.243 Win brass defects...anyone else??

[Jurome]

Before I get into it, it is 100% my own fault for the mess I am in but it all started with my blind faith in Nosler products.

I have been using their brass without any issues for a very long time. I recently opened a box of 50 brand new .243 Win brass and just started loading...MY FAULT. I should have inspected much more thoroughly. After finishing 40 rounds over the course of a weekend, I noticed to my horror one of the rounds had a severe crease along the neck into the shoulder. A tool mark. I went back through all 40 with a hand lens and found two more severely creased. There were another dozen or so with some tool marks but I don't think they would be unsafe; however brass life I would suspect.

A good lesson for me, as I now have to disassemble two more unsafe rounds and am disappointed that the remaining dozen likley will be retired after being fired. Very disappointed in myself as I spent a great deal of time working on precise measuring and all the efforts that go into loading...all except for the "PRE-INSPECTION" lol. I just reached into the box that is labelled "ready to load" lol. 100% my fault.

I have emailed Nosler to wait and see what they have to say. Fortunately I have the box with the bar code so they may be able to trace the batch. Has anyone else seen this before?

Cheers

 

[SJB358]

Hopefully they make it right. For what they cost they should be perfect. Nosler is pretty low on my list for brass though. Excellent bullets but their brass hasn’t been the best.

 

[flyingagg]

Were they like that before sized and loaded?

 

[highoctane]

Hopefully they make it right. For what they cost they should be perfect. Nosler is pretty low on my list for brass though. Excellent bullets but their brass hasn’t been the best.

I concur, I have some Nosler 308 brass that the weight variation between cases is 6-7 grs. Like you, their brass is LOW on my list

 

[Jurome]

Were they like that before sized and loaded?

YES!! I did nothing to these brass!

As already mentioned, my fault. I should have meticulously inspeced as I always do when I prep my own brass. Previous to this, I have had good results with Nosler brass until now.

 

[Jurome]

I concur, I have some Nosler 308 brass that the weight variation between cases is 6-7 grs. Like you, their brass is LOW on my list

Oh yeah...it is LOW on my list now

 

[flyingagg]

YES!! I did nothing to these brass!

As already mentioned, my fault. I should have meticulously inspeced as I always do when I prep my own brass. Previous to this, I have had good results with Nosler brass until now.

I apologize, I missed it. I only asked, because that looked like something that happened to me while resizing cases. Hopefully Nosler does the right thing here

 

[Jurome]

I apologize, I missed it. I only asked, because that looked like something that happened to me while resizing cases. Hopefully Nosler does the right thing here

All good, sorry about the exclamation marks, I was more using them to emphasize my disbelief that I didn't notice them right away, and secondly that something that bad could come out of their production line. Wait and see what they have to say.

I also posted this to see if maybe anyone else had a brand new batch of brass with these creases

 

[RL338]

Classic indented Winchester shoulders

 

[6mm Remington]

I had two boxes (100 rounds of brass) of Winchester brass for my 6mm Remington a while back. Out of 100, there were about 26 if I recall that looked similar.

 

[TackDriver284]

I had similar creases and folds like that in some cases in the past, not much. Surely a defect that was overlooked at the manufacturer.

 

[Jurome]

Thanks all for the replies, looks like it's not the first time this has happened.

I also noticed that the head stamps have some really hard radius imprints on them too, like they were pressed way too hard in the equipment. I have four boxes of these; on the failed batch/box, when you look at the brass with a powerful hand lens, it appears to have a slightly porous, or textured look to it. When I compared to another box of Nosler brass it looks different on the surface texture.