Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Bad winchester brass .

Saw some 25-06 brass in the local gunshop , white red and black bag with a see through front . Two pieces in plain view with big gouges in them . Picked the bag up worked a few more pieces to the front of the bag - one piece had elongated triangle gouges deep into the shoulder all the way around . Damaged spots so deep they were in further than the thickness of the brass .
Doubt that I saw all the bad pieces in the bag , the gouged stuff would be useable imo but I'd have to be way hard up to buy that bag of brass , just saying .

Sorry to hear that. I've had a terrible time with Remington bulk brass,but Winchester has been good to me. I'm going to be sure to police it in the future for sure. The clear bag will help.

Hope you brought it to the attention of the shop owner. Hate to have a less conscientious person take the bag home and get hurt..

Gotta Admit, things like this, I see also at the Gun Shops, Sportsman's, Cabelas etc..

So for my brass needs, I buy bulk range brass...better value, but also better "Quality Control"

Requires no more prep than new brass does it seems...

I really think of Rem, Win etc, the good brass goes into their ammo, or ammo contracts.

Stuff they would use to cull and throw out or recycle, now is bagged and sold to the public.

another convenience is that John is local, but my source when I need brass period, is The BrassMan...
who is also a campfire member, so that just adds to satisfaction of supporting a fellow member's business also.

Could be Seafire. I remember when brass,of any description,was readily available. They biggest problem we had were egged mouths. Then the school shootings started. The proposed legislation making it harder to buy or transport components was aired. Then came the hoarding. I'd bet the lower 40 that culls made up,and still make up, the majority of the bulk brass. I will say this. The last bag of 270 Win brass I bought had 101 pieces in it. Maybe a mistake,but I'll call it good customer relations.

I've been a Winchester brass fan for a long time - not anymore though .

Dye7barrel ,

I should have told the owner - out of consideration of a fellow hand loader - their service there goes hand in hand with that bag of brass .
Went in to buy a CZ Style that had been there for a while -already have one - you know how it is . . CZ was gone .
Anyway I quit doing business there for the most part - they charge $50 for a firearm transfer to regular customers .

Seafire - John
I think you're right they don't cull much these days .

I need to keep ''the brass man'' in mind , although I'm good for quite a while .

I remember when sierra put 101 bullets per box

Your post is one more in a bunch I've seen over the last year or two about poor quality control on new Winchester brass. During the most recent shortage they must have started pushing anything and everything out the door to try to catch up. Recall that they put out several batches of LR primers that pierced easily and have been buying those back no questions asked.

Bought two red/black bags of Winchester .243 brass a couple years ago that I haven't opened yet but this post made me go look at them and a quick inspection through the transparent window shows nothing amiss. Will have to examine them more thoroughly when I finally open them.

Started buying Prvi (aka PPU) brass when nothing else was available and so far it's been fine, every lot I've bought for four different calibers has been as good or better than the better lots of older Remington or Winchester brass before the last shortage.

I think that Winchester brass quality started going downhill about 6 or 7 years ago. There are rumors that they started contracting overseas around that time and no longer produce most of their brass. I don't know that the rumors have been substantiated, though.

Just bought a new bag of Winchester 7mm-08 brass this past week. It only had one piece that had a dent in the neck and another that had a even smaller dent toward the bottom. The remainder of the brass looks fine. Both will probably be useable after full length sizing.

I remembered the thread about the horrible 300winmag brass a couple of months ago as soon as I saw the beat up bag of 25-06 brass .

For what it's worth.

I weighed each individual piece of brass from a new Winchester package bought at Cabelas. There were four groups ranging from 153-154 grs, 154-155 grs., 155-156 grs, and 156-157 grs.

Maybe that is normal, idk. But I have some Remington brass that is very consistent weighing inbetween 163-164 grs for the entire lot except for one piece that weighs 162.something grains.

I'm going to see if Cabelas will refund or exchange the Winchester brass next time I get to their store.

The last batch of Winchester 308w brass was so thin, that it barely wants to hold the bullet. I bought it from Cabela's and it's garbage. I had to throw one away, as it was way too short for some reason (.060" short). I wouldn't try to sell this chit or even give it away to someone. Its going to the scrap bin. The FC, Hornady match, Lapua and even Sig Sauer brass is excellent as compared to the Winchester crap.. Live and learn..

Thin brass must be the "In" thing. My Hornady 270 Win is on par with wasp nest. OK,maybe not THAT bad,but I'll never buy any more of it. I miss the Remington brass of 30,35 years ago.

