New brass, is this normal?

[justinp61]

I just purchased 200 new Winchester 22-250 brass, I found 35 out of the first 100 either had a flat spot on the side of the mouth or had out of round mouths. Two had cracks in the case at the mouth. Is this normal? I purchased a bag of Remington last fall to get me started and only had to discard a couple. Winchester was recommended over Remington so that;s what I bought this time.

On one of the other sites i visit I was told they look good and it would be ok to use them. Opinions?

Thanks

[Shumba]

It's normal to an extent. No worries, you should size all your brass before you fire it the first time, this will fix the case mouths.

[Korhil78]

Unfortunately it is the norm with both remington and winchester. That is why most people have gone to Nosler, Lapua and Norma brass. You can give them a call and let them know how unhappy you are with the brass that you bought and they will probably send you a coupon for another 100 brass. That is about all you can do. They don't seem to care as long as people are willing to pay the cheaper price to get the crappier brass.

[SidecarFlip]

Originally Posted by Korhil78

Unfortunately it is the norm with both remington and winchester. That is why most people have gone to Nosler, Lapua and Norma brass. You can give them a call and let them know how unhappy you are with the brass that you bought and they will probably send you a coupon for another 100 brass. That is about all you can do. They don't seem to care as long as people are willing to pay the cheaper price to get the crappier brass.

Lets not forget Starline, Sarch (Top-Gun) and Federal as go to sources. personally, I have really good results with Federal. If it's good enough for the armed services, it's good enough for me.

I keep hearing that Joyce Hornady brass is soft at the base, I presume in larger magnum cartridges. I haven't found that to be true in smaller cases and have had no primer dropout/loosening issues, in fact I have some Hornady brass on it's 6th go around with no issues other than case elongation.

Dented case mouths on bottleneck (and some straight walled pistol cartridges) can occur in handling, especially in retail for sale on rack packaging where stuff gets tossed (literally) through many hands. Like the poster said, resize-reform prior to loading, that's sop for me and should be for anyone.

You never want to take bulk brass and load without checking/resizing or inspecting because you never know what it went through ptior to you purchasing it.......

Neck cracks are another issue. That has to do with the alloy the cartridges are made from, if never fired and an indication of cheaply manufactured cases among other things.

[CRNA]

Well, my Win brass is always beat up around the mouths. I figure it is mostly from being banged around in the bad together. I just neck size them all first to get them nice 'n round again. I think if the necks had some sort of cracks in them though that's different. They would get the ole hammer to the body to smash it flat so my kids don't find it in the trash and put it back on my reloading bench to do daddy a favor.

[SidecarFlip]

I'm a scrapper at heart so my crap brass goes in the non-ferrous drum. The stainless turnings go in another and the iron goes in another. The carbide inserts go in a box and the HSS goes in a box and once a year I make the pilgramage to the scrap yard and redeem my 'junk' for cash.

I've netted over a grand for scrap before. Not bad for junk.

[chucknbach]

Just went through 102 remmington only 1 had the the nickle pealing off the neck. I discarded and still had 101 left. I wouldn't use the ones with the split. Dented I'd use.

Mouth's weren't deformed at all but ran them through the sizing die anyhow just in case.