What happened to W-W quality control?

Rustydust

Rustydust

Active member
Dang but I'm ticked. Out of three 50 round bags of new Winchester brass (.243 Win) one of them was a .308 Win round and four of them had crushed and split necks. WTH? I have been buying W-W brass for over 40 years in all kinds of calibers and now suddenly they cannot manufacture quality components any longer? What is going on with them I wonder? Sad to see their quality control taking such a nosedive.

Anyone else had any problems with them lately? It is more than just a little irritating to me when I am paying for stuff that is no good right out of the box.
 
I don't think its only Winchester, its everywhere. I use to work for a company that stressed quality control and wanted quality products. But.....they bought the cheapest material they could get and sped up production to the point of being ridiculous then blamed crappy products on the employees doing a crappy job.
 
Originally Posted By: mbaysinger89I had a problem with some of their 22-250 brass last winter. Give em a call, they took care of me.

I guess I will have to. I tried to do it online but for some reason it would not send. Not something they designed I hope.

It seems a bit nitpicking perhaps but if I am paying for 50 rounds of brass then by golly I want 50 rounds of good usable brass. Not 47.
 
i would have to assume that its a symptom of coming out of the component crunch we've been in for the last several years. They've all been pushing so hard that some QC stuff is bound to happen here and there.

that said, i agree, you shouldn't have to worry about it in the first place, but they will step up and make it right i'm sure.

if i were in your shoes, i'd hit them up for a whole bag of the stuff, or even several if all 3 bags share the same lot number. tell them you've lost faith in the QC applied to the product you have in hand. i'll bet they'd be more than willing to take care of a long time customer so you dont start exploring competitor's products.
 
Originally Posted By: RustydustOriginally Posted By: mbaysinger89I had a problem with some of their 22-250 brass last winter. Give em a call, they took care of me.

I guess I will have to. I tried to do it online but for some reason it would not send. Not something they designed I hope.

It seems a bit nitpicking perhaps but if I am paying for 50 rounds of brass then by golly I want 50 rounds of good usable brass. Not 47.

Hopefully they survive the first firing. I have seen multiple reports of brass cracking on the first firing with Winchester lately. It seems they had annealing issues.
 
Originally Posted By: RustydustOriginally Posted By: mbaysinger89I had a problem with some of their 22-250 brass last winter. Give em a call, they took care of me.

I guess I will have to. I tried to do it online but for some reason it would not send. Not something they designed I hope.

It seems a bit nitpicking perhaps but if I am paying for 50 rounds of brass then by golly I want 50 rounds of good usable brass. Not 47.

I don't think it is nit picking.
 
about 10 years ago i bought a bunch of new winchster brass in 308. a couple out of every bag were junk. a few had case heads that would not fit in shell holders, a few others had neck and shoulder issues.
the problem is not new.
 
Originally Posted By: jdunhamOriginally Posted By: Rustydust
It seems a bit nitpicking perhaps but if I am paying for 50 rounds of brass then by golly I want 50 rounds of good usable brass. Not 47.

I don't think it is nit picking.

Me neither. I had an issue with Winchester 300 WSM brass necks cracking on the first firing. So I called them, and they said send in the cases and the partial bag. They sent back their analysis, and said everything was in spec, and sent along a second bag for my trouble. As it turned out, I just had to anneal the factory cases, and my problem largely went away. Not sure how it met their specs, not being annealed, but I got an extra bag of brass, so I felt better about the few cases I lost learning I had to anneal Winchester brass out of the bag.

Squeeze
 
I had the same problem with Winchester 25-06 brass. The necks on most were dented, and 3 were split about 1/8 inch right out of the box. Called winchester customer service and got the "thats normal, not all of the brass is going to be usable" line.

Same crappy Customer Service thing with Hornady. Got a bad lot number on a box of ammo, and they said tough luck.

Customer service is about as rare as hens teeth anymore. Only Lapua brass for me from now on, as the Winchester Brass is only about 20 bucks less per hundred. Its worth every penny to me.
 
I've been lucky so far. I bought 2 bags of 270. It was easy to see by the necks they had been dumped in a bin but after sizing everything turned out good. Some have been shot twice now and holding up good. Velocity fluctuates about 20 fps. or less so can't complain.
 
Had a WW case that was.020 to long one time, dented case mouth doesn't bother me I've even seen it with Lapua but split case necks your right not for the price of brass today, call them up they will make it right everyone makes mistakes, got a box of Lapua brass that had 99 6.5x284 cases and 1 .338 Lapua how the heck does that happen.
 
Haven't bought any Winny brass for a few years. Been using Prvi brass in my 22-250, Remmy in my 243s and 6mm and 25/06. A couple of members on here have turned me to LC brass for a 223 build.

Too many bad reviews of the Win stuff over the last few years for me to take that chance. A few complaints here and there are no big deal but splits from the bag seem the norm nowadays.
 
I've been buying WW brass for 15 years. Hadn't gotten any in several as it was impossible to find during the crunch. Just got a couple bags of 223. It's the worst quality WW brass I've ever seen. Some bent necks, one crushed, rough mouths.
 
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