Winchester pistol brass is the worst I've seen. Some of it I'd call dangerous, and that's in loaded Winchester factory ammo.

Check out the Shotgun News. You may find better deals there

It seems like when they switched over to white red and black bags, something changed and brass went down hill from there.
I still have a bunch of blue bag that is good stuff.

I sent some defective Winchester .22-250 brass back to them about thirty or more years ago; can't remember what the problem was. I've used lots of it since in many different rifle and handgun cartridges without complaint until just a few months ago. I bought two fifty-piece bags of .300 Winchester Magnum brass. Out of the hundred, about twenty cases had multiple deep wrinkles in the shoulder area. The brass was unusable and I'm surprised it went out the factory door. I sent it back and Winchester promptly provided a generous reimbursement. Regardless, I hate to see this happen and hope it's no indication of what to expect.

After reading this thread in its entirety, it only solidifies my thoughts, that the factory ammo gets the good brass from Rem and Win.. and the brass that they use to scrap, the Accountants figure they will just bag it and sell it to the public....figure they will get more for it that way... sure they get some returns, but overall, they make more money unloading it to the public ( which I am sure they think we are all gun nut idiots, and will take whatever we can get our hands on)...

Sad but another present from Obummer's Presidential Legacy....

Win and Rem brass almost come with a take or leave it guarantee....or so it seems...

Ditto. I stocked up on 6-8 bags of the older blue/white stuff for each rifle and handgun caliber about the same time I really started getting into neck sizing only and bumping shoulders just a couple thou when necessary. Plus my eyes started getting old so I started shooting handguns a lot less than I used to.

With rifle cases lasting 20+ firings and handgun brass not getting used up there's gonna be a lot of blue bag brass at my estate sale...

I just bought a bag of Winchester brass (300 Win Mag) and 15 out of the 50 have cracks in the neck. Also, the shoulders are not properly formed. Terrible QC.

Nope. I got a bunch of crap in the blue bags for several cartridges.

+1

I’ve been saying for several years now that WW brass QC has gone to crap in several chamberings.

Ssshhhh...not so loud.

Prvi seems to be good brass, but I bought some 7mm Rem. Mag. Prvi that was 14% heavier than Winchester. That could be significant with maximum or near maximum powder charges. I don't know whether their other brass is extra heavy or not.

On the other hand, I have a batch of Prvi 308 brass that's significantly lighter than Winchester. YMMV.

You have my attention. How much do your deprimed Prvi and Winchester empties weigh?

Winchester's and everyone elses quality control went South during the last round of shortages and it does not look like it will come back up to standards. I've even seen this with Norma and Lapua. Really sad. Winchester brass is what finally pushed me to buy an annealing machine. I've had neck splits on new brass when it was fired the first time.

lightman, I agree, and have seen it with Lapua too. The box of Lapua 6.5 Grendel brass I bought last year had the shoulders .010" shorter than spec, and about half of them split the shoulders on firing. First time I've seen that...

I thought it was just me and I was unlucky when I grabbed this bag of 220 swift at Cabelas last month, but went back and saw more culls in other bags at the same location. Too bad the other options are so much more.

Ditto on the bad Winchester brass. I have bought many hundreds of rounds of new Winchester brass from MidwayUSA and found several of the 50 to be bad. Midway makes good on this, of course, but in makes you wonder what is going on in the Winchester plant. I have not seen this with other brands of brass. I have bought Hornady brass in several calibers and found it to be good.

I but Norma brass, great quality!

I've moved to Hornady brass for everything. So far so good.

Yep.

I miss R-P from the 80's and 90's... It was always great stuff. Winchester brass used to be damn good stuff too, but not anymore..

Holy fu ck, haven't you read through this thread. Winchester brass is thin, the Prvi/PPU is probably not as "extra heavy" as you think... Also another reason to ALWAYS start low and "work up"...

About 10 years ago I got a batch of R-P 243 brass that had the flash holes off center on about 120 of the 200. I called Rem and told them about it and asked if they would like it back to inspect it. They said "no" and sent me 150 pcs of good brass. I've also had Norma brass loosen up the primer pockets after 1 firing. These were mildly heavy loads, but not over pressure and still under the book max by 8%.

If you don't call Winchester out when they pedal junk, this is what you can expect! If your money was good, then the product should be good. Call Win, tell them the issue and politely demand that they fix it. After they send out 10 pcs here, 14 pcs there 87 pcs here, somebody will wake up and get the QC issue resolved.

Sounds like brass that has gone through the bullet pulling process. I've heard its junk lately.