SPECIIFICATIONS.
OUR INSPECTION OF THE FIRING PIN INDENT FOUND THAT IT DOES NOT MEET INDUSTRY SPECIFICATIONS AND WAS INSUFFICIENT TO DETONATE THE SHELL."

Their letter went on to suggest that my firearm should be checked.

In the interim, my SR9c has been to Service again. The Service department replaced the striker mechanism. In particular, the striker sping in my repaired firearm is longer, such that it now maintains a constant pressure on the striker. (I have a previous post concerning this repair)

I believe that Winchester (and Ruger Service) did an admirable job, and I sincerely thank both of these fine corporations for their interest in this matter.
Sonnytoo

Good Report, I too have had the same problem with the winchester white box. My Ruger SR9C was brand new when I took it to the range and every other brand of ammo I put threw it I had no issue but when I tried the wwb I had about 10 FTF out of the 100ct. box, I`ve used blazer,hornady, magtech and others and had no problems,glad to see I`m not the only one to have that. Thanks for the info and it was very good that Winchester and Ruger responded to you in a timely mannor about you concerns, I`ve delt with Rugers CS and have to say there top notch. Thats why I keep buying them!!!!

I've had a HUGE number of FTF's with the RWS Swiss-made 124 gr. FMJ ammo I bought at Wal-Mart (the stuff in the orange/black boxes) through my SR9c. 3 of 4 shells failed. Everything else I've tried with no problems.
Anyone else had this problem with the RWS brand in their Rugers?

I've recently had several problems with light-strikes/failures to ignite with RWS 124gr 9mm ammunition with my Glock G17. I replaced the striker spring (and checked and cleaned the firing pin channel and the other slide channels) , but I'm suspecting the ammunition, not the Glock. Some European ammunitions have been noted for having harder primers than others, and particularly harder than US manufactured primers.

I do not plan on purchasing any more RWS ammunition. There is other available ammunition that is more reliable and less expensive (i.e., Federal Champion) and/or more reliable and at about the same price (i.e., PMC Bronze).

I would suggest restricting use of RWS ammunition to weapons imparting more firing pin energy to the primer-i.e., hammer-fired guns (such as a Ruger P89, P95, etc.) as opposed to striker-fired guns (i.e., Ruger SR9, Glock, etc.).

Best, Jon

I have shot thousands of RWS thru all my 9mm's and never had an issue, one of the guns used was my SR9. 9mm's index on the case
mouth, if the crimp had too much of a taper or the chamber had depth issues that could also cause a light strike. I'm not saying these things are happening but it is something to think about. The only ammo I have had light strike problems with is WWB and it happened with both striker fired and hammer fired guns and that has even been very few and far between.

Anouther +1 on the good report 8)

But i've NEVER had a single problem with WWB of any caliber :roll:
Next box may be different

I like some striker guns.
BUT this is not unique to your Ruger.
I have had Glocks do it, Smiths do it, it just seems
like everything has to be just right for that bullet to ignite.
They crud up easier, and light strikes can be a problem with a
brand new gun.
One of the reasons if my lifes on the line I want a firing pin or if it's a striker gun it better not have one light hit, as in never.

Range time WWB & Tulamo. The primers had distinctly different strike patterns. WWB had a small round hit, Tulamo was deeper with a bit of a trench pattern & no FTF's. WWB 1 out of 34 rounds. My guess is leaning more towards primer than pistol issue...

I have had nothing but success with Winchester small pistol primers. Remington, on the other hand, have been too hard for reliability with all my handguns ever since the first panic in 2008.