Anyone else having problems with new Winchester brass?

[RemmyTim]

Went to Cabela's last night to pick up a bag of new brass to start loading for my buddy's 7mm Rem Mag. They only had a 50 piece bag of Winchester brass so I picked it up along with powder and primers. Went home to start the loads, opened up the bag of brass and was disgusted with what I saw. Every piece was tarnished and looked like they had sat in the Pacific Ocean for a week. Out of the 50 pieces in the bag, 42 of them needed to be re-necksized because they looked like they had been ran over by a semi truck. Re-sized them,primed them,charged them went to push the bullets in and 12 of the them crumbled while seating the bullets. No pressure,no pop,just necks folding in on themselves.

Has anyone else had any problems using Winchester brass lately? I have used them alot in the past with no problems,but have mainly been using Remington brass for my .308 lately. I am very disgusted and disappointed with the quality and quality control of this brass,I am actually contemplating pulling the rest of the bullets and starting over with a new bag. I called Cabela's to see if they could do anything,they said to call Winchester. I went to their website and they dont have a contact number or e-mail, just a snail mail address to send your questions in too.

Sorry for the rant, but I am just disappointed about buying something of such poor quality and my poor buddy who was sitting there watching this now thinks differently about reloading.Any help with a contact number or e-mail will be appreciated.

Thanks-Tim

 

[smitty81]

I could'nt find it on the site either. But i found it using a search engine.

There is a phone# on here

http://www.winchesterguns.com/services/faq/detail.asp?ID=61


No problems with winchester brass here, they have always been exceptionaly good.

Sounds to me like someone bought the good brass, put their crappy brass back in, and returned it for their money...........Just a guess.

I would just take it back to cabelas and show them, They have to exchange it for you. They will just defect it out.

 

[Guy Miner]

It's normal for me to run all my new brass through a sizer die - I don't expect the case mouths to be perfect after they've been bulk packed and shipped.

After sizing 'em I'll do additional prep as necessary, which usually amounts to trimming to a uniform length, and when I'm feeling ambitious I'll deburr the flash hole & uniform the primer pockets. I get some pretty good results from Winchester brass when I do all that.

Dunno what to say about the neck "crumbling in" problem... Weird.

FWIW, Guy

 

[RemmyTim]

I could'nt find it on the site either. But i found it using a search engine.

There is a phone# on here

http://www.winchesterguns.com/services/faq/detail.asp?ID=61


No problems with winchester brass here, they have always been exceptionaly good.

Sounds to me like someone bought the good brass, put their crappy brass back in, and returned it for their money...........Just a guess.

I would just take it back to cabelas and show them, They have to exchange it for you. They will just defect it out.

I will try that number, but dont know if it will get anywhere since they are 2 seperate companies now.

As far as someone switching out the brass, dont think that was possible. The bag was still sealed and still had to tear off the top of the bag to get to the "zip-lock" seam.

Thanks for the number-Tim

 

[RemmyTim]

It's normal for me to run all my new brass through a sizer die - I don't expect the case mouths to be perfect after they've been bulk packed and shipped.

After sizing 'em I'll do additional prep as necessary, which usually amounts to trimming to a uniform length, and when I'm feeling ambitious I'll deburr the flash hole & uniform the primer pockets. I get some pretty good results from Winchester brass when I do all that.

Dunno what to say about the neck "crumbling in" problem... Weird.

FWIW, Guy

I sometimes size them, but most of the time I dont with new brass. These necks were just terrible looking. They were not even close too being "round" or smooth. They were so jacked up that they didnt even like going into the die to be sized.I dont know if that anything to do with some of them folding in when we seated the bullets or not, either way not a good sign anyway you look at it.

Thanks for the replies guys- Tim

 

[smitty81]

Yes, they are 2 diff companies. They should give you the number though, they gave it to me. You will have to leave a message and dont expect a call back for 1 to 2 days............

 

[steve4102]

I always size ,chamfer and deburr new brass. I trust no one else's work when it comes to my handloads. As for Win brass, I have given up on it entirely. When I opened my last bag of Win 300WSM brass and found the flash holes way off center i gave up on Win. Their quality control is slipping to say the least.

 

[Laker_Taker]

I had an issue with there brass once. I sent in a letter and they replied back really fast. They sent me a packing slip and I sent in the brass. A week later I got a replacement bag of brass and a letter. Olin is the company that makes Winchester brass know.

This was the number on the letter I got back 618-258-2000. It should get you to where you need to go.

Good luck!

Aaron

 

[spires5d]

In the last few months I have purchased some Winchester 7mm mag. brass from Cabelas and also from Wideners . I have about 400 on hand and have loaded about 50 of them. So far the brass has loaded up ok,but I haven't shot them as of yet cause the weather has been too hot. All the brass that I bought looks ok,Wideners is cheaper than Cabelas.Loaded the brass with 140 CT silver tips. hope to shoot some of these up when the weather cools down.



NOSLERS Rock!

 

[JD338]

I have always had good luck with Win brass. I always run new brass through the sizing die.

JD338

 

[old #7]

Guy Miner wrote

It's normal for me to run all my new brass through a sizer die - I don't expect the case mouths to be perfect after they've been bulk packed and shipped.

After sizing 'em I'll do additional prep as necessary, which usually amounts to trimming to a uniform length, and when I'm feeling ambitious I'll deburr the flash hole & uniform the primer pockets. I get some pretty good results from Winchester brass when I do all that.

Dunno what to say about the neck "crumbling in" problem... Weird.

+1

 

[Savage300WSM]

I just ordered a 150 brass for the 7mm Mag. I hope they are ok

 

[R Flowers]

I got a couple of new WSM cartridges last year and have used nothing but Winchester brass in them. I have had no problems of any kind. Seems like a good product.

You could get a bad batch from most any manufacturer. I got a 100 Remington cases for my 7BR a few years back from Midway. Out of the 100 there were four that had such large primer pockets that the primers just fell back out of them after seating.

I bought a new bag of Winchester brass for my .338 Win Mag one time and got a big surprise. One of the cases was not a .338 Win Mag at all, it was a 7mm Rem Mag. To top it off, the primer flash hole had never been punched. There was a pocket for the primer, but no hole for the flash to reach the powder. I have that one stashed away as a conversation piece.

I agreee you should be able to return them, but it does not look like that might happen, good luck.

 

[Mauser]

I was at the local gunsmiths last week. He was taking chunks of Winchester brass out of two rifle chambers. The stuff had simply come apart. We compared the pieces with Remington and Federal brass that he had in the shop. The winchester brass was about half the thickness. I was able to easily bend a neck on one undamaged Winchester case with my fingers. It didn't appear to be case seperation for the usual reasons. The stuff just fragmented. I think I will be looking brass over a little more before I buy in the future.