Lesson learned

[AZZA'S HJ47]

Bought two bags of Winchester brass for the hot weekend now dont get me wrong i always do my prep on my brass. But by far this has to be some of the worst brass i have ever worked with. One cracked neck out of the bag 3 cases wont hold primers. And probably some of the worst flash holes ive ever seen. Was it just a bad batch or is this the norm?

[Gwion]

Gotta say I'm no fan of Winchester brass.

[AZZA'S HJ47]

Almost half of the necks were caved in too. As i have said this has to be the worst brass ive ever used. Disappointed to say the least

[bigfellascott]

Can't say I've had any issues with Winny Brass in the past, haven't bought any for about 5yrs mind so maybe the QC has dropped off a bit?

[Bills Shed]

I agree, I have not had any issues, I too have not bought any for a few years. Stuff I have has lasted a long time.
Bill

[Gwion]

I just found it to be very inconsistent. Reloaded some because I like to use different head stamps for different loads but I haven't used it after the first loading and it's all in my recycling box to be melted for knife baulsters.

[bladeracer]

Bought two bags of Winchester brass for the hot weekend now dont get me wrong i always do my prep on my brass. But by far this has to be some of the worst brass i have ever worked with. One cracked neck out of the bag 3 cases wont hold primers. And probably some of the worst flash holes ive ever seen. Was it just a bad batch or is this the norm?

Assuming you mean new brass I would return it and get some good stuff.
If it already has those obvious problems how many more problems are likely to become apparent with use.

[AZZA'S HJ47]

Yea mate new will be taking it back next weekend or on Thursday work permitting. Also found large discrepencies between case weights usually get hornady brass but none was available at the time that i went there

[bladeracer]

I'm using S&B for the .303.
I think the only Winchester centrefire brass I've ever owned or used was one box of Silvertip 9mm I bought in 1990.

[AZZA'S HJ47]

Yea i have used s&b its good stuff. First and last time for me with Winchester brass. Wouldnt know what the stuff was like in 1990 I was 3

[brett1868]

I'd be pissed to find that in a new bag of brass, hopefully the dealer takes care of you. I'm fortunate that many of the large calibre rifles I shoot only have one manufacturer of cases and so far I've been lucky with the quality. I recently purchased at considerable expense 100 x 50BMG Lapua cases and even these alleged top quality cases had significant variations in neck wall thickness, weights, lengths and flash hole sizes. Seems there's no makers of precision brass these days

[Prettybird]

Seems there's no makers of precision brass these days

I suppose it comes down to that the 'precision' portion of it comes after the brass is in a saleable state.

Funny timing, I just posted this on the manufacturing stages of rifle brass: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7167

I don't know how much precision you can enforce for those first shaping steps of drawing up the brass cup and doing the neck taper.

It's after that you'd have to turn and trim the necks to get your precision, except at that point they've already got a 'finished' case you can stick in a bag and sell so why would they add to their expenses by doing it.

I reckon they expect anyone buying it to do that themselves anyway.

[in2anity]

That's surprising. Re-using factory, I always got the impression Winchester was better than Remington- I'm up to my tenth reload on some of them! I anneal every now and then, suppose that might help with longevity. And I mostly shoot lowered pressure loads so that would also probably help. But still, something's fishy there OP...

[deye243]

if it's not in the clear and blue bags (old stuff) keep looking the stuff in the red bags is crap in my experience

[brett1868]

It's after that you'd have to turn and trim the necks to get your precision, except at that point they've already got a 'finished' case you can stick in a bag and sell so why would they add to their expenses by doing it

Lapua charges a premium for their brass as it's supposed to be precision made to higher tolerances and at $9 per case it should be more consistent than brass at half the cost. I've got Winchester military brass that was more consistent across several criteria so it's not always wise to pay premium price just for a name. Unfortunately it isn't always possible to know how consistent a box of brass is till you get home, break the seal and start measuring. The Lapua cases took on average 10min each to prepare so there's 16 hrs of labour when it shouldn't have taken more then 8. Each case will need work to reach benchrest quality but I'm not happy about the amount of effort required on these compared to regular military brass from either Winchester or Hornady.
Enough hating on Lapua, the works done and each case is ready for loading

[Lorgar]

Of course there is making a premium product and then marketing something as a premium product.

Lapua seem to have such a fanboy following they could probably make anything and charge twice the price and their loyalists would still clammer for it.

I haven't used it my self, but I see lots of comments here and there regarding consistency and at least often it doesn't seem significantly different to Win or Rem brass.

Depends how fastidious you are though I guess.

I hunt and do target shooting for fun, so I'm not particular demanding of my brass. After FL sizing brass out of the bag all I do when reloading is neck size, trim and chamfer it. Don't turn the necks, batch them by volume or any of that.

With minimal case prep my Tikka still shoots under 0.4 moa which is fine me for all day long. No point in me paying twice the price for "better" brass as it doesn't actually do anything for me.

[happyhunter]

My Winchester brass for the 308 is very old and never had a problem with it so maybe something has changed at the factory, or the QC guy was drunk that day.

[sandgroperbill]

I had 2 bags of brass included with a rifle I recently bought, one bag of norma, one of winchester (clear and blue). The winchester is in a horrible state, the case mouths are crumpled and bent. The norma isn't perfect but is noticibly better. Thing is, though, I can't rule out damage from transport.

I'll be fl sizing all of it before loading

[BRNO_Bigot]

I bought some Winchester loaded ammo in .22 Hornet a while ago and took the packet back to the shop, where they opened another packet to get me 50 that weren't cracked, or had holes in the sides of the case - the counter guy then circled all the faults with a Sharpie for the delectation of the Winchester people, before sending it back.

[Sender]

Transport?

Did it arrive in a box of rocks?

[BRNO_Bigot]

Nah. There were two boxes of fifty, all sealed and so on and nearly half of them were damaged, creased, cracked and so on. And, remember that Hornet is not a case with sharp corners or anything that might strain brass.

[Sakoh]

Poor form