Winchester brass

I bought WW brass years ago.... once. It was absolute crap! Out of 500 case there were less than 50 that had a case mouth runout of .0005 or less. Most were .0015 to .002 with @ 35 @ the .003. I tried Nosler a few years ago. I spot checked 15 out of every box of 50. NONE ran over .0005. I bought another 2700 for my AR-10 and 1700 for my 300 Win Mag. Yes... I checked 15 out of all these boxes of 50 too. Took me 2 weeks but it was the same story. ALL under .0005 runout. I'm a Nosler fan now.
You spent more on brass than my Social Security check for a month. 1700 pieces for a 300 mag one shot a piece and you'll need a new barrel. I'd rather spend my money on the other components and use my old brass. If you fire brass with any runout it should be concentric after it's fired. If it isn't you have more than brass problems.
 
Well I'm getting a new rifle so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up 120 rounds of Winchester 6.5 CM 125 gr for $91 including tax. I figure by the time I bought the brass bullets powder and primers I'd have more than that spent. Now I can break in the new rifle and have the brass formed for my load development
 
Well I'm getting a new rifle so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up 120 rounds of Winchester 6.5 CM 125 gr for $91 including tax. I figure by the time I bought the brass bullets powder and primers I'd have more than that spent. Now I can break in the new rifle and have the brass formed for my load development
I done the same thing with my 204 ruger
 
Well I'm getting a new rifle so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up 120 rounds of Winchester 6.5 CM 125 gr for $91 including tax. I figure by the time I bought the brass bullets powder and primers I'd have more than that spent. Now I can break in the new rifle and have the brass formed for my load development

I do the same thing , sometimes I'll find loaded factory .300 weatherby Ammo for 32$ per box .....a box of empty weatherby brass is is more then that . Even Norma brass is more then the loaded Ammo also and I think that Norma still makes the weatherby brass
 
Winchester brass used to be the best value out there. It was not Lapua, but most shooters wouldn't notice the difference. This was back in the "blue bag" days. I still run Winchester brass in my 300WM because I bought 250, some are at 8 loadings, I can burn the barrel with it.

Today, Winchester brass is absolute crap. I would place no brand lower.

The last few bags I have bought have had numerous unsalvageable cases. Really crappy flash holes. Or in a couple cases, no flash hole.

I'll still buy magnum pistol brass but for bottleneck cases, no more....

But Winchester has abandoned the reloaders' market, so typically it's not available anyways...
 
Winchester brass used to be the best value out there. It was not Lapua, but most shooters wouldn't notice the difference. This was back in the "blue bag" days. I still run Winchester brass in my 300WM because I bought 250, some are at 8 loadings, I can burn the barrel with it.
Today, Winchester brass is absolute crap. I would place no brand lower.
The last few bags I have bought have had numerous unsalvageable cases. Really crappy flash holes. Or in a couple cases, no flash hole.
I'll still buy magnum pistol brass but for bottleneck cases, no more....
But Winchester has abandoned the reloaders' market, so typically it's not available anyways...
Well who knows maybe they improved their QC and use their "good" brass for their own loads. If that's the case then I should have 120 good cases to reload. I'll let you guys know what the brass is like after I fire it off.
 
I tried some of their Deer Season XP and the velocity was right on the money. Didn't shoot very many but the ones I shot were with in 1 grn highest to lowest. They weighed in the 160 grns range. That's 13 grns heavier than my Hornady brass.
 
I have used tons of win brass in the past with no problems considering the price. However, I too have some 22-250 brass ( from cabelas also) and I was shocked how bad it was . Out of 50 I had 8 with split necks , 12 where the neck was crunched down about .100 , and another 15 where the flash hole was blocked by the brass punched piece ( no problem, still usable) I'm sorry , 20/50 were not usable , where is the quality control department ? JUNK !!

I can easily say, I've liked their off the shelf ammo, particularly the expedition line. I love my Winchester model 70 325WSM. It's a thing of beauty (albeit assembled in Portugal by a Browning subdivision) and the fit and finish is top notch. It's just that the QC of the handgun and rifle brass division, is way down there. Luckily, there are other manufacturers of great brass, some very reasonable, like Starline, that still believe in doing their best.
 
Well who knows maybe they improved their QC and use their "good" brass for their own loads. If that's the case then I should have 120 good cases to reload. I'll let you guys know what the brass is like after I fire it off.

They MUST insert additional QC before they put that crap brass into their commercial ammo production. I NEVER buy commercial ammo but I agree, I would not hesitate to re-use brass from fired factory ammo. A good number of the cases I pulled out of brass bags simply would never result in a loaded round in a commercial loading process.
 
I guess my experiences with WW brass differ significantly to several other's here. I have a rather large amount of $$$ built up in Cabale'a/BP points. Unfortunately except for Turkey hunting ammo, powder, a few bullets and brass, Cabela's and BP sells almost no equipment I need or use and that includes my long time favorite Wasp Boss SST fixed blade BH's.
Some time in January I walked into my local Cabela's and they had six bags all the same lot# of WW brass in 300 wsm and I bought all six, I guess that qualifies as recently. I did my usual take ten random shells from each bag and inspect them and all checked OK.

Out of fifty pieces of new brass I will usually find one or two and once and in a great while five pieces that are damaged beyond saving. I can not say 100% for sure but I don't recall ever finding a piece of brass missing a primer flash hole.

At .70c per piece of WW brass I accept these short comings. Norma Brass is almost 3x as expensive so it should be IMHO not close to flawless but actually flawless. If I were a competitive shooter or shooting with great regularity to ranges beyond 500 yards I would give Norma brass a try. As I still have several hundred $$$ in points left and no need for any more reloading components at this time, I might give a box of Norma brass a try and see if it improves my accuracy enough to justify the greatly added cost.
 
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