I recently had the same experience with new Winchester brass that the OP had. It was 243 brass and the flash holes were terrible. Luckily I only bought a bag of 50. Going to use it for hunting so I won't be worried about losing good brass after shooting.
Winchester Brass
- Thread starter Shrek
- Start date
When I had the Winchester bad batch , it was my last bag ever.... I bought a bag of the Sig .308 with annealed necks and took it home... I still haven't fired any of it but it was so nice and the same price as the Winchester I went back and bought every bag they had.... Have you had good luck with it..??? I have heard real good things about it... I am saving mine for when I run out of factory brass I have shot.... It sure is nice looking stuff....
I've been using Remington Brass, for several years now,.. Winchester stuff, "went South" about, a decade ago. I don't use their Primers, anymore either.
Fed and CCI, are the primers, I use. Many Companies today, are being run, by Money grubbing, Board's and CEO's that, just don't care about, us consumers or, making, "good Products" ! Remington Rifles quality, has gone "down hill", lately with, LOTS of complaints, about them NOT shooting very well. I hope they keep on, making good Brass! I am glad, to see NEW Brass Companies starting up ( ADG, Peterson, Starline, etc.)
Fed and CCI, are the primers, I use. Many Companies today, are being run, by Money grubbing, Board's and CEO's that, just don't care about, us consumers or, making, "good Products" ! Remington Rifles quality, has gone "down hill", lately with, LOTS of complaints, about them NOT shooting very well. I hope they keep on, making good Brass! I am glad, to see NEW Brass Companies starting up ( ADG, Peterson, Starline, etc.)
Winchester can alienate a large %-age of their customer base pretty easily. Unfortunately for them, it will take years of quality brass to get most of them back. Some never will return...
YUP, I've read, far too many cases of, un-happy Shooters, buying Win Brass and I've personally seen some of, the "bad brass", myself.
You are right, once Reloader's start and "work up" loads with, another Brand of Brass, it'll be, too late for, Winchester !
I've had very good luck with my 22-250 brass, I have some in 308, 223 and 300 WM that I haven't done much with. I load the 308 for my father in law so I know his brass from mine, the 223 in a budget AR I built and haven't shot much, and I just haven't taken the 300 out much.
I have 22-250 Ackley brass thats been fired three times, first load a stiff charge of RL15 and 69gr SMKs to blow the shoulders, then two firings with RL23 and the 75gr ELD-M at 3370 fps, pockets still feel very tight. I just ordered another bag to form up once my hydroforming die is completed. Can't say enough good about them.
It's so nice looking it's hard not to buy it for the price... Like I said I put mine up and haven't gotten to it yet.... But compared to the Winchester brass at the same price it's kinda a no brainier....
i buy nothing from Laying Larry
I responded earlier to this post about how I also had flash hole issues with Winchester 243 win brass. After seeing the flash holes I just put the brass away and haven't used it. Yesterday I decided to neck that brass up to use for some barrel break in on a new 260 rem barrel that I just put on a savage. I only loaded up seven of them. The first shot was from a completely cleaned barrel and the next six had a group of about .408". I guess I'll have to eat my words for complaing about the brass before I tried it. I did weigh the brass and it was very consistent weight wise. This group was at 100yds and my first time shooting off a bipod. Maybe it was a fluke. I'll have to load more up and see if I can duplicate it.
I just bought 100 Win “match” .308 from Midsouth. There was no red, blue bag- it was clear. Anyway, I started cleaning up 20 pieces and I had difficulty uniforming the primer pockets, some were so tight the K&M tool hardly fit. The necks were turned without difficulty to be concentric and sized and then expanded to .306.
I could feel a different amount of pressure between a few of the cases when seating which makes me think the tension make be different on some. Have not fired yet. My old Win brass seems much better than this new “match” brass. Guess I’ll try Hornady or just fork out for Lapua.
I could feel a different amount of pressure between a few of the cases when seating which makes me think the tension make be different on some. Have not fired yet. My old Win brass seems much better than this new “match” brass. Guess I’ll try Hornady or just fork out for Lapua.
I bought a large quantity of once fired Winchester .45 ACP pistol brass from a vendor on Gun-Broker. Everything about the transaction was fine except the brass. The flash holes on many of the cases was so large the primer barely had a ledge to seat on. I contacted Winchester to see if they would make it right ad send me usable cases in place of the junk. The rep I spoke with refused to send any saying it was an issue I had to take up with the vendor. I said all they did was sell it, you produced a sub-standard product. After a short silence he said is there anything else I can do for you, I said anything else would imply you've done anything at all, are you going to replace the bad brass you made. He said they would not, so I told him that from that point on I would never willingly buy anything else made by Winchester if they can't stand behind what they produce. I've had brass stamped Winchester, W-W, Win and some military cases (.45 also) that have had the huge flash hole problem.
I recently got ahold of some Federal .45 ACP small primer brass that has a similar problem with huge flash holes also. Someone once before suggested that they might be from Non-Toxic loadings, but I've got brass stamped N-T that has standard flash holes. Quality control seems to be getting in the way of the bottom line. OK that's my rant for the day.
I recently got ahold of some Federal .45 ACP small primer brass that has a similar problem with huge flash holes also. Someone once before suggested that they might be from Non-Toxic loadings, but I've got brass stamped N-T that has standard flash holes. Quality control seems to be getting in the way of the bottom line. OK that's my rant for the day.
pirate ammo
Guaranteed to take the wind out of their sails
Hate to say this, but you bought supposedly once fired brass from a vendor at a gunshow and then you wanted the manufacture to replace it,,not going to happen. For all they know
it's range pick up fired who knows how many times.
it's range pick up fired who knows how many times.
MikeT49
Gold $$ Contributor
I was not going to buy Winchester brass again. Decided to take a gamble as Winchester customer service has been xlent. Picked up two 50ct bags of 243W from MW. (on sale, free shipping). Not a single cull. One case was .002 short of trim to, the rest were mostly @ 2.040 +/- .002. One slightly dented case mouth. Some minor denting on case bodies. Weight max spread was 2.4gr. for 94 of the cases. Flash holes all centered and uniform with minimal cleanup required. Primer pockets were not touched by me, seating force of BR2s the same on most, with a few easier to seat. All seated to a rch below flush. First skim cut on necks indicates even neck thickness. I thought maybe this batch was a fluke, so ordered 100 more from PV to see. The PV cases are about the same. Slightly heavier ~ 2 gr and these were trimmed by the manufacturer to 2.035 +/- .002. No culls so far. Hopefully Winchester is getting their poop back in one sock.
The main point I was trying to make to the folks at Winchester was/is.......you produced a sub-grade product and it was turned loose on the buying public. No I really didn't expect them to replace it, but I had nothing to loose by trying.
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