New Winchester Brass - Defective!

[TAROMAN]

Just got in a bag of a hundred new shiny Winchester .44 Special cases.

Priming with Auto-Prime, some primer pockets were really tight. Hmmm, they DID prime OK.

All set up to load 185 wadcutters. First round out - that crimp looks really strange, more on one side. Second round - same.

Look closely. Case mouth doesn't seem quite square. Get out the machinists square - sure enough - its cut on an angle.

Wonder if Winchester has moved brass production offshore?

 

[scattershot]

Don't know, but that shouldn't happen. Please keep us informed.

 

[TAROMAN]

Got out the micrometer:
1.160" - Maximum case length according to my Sierra maunal.
1.155" - "Trim-to" length according to my Sierra maunal.
1.152" - "High" side of mouth on sample case.
1.134" - "Low" side of mouth on sample case.

These cannot even be trimmed to spec. Guess I could make 44 Russian out of them.

Well, back they go to Cabelas. I'll have to eat the shipping :-(

NEVER will I buy Winchester brass again.

 

[Homie]

Rather decap all those cases why don't you measure them and set your trimmer to clean most of them up. No new brass is going to be "prepped" and ready to load. I always expect around 5-10% "fouler/sighters" with any new brass, particularly rifle stuff.

Good shooting.

 

[TAROMAN]

Thought of that. Unfortunately, my triming setup is a Lee stud type, won't go that short. I've been reloading for revolvers 30+ years and never encountered brass like this. Size (maybe) deburr, prime and go. Maybe its time for a Forster trimmer..

 

[borntoraisehogs]

My friends and I quit Winchester brass couple years ago . I always regarded anything winchester as the stuff for me . Ignorance is bliss . I bought 500 new 6.5 x 55 brass and my partner bought about the same in 300 Windbag . About one in five of all we purchased had visible defects in the primer pockets , mouth and neck . Some were flat out missing material from half of the neck . I have never even seen a single defective new case from any other maker .
My partner took them back to the store and made such a scene he was asked to leave . I had forgotten about that , he owes me now .

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

I am very suprised to be reading all this. I have had nothing but great success with Winchester brass. Now Remington on the other hand......... Most of that stuff is junk. Too soft, too hard, split upon firing first time out, then sometimes I have had very durable cases from them. For me, they are the crap shoot.

I am using some Win brass that has been reloaded many times with full power.44 mag, with some very stiff handloads lately (see the latest issue of Handloader, Brian Pearce's article), and they are running along just fine. Great accuracy, low ES's too (in the teens with the loads today), and they are holding their crimp.

 

[Dragon88]

Perhaps you can call their customer service line and get a replacement or refund?

If you can find it available, or if you are patient enough to backorder it, Starline is the best handgun brass I have bought/used. I recently purchased some 10mm and 44 mag, it was extremely uniform and required almost no prep. Glad to see they haven't reduced their QC standards with the shortages.

 

[Gun 4 Fun]

Dragon-
you're right on the money there! Their brass is awesome stuff, but a lot of it is constantly on back order (which also speaks to its quality). I use their brass exclusively for my .475 Linebaugh, and couldn't be happier with it. I have some in .357 that has been loaded many, many times and is still going strong. I have it in .45 acp, and a few other calibers. It is all I will buy if I have the choice.

I just happen to have an enormous amount of Win brass on hand, bought way back when it was running about $6 p/100 for .44,.45.

 

[Culina]

+1 on Starline Brass, never had a QC problem with their brass nor have I ever been shorted.

some of the other guys will send you 99 or 98 pieces, I hate that

 

[Andy Griffith]

Get some Norma brass..if you can find it reasonably.

I've always had great luck recently with Hornady brass.

 

[borntoraisehogs]

I am very suprised to be reading all this. I have had nothing but great success with Winchester brass.
I want to clarify , the brass I was complaining about was new unprimed rifle brass with a genuine looking Winchester package marking and head stamps . It was totally different looking than the Winchester brass I have saved from factory loaded ammo .
1+ on the Norma brass . I used to find factory .45 ACP 230 round nose loads from Dynamit Nobel . Best factory rounds and great brass . Haven't seen it around .

 

[James57]

I have had some issues with Remington and Winchester brass the last 4 years. I finally started buying my rifle brass from Lapua and my revolver brass from Starline. Both produce excellent brass. I don't even have to do any prep on the new brass either. The primer pockets are square and correct depth, flashole are centered and correct size. As I said, no problems. The last Remington's I bought (.357 Magnums) were .005 to .008 below minimum, forcing me to re-adjust my seating die. Quality control seems to be a thing of the past with some companies these days. James

 

[Rule3]

I had some defective Winchester 9mm white box ammo years ago. E mailed their corporate office and they were very accommodating. Sent a call tag and picked it up at my door. inspected it and sent me a coupon for a new box. Might want to try contacting them and get it replaced..

