Winchester Staynless Primers #116

Fairlane66

Today I bought a cardboard box full of miscellaneous ammo from a neighbor and inside, along with the ammo, was an original box of Winchester center fire non-mercuric Staynless primers, #116. Research tells me these are for small rifle calibers. There are 10 original boxes (100/box) in the original Winchester box, for a total of 1000. Here are a few questions. First, there's no date on the box, so can anyone tell me when these might have been made? Second, do they have any collector value or are they just shaootable primers? If collectible, can anyone tell me what they might be worth? I can't find any on the auction side, but another site had one box of 100 that sold for $15. If they have collector value I'll probably put them up for bid on the auction side. If they're shooters, I'll probably load them in my 22-250. Thanks in advance for any help.

charliemeyer007

I think from the 50's. They could be collectable, but I never met a primer collector. google has lots of hits for them so I don't think they are all that rare. $49 for 1400 had a nice sleeve for the M. I have a M of 120's. The wood rack inside is nice.

11b6r

Shipping primers will be expensive and a PITA. Unlike ammo, primers ARE HAZMAT, and you have a lot hoops to jump thru to ship them anywhere.

If they are in good condition, I'd use them.

Ambrose

They're small rifle primers and won't work in your .22/.250. They will work in your .223, .222, .22 Hornet, etc.

Those are so old that even I don't remember them. I did find them in my 1951 Lyman #38 handbook, though.

perry shooter

If they are packaged in the wooden tray they do have SOME collector value. take to gun show and sell FTF no one is willing to pay shipping cost.

MG1890

I am a primer collector!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What colors are the box??? Blue and white, Blue, red and yellow, yellow???

Fairlane66

The exterior box is plain tan cardboard with red and black lettering. The interior boxes (each containing 100 primers) are blue, red, and yellow, and sealed. However, upon further investigation, I discovered there are 5 boxes of #116 primers, all sealed. There are also four boxes of #120 primers, one with a broken seal and all the primers intact.

MG1890

The blue, red and yellow primer boxes follow the color scheme of Winchester ammo boxes. These colors were in service from about 1938 to about 1946.

The outer sleeve being tan colored is typical, and is also the color of .22 ammo sleeves of the era.

I have these boxes in my primer collection. At a gunshow I'd fork over 5 bucks a box (100) if they were nice and clean.

jonk

Five bucks a box for 100 is 50 bucks for a thousand. I'd say they aren't so collectable. Some of the guys who collect old ammo boxes, old ammo, etc. might be interested. I'd look on the ammo collector sights and see if it got any interest before just shooting them, but if 5 bucks a box is all they bring, I'd keep 'em, shoot 'em, and save one full box for my own collection.