I regularly use 10Mhz + Xtals with thin pins on breadboards with no problems.

 

I regularly use 10Mhz + Xtals with thin pins on breadboards with no problems.

I've done the same with crystals of up to 16 Mhz... the trick is to place them as close as possible to the MCU or the square wave generated will be too "dirty"

 

I've never had any problems with any crystals on breadboard. Never tried anything more than 12MHz though.

Watch crystals have thin legs and I've certainly lost quite a bit of them whie handling them - nothing you can do about this. If legs are too thin, simply bend their tips 180 degrees back.

 

I use 20MHz xtals with 22pF caps for USB work with 18F2550, 18F4550 on bread boards with no problems.