Winchester brass

pyscodog

Active member
SUCKS!Bought a bag of new Winchester 25-06 brass and two pieces are so messed up, they can only be scraped. One the neck is so short it barely clears the shoulder. Another looks like the neck is folded into itself but is actually crack to the shoulder. A few others were dented but I figure they will blow out when fired. The finish isn't the greatest either. Looks like they are cutting corners on QC. I sent them an e-mail, guess we will see what happens.
 
Just loaded 100 new Win brass. .30-30's, 100% OK
Also prepped and primed 100 new Win. brass .308's, 100% OK
I have heard a few people talk about shoddy Win. brass, but have not ran into any, yet...

I am patiently waiting for a run on .257 BOB +P, I may have to just use my google foo and buy odd lots of used stuff ?

My first spelling of foo got "beeped" go figure !
 
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Originally Posted By: pyscodogSUCKS!Bought a bag of new Winchester 25-06 brass and two pieces are so messed up, they can only be scraped. One the neck is so short it barely clears the shoulder. Another looks like the neck is folded into itself but is actually crack to the shoulder. A few others were dented but I figure they will blow out when fired. The finish isn't the greatest either. Looks like they are cutting corners on QC. I sent them an e-mail, guess we will see what happens.

Please keep us updated. I am curious to see how they handle this.
 
I received an return e-mail and they said they were going to review and get back to me. They were quick to return a response.
 
I broke open a bag of .204 Winchester brass this week. This was one bag of 5 that I bought from Cabelas last year, all the same lot #. I did some measurements of the shoulder, and most are VERY short, also had some with folded necks. You can look at the case and see the rounded shoulders that aren't even close to spec. I called Winchester and the lady said they would send me a UPS label to send the brass back (I got the label today). She said it may take two months to process, but they would send me a check for the brass. She said since it was all the same lot #, that all the brass was probably the same. I asked her what my reimbursement would be, and she said she didn't know. I paid $29.99 per 100, not counting tax and shipping.
Have to say, their quality control is "lacking". Will see how this plays out.
 
I annealed the other 48 pieces. They are not getting it back. I will send them the two that are junk and they can figure out what to do with it. LOL I doubt they would like what I tell them to do with it.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogSUCKS!Bought a bag of new Winchester 25-06 brass and two pieces are so messed up, they can only be scraped. One the neck is so short it barely clears the shoulder. Another looks like the neck is folded into itself but is actually crack to the shoulder. A few others were dented but I figure they will blow out when fired. The finish isn't the greatest either. Looks like they are cutting corners on QC. I sent them an e-mail, guess we will see what happens.

Unfortunately I've seen several posts like yours in the last year or so. They must have skipped QC in order to fill the overwhelming demand for brass.
 
Maybe saying it SUCKS was a little harsh. 48 out of 50 is usable but I did pay for 50 pieces. I have some old 220 Swift Winchester brass and when you compare the two, there is a definite difference in the quality.
 
I recently purchased 300 rounds of .308 Win. from the classifieds (so no telling when it was manufactured), but all were fine.

Regards,
hm
 
I talked to a guy at the gun club today that recently bought some Winchester brass and he also had a few that the necks were messed up on.
 
I bought 200 Winchester 204 brass last fall, about 2 per hundered were bad, I lost 4 per 100 on the first firing due to split necks. No more for me.
 
I won't say all the brass is terrible, but I've been using Winchester brass for 20 years and in the last 3-4....when you can even find it...the decline in quality is noticeable.

By and large, other than pistol, I take my business elsewhere.
 
I bought Winchester for my 25-06 because I already had some but it had been fired in a few different rifles. Last trip to the range, I split a neck and figured it might be time to replace my brass although I only split one case. I bought the new stuff and figured I would anneal it as well as the older brass. When I started working the brass I noticed the bad pieces. The rifle won't get shot alot but still wanted some good brass for it. I've always been a fan of Winchester brass but maybe its time to shop other brands. I just want dependable ammo for my rifle.
 
I've never been a big fan of Winchester brass. I have older Win brass that is 25+ years old and a couple bags of newer Win brass and I definitely see that the over all quality has gone down dramaticly. I prefer Rem brass over Win. Norma and Nosler so far are way better than Winchester. I always had issues with Win necks splitting much earlier than Remington brass. Even after I annealed it.
 
Winchester used to be pretty good stuff but not anymore. Next jump up in quality gets pretty pricey if you need a lot of brass.
 
I found a couple of bags of Winchester 25-06 Rem. at the local F&F store...I just put them in the brass hoard without even looking at them, expecting typical Winchester Brass...you all are going to make me open it up and inspect it now.
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Squeeze
 
I got a reply from Winchester today. They wanted me to go to Customer support and answer a few questions, so I did. Just name and address stuff they already had, then a short note as to the problem. I filled all the required areas then hit submit. It kicked it back three times and finally I said screw it. I sent an e-mail telling them I had better things to do than worry over two pieces of junk brass. I also told them them that I belonged to a couple of forums that would love to hear of my experience with Winchester brass and customer service.

I figured I might as well trim the cases before resizing, noticed most of the case mouths were either pretty bad out of round or had flat spots on them. Maybe I just gota bag of seconds. Sure looks like it.
 
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So after inspecting my new Winchester 25-06 Rem. brass, I found one that had no neck, and yes most of them have less than round necks. This was in two bags of 50 pieces. So I guess one scrap case out of 100 isn't terrible...Not what I am use to for Winchester brass. The out of round necks don't bother me as I will size the new cases after I anneal them, and trim to length. The good news is I checked the case length and all were either at my trim length or longer, so no short cases that need to grow some. I haven't weighed the brass yet, so I have no idea on weight consistency. I will do that before forming any change in policy on new brass purchasing.

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The out of round necks didn't bother me a lot either because I will run them all through a die first. Just looked pretty bad for new brass.
 
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