Winchester Brass

[Trent]

Most of my brass is Winchester (I do have some Remington brass that McAlice gifted me). I've never had an issue with Win brass, but it's been a little while since I've purchased any. We might want to be on the lookout for quality control issues on Win brass currently hitting the market.

This is just a thread with folks having some pretty big issues with Win brass in different cartridges. I was surprised as I am a big fan of Winny brass.
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/ ... ely-91815/

[Jim Beckley]

It has been awhile since I used Rem or Win brass, I have used Lapua for years. When I was using Rem or Win brass it was a roll of the dice if it was going to be junk or not. You might get a bad lot of Lapua Brass every now and then, but the odds are slim.

[Jerry G]

Try weighing a bunch of Win or Rem brass and be amazed how bad they both are on the weights. Lapua is the most consistent and Fed isn't too bad for US made stuff.

[Bob Mc Alice]

I bought 300 pcs. of 7-08 last week and loaded up 250 of them this past few days. Not a bad one in the batch. So I open up the last bag of 50 to weigh half of them at random. Of 25 weighed the lightest was 158.4 grains and the heaviest was 159.7 grains. A small 1.3 grain extreme spread between them all. Most fell around 159.5 grains. For the money I would say they are fairly consistent in weight. For reference a small paperclip weighs 7.5 grains.

[Jim Beckley]

No cell phone, shoots a 7-08, uses Win brass, I believe most police departmens call these clues!

[Bob Mc Alice]

Add no cable or dish TV and still drives his 92 F150. Great truck. Let see some one do a similar case weight test on the "good stuff" and report here, too. Last year about this time I bought 600 Winchester 7-08 new cases. About 12 in the entire lot had a primer pocket that was oversize and would not hold a primer. All the rest were problem free.

[AddictedToSB]

Haven't had any trouble with Winchester 7-08 brass yet, but had a TON of problems with their 25 WSSM brass. So bad that we returned 100 of them to the company for replacement. Some of them were from shoulders or necks splitting after just one firing, the rest had badly dimpled shoulders or other problems before they were even loaded. Still have pretty good luck with their pistol brass so far.

[Jim Beckley]

You can put this is stone, I'm not weighing any brass, taking a file to a good bullet, or smashing any either, but I will shoot them, with Lapua brass.

[Trent]

I've not seen any problems with the Winchester brass I've bought (.204, .22-250, 7-08, 30-30). I'm going to keep my eyes open for any current issues with brass on the shelf though.

[Joaquin B]

Bought some .284 Win. brass and culled 19 out of 100, due to extreme weight variation and crappy primer holes. On case split its neck at the very first firing. All the surviving brass is fine and I was able to develop a great long-range hunting/target load with the brass. Sure, I lost 20% of the pieces, but considering that I paid $75 for the Win. brass and I would have had to pay double the price for Lapua 6.5-284 brass to neck-up, I can live with it. By the way, most of my .260 brass is actually necked-up Winchester .243 brass and I have have ZERO problems with it, after culling about 10% of it by weight. No issues with 7mm-08, .308 brass or .30-06 brass.

[Snake]

Olin is the parent company of Winchester and the brass mill. Olin has (had?) a proprietary annealing process for bras that was the envy of the world...as far as brass goes Olin brass is the best (in terms of strength, grain structure, yield etc). But a few years ago the Olin brothers...a pair of apparently spoiled rich kids ...got into an argument about who owns what and who's in charge etc...and they SOLD the brass works to a foreign entity. There's been little change in the composition etc of the brass but the future may tell a different tale. Rem brass cases are OK but I have had more than a few with primer holes off center and weird pockets. Lapua and Norma brass cases are generally thicker but more precisely drawn and uniform...the actual brass material is no great shakes. I am however with the Beckley school of thought...I no longer weigh cases or bullets, nor do I smash them except via firing through a rifle. My only nod to compulsive behavior is to have my chamber reamer dimensioned for Winchester brass (generally .001 undersize except for the neck)...You know some fellas mark each case so it goes into the chamber at the same orientation each time...that endeavor probably has more actual benefit than weighing, smashing, etc...but I don't really bother