Caution!!! Winchester 223 Brass

[DaveBrokos]

I just bought 500 pieces of Winchester brass from Midway
and found in one bag of 100 3 piece's of brass that were
1.769 in length. I normally do not go out of my way to check
the length of brass when I load 223 rounds but I wanted
to load some extra accurate loads for a match and the
fact that I was loading for an AR scares me of the possible
consequences of not checking every piece. I guess I will check
all brass from now on. Sami specs allows for max
lenght of 1.759 I put these pieces in a no go gauge and
they were definetly no go. The variance of length in this one bag went from 1.769 down to 1.744. Crap to say the least!!!
The more I checked the rest of the brass the more I found.

Caution Guy's!!!

 

[Tozguy]

Is this new brass or previously fired?
The length of 200 once fired 223 Federal cases just bought varies from 1.745 to 1.758. It is a bit disappointing because the chamber in my rifle is 1.780. I am hoping to find some 'longer' brass in the 1.770 range. For now the Federal brass is sorted by length and shot in order of decreasing length.

 

[Rust]

Just for grins I just pulled ten Winchester .223 out of a fresh bag and the lengths varied from 1.758" to 1.753" with most centered at 1.756". Not really that bad for OTL (Other Than Lapua). But of more concern was the condition of some of the case necks and mouths, one of the ten was bad enough I just tossed it. Another one was trimmed so badly out of square it wouldn't come close to minimum length if trimmed square.

That is a reject rate of 20%. Might not carry through the whole 100, but probably would be close to it.

The sad truth is I have occasionally run across exceptionally good batches of brass from Winchester and Remington. Probably from when they set up new forming dies. So it's not that they can't produce high quality brass, it's more likely they choose not to. Production numbers over quality.

 

[rocketron]

call them to get a return number and send the brass back to them(get ready for about ten minutes of selecting options)....i had two bags of new .223 brass that the flash holes were off center and some that were centered with a slot to one side.

the bags they sent me were a little better but not great.......i gave up and just got lapua brass.

when you do get them on the phone make sure you get a name and ext. number....it saves a lot of time.

Ron

 

[msnations]

I used to used a lot of win .223, but I've found recent years LC (05-09) to be much better brass...

-Mark

 

[Taildrag15X]

I used to used a lot of win .223, but I've found recent years LC (05-09) to be much better brass...

-Mark

I'm thinking that Winchester ran the LC plant untill 2007, then Federal (ATK) took over for a fixed period through contract. So your still using Win. brass.

 

[Rust]

Nope, don't confuse Winchester headstamped brass with LC even if Winchester/Olin did run the Lake City plant. Different forming dies, different press machinery, different annealing, maybe even a different brass formulation and LC brass must meet NATO spec.

 

[fdshuster]

Winchester has been crap for years.About 5 years ago I bought some of there Blazer 22 ammo,some of it went POW,some went POOF, and some of it didnt do anything.Same thing must have passed over to their brass manufacturing.I dont buy anything Winchester anymore.Winchester before about 1985 was wonderful,not anymore.

"Blazer" ammunition is made by CCI!

 

[Taildrag15X]

Winchester has been crap for years.About 5 years ago I bought some of there Blazer 22 ammo,some of it went POW,some went POOF, and some of it didnt do anything.Same thing must have passed over to their brass manufacturing.I dont buy anything Winchester anymore.Winchester before about 1985 was wonderful,not anymore.

"Blazer" ammunition is made by CCI!

And CCI is owned by Federal (ATK)

 

[lightman]

Thats disapointing news,but thanks for the heads up.I have always foung Winchester to be about the most consistant domestic brass that you could get.LC has always been good,but you never know what the once fired was fired in.Looks like Lapua is going to be getting more business. Lightman