It's under Olin: Click Winchester for the e mail

Olin

 

[borntoraisehogs]

OCD1

Might want to try contacting them and get it replaced
Good point . Just being mad about it and thinking I am too busy to seek a refund . Is is neither professional , mature nor fair to Winchester . Saying "me too" on an open forum years after the purchase of a defective product was not right on my part .

 

[TAROMAN]

Message sent to Olin/Winchester:

I recently purchased a package of 100 Winchester 44 Special unprimed cartridge cases. Product code = WSC44SWU

Upon first attempting to load these cases, I found that they were shorter than the SAAMI "trim-to" length, making it impossible to adjust my flare/charge die to get a proper flare on the case mouth.
Furthermore, the case mouths are not square.

I measured the cases with my micrometer and found this:

1.160" - Maximum case length according to my Sierra maunal.
1.155" - "Trim-to" length according to my Sierra maunal.
1.152" - "High" side of mouth on sample case.
1.134" - "Low" side of mouth on sample case.

Please advise how I might exchange these defective cases for some which meet specification.

I have contacted you so as to bring this quality control issue to your attention.

 

[Homie]

JWK,

FWIW, I just measured about 40 new Starline .44 Specials. They ran from 1.1455 to 1.1495, and most were about .0005 out of square. From my loading notes on a large batch of Winchester brass approx. 23 years old, I trimmed them to 1.150. They were not square either.

Good luck with Winchester!

 

[Black_Talon]

Perhaps you can call their customer service line and get a replacement or refund?

This is exactly what I did a few years ago when I got a bag of WW 38 Spl brass that had walls that were way out of concentric. They got back to me and had me send them the brass on their dime, and a while later i got a replacement bag in the mail that was just fine.

FWIW, almost all my pistol brass (38, 357, 44Mag and 45ACP) is WW and I love it.

 

[johngalt]

I have some Winchester brass in .45 auto that I saved from when I used to shoot the Winchester USA (white box) ammo. That brass has all been good, but that was probably over 10 years ago.

RP is the worst - very thin, not enough neck tension to prevent bullet setback. I keep my RP brass separate, it gets shot only in my 625, not may autos.

 

[jibjab]

This could be a epidemic,
Winchester Brass HORRIBLE quality control! - THR

 

[Fishslayer]

I just ordered 500 pieces of .357 from Cabela's.

Glad I ordered Remington...

 

[41 magnums]

Win. Brass

I had a box of Win. 41 mag. bullets given to me when I bought my first 41. These were factory loads. My son shot 6 rounds and we noticed the brass had cracks. So after checking the un fired rounds I noticed 4 or 5 of them with cracks. Win. said send them all to them, after about 8 weeks I got a $50 voucher for Winchester ammo at a Winchester dealer. I called Winchester and left two meseges that the nearest Win. dealer to me was 45 minutes away (one way) and that the cheapest 41 ammo they had was $65 + tax. They never responded. I'n done with any thing that has Winchesters name on it.

Mel

 

[Acorn1754]

Winchester 44 mag brass

Recently, I bought Winchester 44 mag brass and while the lengths were between 1.275"-1.281" (I expect to have to trim new brass), when priming the brass and even using winchester primers, they were very difficult to prime and even flattened the primer a little. I would have expected a tight fit, but not having to jam them in like that. After a couple, I used my primer pocket cleaning tool to scrub the edges of the primer pockets and that seemed to help some, but still was on the tight side. I will definitely buy either remmington or starline next go around.

 

[Engineer1911]

No brass problems

Range pickup brass is defect free except for Berdan primers and Amerc brand cases. I bought 100 pieces of Rem nickled 357 brass in 1976. I think I'm still shooting some of it because the nickle is polished off from tumbling.

My case count for 357 brass is 2,000+ so I have some experience with 'gently used brass'. My brass goes in zip lock bag. New range brass goes in a pouch and gets sorted at home. After 300 pieces are accumulated, its tumbled, trimmed to 0.020" under minimum case length, and reloaded. A resized case is at minimum case length using this process. For me it works with 44 mag and 357 mag brass.

 

[JD 500]

+1 on Win brass. QC seems to be going downhill.

I called them after being shorted and having defects in the same bag. They mailed me a coupon for $10 off another bag.

No Thanks.

 

[Harrison]

Instead of a Forster case trimmer, you might want to consider a Wilson. They are much more accurate and easier to fine adjust.

 

[Joed49]

I too have had bad luck with Winchester brass. Never had a problem with pistol, but rifle is horrible. Usually out of a bag of 50 there are 2 or 3 that are unuseable.