Winchester brass

[volunteer06]

This may have been discussed here and I'm just not finding it but another thread got me thinking what's the folks here opinion on correlation to brass quality vs bag color? I have used some older brass from the blue bag and my dad used it for years with no problem and I recently picked up a red bag of 300wm 50 count that I had to throw away 6 pieces just from visual inspection. Split necks and terrible shoulders.
Just curious if there is anything to bag color other than just color. Thanks

 

[MtnTrax]

I have thrown away plenty from blue bags also it's all junk IMO

 

[LVJ76]

I had good luck with the brass from the old blue bags, from about 7 or 8 years ago, I still have some new ones left and saving them for a rainy day.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I bought 20 bags of blue/white 300WM brass stamped as 'ww-super' about 1990ish. Great brass, necks are a little dinged but easy to get round, always an extra in each bag and occasionally 2 extra.
I am still using that brass and have about 10 bags still unopened.
Due to owning so many 300WM rifles, I have recently bought 200 pieces of red/white 300WM I was hoping to use in my Rem 700 5R from the custom shop, but the brass is JUNK! Creased shoulders, belts that are irregular in width, splits and serious lack of QC.
Won't be buying anymore any time soon.
Just used my first lot of ADG brass in 300WM and 7RM that I resized to 264WM.
I am very impressed, to say the least.

Cheers.

 

[FEENIX]

I had good luck with the brass from the old blue bags, from about 7 or 8 years ago, I still have some new ones left and saving them for a rainy day.

Same here!

 

[Quintus]

I always expect to throw 2 pieces of W-W brass from every new bag and don't get to huffy until I throw 4 or more away. Pretty excited to say I just bought 2 bags of .270 Win W-W brass and only had ONE! bad piece! The funny part is the bad piece is SOOO bad. The neck looks like a shotgun barrel fired with an obstruction, Ray Charles could've seen it was bad. They bagged it up anyway. I like Winchester brass for what it is. Disposable.

 

[dgr416]

Hornady is the brass I ha e tons of problems with reloading .The 405 brass is so thick you buckle the case trying to get bullets into them .I just had a ton of hornady 308 brass I could not get any primers into no way possible .I have had bad Remington brass too .I have two cases of 500 338 win mag Remington brass that the shoulders buckle when you try to reload them .I BOUGHT tons of bulk 416 rem mag brass and tons of it was unusable .I like the old Norma brass you can't hardly wear it out .I heard the new stuff won't last three shots.

 

[Dosh]

My nephew brought me a bag of the blue to load for his 7mm Remington. Threw 7 away with split necks, globs of what looked like melted brass and some waay too short. After a lot of prep, the remaining brass wound up fairly uniform. Definitely not a brand I'd buy for myself with all the newer brands available.

 

[Muddyboots]

But available and reasonably priced is what you get. Better than not being able to shoot at all.

 

[volunteer06]

By everyone's experience sounds like Winchester has went down hill in quality control. I had split necks and bad shoulders. I wasn't to mad as I was not expecting the best and got them on sale but believe I will steer away from them on future purchases. I've not been able to find adg in 300wm that is what I was hoping to try.

 

[Muddyboots]

Grab Peterson 300WM long brass if you can. I grabbed 250 from Graf and very impressed with overall QC. Annealed to start ain't bad.

 

[warboar21]

I bought some 270 Win brass about six months ago and had 3 with split necks. First time I've had issues with Winchester brass. Hornady brass is where I had issues with loose primer pockets and flash holes that were not opened up. This was 6.5 Grendel when it first came out

 

[B1s BmagX2]

I used to use Winchester brass exclusively years ago in all the calibers I was loading, 22 hornet up to 300 Win mag. It was great brass! Being 73 now all I do anymore is varmint hunt, and have settled down to 22-250 as my go-to centerfire. I've tried a bunch of different brass and the Winchester stuff (which was my first choice) is crap now? Too many variables in weight, capacity, dents, split necks, length, you name it. Lapua and Norma are probably 2 of the best, but pricey. I personally have had good luck with PPU partisan, and Hornady. Not as expensive as the top of the line but very usable. They both do have some issues but are easily remedied with a little work. The PPU stuff is kind of mixed by batch it seems. I've had some near-perfect right out of the bag, and some I needed to uniform the primer pockets and flash holes. The Hornady stuff really needs annealing right out of the bag before sizing and trimming. I'll have to wait and see how many re-loads get per piece? Another "cheap" brass that a friend of mine who shoots a 243 ai is Starline as a go-to when he can't find Lapua/Norma. Unfortunately for me, I can't find it in 22-250? I would like to give it a try.

 

[Pointman]

Hornady is the brass I ha e tons of problems with reloading .The 405 brass is so thick you buckle the case trying to get bullets into them .I just had a ton of hornady 308 brass I could not get any primers into no way possible .I have had bad Remington brass too .I have two cases of 500 338 win mag Remington brass that the shoulders buckle when you try to reload them .I BOUGHT tons of bulk 416 rem mag brass and tons of it was unusable .I like the old Norma brass you can't hardly wear it out .I heard the new stuff won't last three shots.

Agree on the Hornaday brass, just doesn't last. My brass of choice is Lapua then ADG or Peterson.